Apr 2011
Archive

Be a Childlike Grownup

I was recently listening to a pastor I love and respect talk about childlike faith and how the Bible teaches us that we need to be like children. You get this from verses like Matthew 18:3:
I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

I was flowing with him. But then I also started thinking about all those verses where we’re told to be mature. Verses like Hebrews 5:13-14:
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature.

That seems a little bit contradictory. We’re supposed to be like children. But we’re also supposed to grow up and be mature. How do we handle this tension?

Here’s where I’ve landed:
Be a childlike grownup.

When it comes to your faith and your prayers, be naïve. Never lose your sense of wonder. Never get to the point where you know better. Always come before God with the belief that He’s your Father and is ready, willing, and able to do anything you need Him to. That the only limit to His power is your ability to believe Him for it.

But when it comes to things like your decisions, your ambitions, and what offends you, be a grownup. Continually increase your responsibility. Continually grow in wisdom. Make sure the development of your character keeps pace with the advancement of your years.

Far too many Christians have equated maturity with what is really cynical unbelief.
Far too many Christians have equated childlike faith with what is really juvenile immaturity.

While increasing in your maturity, never decrease in your faith. Or vice versa.
Do what the Bible tells you. Increase in both.

Be a childlike grownup.

Resource of the Day: For an additional post on childlike faith, check out: Well, What If? For an additional post on growing in your maturity and personal development, check out: Obsessed with Being Better.

3D Easter Recap

Words can barely describe what we saw this past weekend. So I’m not going to use many.

We prayed big and asked God for 1,582 salvations in three days. It was a request that honestly made me a little nervous.

But then God did what He always does – He completely blew our expectations out of the water.

21 worship experiences.
3 dimensions.
19,593 people in attendance.
2,277 decisions for Christ!

One God glorified through it all.

Our worship team put together a full recap of the weekend on their blog today that you can check out here. If you’d like to watch the full experience in 2D or 3D, you can catch it here.

I’ll leave you with a video that we showed this past weekend. A few weeks ago I said that Elevation is all about the numbers. After this past weekend, I believe it now more than ever because once again we know that behind every number we record there is a story.

Here are a few of the numbers and the stories behind them that we’ve encountered over the past few years:

The Importance of Moving People

Great preachers and leaders know how to move people.

As soon as I say that I know that the first thing that comes to many people’s minds is emotional manipulation. After all, when unchurched people say they really liked your sermon they usually say that it really moved them. And in their minds they’re probably talking about pure emotion. Maybe intellectual curiosity.

But that’s not what I mean. Anyone can do that and it doesn’t guarantee any kind of positive growth in the lives of the people you’re preaching to and leading.

What I mean is the concept of moving people further along in their lives. Advancing them beyond their current level of development. Beyond their current walk with God.

I like that concept. That image. And it’s something that I think all pastors should strive after. Pastors have to know how to move people. And they have to know how to move them on two tracks – 1) individually and 2) corporately.

The words you speak should move people on a personal level. It should grip their hearts and make application to their lives personally. If you don’t move the individual and you’re only casting broad vision to the church as a whole, you’re only going to preach to the highest commitment level people and your church isn’t going to go very far.

For example, you can make the greatest pitch for the greatest capital campaign in church history. But if the individual people and families in your church aren’t moved to live lives of generosity, the thermometer on your stage is going nowhere.

You have to move the people to move the church.

But you also have to move the church as a whole in the right direction. You should always have a direction the church needs to move in corporately. A common goal that you want the collective efforts of the individual people in your church aimed at. If you don’t, the church won’t advance.

Going back to our example, it’s not enough just to move people to tithe. What you have to do is figure out where God wants to take your church. What it’s going to take financially to get there. And then cast a compelling vision that moves individual people to get on board to make it happen.

You have to move the church to move the people.

Good preachers and leaders are great at moving individuals.
Good preachers and leaders are great at moving churches.

Great preachers and leaders are great at both.

Resource of the Day: An overlooked and essential aspect of moving people is the necessity of repeating your vision. Even Jesus had to. For more on this and to learn how to repeat yourself without being repetitive, check out this post: Say it Again.

Free Elevation Resources

One of the core values of Elevation Church is that we lead the way in generosity.

