Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

It’s time. Christmas Eve is just days away. Jesus has come. Light has entered the darkness. Hope is here.

Over the next few days, millions of people are going to be packing out hundreds of thousands of churches across the nation. Countless people are going to find life in Christ and see their destinies dramatically change in an instant. And God is going to be glorified through it all.

As we get ready to do the most important and significant work in the world this week, I have a little advice for pastors. And really anyone involved in making a Christmas worship experience happen:

Don’t worry about being cute or clever. Just boldly present the Gospel and clearly invite people to respond to Jesus. People who are lost aren’t going to tweet about a cool or corny line they hear about Jesus. But they will tweet about it when they meet Him. Pray every second you can. Have faith that He is going to move in ways you can’t even imagine. Be ready for when He does.

And have fun. This is why you got into the ministry. This is why you serve at your church. Enjoy it.

I’m praying that God would give all of our churches a seemingly impossible, logic defying, God glorifying harvest this week.

We have the greatest news in the world. And it’s news that simply must be told.

It’s time. Hold nothing back.
Go big. Be bold. Be clear.
Watch God move. Then celebrate like you never have before.

Originally posted on December 22, 2010.

So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them…They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 6:2-3, 5

From beginning to end the book of Acts reads like a chronicle of people used by God to accomplish the seemingly impossible.

Peter preaches at Pentecost and sees 3,000 converted.
The disciples heal so many people that the sick are brought into the streets so that their shadows might fall on them.
Philip teleports after preaching the gospel.
Paul threatens the entire socioeconomic stability of a city with his preaching. Raises a dead kid to life. Survives a stoning. Shipwrecks and survives. And goes to Rome to appear before Caesar. Because he’s Paul.

But then you have Stephen. Who waits on tables for widows.

Doesn’t seem very noteworthy. But never underestimate God’s ability to use small, seemingly insignificant assignments to set the stage for significant impact.

If you read on in the story Stephen begins doing great wonders amongst the people. There’s no indication that he’s vacated his post of waiting on tables. So we can probably assume he’s doing miracles in the midst of his mundane duties. Apparently he’s so powerful that the local officials need to shut him up. So they bring up false charges and make him defend himself. In front of the high priest.

So what does this waiter have to say to the Jewish scholars and powerbrokers of his day? A lot. He ends up preaching the longest recorded sermon in the book of Acts.

Not Peter. Not Paul. Or any of the other apostles. But Stephen the waiter.

He does so well that they kill him. A tragic ending for Stephen, but by far his most significant moment. And that’s because the ensuing persecution that comes from Stephen’s sermon and death forces the church out of Judea and into Samaria and eventually into Gentile territory. Where the Gospel flourishes and becomes a worldwide movement.

That’s exponential impact, but it all started with waiting on tables for widows.

What tables are you waiting on right now? What insignificant assignments are you having to carry out that feel like they’re beneath the destiny that God has for you?

Don’t ever forget that what starts as an insignificant assignment often leads to your most significant moment.

This blog post was originally posted on September 16, 2010

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
-1 Corinthians 13:11

If you ask a little kid how babies are born, and then ask a mom of three kids the same question, the responses will differ considerably.

Your viewpoint of a process is based on your experience.

Before we started a church, I had preconceived notions about the creative process.
Now that I’ve seen my share of babies born, I think about that process much more realistically.

For example:

I used to think brilliant creative inspiration flowed in calm settings of tranquility.
Now I would tell you that my best creative ideas are hewn out of hard conversations, migraine level multi-tasking, and nearly neurotic obsession about details that seem silly and tedious.

I used to think that the most difficult part of the creative process was getting a good idea.
Ha!
Conception is the fun part!
Labor and delivery is the heroic stuff.
Lots of people can make a kid, or hatch a concept.
But to nurture, refine, and sustain that idea takes tenacity.

I used to think that when you had a killer idea, you’d just know it.
Now I think the better an idea is, the more prone you’ll be to second guessing, and the greater the temptation will be to quit before you get started good.

Growing in creativity means coming to terms with this reality:
The most beautiful ideas are often the product of an ugly, messy process.

