Smellmylife

• Going 4 years to Bible College. What? It was a mistake to go to Bible College? Well, yes and no. I feel after 15 years of ministry experience that Bible College did little to nothing to prepare me for ministry. I would recommend all would-be pastors go to Bible College for a year to study the Bible wholeheartedly and then to go to a 4 year college and major in something other than ministry. Especially if you are going into church planting. It sucks to be bi-vocational and all of your experience and education is in “church work”. I feel that ministry is all I know and I’ve got nothing else to “fall back” on.
• Being too eager to just get into ministry after college. I was so eager to get started in the ministry after college, that I took a job at a church that wasn’t a good fit. The senior pastor was cruising to retirement, had no vision and I was very frustrated being in that environment for almost 5 years.
• Not Making sure that my boss had a vision for ministry that was similar to mine. I’ve made this mistake twice. When someone “above you” doesn’t have the same vision for ministry or a similar philosophy of ministry to yours, you are just setting yourself up for trouble.
• Using personal money for church related things. Even when my wife didn’t want me to, I did anyway. Bad move….one of my worst. If your church can’t afford it don’t do it, raise the money, or make sure you both (you and your wife) agree to use your personal funds.
• Trying to change a church that doesn’t want to change. I was always “the rebel”, because I questioned things. Why do we do that? What is the purpose? Is this really effective? Can we try this? Why have we always done it this way? Seriously, some churches don’t want to change. There is a level of comfort that the people aren’t willing to give up. Stop wasting so much time trying to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic and go somewhere that you can believe in!
• Doing it all myself. I’ve never been good at delegating. I’m getting better though!
• Sacrificing my personal time with God for ministry. Doing, doing, doing, but never refilling my spiritual tank. Trying to lead people to a place I have never been.
• Trying to act like I had all the answers. This is a fault of many pastors. We think people need spiritual superheroes when all they need is a guide who understands, empathizes and is real, not afraid to admit their own struggles.
• Playing Favorites. Even when I didn’t realize it, I sometimes alienated people to hang out with others.
• Trying to copy someone else’s ministry. I get ideas from alot of places, but we must always ask ourselves….what does God want in our Church? I milk alot of cows, but make my own butter!
• Cheating my family instead of the Church. If you must choose between your family and the church….always choose your family. There you go, you have my permission.
• Being obsessed with numbers. While numbers (attendance, salvations, baptisms) are useful to pastors for the purpose of keeping track of your effectiveness, they don’t tell the whole story. So many churches ask people to raise their hands to indicate a profession of faith, quickly count those numbers and then drop the ball on any true follow-up. We can make an eternal difference ONE person at a time!
• Reading more books besides the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, read! I read leadership books, ministry books, self-help books, Harry Potter books (am I going to Hell?), but we should never let those books replace our time in God’s Word.

You see, I’ve made many mistakes, and I continue to make them and always will. Hopefully you can avoid some of the same mistakes I’ve made.

Perry Noble recently posted this and it got me thinking.  My thoughts are in bold.

How do you know if you’re vision is from God?

• If you feel confident that you can accomplish what is in front of you with no problem at all…then you didn’t hear from God.  If it’s too easy…if God doesn’t have to show up and do something amazing…then you didn’t hear from God.
• If no one is angry at you…then you didn’t hear from God. Especially Church people.  Don’t ya just love church people who are so easily offended!?
• If you don’t have to ask anyone to sacrifice to make the vision come true…then you didn’t hear from God. First, are you willing to sacrifice?  How about your families security, or a paycheck or a level of comfort?
• If religious people are not steaming at you, blogging about you and/or leaving your church…then you didn’t hear from God.  Ah, the principle of blessed subtraction!  If you are not on board….please leave!
• If you have the money in the bank to do what God has asked you church to do…then you didn’t hear from God.  Probably one of the biggest one to overcome.  Big vision, big plans, where’s the money going to come from?
• If every step is perfectly designed and nothing happens to totally throw you off along the way…then you didn’t hear from God.  If you have no resistance, no set-backs, then you’re not effective and the devil doesn’t even care about what you’re doing!
• If someone doesn’t try to talk you out of what you are about to attempt…then you didn’t hear from God.  I’ve tried to talk many people into coming on board with us, but it’s too easy to be comfortable where they are at.
• If you don’t stay up at night thinking about the vision…then you didn’t hear from God.  A shoutout to Robby on this one!
• If your vision is in contradiction to God’s Word…then you didn’t hear from God.  (And no, you didn’t get a “special revelation” that gave you permission to trump His Word!) The Lord told me….yeah, sure He did!
• If you know all of the answers…then you didn’t hear from God.  You’ve got to be teachable…like play dough in His hands.

This really helped confirm what God has placed in our hearts as the staff of The Journey Church.  We experience these things daily.  God is up to something, something bigger than we can even dream of.  Will you be a part of it?