Blogs!

I loved watching Growing Pains!

Growth has been on my mind lately, personal but also as it pertains to New Face.  Understanding that growing pains, physical or spiritual, rarely feel "good" it is an amazing comfort to know our all sovereign God has given us amazing promises to give us strength thru these times!!

1. God is working everything in our lives (including suffering) for our good (Rom.8:28; Gen.50:20).

2. We can have happiness in the midst of suffering, knowing that our endurance is producing spiritual growth and will be rewarded (Rom.5:3-4; 2Cor.4:17; 1Thes.5:18; Jas.1:2-4; 1Pet.1:5-8; 4:13).

3. We can take comfort in the knowledge that the Lord will never ask us to bear any burden which we are unable to bear, and will always provide us with a way out, whether that "escape hatch" leads around or, perhaps, through ,the current suffering (1Cor.10:13).

4. The suffering which we undergo does pay a certain dividend: it gives us an experience out of which we can help others in their hour of trial, for all of us will have to endure hardships of some sort in this life (2Cor.1:3-7; 1Pet.4:12; 5:9).

Hebrews 12:1b-2
…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Follow the leader

Been doing a lot of studying about leadership lately, and not just ministry leadership—church, work, organizational, family, peer—but whatever the case Godly leadership has been my focus. Just finished reading “Leaders Who Last” by Dave Kraft, and I must say absolutely life changing. Not a long book, but it took me forever to get through because of the density of the content. Literally each page has been scourged by the brutal strokes of my pen…epic! It was one of those moments where you are reading something that, up until that point, you were unable to previously express, and a rush of validation sweeps over you.
As a starting point here is his definition of a leader (btw, he has had 25 years of leadership coaching experience to come up with this “working definition”—his words): “A Christian leader is a humble, God-dependant, team playing servant of God who is called by God to shepherd, develop, equip, and empower a specific group of believers to accomplish an agreed upon vision from God.” Notice the four areas of leadership:

1. Shepherding—“A leader loves and cares for those being led.”

2. Developing—“A leader helps those being led in their personal walk with Jesus Christ to become fully devoted followers.”

3. Equipping—“A leader trains those being led for ministry.”

4. Empowering—“A leader inspires, encourages, affirms, believes in, and frees people up to serve out of their gifting.”

I could literally fill up blog after blog with the pearls that Dave has to offer, and we’re not talking about man centered opinion, but God centered truth. I will revisit this from time to time, so much more to add!

Josh

Attempting greatness

Well I got the full time blogging gig for NF, yesssss! However it may take me some time to find my blogging identity…until then I’ll leave you with this:

"Thoughts disentangle themselves passing over the lips and through the pencil tips" Dawson Trotman

Josh

Ministry, or something

I have always wanted to have a blog. I never thought I was witty enough to have a blog, who would want to read a wit-less blog? I must move on. Move on to more important matters!

We are so excited to see God moving NF in many different ways, and being able to see multiple doors opening right before our eyes is breath taking. It seems so often that we as Christians make the same mistake over and over again: trying to do things on our own power. It’s crazy, but we actually think that we can elicit some sort of outcome based on our actions. Now that is not to say that we are not responsible for our own actions, but it does amaze me that when we are at a total loss for what to do next, God makes it all clear. So often I can be backed into a corner, not knowing what the next move should be, and I forget that we have an all powerful, all knowing, all over the place God who never misses a beat…why, or more importantly HOW do I forget that!

I love ministry and everything that comes with it…it’s one thing to get headaches because of what you do, and it’s a whole other thing all together to have the opportunity to get a headache doing what it is God wants you to do.

Josh