The less time I spend waiting for the stork to bring me the next awesome vision, and the more I embrace the blood, tears, pain and joy of creativity, the better my babies turn out.

I love that word.
I’m going to start using it more often.

I feel sluggish today.
Nevertheless, I’m going to get up and get going. Even if my progress is slow, I’m going to move forward.

I’m offended by what they said to me.
Nevertheless, I will choose to forgive, and refuse to become bitter. God’s done too much for me to stay stuck in this.

Nobody seems to appreciate what I’m doing right now.
Nevertheless, I’m going to serve God wholeheartedly. My reward comes from the Lord, and He sees, and He knows, and that’s enough.

And on and on.

The Bible is full of nevertheless statements. Just a few examples:

God loves His children with a nevertheless love:
Ezekiel 16:60
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

Jesus calls us to follow Him with a nevertheless obedience:
Luke 5:5

And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

In Christ, we are called to a nevertheless faith:
Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

And on and on.

Add that adverb to your vocab today.
It sounds a little funny in our modern vernacular.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot of power in it.

I read an article last year about the true value of a good kindergarten teacher that shocked and encouraged me.

The average kindergarten teacher makes around $30,000 a year. Research, however, has estimated that when you take into account the additional money kids who have a good kindergarten teacher go on to make, they are actually worth about $320,000 a year.

That’s not a typo. Really, they’re making 10x the impact their salary indicates.

It just goes to show you that what you do can’t define what you’re worth. That your salary does not necessarily correspond to your real value.

I think that should be encouraging for a lot of you.

For those of you who are working jobs where you’re pouring yourself out for the good of others or the Kingdom but not getting heavily compensated, you need to know that you’re more valuable than the number on your paycheck. What you’re doing and the impact you’re making is significant, even if your salary package isn’t.

For all of the people who volunteer during their free time to make their church run, I need you to know that you’re the real heroes and your investment is reaping eternal rewards. Just because you’re not making a paycheck doesn’t mean you’re not making a difference.

I doubt any of us are getting $320,000 raises any time soon. But maybe in the mean time we could give our perspectives a $320,000 raise and see that the value of what we’re doing is far greater than the money that we’re making.

Your worth is determined by the God who is in you and the impact He’s making through you. And believe me, it actually makes the $320,000 look like chump change.

What if I fail?

That’s one of the most frequent questions I hear when it comes to living a life of risk and audacious faith.

What if it doesn’t work?
What if I take this big step of faith and it doesn’t land?
What if I set a huge goal and I fall short?
What if I take the plunge and drown.

I’m not going to lie to you, it’s possible. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a risk.
I can’t offer you certainty. I can’t tell you that it’s going to work. That your step is going to land. That your goal is going to be met. That you aren’t going to drown in your attempt to launch out in faith.

What I can offer you is the perspective that’s helped me.

Personally, if I’m going to drown, I want to drown in deep water. When taking a risk, if I’m going to go down, and I may, at least I want to be in deep water when I do it.

It’s embarrassing for an adult to drown in a kiddy pool. Or be standing ankle deep in it thinking he’s doing something commendable.

There’s a greater risk than taking a risk and failing. And that’s taking none and failing. And maybe even worse, taking none and succeeding.

The greatest risk you can take in your life is to risk nothing with your life.
To live life in the kiddy pool. To live a safe life.
Because then if you fail, it’s embarrassing.
And if you succeed, it’s insulting to a God who had much bigger things in mind for your life.

Failure is a possibility no matter what you do. So is success.
I just know where I don’t want to be when either one happens…the kiddy pool.

I have one question for us as we start this New Year:
Who’s it gonna be?

Who’s going to be used by God in ways the world has never seen before?
Who’s going to take their organization to the next level?
Who’s going to be the first one in their family to break an addiction that has plagued it for generations?
Who’s going to come up with the next innovative idea that changes the world as we know it?
Who’s going to step up and finally start leading their family?
Who’s going to support their husband and be his greatest encourager?

Who’s it gonna be?
It could be anybody.
It might as well be you.

