There’s one truth in these verses I’ll touch on to get us started:

Have you ever sat through a Sunday sermon and thought Okay, I’ve heard this before? As the pastor talked you mentally checked out a bit, but you listened enough to confirm, yep, I know this. You have a level of knowledge with the scriptural truth being presented: you recognize it.  And perhaps because you recognize it you stop there, sure that you know this already.  But do you really? Do you know this truth, or do you recognize this truth?  Is the difference important?

On a recent reading through James, God knocked me upside the head with a realization: There are biblical truths that I think I know, but that I only recognize, that I don’t really know. In this passage of James and continuing into chapter two we are challenged to a different level of knowing.  An intimate and experiential level of knowing God’s truth.

[23] For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. [24] For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  (James 1:23-24 ESV)

I know what I look like. When walking by a mirror I recognize it’s me. But do I really see myself and my imperfections? Do I see something that needs my attention, and once seeing, do I do something about it?

It’s one thing to read Galatians 5:22 and recognize “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” It’s something better to know and be able to describe the meaning of this nine-fold fruit of the Holy Spirit, from memory.  Still it is something much more profound to have these virtues growing in increasing power as you (aided by the Spirit) are a doer of them. This is an intimate, experiential knowing of God’s truth.

So what do you think?  What else is meaningful to you about James 1:19-27?

If you haven’t already, download the Reading Through James reading plan.

Reading through the first chapter of James one of the realities that stood out to me is the generosity of God regardless of outward appearances.

Count it all joy, my brothers,  when you meet trials of many kinds…

At a first read this verse may sound nothing to you like a description of a good and generous God. Perhaps you read “trial” and filter the rest of this verse through a negative mindset. This is natural for us, but it need not be. We hear trial and think of something negative, painful, or perhaps being accused of a crime.  Throw all of that out, and read with me the next few verses with some italicized words for emphasis.

…you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Wow.  I mean, really!  What a wonderful promise of a gift of tremendous value. God is saying– behind our tests and trials– He will work out our character. If you’re like me you’ve found yourself asking God for some character traits before: you’ve prayed for patience, or for peace, or self-control. Well, for better or worse, God is happy to grant these requests, but it isn’t usually with a zap, “there you go” kind of answer.  But here is a description of one way God does give us his character: through “trials of various kinds.”

Wouldn’t you like to be the kind of person described here? Steadfast? Perfect and complete? Lacking in nothing? A quick thought on “perfect” here. The concept is not that we become sinless and perfect like Jesus in this life, but rather we are developed into whole and mature believers.

Are you in the midst of a trial? If so, know that God will be happy to use it to develop you. And if you aren’t sure how in the world he’s going to do that, or what you should do in the midst of your trial, then verse 5 has a great truth for you too:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Download James Reading Plan

Also, we will be blogging daily our thoughts on the daily reading.  Jump in and comment and share what God has challenged you on as you are reading.  I look forward to hearing how God speaks to you all through his Word!

Increasing leadership is essential to increasing ministry reach.

According to John Maxwell “everything rises and falls on leadership.” While it’s easy to attack “everything”, “always”, and “never” statements; there’s truth behind the statement. The quality and the quantity of leaders in a church will limit the number of people God will reach and grow through its ministry.  If we believe that God is calling us to reach and disciple an increasing number of people through our ministry, then we must also understand that we need to increase the number and quality of leaders in our organization.

The question is where do those leaders come from? Our answer is that, by and large, leaders of a church should be raised up from within the church.  With this in mind we realize that our best pool of potential leaders are those that are already serving in a ministry at Harvest. Apprenticing leaders is a great solution to the need for expanding leadership.

Develop an apprentice for yourself.

Learn to spot a leader on your team.

• Leaders exhibit initiative.
• Leaders are self-sufficient in their role– the kind of person who takes things off your plate, not adds to it.
• Leaders have influence over others. If someone is a leader, people will follow. Spot those volunteers that are already a leader without the title. At Harvest we believe that leadership is recognized not appointed.
• Leaders need to be good followers too. It’s important that your apprentice have great buy-in to the vision.
• Leaders see ways things could work better. This is not the same as someone who grumbles about problems. Leaders have an ability to see how a problem might be remedied.

Apprentice your replacement by following three steps:  Show and Explain, Observe and Coach, Release and Evaluate

Show & Explain: In this step your apprentice observes what you do in your role and you teach them the ins and outs of your job.

