Is God in control or not?

by Bill Isaacs from ForwardLeadership.org

Sorry it has been a few days since I posted…but as they say…I’ve had things to do!

Today as I traveled to another meeting (?$%#), I began to pray and think about some future thoughts. Naturally, these thoughts war in their process to apply human logic and reasoning–after all we are human. Yet, there is also a spiritual component because I am a believer, a man who fully and completely believes in God’s divine work in my life, the things which touch my life and the steps of my future. As I considered the challenge before me this week, I remembered a wise man once giving me a pointed response to my pondering…”either the God you serve is in charge or He isn’t–you decide!” It was a strange but powerful wake-up call to my soul in the coming days. I began to reflect on how faith works in my heart and how I apply GOD THOUGHT to my life moments. Does that make sense?

I’ll admit it…I believe He’s in charge and the effectiveness of my spiritual leadership requires that I believe it, act like and lead like I believe it!

I’ve seen and witnessed too many moments to doubt His sovereign control over the affairs of my life…and yours! In ways that we will never know, the Sovereign and Holy God is at work in my life, setting the stage, enabling my heart to believe and causing me to find success in my heart’s desire to see Isaiah 26:8 be the reality of my whole life. The verse reads…

“Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.”

I’ve been reading feveriously this month the novels by Joel C. Rosenberg Last Jihad, Last Days, Ezekiel Option and finished Cooper Scroll on the plane today. If you like the Left Behind series, you’ll love these as they are written in the context of Israel and the middle east and end-time prophecy. It has got me thinking about the world and the things which seem to exasperate us in the world…sin, lawlessness, indifference to morality, crime, abuse, neglect, etc. and the question…does God care? does He notice?

He does and He is engaged…more than we know.

Men and women are in position to bring about His will upon the earth. The decisions and actions of our evening news are only signs to us that Sovereign God is in control of this world and all that happens. It brings peace to my spirit. I rest in the embrace of my soul to the value that God is in control. Do you?

Lest you think I so Calvinist that I think we are not participants of choice, let me tell you I believe I do choose every day…to believe…to surrender and to know that my life when fully surrendered to His calling, His assignment and plans enables me to be His voice and light in the darkness of this present world. I represent Him with joy like an ambassador in the presence of another land…as I wait for the fulfillment of His plans in my life and this world. I take comfort in the worlds of the Psalmist…

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat for he grants sleep to those he loves.” (Psalms 127)

On my shelf in the state office is a book by Ron Mehl and at a very critical point in my life and especially in my development as a young leader, it brought a powerful word of encouragement. I looked at just a day or so again and recalled the transformational message that came through reading it and how many times I have referenced it to people I lead. The title–God Works the Night Shift. While I’m busy sleeping and going about life in the Isaacs process, God is working, designing words, feeding hungry people, making grass to grow, keeping all things by the power of His might and often I never notice until the heat is on.

Today’s problems are smaller in the view of His surpassing Greatness!

What about you?

For the weekend – Stress Reliever

If you’ve just had one of those weeks and you have had enough… relieve it like this – CLICK HERE

Crossroads to the World

So the phrase “Crossroads to the World” came up in meeting today; I’ve said it before, but it seemed different today. Maybe because we are getting to that point in our church where the attenders are becoming followers. Each person at our church not only has a testimony to tell but they are hungry to voice it to others. So I pose this question, “If Orlando is the crossroads to the world, then how can we impact it?”. Most of our church’s are interested in the Disney workers, college programs, and other theme park warriors, but what about the thru-traffic? How do we touch them?

Please comment here and give some of your ideas on how we can reach the lost that come in and out of our city.

Video Quality and the YouTube generation – Part 2

What do media ministers do when they are asked to show a video that needs to be rejected?

The worst thing you can do is just reject it without any explanation. While the quality of video presentation may lie on your shoulders, one of the biggest responsibilities of ministry is people. Whoever brought the video thinks it should work; rejecting it out of hand will not help them understand why there is a concern or help your relationship.

You may want to write up a set of guidelines for the various venues on your campus. For example, you might place a lower limit on resolution for an SD projection system at 640×480, or you may say 720×480. You could pick a level of compression that’s acceptable. The youth room might bounce down to 320×240 if the content is good enough. This makes you think through the various audiences in your church.

Above all, talk with the people making the request. Many may not realize the problem. If it’s not integral to the message, they may be able to do without it, or maybe they can point you toward a higher resolution version, or to a place you can buy a dvd.

Just make sure the content is not compromised by the quality of the video, and you should be OK.

New Ripechurch.com Widget

Want to get the new RipeChurch.com Mac Dashboard widget? Click here

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For the weekend! Team Building

Since we all have pretty rough schedules, I’ve decided that on the weekends we will post information geared toward family time, relaxation and mental health. Here is our first FOR THE WEEKEND post!

Here’s a new spin on an old idea – Team Building. I know everyone says “Take the team out to lunch, get ‘em out of the office for a bit”, well let’s take that idea one step further…how about grabbing a replica M16 and start separating the weak from the strong. Just kidding; but what a great way to bring the team together. Hard Knocks of Central Florida is a great company with two 12,000+ sq. ft. indoor urban themed arenas where they run combat simulation missions for entertainment. This is not paintball or laser tag, they are using sophisticated replica firearms to run mock missions in real urban environments. The guns have authentic look, weight, size, sound and muzzle flash with no projectile. You can execute missions that challenge your employees to defuse bombs, rescue hostages, protect VIP’s and various other military/law enforcement scenarios to help them grow as a team. I know, I know, it seems a little “out of the box” but that’s the point. Many large companies like Disney, Siemens and Marriott think it’s a great idea and I believe we as church folk should really give it a shot (no pun intended). Whether through this opportunity or another sports activity, get the team out there, or take the family out and get rid of some stress!

