u must fail

risk = failure
I am scared. I do hate rejection. I hate losing. I’ve lost before and it’s still lingering in the cognitive world. Its not easily forgotten and always tends to taint the idea of “new beginnings” and “what if’s”. Hope we are still in the same boat (red faced and begging for comradery)… Have you noticed sometimes that risk wears the clothes of our last failure? Its like every time I proceed towards change failure calls to humiliate me. And somewhere in the process I tend to tie the two together. This is where I feel like we get trapped. This is where we call off all advancement due to yesterdays rain. NEWS ALERT-You will Fail. Yes it will suck and it will scar. But looking at tomorrow through failure’s lens could KILL our future. See, Failure is good!!! Without failure there is no cause for elevation or change. So let’s decide to understand failure to be part of the process of winning. Also, it is vital that we detach risk from failure. Risk leads to much more than just failure. Risk is the bridge between the idea and execution. Risk births hope.
Are you Risk-y?
ask noah if building an oversized boat was risky
ask Moses if leading Woodstock Wilderness was risky
ask Isaiah if preaching naked was risky
ask Daniel if a night in the Zoo was risky
ask Gideon if 450 to 1 odds were risky
ask Jonah if Nineveh was risky smelling like Fish
ask Job if bankruptcy was risky
ask Leah if marrying Jd Ost was risky
RISK = Radical obedience to an undefeated GOD.
perhaps a better question for all of us is ARE WE OBEDIENT?
I believe God s more interested in our risk than our intellectual breakdown. Remember, nobody knows the one who thought it: only the one who risk-ed it. So let us put down our man made Calculators,Computers, and Christians Cant anonymous and embrace the risk. feed the lions. build the boats. walk on water and fight the fight. God is looking for Risk takers, wall breakers, and earth shakers dont be left calculating the pros and cons when Jesus says jump!!!!
perhaps a NEW & IMPROVED mantra

PRAY-CREATE-PLAN-RISK-ACHIEVE-THANK – repeat eternally

20 min to think/thank

Life is busy, right?. I mean love it, I genuinely love 100% of everything I do all day. But the reality is so often I dont stop to smell the roses.  Well today I stop and choose to look in the trenches where I live and see who is beside me. And to be honest i love it. I love doing life with the people that i do it with. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I am dependent on them they are dependent on me. Today I put down my gun and one tracked mind and stop. stop to think . stop to THANK.

 10 Heroes.
1. My wife is the Godsent frame of my life. My son is my heartbeat.
2. My parents have given me a Godly legacy.
3. My mentor and Lead Pastor Tim Simmons has shaped me.
4. My Ministry team- Amazing 22
5. My students. They are what I bleed for.
6. The good people of CC who love with no strings.
7. Influential Heroes  Ron Luce and Dave Hasz. (dave loved me and saw greatness somehow )
8. Distant Mentors who through there books and sermons have inspired me to be great
9. Baldwin County – the paradise God called me to
10. Bob Chavis- Invested in me more than any of his stock

Today is a perfect day to take 20 Min and STOP. Stop to thank the people who have shaped you. TRY IT!!
All of us have a team.
A. Who are you thankful for?
B. Have you told them?
C. Are you pouring into someone else in the same way you were poured into?

rewind to 1965 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNwJiT78JCc

cut his freakin head off

cut his freaking head off
Some night ago my friend I were throwing a football and enjoying ourselves. When we decided to come in we noticed that there was something on the front porch. As we got close we noticed it was a copperhead snake! Three things I will kill people over cats, spiders, and snakes! I hate them! So I immediately knew to go get the hoe in the garage and cut off its head. It was Invigorating! I remember the crazy dude in the stands from Happy Gilmore screaming “Cut his freaking head off!” It was GREAT! Think about this for a moment… when the snake stood in the way of my home I KNEW what to do immediately!
Leadership Question:
Are you quick to cut off the things that are delaying you from your destination?
( We as leaders can point out the snakes 95% of the time … but we can become numb to the snakes in our own backyards,, snakes will never be pets. dont feed them dont pet them)
CUT OFF THERE HEAD!
snake= anything that delays, prevents or appears poisonous
could be staff member, old idea or system, could be your secret sin.

5 reasons we re winning

5 reasons we re winning.
5 reasons we re not losing
1.I see student pastors stepping up and leading with PASSION…and not being prostituted by the opinions of tradition.
2.I see the realness of the gospel becoming the concrete of ministry not the icing on the cake .…and people RESPONDING in droves because THE GOSPEL, not some non-eternal agenda, has taken center stage.
3.I see and hear youth ministries not interested in babysitting but rather prophesying to a generation worthy of there labor.
4. I see students becoming so hungry for a real God that they search relentlessly. And when they find him .. they continue.
5. I see churches interested in the lost and putting up everything for sale except the GOSPEL.

10 reasons Im not qualified

10 reasons Im not qualified.
“10 reasons Im not Qualified”
1. I have no college degree
2. I began this student ministry with 13
3. I do not have a student building or a budget
4. I am not naturally a great administrator
5. A D D
6. I am not the smartest cookie in the jar
7. I had never preached before and do get nervous
8. I have been bi-vocational for 70% of my time in ministry
9. I am not very funny
10. I am the worst fundraiser on planet earth
When you are in leadership in any capacity there is a perfectly normal tendency to follow people that are years ahead of you. It is a great discipline to become learners from the hero s of the process. Piper is quoted as saying that leader s should spend between 40-50% of their resourcing time listening to men of old. I love it and I do it. I have many mentors that are long and gone and I will never, in this life, have the chance to thank them for the indelible mark they have made on my life. However, there are some things about resourcing that can be extremely deflating. This occurs in the TWITTER world most often. For most leaders the truth stands that we aren’t on mountain tops with multiple 0 s attatched to everything that we do. We arent really speaking to 10,000 people in 262 locations, We aren’t raising 12 Million for missions in an hr, our staffs aren’t getting our face tattooed on their left shoulder, We dont travel to 8 different countries and tweet about our continuous “random”revival outbreaks in the airports, we didnt baptize 350 sun morning before service, and our staff meeting wasnt so good that people refused to be payed because they love work so much. Let s be honest . IT IS NOTHING LIKE THAT ….Once we are over the WOW’d part it can be like climbing a mountainous treadmill that never increases elevation or visibility. Sometimes we can feel extremely disqualified for the very thing Jesus qualified us for. What i think we forget is that most of a leaders life is spent in the trenches preparing for that “frontline” “mountain top” experience. 90% of biblical hero s spent most of their life as a “private” for Jesus before they ever we re tagged “general”.. I wanted to write this to encourage the people like me working in the trenches to know that our qualification is in our hard work and Jesus’ increase. The thousands are reached one at a time and one year at a time. “Rome cannot be built in a day or it would fall” DONT GIVE UP!! Keep working and watering!!! JESUS IS GONNA SHOW UP AND BLOW YOUR FREAKING MIND!!! (this thought isnt my own. It is our lead pastor Tim Simmons who taught me about the trenches.. it saved my life!)
Reason your gonna KILL IT
1. Jesus