Date Archives August 2008

 Efrem Smith

•  1 John 4:7 – Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
• We have to abide in something besides us
• What’s love got to do with it – Tina Turner was a prophet
• I’m black in case you can’t tell – some of you may be watching this in black n white. I’m the black side
• I’m not gonna say God told me cause you think they’re crazy so I’m gonna say, “I think I heard”
• 1 john 4:15 – If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
  • sometimes the best thing we can do as leaders is say my bad like Jonah did
  • I’m not a meteorologist but they say a storm happens when high pressure hits low pressure
    • When God’s high pressure hits our low pressure – storms happen
• The church is the only institution that can say we only cater to those who look like us – that’s our low pressure
• 1 John 4:17 – In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
• I’m tired of grown men having lil before their name. Lil wayne, etc.
• How do we – something?
  • create areas where different backgrounds can come together
• WOW – I missed a lot on notes but he was awesome

• Making and maintaining good soil is necessary to grow flowers
• What kind of soil do people need to grow
• 1 cor 3:6-9 – 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
• We have a job – to create the right soil that encourages growth
• Are you willing to get your hands dirty?
• How many sexually active drunk atheist do you have in your church? 🙂
• Does the soil your creating allow for questions and struggles?
• 1 cor 12:27 – Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 
• Matthew 9:11-13 – When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
• Who did Jesus come for? Messy, dirty people. Who should we be for? Messy, dirty people.
• Am I leading more like Jesus or the pharisees
• How do we lead with a soil that creates growth?
  • Acceptance – come like you are.  
    • create an environment that sees people for who they could be, not who they are
    • Jesus sees dirty people as who they could be, Pharisees see them as dirty
    • Acts 15:10-11, 19
    • What barriers are there to grace – acts 17 – Paul turned their idol worship to God worship
      • two questions i get asked the most: How do you feel about gays? How do you feel about other religions
    • In every culture there are barriers to grace
  • Authentic confessing community
    • James 5:16 – Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
    • We can live for real not pretending to be better than we are. 
    • If we live this way, others will begin to live this way and we will become healing agents for each other
    • What if we invite people and they never change? Then you’ll be like Jesus – he invited Judas and he never changed
  • Constant Connection to God’s Spirit
    • John 15:5 – I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
    • Romans 8:4-5 – n order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
    • It’s simple – Stay connected = spiritual growth
    • Set your watch to have an alarm go off every 60 minutes to remind you to connect with God through out the day

• So much of leadership is making decisions, decisions that have very high stakes
• Do you have a system/framework that helps you arrive at a decision?
  • 1st question usually asked – does the Bible say anything about this?
  • 2nd question – are there any advisors – prov 11:14
  • 3rd – PG&E question
    • what have you learned from the Pain of past decisions
    • what have you learned from the Gain of past decisions
    • what have you learned from the Experience of past decisions
      • We must journal so we can add to our vault of wisdom along our life
  •  4th – Prompting of the Holy Spirit? – Rom 8:6 – The mind of sinful man^[a] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace
• Results of Decision
  • If decision comes out poorly who do you blame? nobody. you take responsibility. you don’t point fingers, play the victim
    • Staying clear about the poor decisions is what makes the lessons clear for the future, if you stay fuzzy in poor decisions, the lesson will be fuzzy.
  • If decision comes out well who do you thank? God, Experience, Holy Spirit!

That was an intro. Now here we go

•  Lincoln said “the best way to (deal with someone who has wronged me)destroy my enemy is to turn him into my friend”
  • Anytime someone wrongs you and you feel like you want to get revenge on them – think about that quote and turn them into your friend
• Bob someone from Motorola, “Create motion for motions sake” Action is better than in action. – hmm… not sure I agree with that will have to work through that
• Collin Powell – Powell principles:
  • Promote a clash of ideas
  • Check your egos at the door
  • Reward your best performers, get rid of your non-performers
• Bill Hybel’s Axioms – he realized he had 76 axioms
  • Vision Leaks – I used to be in internal anguish for months because people would forget the vision they all stood and cheered for 3 months earlier. Because of life – their vision leaks!
  • Get the right people around the table – I believe God wants every church on planet earth to succeed.  I believe God will pour out his wisdom on those who lead. My job as senior leader to invite the right people and bolt the door and work out the plan. DO YOU BELIEVE HE STILL LOVES YOU AND WILL HELP YOU?  The people on that table are going to feed off you and your convictions
  • Facts are your friends – Made a big investment in a tool called Reveal.  As brutal as church facts can be, they are still your friends.  
    • 1st circle – Explorers
    • Cross
    • 2nd circle – res
    • 3rd circle – growing – growing people ask God to bless their program
    • 4th circle – Christ Centered – my life is in your hands and I will do what you want
  • When something feels funky… Engage – don’t believe the lie that problems go away if unattended. In church work – unattended problems grow fangs and prowl around.
    • Knew there was a problem in group life – hosted a chat (expected a friendly, sit by the fire talk. Instead the people were ticked off and wanted answers.
    • Sometimes we need to ask for a mulligan – we need to call a foul – the benefit of a deep christian community – hopefully grace would be extended
  • Take a flier – take a calculated risk once in a while
    • staff came to me and said we want to take a flier with a global hunger campaign – result would be feeding 10,000 kids
    • The people of the church ate beans and rice for 5 days so they could understand what it’s like to live like the poor
    • Every church needs a flier every now and then – something that takes their breath away
    • God rock our world – they will never experience that if you don’t take some fliers
  • This is Church – Had a busy day one day where the whole day was planned in 15 minutes. Got a call from a guy whose son just went to jail and needed to talk. While talking to him and ministering to this person through love I said, “This is Church” Not all the infrastructure and meetings I had planned at church office.  Acts 2:46 – 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
• Are you acting out of your axioms?