By systematic in what you explain while avoiding information overload. You want to give your apprentice a thorough understanding of the job, but realize that he won’t be able to learn or understand it all until he gets time to try to practice doing the job as well.

Focus on the Values– the heart and the why of what you do.  Help your apprentice understand and connect to the WHY.  Strong leaders are driven by values. If your apprentice knows what your ministry team is trying to accomplish and why, they can begin to understand and properly place the specific tasks that they are supposed to fulfill.  Think of it like trying to organize a library of books.  The individual books are the tasks you do as the ministry team leader.  The first thing your apprentice needs before they try to organize all of the books (or tasks) of your ministry library is a way to organize them– like bookshelves.  The bookshelves are the goals and the values of your ministry.  The bookshelves are concepts like: on the tech team we value excellence because our goal is to help people connect with and worship God.  Anything less than our best isn’t cool. Or another bookshelf for a tech team might be We want to empower a tech team volunteer to own their role. These Bookshelves give the structure, or the why to tasks.  This way tasks are connected to a WHY.  So tasks like running through all videos prior to service, or running the slides with the band during practice, can be connected to the WHY bookshelf of our goal is to help people connect with and worship God.  Anything less than our best isn’t cool.

Observe & Coach: Now that you’ve explained the role you should give deliberate opportunities for your apprentice to wear your shoes with you. By allowing someone to practice your role with your help you provide a safe way for her to get her feet wet.  You’re like a coach in that your apprentice is on the court playing while you’re actively involved from the bench.  You can call a time out any time to offer advice or redirect.  Like a coach, however, you’re letting your apprentice take control of the ball.

• Help your apprentice remember the tasks that have to be completed, and reinforce the why along the way as well.
• After the “game”, evaluate the performance.  An important piece to the Observe & Coach step is providing immediate, constructive feedback to your apprentice.  Share what he did well, then areas that can be improved, and reinforce the positive again.  Be sure to allow for 2-way discussion so you can learn what you need to do different as a coach.  You shouldn’t do all the talking.

Release and Evaluate: When you and your apprentice are comfortable enough you should move on to step three: Release and Evaluate.  I say comfortable enough because no one’s every totally ready.  You need to know when it’s time to push your  apprentice-chick out of the nest and let her fly.  This step is different from the last in one main way.  You are gone.  Let your apprentice lead, alone. After each opportunity that your apprentice has had to run with your job on his own, help him evaluate and process his performance.

1.  Do we as humans have limitations?

2. If we have limits, where did they come from?

The first of the two questions is an easy one to answer…of course we do!  All human beings have limits.  The harder part is then to figure out where those limitations came from.  Did they come from God or did they result from the fall (our rebelliousness to God)?  Though some limitations I do believe have come about from the fall, for example: sickness and disease are a limiting factor born out of the fall.  However, many of our limitations have come about because God intended them to be there.  God is limitless as the Creator.  Humanity deal with limitations just because we are the created.  Therefore, if limitations were birthed from God then they must be good.

The fact is we get ourselves in trouble when we try to do more than God intended us to do.  The miracle of how God works is that he chooses to use those who are limited to accomplish His overall purpose.  That in and of it self is absolutely amazing, and nothing short of miraculous.

Now we all are limited by the factor of time.  Humans are finite beings having a beginning and an end.  Practically speaking not one human being has more than 24 hours in a day either.  This truth becomes a stark reality of our limitations on a daily basis.  Therefore, we must learn what it means to leverage our time in a very God honoring manner, knowing that having limitations are for our protection, and violating them brings ruin.

How do you handle your time?  Do you feel as though there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get all the things crossed of your list?  Feeling overloaded and tired?  Here are some questions to help you evaluate your use of time:

1. Do you plan ahead to make the most out of your day or do you just simply “let life happen?”

2. Do you make most of your decisions by going with your gut or by asking for God’s direction? (specifically through reading your Bible and prayer)

3. Do you attempt to evaluate things based on Biblical authority and priority or do you do whatever is necessary to climb the ladder?

4. Do you ask God what He would have you do or where He would have you serve or do you try to please everyone?

5. Do you leverage your talents and finances to bless your church and family or do you use them for your own self gratification?

I hope that these questions have brought some light to how you leverage your time.  Furthermore, I hope that they made you think about your own limitations and how to leverage what little time you have to fulfilling God’s role for you!  If you are still feeling overwhelmed here are some practical things to consider as a means to taking back your time.

