We’ve had a mouse in our new church building for the last two weeks or so. He (assuming gender here) had (notice the tense) successfully scared the h-e-double hockey sticks out of several people in the church. He ran across one ladies feet (in flip flops mind you) while she was getting something out of the CM resource closet. So we set out a few traps which proved to be unsuccessful. Then he went into hiding… Continue reading
In the midst of writing about the church and the gifts that God has given to it, Paul writes a beautiful treatise about the single most powerful influence the church has to offer…
“And yet I will show you a more excellent way.” (1 Cor. 12:31)
Jesus…expressed in love.
Paul goes on to say that without love (Jesus), we can be the most gifted church or person on the planet but it’s completely worthless (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Continue reading
I’m writing this post from a Best Western in Burns, OR. My wife and I are heading over to a leadership conference at CC Boise in Boise, ID.
Before the conference Pastor Bob hosts an overnight retreat, for senior pastors, at their retreat house in Garden Valley. After the pastor’s retreat we will meet a few of our elders and thier wives in Boise for the weekend conference.
The speakers are…
Bob Caldwell – CC Boise
Greg Opean – CC Redlands (formerly a missionary to Hungary)
Rick Brown – CC Idaho Falls
I’ve been to this conference a few other times and it is always really good. I’m expecting Jesus to speak to me and the other leaders from our church.
Well it’s late and I’ve got to get up super early and drive the remainder of the way to Boise.
Have a great weekend!
As most of you know I’ve been involved in what you might call a “blog blowup” over the last few weeks. My article called “What Are We Afraid Of?” was read thousands of times and commented on hundreds of times on various blogs around the internet.
Despite my article being misconstrued and blown completely out of proportion by some I truly believe that it will cause others to evaluate their own ministries and why they do what they do and say what they say. As I’ve stated in a few subsequent posts my heart was not to throw the movement that I love under the bus but to simply challenge pastors to hear from Jesus and not any man.
That brings me to the point of this post…yep Jesus.
In Colossians 1:17-18 Paul declares,
“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.“
I’m currently teaching through Colossians on Sunday mornings and Paul’s main point in that letter is to focus the believers in Colosse upon Jesus. They were getting sucked into false teaching by weirdos who believed they had a deeper knowledge. The Gnostics, as a group, don’t exist anymore but their doctrines and proclivities live on today repackaged to appeal to this generation.
It is super easy for us to lose sight of Jesus. To make something else the focus of our life. You don’t realize it initially. Then the reality of our error hits us one day and we realize, “I’ve been focused on the wrong things”
Whatever side of this whole “What Are We Afraid Of?” blog war (or shall we call it a misunderstanding) 
you’ve fallen on I want us to refocus our attention upon Jesus and His amazing love.
We all have families to pour into…wives to love…husbands to submit to (I had to throw that in there) …children to love on. Many of us have churches to pastor…whether big or small those people that call us their pastor need Jesus and not some impostor. Are we pointing our people to Jesus? Do people leave each week reminded of what Jesus did for them or are they constantly being told what they need to do for Him?
Where is our focus? Who is preeminent in our lives and ministries? If it isn’t Jesus then something else will take His place. Maybe it’s our undying devotion to a movement or a man. It could just as easily be our unquenchable hatred for the same movement or man.
I love to write and will continue to do so candidly as the Lord leads. But my primary focus must be Jesus or I will have nothing to offer any of the people who look to me as their leader.
Okay…so I wrote what I thought was a fairly innocuous post on a site that I thought was pretty esoteric in its scope.
After 6,000 views of the article and almost 500 comments I guess I underestimated the post and the scope of the SMP.
That little gem which is now gone in light of Chad’s decision to take down the SMP has caused quite a firestorm around the blogosphere.
So what now? Where do we go from here?
James tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19). That is what I’m going to do right now.
I just had a wonderful conversation with Brian Brodersen and it gave me great hope for the future of our movement.
love you guys…ryan
