Church Consulting

I got an interesting call from a fellow graduate of Valley Forge Christian College (www.vfcc.edu) who is pursuing the call of God on her life to plant a church.

Her church consists of herself and her daughter. That's it.

She is confused and upset and everything else one might feel in her shoes. Her parents are against her, the two women who did attend have left her, and now she has no one accept herself and her daughter, but she is faithful to her church. Every Sunday, she worships, prays and preaches.

You want to talk about commitment and diligence. Try that on for size!

What do you say to someone like that?

I felt like I was doing a little church consulting. I tried everything I knew and I don't think it was good enough. I said, why don't you restructure or partner with another church to help you and on I went, but I think the most important thing I did was pick up the phone when she called.

She said the last person she called hung up on her because she was too busy, but I picked it up and she was so excited about that, probably even more excited then what the things I said!

What do you say, when you don't know what to say? How about, NOTHING.

I learned to Listen, Listen and Listen some more!

Three Relationships from Anybody

Did you know that you are only three or four relationships from anybody in the world? If you know me then you are four relationships from the president of the United States. Since I know someone who knows someone who knows George Bush.

I was just reading the passage of scripture in Acts 8 where Philip, a follower of Christ, had a little bible study with an Ethiopian Eunuch who was traveling. I learned that this particular Ethiopian Eunuch was a servant of a king. Now think about this. The Bible tells us that Ethiopian Eunuch accepted Christ in his life. So now since he is the Kings right hand man, the Ethiopian Eunuch now has access to the king and can share Christ with him where that would have been next to impossible for Philip the man who shared Christ with the Eunuch.

We will never know who we are indirectly influencing when we share our lives, our story's and most important Christ with others.

Make it a point today to share Christ with someone, maybe not through words but through the way you live your life!

Maybe you can influence a king!

Life Experience

I had the privilege to sit among three couples who are in full time ministry. It was a forum for married students in seminary to dialogue with a church planter, pastor, and professor and their wives. They were asked all kinds of questions like, "What does a pastors wife do? What are your boundaries? How do you keep you marriage vibrant? How do you keep a budget? Plus lots more.

The one thing that stood out to me was the way they lived their lives in regard to budgeting. The prof with his doctorate said till he came to GCTS his family of 6 never lived on more then $18,000 a year. They were very creative in ways they made and saved money. They emphasized that you don't need much to live on. You don't have to have what everybody else has. You made the most with what you have and you will get by and be happy.

I was amazed. They all said the same thing in different ways and they were all happy and content.

Today's culture is the extreme opposite of that kind of lifestyle. Today's culture is so invested in material possessions that happiness is not an option but an illusion.

I think living within your means, not your dreams is HAPPINESS.

The apostle Paul was a man who had a lot, power, fame, and wealth, but in comparison to knowing Jesus, He counted it all a lost.

May we live like Paul to invest our lives in knowing Christ, not material things that have no eternal value!

Cracked the BEST BUY code

I learned how to save money at Best Buy. I cracked the code this weekend and guess what? I am not even going to charge you for this info. Here it is. Once you found what you want to buy, ask the sales associate to see what it costs on line.

I went to buy a digital camera that was displayed as being sold for $229.99. But since they didn't have a pink one, don't worry it was for my wife, he went on line, and the same camera was $206.99. They have to give it to you for the lowest price, so I got the camera for about $25 bucks cheaper!!! WOW!!

You can do it too. Just ask to see what it costs on the Internet, on line @ their site and you to can save money!

So in the end I got the PINK camera!!!!

Spying Out Peet's Café @ Harvard Square

Yesterday my wife, her mom and myself took a trip to Boston, MA for the day. We hit a lot of the tourist spots, but I think one of the highlights of the trip was our discovery of Peet's Cafe. You probably never heard of Alfred Peet, but I am sure you heard of STARBUCKS. To make a long story short, Alfred Peet brought the passion of quality coffee to America, started a couple cafe's that latered branched off to what we know as STARBUCKS.

Checkout his story @ http://www.peets.com/

First, I want to say the Vanilla Latter I drank was the best Latte I ever had in my life.

Peet's Coffee and Tea uses a system like McDonalds, so when you order your drink at the register, the order is then sent to a computer screen @ the LATTE machine where up to 2 people can work, and the barista(s) makes the drink then hits a button which moves him/her to the next drink and on and on they go.

Also, the labels on the pounds of coffee they sell inform consumners how to make a quality cup of coffee.

The store had a lot of room for people to sit back and relax, study, read, connect with friends, etc.

Stoned!

I thought you might like the title of this blog, or not!! But I have a question for you, who in the Bible was stoned? Paul was stoned, now I don't mean as a result of doing drugs, but with ROCKS!!

As the story goes Paul healed a man, then those who saw wanted to worship him as a god, so as Paul explained to the crowd it was Jesus not him who healed the man and it is Jesus who you should worship, not him. The crowds started to go crazy, a riot broke out and as a result, PAUL was STONED.

Then the Bible says, "But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up."

Did you catch that? Paul almost died, and his friends gathered around him and he got up. I am convinced that if his friends did not surround him, the story would have turned out differently.

If Paul didn't have friends, the stones that were thrown would have kept him down. That is true life when people throw stones at us, I find that having friends around help repel those stones and when a stone gets through, they are there to pick us up so that we can move on.

Did you know that PAUL immediately got up and went right back doing what he was doing?

We must always keep close friends around, so that when stones are thrown and we are down, we have people right their to pick us up!

Keeping the Main Thing, The Main Thing

A church is not a church unless it keeps the main thing, the main thing.

In Acts 6, early followers of Christ in the 1st century church understood that if they must not let the urgency of needs hinder them from doing what they are suppose to do. They were preaching and praying, so when important some administrative issues arose, instead of neglecting their primary mission, they selected others to do what they didn’t have time to do.

The needs were important, but followers of Christ like myself have to be careful we stay on task and do what we are called to do, what we are most passionate about, what we are the most gifted in, what makes us tick, etc.

Sometimes the urgency of others can take us out of our game and make use drift from doing those things we are most passionate about and gifted in to things that we can do.

I know I hate doing something I hate to do even though I can do. I love finding people who love to do the things I hate to do. Believe me there are people who love to do the most simple of things like file stuff, my wife loves it but to me, its just a job.

Keep the main thing, the main thing!!

My Mother-In-Law Arrived!

MY Mother-In-Law is HERE!

I don’t know about you, but I think Mother-In-Law’s are a gift from God. I’m not lying when I say this, but if it wasn’t for the support of my Mother-In-Law I would not be in grad school today. She goes above and beyond, above and beyond!! I want to share a quick story about the blessing it’s been to have a Mother-In-Law who is led by God.

It was my freshman year of college, and I was trying to get my license back. In my B.C. (before Christ) years, I racked up over 30 traffic violations and lost my drivers license. I had fines every where in NJ, so after paying millions of dollars to everyone and their grandma, the day arrived and I went to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles in Wayne, NJ. Stood in line, met with a worker, and she crushed my dreams and said, you still have a $1,200 fine. I was devastated, left that place in tears (not really)!!! I called my wife who was my girlfriend of two months, told her the bad news and I hung up. Not to long after I hung up, she called back and said, she told her mom what happened and said, she had $1,200 put aside for someone to go to Bible college who is not going and she feels led of the Lord to give it to you. So from Virginia she wired me the money and a couple other miracles happened and I got my drivers license that day.

I have to confess my mother-in-law is the best mother-in-law in the world!

What would the world do with out Mother-In-Laws?