1. Be discerning…differentiate between what is a concern and what is a responsibility.

2. Set boundaries…”No” is a good word to have in your vocabulary.  you can’t set priorities until you can say “no.”

3. Tame technology…it is ok to unplug from your computer, cell phone, email, etc.  You have more control than you think.

4. Prioritize your commitments…most of us have more to do than we can actually do.  Therefore, prioritize!

5. Cut activities…in other words, prune your schedule of things that really don’t belong.

6. Guard your dinner hour…family dinner hour has seemingly disappeared and I think it hurst our families.  Not to be too legalistic, try to incorporate 4 or 5 regular meals together per week.

7. Get back to having a Sabbath…God from the very beginning introduced the Sabbath day of rest.  Not only that…He rested from Creation to be an example of the way to live.  Maybe our churches, our schools, our work places, and our nation would be different if we learned to rest 1 day in every 7!

8.  Remember who is really in charge…Maybe the one thing God needs from us is to trust more and to do less!

- This coming Sunday we are starting a new series called “Pivotal.” This will be a fresh look at spiritual growth as we spend the next 4 weeks walking through pivotal passages in James.

- These 4 passages in James have changed my life and I think they will change yours as well! Don’t miss it!

- Yesterday’s Life Group Test-drive went well. If you missed it you can go this Sunday during the 9:30 service.

- Pray for our teens and our leaders as they kick-off our mid-week youth program once again. Furthermore, pray for our church leadership as we look at the possibility of hiring someone to work with our youth. (Did you realize that Harvest is positioned strategically in a place where we have 3 high schools and 3 middle schools all within 4 miles of our church?

- Awesome to see how God used your generosity to touch 7 different schools and there families in the area! Great job in reaching our community!!!

- Excited for this Saturday as College Football gets kicked-off! Oh, yeah…

- Lastly, I love my CHURCH and I can’t believe I get to do what I do every week! Thanks for making things so enjoyable. Have a blessed week.

1. Walk by faith and not by sight! (2 Cor. 5:7)  The process of seeing a dream become a reality will require one step of faith after another.  And some of those steps will seem huge.  If you aren’t willing to walk confidently with God, trusting in his provision…the dream will not become a reality.

2. Get use to feeling financial pressure! Financial pressure always requires faith.  Therefore, you can expect that when you pursue God’s vision that it might just require faith in the financial department.  Another observation is that the financial pressure easily and usually hits those in leadership as well.  However, to quote Perry Noble (another church planter), “The question you must constantly wrestle to the ground is, ‘Is THIS what God wants’ and not, ‘Can we afford it?’  Remember…if it is God’s will then it is God’s bill!  What the King wants the King pays for!”

3. Spiritual Warfare is real! Over the past year, the spiritual battle has become more real and threatening than I had ever experienced.  However, if you feel attacked it is probably because you are a threat.  When it comes to the battle, I have noticed in ministry that Satan seems to use two things to distract and to derail the church: discouragement and disunity.  Therefore, as the leader you have to spend time praying and fighting for your leadership, volunteers, and the church.  Doubters of the vision will creep in (especially Church people).  However, not only will you have to fight your outside critics, you will have to fight your own internal doubts.  In those times I hold close to Proverbs 3:3-6 as a place of strength!

4. Focus on God’s Vision for your community! It is easy in the day of great megachurches and the web to want to copy things that have already been successful.  Even though there might be appropriate times to imitate a program or strategy, never neglect your time in seeking God’s vision for your community, church, and His people.  God’s has a specific vision and strategy for you and your church…find it while spending time in the Word and prayer!

5. Keep the creativity alive! It is easy once the ball gets moving to get sucked into doing what works.  However, things around us are constantly changing.  When things get hard and things don’t seem to be moving…it is time to be creative!  Obstacles are usually the best motivation for creativity!  Therefore, have fun with it…because there is no doubting that God is creative.

6. Celebrate the wins! Church planting is full of wins and life transformation.  If we don’t celebrate those things well, we miss out on a great worship party celebrating all that God has done…and more importantly what He is still going to do!

7.  God is more passionate than you! As passionate as you might be for your community and the vision of the church, God is exponentially more passionate.  Therefore, let Him drive the ship and you just try to hold on!

Lazy Monday from Harvest Community Church on Vimeo.