A Few Resource Links

Yesterday was an amazing God-filled day at NLC! In the morning, we were challenged to FORGIVE others in our lives. I am already hearing the stories of how God used that time. At the end of service, Pastor Scott mentioned a book for those who want to continue the journey of forgiveness of others. Here's a link:

Total Forgiveness by R.T. Kendall

Last night was Night of Worship at the Warehouse and it was incredible! We spent an hour just enjoying the presence of God and soaking Him up! It was awesome. If you want to keep worshipping in your personal life, the music our worship teams are doing comes from the following cd's. You can download it on the iTunes website, I'm sure.

Northpoint: Louder than Creation

God of the City

Hope that helps you connect with God this week,

Pastor Matt

What I'm Listening To Right Now!

Worship Music is one of the greatest tools of encouragement in my life. There are so many times when worship songs say exactly what I'm feeling in my life. As a leader and influencer in many of your lives I wanted to give you a run down of what I'm listening to right now.

I think it's all available in iTunes & I highly recommend downloading as much of this as you can and then integrating it into your daily life somewhere. (In the car, during your workout, etc.)

Yesterday's Worship Set @ NLC:

• Faithful - Steve Fee


• Your Name - Ross Parsley


• Jesus Paid it All - Kristian Stanfill


• Oh Praise Him - David Crowder

My Personal Top 6 Worship Songs Right Now:

• Mighty to Save - Kristian Stanill


• God of this City - Chris Tomlin


• Happy Day - Kristian Stanfill


• Let Me Sing - Todd Fields


• Beautiful Jesus - Kristian Stanfill


• We Shine - Steve Fee

If You Only Buy 1 Worship CD this Year Buy:

Northpoint Live: Louder Than Creation

It's got everyone of those songs on it except for Your Name which is a Ross Parsley one.

A Few Other Notables that Are Ministering to My Heart Right Now:

• Healer - Planetshakers


• Here in Your Presence - Ross Parsley


• You are the Light - Steve Fee

Seriously, download these songs... it could be the best thing you do for your spiritual life all week! You'll drop 4 bucks on a coffee, download 4 songs instead and feed your spirit.

Just a Worshipful Bloggish Thought,

Matt

Wow, what a Week!!!

Hey everyone, I'm so excited to be back in SW FL.  Sarah and I just finished an amazing / whirlwind week of ministry consulting, downtime, edification, and networking!  The last 8 days have been incredible!  It's amazing to see how God is using all that we are learning through Next Level Church to impact so many!  AND... we just keep learning more!  Here's the last week in a nutshell:

