Pause Create

It is impossible to calculate the extent of human powers; it can only be ascertained by experiment.
Difficulties

Welcome to Sunday, and all it's percieved glory.

To all you church leaders out there, this is your Super Bowl, your game time. Are you ready?

We do our best but in reality it is minor in comparisson to God we have on our side. You may think the show is running because of you, and without you things would collapse, but you'd be wrong.

You are in your position because a merciful God allowed you to aide in the winning of souls, and when you face difficulties just remember that he is the one who does the life change, not us.

So keep trying to do your best all the while you are being transformed by Christ's unfailing power.

10 super cool observations on how a naval carrier operates.

My favorite is: Accountability and Continuous Improvement.

http://blog.usni.org/?p=3259

American churches have a hard road to haul if they want to truly reach people for Christ.
Some of the toughest challenges will be for those who are trying to make the transition from what they "were" to what God wants them to "be" now.
I know, cause I work at one of those churches. Now I am not saying that what we were "before" the change was necessarily wrong, but it just wasn't the direction the leadership felt like we needed to head down.

The guy who spearheaded the shift for New Hope was Ray Cotton, who is the Senior Pastor and part of our Lead Team. At staff meeting the other day he talked again about why we are making the shift from one way of doing things, to another.
He said, "We had to die as a church and be resurrected as a mission."

How often do we try to reinvent something or re-purpose a program when in fact all we are doing is prolonging the problem.

Here's to being resurrected as a mission.

When people say "I Love the Church" do they mean the building or the people?
My thought is that most mean the building because people are so hard to love.

“Never confuse movement with action.”
-Ernest Hemingway

A man walking on the beach saw a child reaching down to pick up small objects and then throwing them into the ocean. He called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”  The child looked up and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” To this, the child replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the man commented, “But do you not realize that there are thousands of starfish? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

At this, the child bent down, picked up a starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”

Adapted – Loren Eiseley “The Star Thrower”

As a staff member of New Hope, I am always excited to see the work God is doing within our community. We as a church have embraced "engagement" of our culture in the hopes that our actions will help them take the next step in a growing relationship with Jesus.
Sometimes this is super hard though because we don't have the:

- Budget
- Staff
- Time

All those obsticles can lead to a stagnant pursuit of our goal as a church, but I am so proud of our team for their sacrafice and innovative take on problem solving.

I was recently reading Soul City's blog and came on this entry by their Lead Pastor Jarret Stevens:
http://soulcityblog.com/church-on-the-cheap/

In which he outlines some of the ways they are doing "Church on the Cheap".

Hope you find it helpful, I know I did as I strive to do things cheaply rather than crappy.