Obviously we mean this in the sense of giving to the local church. But from the early days of our history we also decided to lead the way in generosity by being an open resource to anyone looking to grow in their faith or grow their church.

Over time our resources have evolved and grown and so I thought I’d take a day to just remind you of all the free content that’s available to you. Whether you’re a pastor, a business person, or a stay at home mom, I think you’ll find there’s something here for everyone.

The Elevation Church App
We just released the first official Elevation Church app this past weekend and our creative team knocked it out of the park. You’ll be able to view or listen to sermons going all the way back to the first series in Elevation’s history. Keep up with my blog. And you’ll even be able to share content with your friends and family. All from your phone.

It’s available on both iPhone and Android phones, so whatever platform you prefer, go to your app store and download it today.

Podcasts
To add alongside our audio podcast, a couple of weeks ago we launched our brand new video podcast with over 200 sermons available for download. Besides the Elevation Church App, it’s the only place where you can view our previous sermon series. We’ll also be updating this weekly so you can keep up with our current series.

Elevation Resources
Our creative team tirelessly works to put out some of the best content you’re going to find anywhere. It takes roughly 200-300 hours and thousands of dollars to design and develop all of the creative elements that go into a sermon series (Videos. Graphics. Support elements. Print pieces.).

And we want to give them all to your church. For free.

Use them however you want. Rehash some of our old series. Take elements and use them in your own. Whatever best sets your church up for success.

Blogs
Besides my blog here which you can subscribe to via email or an online reader, we also have the Elevation Worship blog where you can keep up with what our worship team is working on and get some practical tips for leading worship at your own church. And if you’re a church planter, we have the old Access Elevation Archive where we chronicled our insights and hard-learned lessons from the early days of our church’s history.

We hope these resources build and strengthen the worldwide Kingdom and help you reach your maximum God-given potential.

So subscribe. Download. Read. Consume. Grow. And enjoy.

Get the Elevation Church App for iPhone/iPod Touch
Get the Elevation Church App for Android
Subscribe and Download Audio Podcast Sermons
Subscribe and Download Video Podcast Sermons
Get Access to Thousands of Free Church Resources
Check Out Elevation Worship’s Blog
Check out the Access Elevation Archive
Subscribe to my Blog’s Email Feed
Subscribe to my Blog’s Reader Feed

How to Reap an Easter Harvest – Part 2

Resource of the Day: For an example of what this actually looks like in practice, take a look at our Christmas worship experience from this past year. Although it isn’t Easter, the same rules apply. The invitation begins at 34:52 in. If you’d like to see an Easter-specific invitation, here’s the sermon I linked yesterday.

How to Reap an Easter Harvest – Part 1

Resource of the Day: If you’d like to see one example of how I’ve given an invitation during an Easter weekend, here’s a link to our Easter worship experience from last year. I start ramping up for the invitation at about 21:08 in. I’ll post a link to another example tomorrow.

Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, and you and me

I always used to associate the expression, “fall from grace,” with major acts of sin. Enormous failures. Significant falls.

People who fell from grace were people like Ted Haggard who lost his church and nearly lost his family after admitting to a homosexual affair after years of speaking out against homosexuality.

Or Tiger Woods who had an affair that cost him his family and tens of millions of dollars.

Or Charlie Sheen who…well, pulled a Charlie Sheen.

So falling from grace was where you had an affair. Cheated people. Engaged in an addictive behavior. Melted down in public. In general, had some kind of an enormous moral failure and lost everything. Your reputation. Your family. Your livelihood. In the case of Charlie Sheen, your sanity.

That’s what I used to think. And if you were honest, it’s probably what you associate falling from grace with as well.

But we’re both wrong. That’s not what it means. The true definition is astonishing. And infinitely more threatening, convicting, and relevant to most Christians than the stories of the men above.

If you go back to where the phrase comes from in the Bible, here’s what you read:
You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace (Galatians 5:4).

Crap. Ted, Tiger, and Charlie can no longer be our punching bags for falling from grace.