• Friday, Feb. 8th - Flew to Orange County, CA.  Made it to Dallas.  Then flight cancelled.  Rerouted to Las Vegas.  Ran to catch the plane.  Realized we were on Pacific time, not Mountain time.  Actually had an extra hour.  Felt like Idiots.  Caught our breath.  Arrived in OC, CA @ 7 pm PST (10 pm EST).  Had dinner with Church Planters.  Told our story.  Went to bed at 2 am EST.
• Saturday, Feb. 9th - Had breakfast at the hotel.  Ate too much.  Slept for 2 hours.  Met up with Scott & Mary Turner, incredible church planters in Irvine, CA.  Shopped.  Ate at PF Changs.  Heard their story.  Went back to their house.  Talked til 10 pm PST (1 am EST).  Slept at hotel. 
• Sunday, Feb. 10th - Arrived at theSummit Church which at 8:30 PST (Do I need to keep doing the EST reference?) Watched set up.  Took notes.  Preached at 11 am PST.  Grabbed a sandwich.  Debriefed at their house for 3 hours.  At 6 pm, a dozen of their leaders arrived.  Taught Church planting leadership & philosophy til 9:30 pm.  Drove to our new hotel on Laguna Beach, CA at 10:30 pm (1:30 am EST).  Slept.
• Monday, Feb. 11th - Had 9 am PST Video Conference Call with Pastor Scott and Quigs about the upcoming week at NLC.  (I love iChat by the way...) Drove to Saddleback Church, founded by Rick Warren.  Toured Saddleback.  Was blown away.  Had lunch.  Did some Geocaching. (Ask me later).  Back to hotel.  Slept.  Went to a movie.  Had Pizza at BJ's Italian Restaurant on Laguna Beach at 10:30 PST (1:30 am EST).  
• Tuesday, Feb. 12th -  Had breakfast overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Walked on the beach.  Slept. Listen to a couple of LifeChurch.tv podcasts.  Read by the pool.  Ate Mexican.  Saw another movie.  Slept.
• Wednesday, Feb. 13th - Woke up at 8 am PST.  Drove to Scott & Mary Turner's house to return their car.  (Thanks by the way...)  Drove to Airport.  Talked with Scott for another hour.  Flew to Dallas.  Flew to Ft. Myers, FL.  Arrived home at 9:30 pm EST (6:30 pm PST).  Did some laundry. (Okay, Sarah did.)  Watch American Idol.  Still on West Coast time.  Bed by midnight.
• Thursday, Feb. 14th - Valentine's Day.  Woke up 6:30 am.  Checked e-mail, (1st time all week.)  Repacked.  9 am drove to Fort Lauderdale.  Arrived 11:30 am.  Got Starbucks.  Checked into hotel.  Attended lunch at the Book of Hope Missions Roundtable Event.  (Talk about a great ministry... oh my goodness, they're incredible.  More on that later too.)  Last afternoon session at 4:30 pm.  Took a cat nap.  Dinner at 6 pm.   Watched the sunset over Fort Lauderdale skyline with my wife. (Come on Somebody!!!)  Attended night session.  9:30 pm had dessert at Cheesecake Factory with Peter and Carolyn Haas (Substance Church in Minneapolis, MN).  Incredible couple that we totally hit it off with.  Back to hotel at  12:30 am.  Asleep by 1 am.
• Friday, Feb. 15th - Woke up at 8:30 am.  Went to the Red Door Spa at The Galleria in Fort Lauderdale.  (yeah, I did.  So what???  It was awesome!)  10:30 am - watched SportsCenter in the Men's Dressing Room. (Hey I wasn't about to go out there with a bunch of women and pretend I was actually comfortable!!!  I do have boundaries, you know.)  11 am - 80 minute hot rock massage.  1 pm - Lunch with my wife.  2 - 5 pm - shopping at the Galleria with Peter and Carolyn Haas.  Back to hotel.  Cat nap.  6 pm - Dinner with RoundTable Pastors.  9:30 pm - Last Session ends.  10 pm - Dessert at the Cheesecake Factory with Chris and Jan Beard, Pastors in DownTown Cincinnati.  Incredible story. 1:30 am - back to hotel.  2 am - sleep.
• Saturday - Feb. 16th - 8 am - Wake up.  Check out of hotel.  Get boys a present.  Get Starbucks.  Get Krispy Kremes. (yeah, I did!)  Drive across Alligator Alley.  Home at 12:15 pm.  2 pm Birthday Party at Gator Lanes for Will's friend.  5:30 pm ate something. (I can't remember)  8 pm - Boys in bed.  8:10 pm - practice message for tomorrow.  8:57 pm - finish writing this blog.  9:05 pm - Probably will pass out.

Man, what an amazing & refreshing time we had.  It was just great to relax and do nothing, you know???Seriously, we love that!  It's God's calling for us, and there's nothing we'd rather do together! Can't wait for God to move tomorrow at NLC! Pastor Matt

"Hey Daddy, we have a Surprise for you!"

... were the words I heard when I walked in the door tonight. But I had to play the "Hot and Cold," game to find it. It was so cute watching my 2 boys in their "I don't do Mistletoe" pajamas leading me around our house all the while saying, "You're gettin' warmer..." or "You're gettin' colder..."

After a few minutes of downstairs rabbit trail chasing, they finally led me upstairs and into the laundry room. I opened the washer (to which Drew looked in and acted surprised to find a load of laundry). Then as I started to open the dryer door, both boys broke out in spontaneous shouting: "You're burnin' up!!!" (which I found ironic, since I was at the dryer...)

As I opened the door, I seriously had no idea what I was about to find... That's when I reached in to discover a brand new GPS! Perfect for my new found hobby... Geocaching!

I was so blown away. Apparently they had been planning all week to surprise me, and man they sure pulled it off.

I'm most excited to make some great memories with the boys in the days ahead. They'll love treasure hunting and I'll love being with them.

Thanks guys for my GPS. May the Geocaching begin!

Just a GPS bloggish thought,

Matt

My Geocaching Adventure!

So a pastor friend of mine from Ohio, Mike Cole, and his wife Trinda have been down visiting this weekend. Escaping the cold up north etc.

So yesterday, (Sunday) afternoon, Mike tells me that he wanted a GPS device for Christmas. To which I'm thinking, "Are you serious? Why? All is does is give you directions to places right?" But then, he whips it out and starts showing me all the stuff it can do. Oh... my ... gosh... that thing is SO cool!

So then he starts telling about this thing called Geocaching. (www.Geocaching.com) Basically you go to the geocaching website and put in the address of wherever you are (in the world), and it will tell you where all of these "Hidden Treasures" are near you! It gives you the exact GPS coordinates. It's a Global Treasure Hunt! So there are like millions of these Hidden Treasures all over the world now, and you use a GPS to go and find them.