Have a good weekend all! God Bless
Psalm 80:17 – Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.

Video Quality and the YouTube Generation – Part 1

Content is king.

Simple statement, but it’s true. However, if you can’t see, hear, or understand the content because of the quality of the delivery medium, what good is it?

Small video is a problem for video professionals. It’s ugly. It’s low tech. It’s portable. It’s viral. It’s cheap. It’s competition. For a long time people who wanted a video seen by more than immediate family had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to have it produced. Now, anyone with a camcorder and internet connection can publish video with a huge potential audience. Why has small video taken off so much?

Simplicity. Just below this entry is a YouTube video. There are tons of places to view a better version of the trailer, but none of them are as easy to link to as YouTube. And on the web, who cares? It’s easy to publish, and relatively easy to get an audience. The trailer below communicates. It works. It’s all about content. Where else but the net can you see the next coolest skate tricks and the latest political speech, all within a few clicks of each other.

But what happens when small video invades the live worship experience of your church?

Let’s assume you have all the copyright permissions to display the video in the service. And assume it is the perfect content for the service. How ugly does a video have to be before it is rejected? And what do media ministers do when they are asked to show a video that needs to be rejected. (The first questions is answered below. Look for the second in a future article.)

Will the low quality distract the audience from the content? This really gets to the heart of the matter. The context of the service drives the ability for quality to impact content. A youth camp worship service is significantly different from a classic Choir/Orchestra service. The camp service would more readily accept visible compression artifacts. The classic service would not.

I’ve used horribly compressed video in smaller groups when the message of the video transcended the nasty quality. I’ve scoured the net for a higher resolution version of a video so I could play it in a service, rather than the low quality version I was given. I’ve respectfully refused to use a video because there was no way to make it viewable without distraction. In each case, an evaluation was made based on the audience’s ability to accept distortion.

On a side note, there is a place where even the YouTube crew will not accept low quality: Broadcast TV. The apparent contradiction of trends toward both HD content and small video is fascinating. But, it will only last as long as small video compression/transmission methods can’t deliver great looking video. Give it a few years and this won’t even be an issue.

Rick Warren’s Podcast for Pastors and Church Leaders

The podcast is hosted by Pastor Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California and best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life. I know, I know…you’re thinking, “Not him again”, but it’s a great weekly podcast recorded live and aired unedited. Each podcast features pastors from around the world who offer insight, wisdom and best practices from their own experiences as leaders. With visiting Pastors such as Pastor Erwin McManus from Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, Pastor Ed Young, Jr. of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, and Pastor Tommy Kyllonen from Crossover Church the podcast gives some pretty fresh ideas on alot of big ministry topics. Not only do they talk about things to do in ministry, but also things that affect church ministers and leaders like, time to refresh, moments of weakness and protecting our families. Also, If you are a pastor and have a topic you would like on the podcast, you can email podcast@pastors.com and include your name, the name of your church and a description of the topic you would like to talk about and you’re sure to hear it hit the podcast soon. Click here to visit http://blog.pastors.com/

Expelled in Theaters April 18th

Have you heard about this movie? Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is coming to a theater near you. I had a chance to see the movie a couple weeks back and I’m begging you, please tell your congregations about this. Richard Dawkins the Author of “The God Delusion” snuck in to a private screening in Minnesota and it started a big uproar in the blogs recently. This guy was not the best representative of the evolutionary argument in the movie, I can tell you that. It’s time we stand up to the public school system, media, and so called scholars. Intelligent design is something a number of people are wondering about these days while some are as lost as Tom Cruise and believe aliens are the answer to the origin of life. We have a chance, now more than ever, to confront a biased media that is too afraid to ask “What if?”, because if they did, the rest of their arguments will fail. Darwin himself stated that it was essential that fossils be found of ancestral creatures proving evolution and he himself admitted that none had been found in his lifetime, but he believed they would be, they had to be found. If supportive fossils could not be found, it would disprove his theory. Please help educate your family, friends and congregation, and call your local theaters to urge them to get on the Expelled train. If you don’t believe it’s that big of a deal, just pick up a child’s science book.

Links to check out

Ben visits the capital

Richard Dawkins caught red handed in special screening of expelled

Want more information on the movie? Visit http://www.getexpelled.com
Find Theaters near you showing expelled – Click Here

Download some resources to get the word out – Click Here

CMS:Church Greeter Poll Results

Some people hate to love them, others love to hate them, still others could care less. Who are they? Church greeters. Honestly, to me, it seems like a pretty tough gig. You have to stand out there at the mercy of whatever weather blows in the door, be happy to see each and every person and deal with awkward “I forgot your name” and “Have we ever met?” moments, but apparently some people aren’t scared of any of that stuff. At the very least, if you love greeting, you have some job security. 27% of you absolutely love church greeters. Maybe you admire them, are grateful for them or love being one yourself; either way, it’s a Sunday highlight for you to be greeted at the door by a smiling face. 48% of you aren’t totally sold on greeters and you judge on a greeter-by-greeter basis. Hilarious greeting experiences in the comments would be greatly appreciated! A final 25% of you don’t really get greeting. You think it’s a bad idea to have people who are paid to be professional smile, wave and shake hands. Yeah, you probably wear jeans to church and don’t comb your hair, either.

Posted by Joshua Cody of Church Marketing Sucks at April 2, 2008 7:47 AM