Our Own War Stories

January 24, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Life, Personal with 0 Comments

Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.

(Judges 3:1, 2 ESV)

When Israel entered Canaan, God immediately gave them victory over armies and nations that were much larger and much more powerful than them. It was undeniable that God was with them, and the people all knew it. But He did not allow them to go to war against every nation; He allowed some battles to remain unfought… In Judges 3 we find out why.

God’s purpose behind allowing some of their enemies to remain, we learn, was specifically so that the generation who hadn’t crossed the Jordan or seen God’s provision in the desert, would have to fight some battles of their own. God knew that this generation also needed their own war stories.

God knew it would not be enough for them to only hear about how God had provided for and mightily used their fathers and grandfathers. He knew they needed their own, first-hand experience. They needed their own stories.

I’m thankful that the generations before mine left some battles for us to fight. It’s often through facing these kinds of impossible situations that faith and character are forged.

I needed to also be okay knowing that God is not going to allow me & my generation to fight every battle. He’s not going allow us to solve every problem.

There has to be some battles for the next generation to fight.

"When you realize you’ve made a mistake, “own it” with those involved as soon as possible. Delaying only tempts you to put it off and rationalize why it’s not that big of a deal to share. If your teammates don’t see you owning your mistakes when they come to light, they will question your credibility—and rightly so.” - Nathan Rouse

link

Judah Smith’s 8 Steps to Delivering a Message

January 18, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

I was looking back over some notes I took last year at the C3 Conference in Grapevine, Texas, and found some pretty cool stuff I’d forgotten about.  The notes below came from a Q&A session where Pastor Judah Smith was asked about how he goes about preparing to speak to a group of people.

Here are Pastor Judah’s 8 steps to delivering a message:

1. Greeting: Honor the audience, make a good first impression.
2. Read the Bible: Pastor Judah reads the bible story word for word to the crowd. He says no matter who is there or how the message is received, at least the Word was proclaimed. His dad taught him to do that.
3. Pray: Bless the service, and to announce that he is being used by God.
4. Introduction: Capture the audience with a story, or ask a question “have you ever?” Bring the audience with you on the journey.
5. Illustration: Tell the bible story creatively with passion. Infuse your Holy Spirit inspired ideas into the story.
6. Transition text: Connect the dots. Connect your illustrations to the word.
7. Conclusion: Tie in the introduction and main point of the message.
8. Call the people to something.

These, of course, were given spontaneously and as suggestions, but I found them to be very useful.  If you’re a pastor, teacher, or occasionally talk to groups of people, maybe you will too.

Why PowerPoint Stinks

January 17, 2012 in Leadership with 0 Comments

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