Our country prides itself on our criminal justice system, by boasting that "Justice is Blind." With our upcoming move to Stockbridge, I have been thinking about faith. Faith is believing in something not seen, something not logical or even something not possible to the human intellect. In order to truly have faith in someone, you must trust them with your life. Without the element of trust, faith cannot exist because doubt will always supercede it.
Through relocating, finding a house, a job for me, and working out all the details, God is teaching me how to trust him again. He is challenging my faith in him and preparing me to go to my next level. In my human rationale, I believed just transition would grow my faith and I would magically have a stronger faith. However, through the adversities and challenges of the recent weeks, God has shown himself "Super Faithful" to us and in turn I am learning again that he is my source of everything.
Just like the game children play when they fall back into each other's arms. It takes complete trust to rely on someone else to catch you when you fall. The feeling of being out of control is not a comfortable one, but is completely necessary to learn trust that leads to faith. God is reminding me daily that He is in control of my life and all he requires from me is to love and trust in Him.
There is difference between tradition and legacy. In the church world, tradition is often worshiped instead of God and legacy is often forgotten. I like tradition up to a certain point and I even understand the importance. It is important to know where you have been, even honor where you have come from, but legacy is always more important than tradition. Where you are going is more important that where you have been. Reaching people that are lost are more important than keeping church people comfortable. Here are some of the differences:
Tradition is selfish. We have it the way we like it. We do the things we like and are not really worried about what anyone else thinks. Tradition never make sacrifices and legacy is selfless. When we work towards legacy, we do not care about our personal happiness. We will do whatever it takes short of sin to reach those that are far from God. Legacy is not afraid to sacrifice a "golden calf."
Do not misunderstand this blog. Tradition is important, but it is not the most important thing. It is a foundation. But just like you can not live on a slab of a house without the walls and roof, you can not live on tradition, which is the foundation of what we believe.
Slept in this morning and felt really nice.
Blogs
Craig Groeschel blogged about characteristics of people pleasing pastors here.
Mark Batterson blogged about the importance of saying thank you here.
Perry Noble asked the question, "is God too busy" here.
Al Force blogged about planning to fail here.
Podcasts
Richard Crisco - Total Dependance
Rob Bell - The Crux and The Hyperhypsosem
TD Jakes - RSVP
Mark Batterson - Cage of Assumptions
Books
Jesus Wants To Save Christians - Rob Bell
Am I the only one that feels like they are running behind in life? It seems like I can never catch up. Here lately, life has that feeling like I have overslept and trying to make up for the time that I have lost. What do you do when you can not catch up? What do you do when life becomes that crazy? I want to share with you some of the things I try to do. It is not a formula and it is not perfect, but it does help me.
Fall might just be my favor season of the year. I love the weather, I love the scenery, I love football, I just love everything about the season. I even love what this season represents. It represents change. It represents letting go of last years growth and preparing for the new season that is ahead.
If you could skip ahead what fun would fall be? You would miss all the colors of the leaves as they change. You would miss the perfect weather and everything else that comes along with the season. Same thing about the "fall" seasons of our lives. If we just hurry through them or skip them we would miss the things that God is wanting to teach us. I truly believe that we would miss all the beautiful things in life.
We are spending a few days in Stockbridge trying to get everything together for our move. It is really awesome to be up here. Though we are living out of a hotel and a suitcase it is nice being where you are called. I can not walk through the offices, youth hall, or anywhere else without getting the sense that God is up to something HUGE!
Last night it was really awesome to get to hang with the students. Next Wednesday we have a "town hall" vision meeting with them. It is going to rock! Hold on and strap in, the fun starts next week.
Today we signed a lease on a house. We are totally stoked. It is everything we were praying for. Paige had an interview at Cotton Indian Elementary School yesterday, and she should hear back from them tomorrow. Continue to pray, I know that God has an awesome job lined up for her. Tonight are hanging out with some friends and watching the season premier of the "Office." That is going to be incredible.
Tomorrow we are going to paint my office and setting up our utility accounts. We are going to spend the rest of the weekend resting. We are so happy that we will be in church Sunday here. I have said it before on the blog, but let me state it again. Pastor Steven and the Stockbridge Assembly family are amazing people. God has already done some incredible things here and I believe with all of my heart that He is about to rock our world! Keep praying for us and we will keep you updated.
Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like you did not get anything accomplished? If so, you know exactly what my day was like today. I had planned on sorting through yesterday's emotions and getting some rest. Well rest did not seem like an option but I at least feel like I have my emotions in check. As I rode my bike and spend time friends most of the day I realized there where things that I knew for sure.