Or negatively, who’s it gonna be?
Who’s going to forfeit their marriage by having an affair?
Who’s going to lose their job because of a lapse of integrity?
Who’s going to regress in their walk with God?
Who’s going to continue to let their TV raise their children instead of doing it themselves?
Who’s going to keep treating their spouse like a trophy collecting dust rather than someone still worth pursuing?

Who’s it gonna be?
It could be anybody.
It can’t be you.
You’ve got too much to do.
Too much greatness to achieve. Too much of a person God wants you to become.

This year isn’t set in stone. What you’re going to do with it isn’t. The person you’re going to be by the end of it isn’t either.

You aren’t destined to be caught in an ever-downward spiraling motion of failure yet again. This could be the year where it all turns around. You’re also not set to ride the momentum of last year’s successes into this year’s endeavors. This could be the year where it all comes apart. Or the year where it stays together but goes nowhere or coasts into mediocrity.

The choice is yours.

So what’s it gonna be? Who’s it gonna be?

The answer to that question will be determined by how you spend the next 361 days. Starting today.

I was swimming with Elijah this past summer and he started getting really brave and jumping off the ledge of the pool. To make it safe, I would stand in the pool and catch him.

But then he got real cocky and started jumping before I was looking. There was no danger. I was right there to pick him up, which is why he was doing it in the first place. But still, it was the principle.

So I warned him, “Elijah, you’ve got to stop that. What if you fall in the water and daddy didn’t tell you to jump yet?” He looked straight at me and said, “well, what if?”

He had me. The truth is I wasn’t going to let him drown, and he knew it. His faith in my love and my ability to save him compelled him to be bold and take a risk. He wasn’t testing my willingness or power to save him. He was jumping because he knew they were already there.

This is the essence of childlike faith. It sets you free to risk, to say well, what if. Even to the point of coming off as cocky in your faith. You’re not testing God or trying to prove His power or love towards you. You’re taking bold steps because His power and love have already been proven.

Peter had well, what if faith.
What if you sink into the water when you try to walk on it? Well, what if? Jesus is there.
Peter’s faith wasn’t that he could walk on water. It was that Jesus could catch him if he fell. And so he became one of two men in history to walk on water. The other was God in the flesh. Not bad company.

Paul had well, what if faith.
What if you’re beaten and tortured for your faith? Well, what if? I consider that my present sufferings aren’t worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in me.
What if they kill you? Well what if? To die is gain.
What if they let you live and put you in prison? Well, what if? To live is Christ. I’ll convert the guards.
See why he turned the world upside down?

There is always going to be a what if standing in the way of your dream or your desire to radically obey God. Resolve yourself to respond with a well, what if of your own.

What if you’re wrong and you’re not supposed to take that risk for Christ? Well, what if? I think God would rather me take a sincere risk for Him and be wrong than sit safely in the comfort of my own complacency.

What if you fail? Well, what if? As others have said before, I’m much more afraid of succeeding at something that really doesn’t matter.

What if you ruin your life? Well, what if I waste it?

What if… Well, what if?

So many of us think we have to be inspired to create something. Or do anything period. And if we’re not feeling particularly inspired, we hesitate to get to work.

We don’t write because we’re haven’t been inspired yet.
We play old songs long past their time because new ones aren’t coming out of us as easily as the old ones did.
We don’t work on our upcoming sermon because no fresh ideas are springing up.
Or we simply don’t want to go into work on Monday because we’re just not feeling it.

Inspiration is real. It can be a great motivator. But it can also be debilitating if you use it as a crutch. Sooner or later, everyone has to learn the truth:

Inspiration is for amateurs. Professionals go in and work.

Sometimes you’re fortunate to receive a moment of inspiration. The Sistine Chapel, The Joshua Tree, or War and Peace pops into your head and you’re set. Be grateful, but also be understanding. Those moments don’t always come. Sometimes you just have to go in and work and make inspiration come to you on your terms and your timetable.

Sometimes the main point of your sermon is going to arrive as if from the heavens in an instant. Other times you’re just going to have to sit there for hours crafting and revising it until it’s perfect.

Sometimes you’re going to write a chapter in a couple of hours. Other times it’s going to take you a week.

