ToddLive.net

I was at the gym doing some cardio this morning when I saw this news story.  I couldn’t hear what they were talking about so I googled it.

Seems to me that some people are upset about the Penn St. ‘White Out’ shirt.  I can’t tell if it is Christian people who are upset because this shirt resembles a cross or if non-religious people are upset for the same reason. It is probably the religious people. They usually have a way of making a big deal about nothing, instead of doing something that actually matters.

Either way, I think it is ridiculous that there is a so-called ‘controversy’ over a t shirt.  People seem to make such a big deal over every little thing.  My favorite quote from the story is, ‘Are we going to ban all of the lower-case t’s in the alphabet?’  (Nice!)

However, I guess their strategy works.  It’s got me blogging about it:)

This morning, a few of our Guest Services team presented some potential upgrades to our staff.  We are looking to ramp up what we are doing on our Parking, Greeting, Usher, First Time Guest, and Hospitality teams.

Here is the question that I am asking, ‘How can we move from just being friendly to honoring our guests?‘  We get comments all the time about how friendly our people are.  It isn’t a broken system by any means.  However, what can we do to take the extra step to make it easier for people far from God to experience life in Christ?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can honor our guests.  Ready…. GO!

In Acts 15, the Pharisees are very upset because the Gentiles aren’t obeying the law of Moses, as related to circumcision (ouch!).  Peter stands up for the Gentiles by basically telling the religious leaders to get over it.  He also helped them to realize that they were trying to place something on the people that God didn’t require.  He tries to help them to understand that they were saved by grace, not by the law of Moses.

As I read this, I couldn’t help but think about how churches operate.  Often, we often condemn people for showing up to our worship services dressed the ‘wrong way’ or for not knowing the right words to say.  In our minds, we expect people to be fully devoted followers of Christ by the 2nd visit!

One of the things that is refreshing to me about Freedom Church is that we realize that the starting point for everyone is different.  We have to take people where they are.  They have no choice but to be there. There is no condemnation for people who didn’t wear the right thing or said a word that you probably wouldn’t normally say at church.  We realize that it is a process and no one changes overnight.

Our goal is to help them to take the next step in their journey with Christ.  For some, that will mean they need to just admit there is a God.  For some, it may be to accept Christ.  For others, it may be to begin praying or reading the Bible.

My prayer is that we continue to view people as God does.  In doing so, we have the opportunity to help people far from God to experience life in Christ!

Here is a great summary from Chuck Swindoll, one of the great Catalyst speakers from this year.  Rather than try to reproduce it, I just copied it exactly from Catalystspace. Enjoy!

Fifty years ago, I was a first year student at Dallas Theological Seminary. I was scared, unsure of myself, and fresh out of the Marine Corp. I did not know much about seminary.

I remember sitting in chapel, and a minister told me, “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” I am so proud of everything you are dreaming of and doing that I hope that you remember to leave room for the crushing.

10 Things Chuck Swindoll Learned in 50ish Years of Ministry:

1. It’s lonely to lead.Leadership involves tough decisions.
   The tougher the decisions, the lonelier it is.
2. It’s dangerous to succeed.
   It is dangerous to succeed while being young. rarely, does God give leadership that young because it takes crushing and failure first.
3. It’s hardest at home.
   Nobody at home is applauding you. They say, “Dad! You’re fly is open.”
4. It is essential to be real.
   If there is one realm where phoniness is personified it is leadership. What I care about is that you stay real.
5. It is painful to obey.
   There are rewards, yes, but it is painful nevertheless.
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.
7. My attitude is more important than my actions.
   Some of you are getting hard to be around. And your attitude covers all those great actions you pull off.
8. Integrity eclipses image.
   What you are doing is not a show. And the best things you are doing is not up front but what you do behind the scenes.
9. God’s way is better than my way.
   God is going to have His way.
10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility.

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 tells us that we must be willing to leave the familiar message without disturbing the Biblical message. We get that backwards. This was written in the first century, and now we are in the 21st century. The message stays the same. Don’t miss the message. As you alter the methods, don’t mess with the message.

Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. You will defend those things that don’t need defended.

Three Important Observations:

1. With every ministry a special mercy is needed.
2. In every ministry the same things must be renounced and rejected.
   That is hiding shameful things, doing deceitful things, and corrupting truthful things. Guard against deception. Guard against deception.
3. Through every ministry a unique style should be pursued.
   We don’t preach or promote ourselves (it isn’t about us). We declare Christ Jesus as Lord (it’s all about Him). We see ourselves as bond-servants for Jesus Christ.

Five Statements Worth Remembering During Your Next 50 Years of Leadership:

1. Whatever you do, do more with others and less alone.
   It will help you become accountable.
2. Whenever you do it, emphasize quality not quantity.
3. Wherever you go, do it the same as if you were among those who know you the best.
   It will keep you from exaggerating. it will help keep your stories true. Your good friend will tell you things that others will not. They will hold you close to truth.
4. Whoever may respond to your ministry, keep a level head.
5. However long you lead, keep on dripping with gratitude and grace.
   Stay thankful. Stay gracious.

