Pastor's Blog

Pruning Time Again

Today I went outside and pruned the trees and bushes. It's something I do every year, but this year I am doing it late. Anyway, I was pruning the trees and bushes so that next year there will be new growth. As I was working, I began to think about my life and how every year about this time I look at the past year and ask, "is there anything in my life that needs to be pruned away so new growth can come?" So, I want to invite you to look at your life and see if anything needs to be pruned away to make room for new growth. Here are some principles I use when pruning. Let's see if they relate to our lives. First I take out some of the branches to give the others room to grow. You know, sometime we get too busy and we need to stop doing some of the things we find ourselves doing. I also cut off the branches that are growing in the wrong direction. Sometimes, we need to realize some of the things we are doing have gotten off track. Those things are no longer productive and therefore need to be eliminated. Finally I reshape the tree or bush so, as it grows, it  looks like I want it to. God has a plan for us and if we allow Him to reshape us we will look like He wants us to. When I prune in the Fall/winter It is drastic and almost shocking, but, I know new growth is coming in the spring! The same is true for you!

The Intuitive Leader's Team

In communicating with the team, the intuitive leader must remember, not everyone speaks the same language as he. I have studied the communication between the intuitive and the structured and it is interesting to watch. When the intuitive is speaking, the structured can become frustrated by the lack of detail. And when the structured person is talking, the intuitive feels overwhelmed with too much detail. I have actually watched the intuitive "check out" on the structured person. They don't mean to ignore them,but this is usually how they cope with feeling overwhelmed. So, we should learn something very important from this. We must learn to speak the language of the other person. I am learning to listen to the detail person, and appreciate the work that goes into their reports and opinions. Also I am learning how to paint a picture with my words in as much detail as possible. To be honest, just knowing the intuitive and the structured  people process information differently has helped our team work together while benefiting each other. After all, a team is supposed to add their strength to each other while covering their weaknesses.

Have a Good Christmas

As I walked our little dog Jasmine this morning, one of the neighbors passed me and said, "Hope you have a good Christmas." So, what does that mean? When I was younger "a good Christmas" would mean a lot of gifts. As I got older it became "getting the right gifts". Now that I am older, What does it mean to have a good Christmas?  Here are some of my answers. First, being thankful for all God has done in my life. Next would be the look of pleasure on my wife's face as we open our gifts. She loves to give gifts. Then it would be the look on everyone's else's face as they give their gifts to each other. Also, a good Christmas would be the feeling of family being together. Wow, I am having a good Christmas already. What makes Christmas good for you?

Time is the Currency of Life

I read the phrase "Time is the currency of life" and it got me thinking. There are three things we do with time. We waste it, we spend it, and we invest it. Let's look at these three things we do with time. First, we waste it. Have you ever realized at the end of the day you got nothing important done. You may have watched four or five hours of TV, but didn't learn a thing. Secondly, we spend time. Now there are some things we have to do,ajob you don't like, or a forty five minute drive. Lastly, let's look at investing time. We need to look at the things we do throughout the day as opportunities to better yourself or someone else. By learning something or making friends you invest in your future. By helping others you invest in everyone's future. Next blog in this series we will talk more about investing time.

The Christmas Story

I did some historical research on the Christmas story and wanted to share some of my findings. Did you know that At the birth of Jesus, Mary was probably twelve years old and Joesph was fifteen? How about the fact that the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was ninety two miles and took four or five days to make the trip.Did you know that when the wise men found Joesph, Mary, and the baby they had moved from the manger to a house. Yeah, me too. I didn't know a lot of these things until I did this research. For more  and the complete story go to our website and listen to a recent service where I told the whole story. Go to www.valleyword.org  and click the media tab.

Help for the Intuitive Leader

As an intuitive leader I have learned that there are certain things that help me be creative and lead. Here are two thoughts every person called to help an intuitive leader needs to know. First, don't shoot the ideas of the leader down with doubt and fear until you have heard it completely. As a team member of the intuitive leader, try to think of ways you can help move the ideas forward. If it is not a God idea it will become obvious to all. Secondly, Talk the language of your leader. It is harder for me to stay focused with reports that are too detailed. The same information can be shared without  pages of details. I like to get reports with graphs and charts. The best reports for me are in outline form, then if I need more detail I can ask.  So, next we will talk about the leader responding to their team. Don't miss it.

The Three Kings of the Christmas Story

I was watching a Christmas movie today and saw their portrayal of the wise men in the story. I thought I would give you a little different view. First of all there were not just three men riding out in the desert by themselves.These wise menwould have been accompanied by their calvary guard and their attendants. Rather than three people, the number would have been as many as twelve to fifteen hundred. This is why the Bible says, the people of the city wondered what was going on when the wise men showed up. So, who were these wise men? They were actually the magi or stargazers. They were the priests of the Medes. Today we can trace them to the Kurds of northern Iraqi.  In the Old Testament Daniel grew up a part of this group in Persia. A stargazer was different thanan astrologer in that the stargazers looked to the stars to tell Gods story of salvation. The number three comes from the three gifts they brought. They are significant as Gold represents kingship, frankincense represents the priesthood, and myrrh represents sacrifice. All three gifts represented a role Jesus would have. So, now you know.

The Intuitive Leader

Here is another nugget I gained from the round table discussion I attended last week. This one helped me more than all the rest. I learned that you don't have to be extremely structured to be a good leader. I am talking about the leader not the organization. An organization without structure can't grow because people will always feel insecure in their place. So, what does it mean to be an intuitive leader? An intuitive leader is someone who is spontaneous and quick to act. This leader acts because things seem or "feel" right. An intuitive leader is usually more of a dreamer than a detail person. The good side of the intuitive leader is that they move faster and are willing to take more risks. The negative side of the intuitive leader, because they move so fast they don't count the cost, and don't wait to get the team on board. Another pitfall in this type of leader is their not wanting to stay with a thought long enough to see it develop. Here is the problem with this, the team gets pulled in too many directions and are not sure which is the priority. To the intuitive leader all are a priority. People can become discouraged quickly. The intuitive leader must surround themselves with people who are structured and detailed. For more on this see my next blog on "Help for the intuitive leader"

Creating Church Culture

As I said in my last blog, I was at a round-table discussion for pastors with Pastors Steve Kelly and Brian Houston. WOW! I learned sooo much. Here is one of the things I came away with. I learned the culture of a church just doesn't happen, you must create culture. I asked about culture and the definition of culture is simply "How we do church". Culture is how we do church based on who we are or need to be.Creating culture is deliberate. You can not be everything as a church. Some churches are just better at some things than others. I used to think you had to do everything and have all the programs that other churches have. I am not a preacher I am a teacher. That used to make me feel inferior. Once we started creating a specific look, sound, and feel (if you will) Our whole church began to sense a stability and we started growing. Some churches don't have an identity, therefore there is no stability. Pastors, define who you are and how you do church and work toward that. And for those who stand with their Pastor, help create the culture by learning the "why we do what we do" and pass that on. Let's create something great for the Kingdom.

A meeting with Pastor Brian Houston

This week I had the privilege of being involved in a round table meeting with Pastor Brian Houston of Hillsong Church, Australia and Pastor Steve Kelly of Wave Church Va. Beach, Va. We got to ask questions of both successful pastors. There were eighteen ministers at the meeting. I learned a lot about church growth by creating a culture for growth. I heard the simplest definition of culture while there. Culture is the way we do church, based on who we are. I will be sharing some other thoughts in the days and weeks to come. Thanks Pastor Steve Kelly for the opportunity.