Inspiration expedites the process, but it doesn’t always initiate or sustain it. And that can’t stop you. Unless you have the uncommon blessing of a rich benefactor, you can’t afford to wait to begin creating something new. You simply have to get to work, whether you’re feeling it or not.

Besides, the people who are really called to do something do it because they’re called, not because they feel like it. Their inspiration is the fact that the Holy Spirit has equipped them with gifts. That’s more than enough inspiration to get started.

The greatest geniuses you’ve never heard of are the ones who are still waiting for their inspiration to come. You’ve never heard of them because they haven’t done anything.

Don’t let that be you. God has inspired you with the gifts you have. That’s enough inspiration for a lifetime. And for this week. And for today.

Let’s get to work.

Every year, it’s usually the same things:
We’re thankful for our family. Our health. Our home.

Those things are great and you should be grateful for them. But this Thanksgiving, why don’t you try something new. In addition to the obvious things, spend some time thanking God for the things you don’t think about. The things we take for granted or the hidden blessings that aren’t as obvious. You’ll have a whole new appreciation for God’s constant grace and hand of favor in your life.

They’re not always easy to identify, so let me help you get started:

-All the little things that go right in your day.
-All the things that could have gone wrong that you don’t even know about because God kept you from them.
-You woke up today. And the day before that. And…
-Every time your child interrupts your work because they want to play with you. What a blessing.
-Every single thoughtless breath you take.
-The sin God has kept you from. It was just as much by His grace as the sin He rescued you out of.
-Being in a home where heat circulates during the cold months.
-Your five senses. None of them are guaranteed or to be taken for granted. By them you can hear music. See sunsets. Touch your wife’s hand. Taste good food. Smell her perfume.
-The fact that most of us agonize about what we’re going to eat. Not whether.
-The hardest times of your life. They’ve made you who you are today.
-Having the ability to take a hot shower.
-Being single. It’s a gift from God. Not a curse.
-Being married. It’s a gift from God. Not a right.
-When you share your faith, your biggest fear is rejection. Not persecution.
-You have job benefits. It doesn’t have to be that way.
-Your spouse doing housework.
-There isn’t a second where God’s presence doesn’t surround you.

Those are just a few of many to help you get started. You can take it from here.

I’m thankful for…

I was recently having a conversation with someone and at one point they casually pulled out the classic saying, “expect the worst and hope for the best.” I know the heart behind this phrase. I know it means that we should prepare contingencies in case our plans fail.

But still, what a horrible saying.

The problem with it is that it misunderstands the very nature of expectation. Expectation is a form of faith. It’s the belief that what you’re hoping for is actually going to happen. Not your backup plan to take care of yourself in case it doesn’t.

You can’t hope for the best if you’re having faith for the worst.

You can’t hope to get the job you desperately need if you’re expecting to get turned down.
You can’t hope that your kids are going to become world-changers if you’re expecting them to fail.
You can’t hope that God is going to restore your marriage if you’re expecting it to be done forever.

This isn’t just a new spin on the power of positive thinking. Expectation springing from faith can be found throughout the Bible.

David expected God to enable him to defeat Goliath. He did.
Elijah expected God to give him victory over the prophets of Baal. He did.
Daniel expected God to see him through the pit of lions. He did.

Obviously our expectations shouldn’t be built merely on wishful feelings or selfish desires. But on the steadfast promises and proven character of God. We have expectations for the future because of what God has said and done in the past.

We expect God to fight for us because He did it for His people repeatedly in the Old Testament. We expect God to provide for us if we give generously and sacrificially because He has promised to do it.

So expect the best. Hope for the best. And don’t be surprised when you get the best.

One of the critiques I hear most often about large churches is that the vast majority of the people who attend them have little or no access to the pastor.

It’s true. There is a direct correspondence between the size of a church and the strength of the filter that controls who gets to have face time with the senior leader-

And there is nothing wrong with that. Because it doesn’t rob the people in the church of anything they don’t already have.

What I mean is that if people were honest about why they wanted direct access to their pastor, it would often be because they believe their pastor has something they don’t: a greater level of access to God.