I understand why they are. They’re easy targets. They warn us of the danger of falling into sin and ruining our lives. And if we’re honest, they make us feel better about ourselves. But here’s the truth: Most Christians aren’t in danger of pulling a Charlie Sheen or a Tiger Woods or a Ted Haggard. We’re in danger of something far more deceptive and equally offensive to God.

And that’s living as if we have no need of His grace. It’s believing that all of our good deeds actually put us in a better position before God. That because we’re not Charlie, Tiger, or Ted, we’re closer to God, even if only by an inch.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Even if you read your Bible everyday and now have it memorized in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and the 1611 KJV.
Even if you never have an affair.
Even if you live a life that makes the Pharisees look like cat-strangling, coke-snorting, Wiccan worshippers.
Even if you have it all together.

When Jesus comes back and every knee bows and every tongue confesses that He is Lord, your head won’t be one centimeter higher than Charlie’s. Or Tiger’s. Or Ted’s. Or anyone else’s.

The quickest way to fall from grace is to think that there is an ounce of your life that isn’t dependent on it. Every step that you take to be acceptable to God in your own effort apart from Jesus and the cross is actually a step away from God.

Don’t fall away from grace. Ted needs it. Tiger needs it. Charlie needs it.
But so do you. And so do I.

Resource of the Day: I actually brought in Ted and Gayle Haggard a couple of years ago to interview them about the controversy and what they had learned from it. You can find some of my reflections on the experience here. And you can find the sermon during our Healer series on our brand new video podcast here.

Where forgiveness starts

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13

Forgiveness is one of the most central and essential elements of the Christian life. And it’s also one of the most difficult.

I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks to forgiving other people is the feeling that they need to express remorse or repentance before it’s possible. What they did was wrong. Unjust. Maybe even brutal. And they need to admit it and ask for my forgiveness before I can give it.

It sounds logical. Fair even.
But it completely misses the heart of forgiveness.

Forgiveness doesn’t start with the other person. It starts with you and Jesus.

Forgiveness is far more about your response to the gospel than it is about the repentance of the person who hurt you. It’s about believing that the cross of Jesus Christ is a sufficient payment. Not only for everything you’ve done. But also for everything that’s been done to you. It’s about daring to believe the sometimes scary but unchangeable truth: Jesus Christ loves and died for the person who hurt you just as much as He loves and died for you. No exceptions.

Repentance isn’t the necessary prerequisite to forgiveness. Jesus’ blood is. This truth sets you free to rid yourself of the weight of what’s been done to you. Their sin against you has already been punished on the cross. There’s no need to punish yourself by carrying it any further while waiting for them to make the first move.

Reliving what someone did to you won’t make it better. Hating them won’t make it better either.

The person that’s really being hurt by you withholding your forgiveness isn’t the offender. It’s you. Refusing to forgive someone until they ask for it is like refusing to breathe to prove a point.

It is only going to harm you in the end.

Resource of the Day: Last summer we did a two-week series on forgiveness called F-Bomb that elaborates and expands on the point above. To watch the series, check out our new video podcast that you can access by clicking here.

Signs You Still Don’t Get It, Part 3

Today we’re wrapping up our short series on signs that we still don’t get it. I hope it has been helpful for you. If you’ve found that you still don’t get it in different aspects of your walk with God, don’t beat up on yourself too much.

Neither did the disciples. But Jesus stuck with them, and eventually it clicked. Jesus is far more patient with you than you’ll ever be with yourself. He’ll help you get it. And He’ll stick with you until you do.

Here are the final two signs:

3. You’re still driven by the approval and affirmation of others.

You’ve made yourself believe:
If I get another promotion.
If I buy another pair of shoes.
If I have sex with another person.
If I do another favor.
If I lose another size…

…They will approve of me.

Or:
If he would just tell me I’m beautiful.
If my husband would just notice me.
If my coworkers would just acknowledge my contribution.
If anyone would just affirm who I am and what I do…

…My life would be complete. My life would have meaning.

But it’s not true. The affirmation you want will always be just beyond you. The approval you crave will only last for a moment. You’ll have the thing you thought you needed, but you won’t feel the peace you thought you’d feel. And as I’ve said before, he who lives by the approval of others will die by the absence of the same.