(This summary created by Kent Shaffer at ChurchRelevance.com)

One of the values that we talk about a lot at Freedom is honor.  Basically, it is just esteeming others better than yourself.  Unfortunately, this is something that people don’t generally do very well.  For the most part, we’re terrible at it.  We always think that we are better than the next person, whether we say so or not.

Our staff has chosen this week to celebrate Pastor J.R. and his family.  They have sacrificed so much to make the vision of Freedom Church a reality.  Words cannot express how much I appreciate what Pastor J.R. and his family have done.  I have grown more and been stretched more in the past 2 years than any other span in my life.  God is using him in a tremendous way to speak life into people.  I am just glad to be part of the team!

(For Executive Pastors:  You need to drive this in your church.  Honor is not a culture that just happens, you must be intentional about it.  Organize it and show your Pastor how much he means to your church.  He needs the encouragement!)

1.  Make sure you are at Freedom Church at 9:30 or 11:00!  We’ll conclude the Forgiveness: The Real F Word series.

2.  Not only do you need to be there, you need to invite your friends and family to be there also.

3.  I decided not to go to the Clemson game tomorrow. Decided to stay home and rest a little.  This has been a very busy week and I’m exhausted!

4.  Baptism next week!  Email me at todd@freedomlive.net if you want to sign up!!

5.  We are adding something this Sunday to make the Next Steps easier and more obvious for the people at Freedom.

6.  Hoping the Dodgers can whip the Phillies and make it to the World Series.  Also hoping the Tigers and Dolphins pull out wins!

7.  Had dinner with some great Freedom partners last night.  Doing the same tonight!  It amazes me to see the people that God has brought to Freedom!

1.  This from Tony Morgan was right on point.

2.  Being a football fan, I can totally identify with this post and this post from Pastor Steven Furtick.  He nailed it!

3.  Pastor J.R. shared how you can pray for him and his family here.

Every now and then, something happens that really causes you to evaluate your life.  This weekend, I attended the funeral of Dale McDaris.  Dale was 49 year old guy, in seemingly good health until 3 months ago.  At that time, he was diagnosed with brain cancer.  In fact, the same type of cancer that had taken his brother’s life only a few short months before.

Dale’s death has had my head spinning for the past few days.  I think it has hit so close to home because his kids are the same age as my kids.  I can’t imagine what his wife and kids are going through.

This situation has caused me to have to answer several questions.  I want to make sure if something were to happen to me that Joni and my kids are taken care of.  Here are some of the questions that I am thinking through:

1.  Do I have a will in place?  (Yes.  Just did this 2 weeks ago.)

2. Do I have life insurance?  (Yes. )

3.  Am I saving money and preparing, so that if something were to happen, my family would be financially able to make it.  (Doing ok but could do a better job in this area.)

4.  Am I spending quality time with my wife and letting her know she is the most important person in my life?  (I try to do this weekly.)

5.  Am I spending quality time with my kids one-on-one?  (I try to do this at least 1-2 times per month.)

I know that some of these things are morbid to think about, but I want to be prepared.

^{James 4:14}Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

One of the things that has been extremely helpful for us has been opening the lines of communication.  It is amazing how good things can be when communication is good.  It is amazing how bad things can be when communication is bad.

On our date this past weekend, we talked through the following questions (which I ripped off from Perry Noble):

1.  What is the most romantic thing I have ever done for you?

2.  What is something fun that we could do together?

3.  How can I pray for you?

4.  What can I do this week to relieve stress from your life?

5.  What is one thing that you would change about our marriage?

Talking through these questions, gave us both the opportunity to discuss things that could be potential problems.  I have even tried to improve in some areas this week, so that our marriage is better.

The bottom line is that I love Joni and I want to do everything within my power to lead my family well…even if it is a little painful at times!  I’m willing to do all that I can to make that relationship the best it can be!!

Over the next couple of days, I am going to post some things that Joni and I do to keep our marriage red hot.  (Ok, maybe I won’t give every detail)  Marriage, like any relationship, requires a TON of work.

If you’re honest, all of us have been through good and bad seasons in our relationships.  However, I do believe that if you are intentional, you can keep things hot….most of the time.

A long time ago, someone told me that you should:

1.  Call your wife daily – This lets her know she is far more important than anything else on your schedule.  It is especially helpful for my wife to have a few minutes of adult interaction, since she is home with kids all day.

2.  Date her weekly – A lot of people would say that they can’t afford to do this.  I say you can’t afford not do to so.  We manage to do this 3 of 4 weekends per month. My wife and I look forward to this time each week.   Anytime your kids are with you, it does not count as a date!

3.  Get away with her quarterly. To be honest this one is a little tougher.  We still manage to do so 1-2 times per year.  It is great to get away and not have to worry about getting kids to bed, feeding them, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids.  However, I think one of the most important things I can do is to show them how much I love their mom.  To be honest, I want her to be around long after they move out!  If I don’t show her the attention that she deserves, I am pretty sure some other goon will.

This is like any other thing in life, you have to work at it.  It’s a price that I am very willing to pay!

(**Disclaimer – I know I just made myself look like Husband of the Century, but I fail miserably at these things all the time.  The key is to realize the mistake and work hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again!)