The travesty of this misconception is that it prevents people from enjoying what is in fact already theirs. If you are a believer in Jesus, there is no more access to God that you can possibly gain. If you are a child of God, there is absolutely no more power to be gained when you already have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead at your disposal.

Ephesians 2:18 says that “through him (Christ) we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” You do not need your pastor to be accessible to you when you have direct access to God through Jesus and the power of the Spirit.

Don’t waste any more time trying to gain access to a middleman. Enjoy the direct, unfiltered access you already have to the One who died to give it to you.

I have a deep passion to see this present generation of students have a God-sized impact on the world. In my opinion, there has never been a group in history with more potential to be used by God to further His Kingdom.

They have the resources. They have the gifting. And most importantly, they have the audacity to believe that God can actually use them to accomplish the impossible.

Which makes it all the more aggravating that we’re losing this generation. Some think it’s their lack of commitment. Others think it’s because they lack structure and are just too wild.

Each of these suggestions places the problem on the students. I think the problem lies with us. We haven’t given them something worthy of giving themselves completely over to. Instead we’ve settled for simply trying to keep them out of trouble. We are training them to be good little boys and girls.

God did not raise them up for that. He wants them to be great men and women of God. He has placed a calling on their lives. Collectively and individually. And this is what we need to spend all of our time and energy communicating. Students do not need us to be behavioral modification specialists. They need us to demonstrate what it looks like to walk in your calling.

The vision we are casting before them is too small. The challenge we are presenting isn’t great enough. I feel that the greatest peril in modern Christianity relating to youth culture is that we are under challenging this generation of students with an anemic alternate version of the Gospel that isn’t worth keeping your pants on for. We lull them to sleep with do’s and don’ts instead of waking them up to the God-given potential inside of them.

The truth is you can stay out of trouble but fall short of your calling. You can stay out of trouble, but live a life of little impact or significance.

When a student comes to understand that God has something for them far greater than sex, alcohol, and the pursuit of short-lived high school popularity, everything changes. These things lose their attractiveness. And it has nothing to do with staying out of trouble. Their motivation is that they would not dare risk the glorious destiny God has for them by wasting their time on anything that could short-circuit it.

Students (and all of us for that matter) don’t need rules to live by. They need a calling to live for.

Before I became a pastor, I did pretty normal work. I spent the majority of my days making phone calls, sending emails, and completing tasks.

As Elevation Church has grown over the last 4 years, the work has gotten weirder and weirder at every step along the way. The tasks required for me to lead at a new level aren’t always obvious. They’re hard to measure. They can feel ethereal and abstract.

But learning to do weird work is a key to seeing uncommon results.

For example, I spend a lot of my time during the week alone – thinking. And it’s not a 5 or 6 good ideas per minute kind of thinking. Often, it’s a grueling, nebulous, circular problem solving process that won’t result in a resolution until an unspecified time in the future. It’s weird work, but it has to be done.

Another major portion of my time is spent preparing my sermon each week. And to be honest, I probably have the fundamentals of preaching dialed in to the point that I could fill up my 40 minute time slot with minimal preparation. After all, when is a sermon really done? I can’t tell you that. But I do know that there’s nothing more important on my weekly to do list than grappling with what God wants me to say, and letting it permeate every part of me. There’s no 3 step procedure that I can follow to arrive at that place. It’s weird work. Maybe the weirdest work out there. But the weirdness of the work is directly correlated to the significance of its unique value.

Read that last sentence again.

Anybody can do normal work. It’s the weird work that separates the men from the boys. The weird work is the work that births visions, inspires movements, and cultivates creative breakthrough.

Somebody’s got to do the weird work. Have the hard conversations. Find the hidden solutions. Challenge the cultural norms.

It may as well be you.

I really believe in the power of one.

One man or woman can make decisions to break an addiction that will change a bloodline.

One concept or innovation can advance the trajectory of your life by light years.

One act of obedience can unlock a wealth of reward that will pay dividends for generations.

One relationship can open access to a world of opportunity that you didn’t even know existed.

One word from God can get down so deep in your spirit that it displaces the build-up of years of frustration and disappointment.

It only takes one-

In Colossians 1:29, Paul identifies the engine of his ministry:
To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

It’s one thing to do ministry with all my energy.
It’s another thing to do ministry with all his energy.