Many people spend most of their lives trying to achieve the approval that can only be received. Stop trying to chase down from people what God has already given to you in Jesus. Instead live life with the knowledge that in Jesus, you’re already affirmed. You’re already approved of.

When you have the approval of your Father, you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.

4. You’re still trying to put God first.
I know, it sounds weird. Shouldn’t this be the exact thing you should still be trying to do?

On the surface, of course we should. Jesus is supreme over everything. He is first in importance. And so in that sense, we should always be trying to put Him first in our lives.

But my question is, what does this actually look like when you get down to the grind of everyday life? For example, what does it even mean to put Jesus first before my family? Do I ignore my family to spend more time with Jesus? Or with my career, do I stop working to put Jesus first?

In many people’s honest attempt to put God first in their lives, they end up segregating Jesus from the different priorities of their lives. And this is the exact opposite of what Jesus wants. He doesn’t just want to be first before your priorities. He wants to be first in them. The center of them.

Don’t worry about putting God first, then your family. Put God first in your family.
Or God first, then your career. Put God first in your career.
Or God first, then your finances. Put God first in your finances.

If you do that, you won’t have to worry about trying to put God first in your life. He already will be. The thing that is at the center of your life is the thing that is ultimately first in your life.

Resource of the Day: If you’d like some practical tips on how to make God the center of every area of your life, check out this sermon we did at the first of the year: Don’t Put Jesus First This Year.

Signs You Still Don’t Get It, Part 2

A couple of days ago I started a short series on four signs that we still don’t get it. On some of the elementary things that are keeping us from launching into a whole new dimension in our relationship with God and the calling He has placed on our lives.

Today we pick up with the second sign. Since I did a promo post for our Easter worship experiences yesterday, I’ll do a special Friday post with the final two signs tomorrow.

Here’s the second sign that you still don’t get it:

2. You’re still waiting for God’s will to “fall into place.”
You’re still waiting for God to bring the right man or woman into your life.
For the perfect job to come along.
For…

And in the meantime you’re not doing much of anything about it.

You’re hanging out in your basement.
You’re begrudgingly going about your present job.

You’re going to be waiting for a long time. Not because God doesn’t want to bring the right person into your life. Or the job you’ve been created for. Or anything else He wants for you. But because God’s will isn’t a matter of waiting. And it rarely falls into place all at once.

When you think about the will of God for your life, think less in terms of a big bang and more in terms of small sparks that lead to a large fire. It’s a matter of doing what you should be doing and letting God continually move you forward into what He wants you to be doing.

A lot of times we spend our greatest effort trying to uncover the mysteries of the parts of God’s will that we don’t understand rather than obeying the part of God’s will that we do understand.

And that’s His Word. When all else fails, God’s Word is His will.

So from the examples above:
It’s always God’s will for you to become the kind of man or woman that will be the husband or wife of someone else’s dreams.
It’s always God’s will to do all of your work as unto the Lord.

So start doing those things. And then trust God to use your present obedience to move you closer to your future assignments.

If you’re single, stop waiting for God to bring you the right person and start running after God with everything you’ve got. When you see someone running alongside of you, you’ll know God’s will has “fallen into place.” And while you’re at it, clean yourself up, put some product in your hair, and join the greeter team at your church.

Stop waiting for the perfect job to come along and start perfecting the job that you have. That way when the perfect job “falls into place,” you’ll be ready for it.

We don’t have to waste time wondering when and how God’s will is going to fall into place. Obedience that is active is way better than passive reflection. We find direction from God while we’re on the move. We know as we go. We set out and then God shows up.

We know God’s will by doing God’s will.

Resource of the Day: The first sign that you still don’t get it is that you still feel unworthy to come to God when you fail. To read more on this and the first post in this series, click here.

3D Easter

We’re just nine days away from an Easter weekend you’ll never forget.

Last year we did Time Warner Arena. Three campuses in one location.
This year, we’re upping the ante. Four locations in three dimensions.

That’s right, we’re going 3D this year at Elevation as we look at the message of Jesus in a way you’ve probably never seen before. My team and I traveled across the country to film this year’s Easter Experience in 3D over a four-day period, and all of the work was more than worth it (For a hint at one of the locations, check out our promo video below). We’ve got incredible footage, and even more than that, an incredible, life-changing message that will speak to everyone who comes – whether you’ve grown up in church your entire life or spent your whole life avoiding it at all costs.