It's my turn to be transparent in my blog tonight. I would be lying if I said today was easy or what I expected. It was our last day at
There were many kind words spoken today, eloquent prayers prayed, and lots of tears shed. As I sit here, reflecting on the last three years at Echo Student Ministries, I realize that we have made impressions on many students and their families. There were many students and some adults in our last service tonight. Many of which we had not seen in a while, yet the memories still linger of our time together.
Our legacy here cannot be measured by how large our ministry was or how many cd's we put out or even what activities we have done. Rather, our ministry has built "big people" instead of "big ministry." No matter where our students go or what they do, we will always be there for them and we will rest in knowing that we left thumbprints in their lives.
Closing one chapter and opening a new chapter is by far the most difficult part of ministry for me. I have a hard time saying goodbye and I get tunnel vision when it comes to keeping in touch (which I hope to improve on). When you love deep, you hurt deep. This is hard for me to do, but the students at Echo Student Ministries will always have a piece of my heart. They are just so awesome, it was impossible not to love them deeply. So say a prayer for us as we begin to open the new chapter of our lives at Stockbridge Assembly. God has big things for us as well and we are ready now.
---Paige
To say this was a crazy week is an understatement.
Blogs
Today I finished packing my office. My emotions were all over the place. I spent some time packing, reflecting, crying a little, and remembering a lot. God has been so good to us at Providence. He blessed us with some awesome students and great friends here. There are people that we have had the privilege of getting to know that are changing the world one person at a time, one day at a time. While packing, I realized that every transition God calls you to is a little painful, but the other end is worth every bit. One of my highlights of the day was when the staff took me to lunch at Harvest Moon. I am going to miss so many people here, but we know God has big plans ahead of us and are looking forward to our adventures in Stockbridge.
I am blogging about fear for a couple of days and today I want to talk with you about family fears. This blog was not only created for ministry purposes but for personal reasons as well. Today I am going to be as transparent as I can be in a blog, it's going to be a little personal.
This week I am sharing some of my fears and how I deal with them. Today I want to start off with some of the fears that I have in ministry.
This fear is always stuck in the back of my head. I do not mean this arrogantly or with any pride. God has put some huge dreams in my heart. They had to come from God because I do not think like that. I am currently asking myself, "What am I doing today to prepare myself for what God has for me tomorrow?" Not just on a leadership level, not just reading blogs, listening to podcasts, networking, and reading books. What am I doing on a personal level? How am I guarding my relationship with God? What am I doing to grow in that relationship? What am I doing to draw closer to God? I overcome this fear by trying my hardest to position myself in a place where God can use me on a daily basis.
One of the things that I love to do in ministry is speak to students. I stand in front of students a lot of times and think "Why in the world would they listen to me?" Then I remember that if it was just my message, then they would not have a reason to listen. It is not my message, it is HIS! Isaiah 55:9-11, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." I have to remember that every time I speak, it is not that I have something to say. God does and He choses us to be His mouth piece.
Over the last couple of weeks God has been dealing with me about fear. I am not talking about a fear of snakes or a fear of heights. I am talking about life fears. I do not care who you are, we all have things that scare us about life, the future, and the unknown parts of the journey that we are on. I believe that on some levels fear is healthy. I believe it is fear that causes us to really step back and look at things differently some times. It is a healthy fear that pulls back the reigns on our lives and cause us to walk cautiously into certain situations.
Change is inevitable in life; sometimes it is planned and other times unexpected. However, I am coming to learn that change makes us stronger people. Wisdom and strength come through even the smallest changes in life and we become better people. There are times that change can take us by surprise and completely alter our existence. This raises the question of what will you do with the changes that you face?
I, myself, have many changes taking place in my world and everyday is a new set of circumstances. At first, I lived in fear of what might be altered next. Each day is presenting new challenges and I have the option to embrace my changes or go back to bed and hide away. Regardless of my response, life is going to continue and continue to change. This raises the question of how will you meet your changes?
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. ---
Arthur Schopenhauer
--Paige
Spent the last two days on Jekyll Island for Youth Pastors Summit. It has been an awesome time with some great people.
Blogs
Last night while speaking in a Youth Service I did something really stupid. It was unplanned and totally got in the moment, but I hope there was an impact made and students will remember it for a while. I was talking about value and how valuable we are because of what God has done in our lives and what He has called us to do.
We are taking a look this at healthy transition. As I stated yesterday, transition is not a fun time, but can be healthy.
As many people know, Paige and I resigned from Providence Church in Albany, GA this past Sunday morning and are making a transition in our life. Over the next couple of days I would love to share with you some thoughts and things that I have been mulling over for the last couple of weeks. Today I want to talk about what to guard during transitions.....
--Paige
Blogs
I was sitting talking with a really good friend tonight and had a thought. I have challenged students for years now to change the world. I have told the students of Echo and all over that they are GOING to change the world. Tonight while we were talking I told him that he WAS changing the world.