If I get to do ministry and live life with complete access to the energy and vitality of God, it should be fun. It’s like going on a spending spree with Warren Buffet’s bank card.

If I’m operating out of my own energy, it’s just a matter of time before the whole thing breaks down and I give up, exhausted and depleted.

Supernatural living kicks in when my energy ends and the energy of Christ begins.

You probably remember the occasion when Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin to leave the disciples alone because:
“If their purpose or activity is of human origin it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts 5:38-39

If you are doing the work of God for the purposes of God in the power of God, you’re unstoppable too. Just like the early church. Just like Jesus Christ.

I don’t remember where I first heard this little quote, but it has enlivened me on many tough days (it’s even posted in one of my assistants’ office):
When I want what God wants for the reasons God wants it
I’m unbeatable and unstoppable.

Receive that today. Breathe it in. Then walk it out.

Maybe you’re a pastor squaring up with a carnal deacon board, trying to pursue a God given vision in the face of tremendous scrutiny and opposition.
Stay on the wall, Nehemiah. That deacon board can’t stop you. God is fighting for you! Dream, implement, preach, evangelize, cast vision.
It will come to pass.

Maybe you’re a parent trying to instill godly values into your child, and they’re putting up a hell of a fight every step of the way. Remember, your child isn’t fighting against you. According to Gamaliel, they’re fighting against God!
And whether they know it or not, they’ve met their match. It’s just a matter of time ‘til He lands the knockout blow.
Keep training, encouraging, correcting, disciplining, praising, mentoring, sowing. It will produce a harvest.

If God is for you, who can be against you?
As long as you keep moving forward, you’re unstoppable!

I happen to be a leader who believes in the power of a moment.
A single moment in the presence of God can alter a destiny and rock the world.
I hear something almost every day that reinforces that reality.

I read a card today from a thankful mother. Her son had been far from God for many years. She reminded me about one line in a sermon I preached this summer. (I don’t even remember saying it like she said I said it-hmmm-)
The Holy Spirit used this one sentence to draw the kid back to Christ.
It sparked a sequence of spiritual steps in his life, and apparently, he’s preparing for mission work in Africa now.
That all began because of the power of a moment.

Don’t minimize the magnitude of a moment if you’re:

• Standing up to preach Sunday

• Leading a small group in your home Tuesday

• Leading God’s people in worship through music this weekend

• Engaging a difficult conversation that God has been prompting you about for a while

• Coming up on an opportunity to encourage someone who’s on the edge of disillusionment

• Disciplining your children consistently when it would be easier to let them run wild

• Forgiving an offense that feels unforgivable

• Praying for a breakthrough that seems complicated and out of reach

Significant change takes time. But it’s often ignited in a moment.
Don’t underestimate the uniqueness of your moment. Make it matter.

Someone paid me a meaningful compliment recently:
“I’ve noticed that you give your very best every time you’re preaching-whether there are 5 people in the audience or 5000.”

It meant a lot that he noticed that, because it’s a practice I’m very intentional about. It’s a part of my theology:
God deserves my very best every single time.
Since He’s my only true audience in ministry, I’m always playing to a packed house. Every show is sold out.

I can’t think of a more sure fire way to attract the power of God in your life and ministry than to bring your best to every single encounter. Every single experience. Every sermon you preach, every song you sing, every diaper you change, every lawn you mow-God is always worthy of your most worthy offering.
And Jesus gives assurance that your heavenly Father, who sees what is done in secret, also knows how to reward you openly-when you bring Him your very best-every single time. (Matthew 6:2-6).

I’ve heard that Billy Graham referred to his wife, Ruth, as his Chief Spiritual Advisor. I like that a lot.

I want to take a moment on Valentine’s Day to honor my Chief Spiritual Advisor. Holly , I know a lot of people don’t know it, but Elevation Church would be in pretty sorry shape without you. Scratch that… it wouldn’t even exist.

Thank you for all the ledges you’ve talked me down from. Thanks for all the rants you’ve endured, and all the crazy ideas you’ve politely and tactfully helped me to filter out. (All of the people who would have been complicit with those bad ideas thank you too.)