For those of you wondering if you’ll have to wear 3D glasses during the whole experience, don’t worry. There are three 3D segments and we’re going to have incredible elements interspersed between them. And I’ll be there speaking live as well.

With 21 worship experiences across four locations, you’ve got plenty of options to choose from. But choose quickly. Due to high attendance on Easter weekend, a free ticket will be required to attend and they’re going quickly. To get yours, go to this site that gives you times, options for ordering, and even allows you to invite people to come with you.

If you’re already coming, I encourage you to invite someone with you who needs to hear the gospel. Invite twenty people even. Family. Friends. Coworkers. There’s no limit to the amount of people we want to see filled with life in Christ. And it all starts with the simple, but powerful step of your personal invitation.

We’re expecting a big harvest this Easter. We’re praying for God to pour out His salvation in a way we’ve never seen before. Bring yourself. Bring people with you. And we’ll watch it happen together.

View times, get tickets, and invite

Resource of the Day: We’ve also got a special opportunity for churches wanting to incorporate 3D elements into their worship experiences. Click here to go to our resource site and download many of the same elements we’ll be using next weekend. For free.

Signs you still don’t get it

“Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
Matthew 16:9

There are some things that we just have to learn the hard way. The disciples of Jesus knew this better than anyone.

Two times in the previous two chapters Jesus had provided a miraculous supply of food for a hungry crowd. Here in chapter 16 Jesus tells them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. The disciples freak out because they didn’t bring any bread and they think Jesus is hungry and needs them to supply food.

They still don’t get it.

We could be judgmental, but the truth is that there are things that are just as elementary that you and I still don’t get. And it’s these things that keep us in a state of inertia in our walk with God and the calling He has placed on our lives.

So I thought it’d be good over the next few days to address some of the top signs that indicate that we still don’t get it. Confront the elementary things that are keeping us from launching into a whole new dimension in our relationship with God. Instead of waiting to start tomorrow, I thought I’d give you the first one today:

1. You still feel unworthy to come to God when you fail.
You sin and think there needs to be a grace period before you can pray for forgiveness. You completely blow it and think there’s no way God can use you again. Your days are done. Your destiny disqualified. Might as well sit around and sulk in your self-condemnation.

This really comes down to one thing: you still don’t understand grace.

We often think the grace of God is just a commodity to get us to the point of salvation. But we don’t understand that the same grace that brought us to the point of salvation is also with us in our daily lives. The same power that raised you from the grave of your sin is the same power that raises you from the mistakes of your everyday life.

Proverbs 24:16 says, “The righteous man falls down seven times, but seven times, he rises again.”

That’s not what comes to our minds when most of us think of a righteous person. We think they’re someone who never or rarely falls. But that’s because our idea of righteousness is rooted in self-righteousness. The real righteous person is the one who has been made righteous by Jesus and then can let Jesus pick him back up when up when he falls.

There’s a big difference between falling down (Peter) and falling away (Judas). Grace means God’s got your back. Like Peter, your failure is not final.

Get back up. Go to back to God. No, you’re not worthy. But neither were you worthy when you came to God the first time. It was Jesus’ worthiness that made you worthy then.

What makes you think the terms of acceptance have changed?

Resource of the Day: Many Christians spend a lifetime trying to achieve something that Jesus already achieved for them in His. God’s acceptance isn’t based on your performance. It wasn’t even for Jesus – God called Jesus His Son before He ever did one miracle. For more on this idea, check out this related blog post: You already have it.

We are all about the numbers

I get asked all the time if Elevation is all about the numbers.
Let me just clarify something:
Our church is all about the numbers.

The number of lives that Jesus can permeate and penetrate with the gospel.
The number of marriages that can be restored.
The number of teenagers following the Lord.
The number of depressed people that can find hope in Jesus.
The number of dads who don’t give their kids any attention who will learn to order their lives by the Word of God and start prioritizing their families.

What else matters? What else should we be about?

This might come as a shock to a lot of people, but measuring numbers and putting an emphasis on them isn’t a new phenomenon. 2000 years ago, Luke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote:
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day…47 And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:41, 47

Apparently God is all about the numbers. So I want to be, too. And so should you.

