Wednesday, March 18, 2009

All We Have to Offer is Jesus

Last Thursday I attended the Related Leaders Conference at Riverside Church in Peoria. http://www.riversidepeoria.com/calendar/related-leaders.asp The keynote speaker was author Leonard Sweet. http://www.leonardsweet.com/ He talked about the Gutenberg Church in a Google World. It really challenged me to think differently about how I put together lessons and prepare for sermons. The thought that has continued to stay with me is this, "all we have to offer is Jesus, but that is everything." That makes so much sense to me, yet many times we look for church to provide so many other things. At the heart of it all is Jesus. He is the son of God and the reason for our being here on earth.
Leonard continued on by speaking about how the church is still stuck in the 1950's, or the good ol' days. We are in the year 2009 and the church needs to catch up or the church will cease to exist. I know my students here at Grace are very technological and enjoy using tech stuff to accomplish tasks. The counter to that is I know that God's Word is amazing and it doesn't need flash and dash to teach the truth. There is a fine line between just using technology to get attention and using it effectively to preach the Gospel of Christ to our world.
The conference reinforced to me that the Bible has got to be our preaching tool and that the scriptures are the living word of God and all we need to do is present it. Our God will do the work in the heart's of those that listen.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Making Tents?

I am in Minneapolis currently at a Tentmakers training. Many wonder what actually is happening up here, am I really learning how to make tents? The answer to that question is, "no". Tentmakers is a training institute where I am putting together a professional ministry plan, and a personal ministry plan. Today we spent alot of time on decision making and the proper steps in making a good decision. The one thing that stuck out to me is it helps to write down the choices and the criteria you are using to make your decision. I many times just make the decision and move on without really establishing criteria and looking at possible choices based on that criteria.
The other thing that has stuck out to me this week is how much I miss being home. I enjoy the time I spend every night with my family and the unexpected run-ins with students and their families while we are out and about. My family and JOLT family mean the world to me and I am excited to get home to see them all again soon.