On the other hand, thank you for all the crazy ideas you’ve poured gasoline on until they burned high enough for others to see. You believe in me a lot more than you probably should.

I want you to always know that your words carry more weight with me than anyone else’s. Because you’re always on the mark.

Thanks for keeping such a fast pace with me. We’ve got a lot to do.
And the best is yet to be.

Ok, so what do you do when it’s 4 am, you’ve been throwing up every hour on the hour all night long, you’ve got around 2000 people you’re supposed to preach to starting in less than five hours, and you’re expecting to baptize over a hundred and fifty people that same morning?

Well, if you’ve got a highly capable staff, an army of volunteers, and a video camera, it all works out just fine.

I’m still not sure whether it was food poisoning from Friday night’s lemon peppered chicken wings or a stomach virus, but around 11pm Saturday night I started throwing up and, well, having other severe complications with bodily fluids.
And I have no problem telling you, I’m a complete wimp when it comes to throwing up. Especially when it gets down to the point of dry heaving. Holly says I was speaking in tongues in the bathroom during the 4th round. I don’t doubt it. But I don’t remember. She also said I made some serious promises to God if He would make me well. I don’t remember that either.

What I do remember is lying on the floor on my stomach moaning around 6am and finally deciding I was going to get to that church and preach at the 8:30 service if it killed me. Because even if it killed me, we’d have the 8:30 service on tape and we could play it back at the 10 and 11:30 services. And that’s exactly what we did.

Somehow God gave me supernatural strength for 35 minutes yesterday to stand and preach without vomiting, then I gave an invitation for people to get baptized, slid in the passenger’s seat of my car, laid the seat all the way back, asked Holly all the way home if anything I said on the stage made sense, and was back in bed by 10am where I slept for 16 of the next 24 hours.

We played back the 8:30 sermon at both the 10 and 11:30 services, and according to my sources, God moved in a powerful way.
The numbers are in:

We baptized 146 people at our Central campus yesterday, and 33 people at our Union campus!
That makes a total of 388 baptisms at our 2 campuses in the last 2 weeks!

After feeling like I was going to die (I’m a man, so I’m allowed to speak in hyperbolic terms about being sick) and seeing God anoint me to get through the message, and then hearing that so many people responded, I have a few thoughts:

1. Our staff and volunteers adjusted on the fly yesterday and didn’t miss a beat. It’s not hard for me as a pastor to play hurt when I’m surrounded by such an incredible team to hold up my arms. I love you guys! Major props to Damion and the production crew, the entire Guest Services team, and Larry Brey for being my substitute dunker.
(Hey Larry: Feelin’ pretty sore right about now? How’s that right arm?)
2. Video preacher is a stud. Maybe we should hire him full time for the 10 and 11:30 services… He never gets tired. And I doubt he throws up.
3. Holy freaking cow. We baptized 388 people in the last 2 weeks!
We didn’t even have 388 people in our entire church a year ago!
God is amazing!
4. God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. When my guys came back and laid hands on me before the service, one of them (I honestly don’t remember who) prayed: “Lord, we always say we rely on you completely, and today, we really mean it… it’s got to be all you right now… ”
I was curled up in a ball on the couch when they prayed this, 10 minutes before the service began. 30 minutes later, I was hollering and jumping up and down and preaching the Gospel. 30 minutes after the sermon, I crashed and slept the rest of the day.
It’s like God shot through my system for a short window of time to accomplish His will, superseding every physical ailment by His power.
And then He literally unplugged me so I could rest and get better.
I am so inspired by the way God touched my body yesterday to allow me to do His will. It really is all about Him.

Our staff is going to post more details about highlights/behind the scenes info from the last 2 weeks of spontaneous baptisms on our Access: Elevation blog tomorrow.

I know it wasn’t a major sickness, but yesterday I was reminded of how blessed I am to have the strength to preach the Gospel each week..
And how blessed I am to have on call pharmacists like Scott and Helen who would show up at my house before day break and get me well.

I love you Elevation! And I feel 100% better! God is good!