It’s unacceptable to me as a pastor that we would stop growing when the Lord wants to add to our number daily those who are being saved. And in order for that to happen, we need to track every scrap of statistical data at our disposal. We’ve got to make sure we’re measuring ministry numbers to measure our effectiveness and enlarge the Kingdom of God. I don’t want to waste a single dollar or second on a program, piece of equipment, or ministry position that isn’t the best option for reaching the most people.

You might be averse to numbers for a number of reasons.

Maybe you don’t like the idea of big crowds. If that’s the case, you wouldn’t have liked the New Testament Church. And you really won’t like heaven.

Maybe you think it steals away from discipleship. It’s possible. But it’s just as possible for that to happen in a church of 10 people as it is in a church of 10,000.

Whatever your reason is, remember: every number is indicative of a story.
Personally, I don’t want to put a cap on the number of stories God wants to redeem. Especially when I read this:
9 I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God.”
Revelation 7:9-10

Now that’s a number worth shooting for. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wait until I die to see this. I want to see this partially fulfilled in my lifetime. More people worshipping Jesus than I can count.

I want to see a little heaven on earth through Elevation Church. Through every church. I think it’s what God wants too.

And that’s why we’re all about the numbers.

Resource of the Day: Obviously, there is a danger in being all about the numbers. We have to make sure that we’re counting what counts. That we’re concerned about the right numbers for the right reasons. For more on this, check out this blog post: Count What Counts. 

Use it

In my high school wrestling days, my coaches taught me a technique that seems to work well in every area of life.
Whatever your opponent gives you to work with, use it.

For instance, if your opponent gives you only one vulnerable arm to work with, use it to your advantage. If your opponent aggressively attacks you, use his own momentum to bring him down.

I think you see this same kind of technique in the lives of people like the apostle Paul. And it’s the reason why he was so effective. He used whatever was given to him. He saw the potential in every situation and this allowed him to be adaptable and useful in every situation.

If he was put in jail, he converted the guards.
If he was executed, he saw it as gain.
If they let him live, he’d preach the gospel.
If he was given a thorn in his flesh, he’d use it as an opportunity to let God’s power shine in his weakness.

This made Paul the freest and most powerful man on the planet. And there’s no coincidence that he walked in a level of joy and intimacy with God that most of us fall cosmically short of.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The same technique that worked for him can work for us too.

The circumstances, struggles, and attacks you face are not the ultimate determining factor of the kind of life you live. How you use them is. And there isn’t a single situation in your life that can’t be used for your good and God’s glory.

If you’re facing adversity, use it to develop patience and endurance.
If you’re in a place of financial scarcity, use it to display God’s sufficiency.
If you’ve failed, use it to learn.
If Satan is exploiting one of your past failures, use it to display God’s past faithfulness on the cross.

Whatever you do, refuse to be a victim of what’s thrown at you.
Whatever you’re given in life, use it. And God will use you.

Resource of the Day: I think one of the hardest realities to accept is the fact that there is absolutely nothing in your life that isn’t good or beyond God’s ability to work for your good. Yet it is absolutely essential if your faith is going to remain intact in the midst of the difficulties in life. For encouragement and reassurance that God is working everything in your life for your good, check out this post: Everything is for your good.  

Drawing out potential

10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him.”
12 So he sent and had him brought in…Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.
1 Samuel 16:10-13

Believing in someone’s potential is one of the most God-like actions we can involve ourselves in. And there’s probably no better example of it in the Bible than in the story of David.

Samuel anointed David to be the next king even though he seemed to be the littlest and the loneliest son of Jesse. He looked past the shepherd he saw and looked to the king God had appointed. Consequently David went on to be the greatest king Israel had ever known. And it started with a prophet that believed and spoke to his God-given potential.

I’ve experienced this myself. I wouldn’t be half the man I am today if:
Aunt Jackie hadn’t told me when I was 16 that God had a special plan for me.
My core team at Elevation hadn’t repeatedly encouraged me.
My wife didn’t constantly tell me, “you’ve got what it takes.”

Make no mistake. In your life, the impact you will have will be in direct proportion to your ability to speak life into the potential of the people God has placed around you.