Here’s a word to all of you who are currently doing the will of God the best you know how, but still feel:
Stuck
Small
Out of place
Under the radar
Insignificant
Underappreciated
Unlikely
Awkward
and Uncertain…

God has not forgotten you, and what you’re doing matters. A lot.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t converse with someone who feels their contribution in life is puny and maybe even worthless. I’m learning that all kinds of folks feel this way:

• Stay at home moms who clean up toys just in time to see them magically reposition themselves in disarray again.

• Church planters who thought they’d have 3 times the growth and 3 times the money they have right now.

• Church nursery workers who feel left behind and dispensable because their gift will never make a ministry highlight reel.

• School teachers who think they’re finally getting through to an at-risk kid, only to watch him have to move again to live with yet another dysfunctional relative in the middle of the year.

• Bankers and Realtors and Doctors and Lawyers who are making good money and supporting growing families, but just can’t connect the dots to anything purposeful and eternal.

To all of the above: be encouraged today. God sees your labor, He watches over His Word to perform it, and He will complete the good work He began in you.
Nothing is accidental and nothing is wasted in the economy of God.

Just thought somebody might need that today.
I know I do sometimes.

For those of you who think I’m way to cynical and negative on this blog, take this:

I love being a pastor.
I can’t believe I get paid to study the Bible, seek God, and cast vision.

I love getting emails every week about someone who accepted Christ in a worship service. The most recent one was amazing:

One Elevator was at home in California this past Sunday, one day before his mother’s funeral. He was sad that he had missed Elevation that day, and so he pulled out his computer and started listening to the Easter message online.
His sister and nephew sat down on the couch and listened with him.
They prayed with me to accept Christ during the invitation.

Oh, how about this email from last week?

Our production director for our Union Campus told us that 5 of his best friends have given their lives to Christ in the last 2 weeks at Elevation. One of them was at the pre-recording of our Easter message.

I really love our staff and their families. I have their back. If you ever cause them any grief at Elevation, I’ll show you the door. I don’t care how much you tithe. We’re unified, singularly focused, and ready to beat the hell out of the devil for years to come.

I love our volunteers. People like Kelly and Kathy. They’re here at the office enough to earn a part time salary. (Don’t get any ideas :)).
They’re doing stuff that no one will ever blog about. Except me. I’m blogging about them, because I love them and don’t know what this church would do without people like them.

I also love my wife and my son.
More than any of the other things I love.
They are the best part of my life, and the best part of every day for me.

Thanks for letting me randomly ooze my positive feelings today.
I’m buzzing on Monster Energy Drinks (Lo-Carb) and sentimental vibes.

Go hug a kid and plant a tree.

I’ve decided to surround myself with people who give me permission to dream.

I’ve been in staff meetings before where the leader will share a big vision for a new initiative.

And I’ve seen staff members roll their eyes.
And immediately share their abridged version of 7 reasons this might not work.
Or subtly point out to everyone how much work this is going to add to their already full plate.
(By the way, who ever said a full plate was a bad thing? I usually like to go back for seconds myself!)

Well, we don’t hire eye rolling cry babies at Elevation.
We just don’t.

I like to get in a room with staff members who burst into flames with just a drop of vision gasoline.

There’s no room for wet wood in this fireplace.

I like to be around people who’s first response to a God-idea is 1 Samuel 14:7:
“Do all that you have in mind. Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
This verse is like an ever present caption bubble coming from the mouths of every one of our staff members and team leaders.

You know who else says this to me all the time?
My wife.
She gives me permission to dream all the time, by her responses to me, both verbally and non verbally.
A lot of wives have grounded their husbands from dreaming.
This is bad, bad news for everyone.

(By the way, my wife and my staff give me permission to dream freely, but they also have permission to speak freely if I’m being an idiot, or being short sighted, or getting off prompt. This is equally important.)

I also like spending time with other leaders who, through their leadership approach and way of seeing the world, give me permission to dream in my own context.
Perry’s blog today is a permission slip for every leader who reads it: to set audacious goals, speak them, pray your guts out, work your butt off, and give God the glory when it comes to pass, or try again if it doesn’t.

We all need permission to dream.

Check this verse out.

Permission granted. Go dream.