Wives, every man has a king and a kid in him. The one that will come alive is the one that you speak to.

Husbands, one of the reasons you can’t make the marriage you have the marriage you want is because all you see is your wife’s problems instead of her potential.

Leaders, there is more greatness in your people than you give them credit for. Start speaking to it and you’ll start seeing it.

Everyone, your words will stick with the people you speak them to. And it will shape them more than you know.

Whose life will be better because you believed in them?
Whose destiny will be redirected because you believed in them?

Samuel saw and spoke to the king in David. And he became a king. Imagine what the people around you will become when you start speaking to what God has put in them.

Weird

Pastor Craig Groeschel is a great man of God and a good friend. He is simply the most kingdom-minded, humble person I’ve ever met. And his church is phenomenal. LifeChurch.tv is leading the way for all of us by providing more resources and creating more opportunities for partnership than any other church out there. There truly is no one like him.

That’s why when he told me that the topic of his next book, Weird, was on living a life beyond the norm, I couldn’t imagine a person better suited to write it. Pastor Craig’s passion for God, his integrity, and his wisdom are abnormal in comparison to most of the people I know. And that puts him in the perfect position to speak into your life as much as he has spoken into mine.

This book is the real deal. I believe it has the potential to radically change your life. As Pastor Craig brilliantly argues, while most of us are simply trying to live a normal life, normal isn’t working. For most people, normal means they’re exhausted. Their relationships are strained. Their family is dysfunctional. Their relationship with God is on life support. And they’re simply trying to survive.

If that’s normal, count me out.

Weird is where it’s at. Weird is what is going to change the world. Weird is what is going to change your life.

The book released today and although Pastor Craig didn’t ask me to do this, I really felt I needed to take a day on my blog and help get the word out.

I strongly encourage you to order a copy for yourself and anyone you know who needs to hear this message. If you’re a pastor or are on staff at a church, buy a few dozen or maybe even a couple hundred copies for key leaders in your church. Plan a series around the book or use it for your small group curriculum.

I really believe in Pastor Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv, and the truth in this book. In a day when our world is drowning in a sea of its own normalcy, we need a message that presents a compelling alternative. Weird gives us just that.

So don’t hesitate. Go buy a bunch of copies right now at any of these distributors:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
CBD

Everyone Wins

What’s intuitive to those outside the church is often revolutionary to church leaders.

This is true when it comes to marketing. Franchise. Structure.
But it might be nowhere more true than when it comes to delegation.

Many pastors and ministry leaders have the propensity to believe they need to do everything themselves. They believe they can probably do a better job anyways, so why give it to someone else? The result is almost always the same: they’re taken out of their sweet spot and they wear themselves out.

But there’s another related effect that’s just as harmful that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. When leaders refuse to delegate, it not only wears them out, but all of the people following them as well. No one gets to be in their sweet spot. The leader becomes a bottleneck and it frustrates everyone.

I think that’s why Jethro told Moses in Exodus 18 to appoint judges to decide smaller civil cases that were being brought to Moses so he could focus on what he alone could do. It wasn’t just for Moses’ sake: “If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied” (18:23).

When leaders do what only they can do, everyone wins.
And when leaders let other people do what they have been called to do, everyone wins.

This isn’t a one-man show. Pastors and leaders were never designed by God to do all of the ministry for the people they lead. They exist to equip the people they lead with the power and resources to do their own ministry under a common vision.

That’s the true meaning of delegation. It isn’t just about getting someone to do a job you don’t want to do. Or that you don’t have time to do. It’s about empowering others to come alive in their gifting and calling so that the power of Jesus can flow through their life.

You’re freed up to do what you were made to do.
They’re allowed to do what they were created to do.

Refuse to be the limiter or the lid on the ministry that God can accomplish through the powerful people that He’s placed under you. Refuse to be a bottleneck.

Do what only you can do. Let others do what they’ve been called to do under you. And everyone will win.

Resource of the Day: One of the big things we try to do at Elevation is empower our volunteer leaders to utilize the gifts God has given them for the ministry He has given them. In fact, we did a whole series last year on this idea called, e. To check out the first sermon from this series, click here.