Enter Scott Drummond. So we go over to Pastor Scott and Kirsten's last night for dinner and when we get there Mike starts telling Scott about Geocaching. To which Scott whips out his computer and we put in his address... What happened next feels more surreal then actual, but it's true I tell you. True.

After we successfully had broken the code (like Tom Hanks in the Da Vinci Code movie) we had what we needed for our Adventure.

Before we know it, we're running to my car like Bank Robbers! The GPS (who we named Suzi) is giving us directions to a Hidden Treasure in Scott's neighborhood! It was like the coolest thing! We get within a hundred feet of the Treasure and then we had to search and destroy on foot. MIke is holding the GPS unit and telling us the coordinates as we walk through this woods. With every step, the intensity was rising! I swear there was a mote with a dragon and an alligator in it as I crossed this rickety log bridge!

After 15 minutes of searching in the woods, Scott yells out, "Hey, hey guys right there!" Sure enough, he dives in to this clump of trees and pulls out a camoflage ammo box. We open it up and there are all kinds of Treasures in there! (Stuffed animals, golf balls, key chains, etc.) Every person who finds it leaves something behind and can take something with them as well if they want. There was a log book, so we signed our names. (All the while I was totally watching for the cops and stuff!) (I was going to leave a Next Level Church card, but Scott convinced me that would be lame.)

After a few minutes of enjoying our Global Treasure Hunt, we stood, made our way out of the forest (it was a big clump of trees) and returned to our All Terrain Vehicle (my car) victorious! The other guys only suffered a couple of wounds (read, burrs stuck to their flip flops) and I escaped without a trace on my crocs. (I could have simply washed them off had their been any mud on them).

A few minutes later we were back in the safety of Scott's house, surrounded by our wives who would never know or even hope to understand the danger we had been in, how we had risked our lives, and the adventure that would probably bond our friendship for a lifetime! We didn't even try to explain it to them.

So I think I found a new hobby... Geocaching. Talk about something that doesn't look anything like my life! Dragons, and gators, and forests and adventures and firey motes. It was all real. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I gotta run, I'm pricing out GPS units online...

Matt

My ADD has been bad lately

I don't know if it's the holidays or the stress I've been feeling with my
wife all "laid up" with her foot surgery or what, but seriously, my ADD has
been through the roof lately.

I walked into Sam's Club the other morning and had to buy 3 things. My wife
had made me a list and everything, and the minute I walked in, it was like,
"Wowlookatallthetvsandwheredidthemoviesgothatusedtobeintheentranceandthispla
ceisawesome,waitwhatwasIsupposedtocomeinhereforagain?whyareallthosepeoplejus
tstandingaroundandwaitIknowI'mhereforsomethingwhatwasitshesaidIneededtogetag
ain?howcomethegrinderforthecoffeeisonlynexttothecoffeeIliketobuy?whataboutth
epeoplewhodrinkotherkindsofcoffeearetheylessworthytohaveagrindernexttothemth
anIam?maybeI'mmakingtoomuchofthis.whyamIhereagain?

Seriously, that's what it feels like right now! Dead serious. If you have
ADD then you totally know what I'm talking about but there's also no way
you've been able to concentrate long enough to get to the end of this, so I
know you're not reading this.

It was a good day when I actually embraced this whole ADD thing. For a long
time I didn't want to use it as an "excuse" but now I realize that It's got
good sides and bad sides. The bad sides are, that occasionally a trip to
Sam's Club can feel like a bag of scrabble letters. The good side is, When
I'm in the zone, I can get a lot done. It's finding the zone and not
letting things knock you out of it, that's the challenge. Thank God my
wife, Sarah, my assistant, Susan, and my staff that know this about me.

Occasionally, it's like, "Just leave him alone, he's in the zone." When
that happens I can write like 3 messages in 3 hours kind of thing. It's
crazy like that.

Anyway,

Keller

I Love Christmas!!!

I can't believe there's only 8 days until Christmas! This truly is the
most wonderful time of the year! I'm serious. I love Christmas. I'm not
sure if it's like the mandated "time off" or what, but somehow all the world
goes right for me around the holidays.

I think there are those few surreal times in the calendar when the world (
and by world I mean church world) is permitted to stop, which is a good
thing. Christmas day is one. Thanksgiving day is another. I wish there
were more in preacher land, but there's not.

See, my day off is Friday, and everyone else is working, so at times it can
feel strange to be "chillin'" while everyone else is still workin'.
Although I work on Sundays and I know that makes up for it somehow, but...

Anyway, 8 days til Christmas and I intend to party like it's 1999. May the
days be Merry and Bright! Yeah I went there.

Just an ADHD Bloggish christmas thought.

Matt

All The Things I'm Learning (Part 6) The final installment

By part 6, my ADD has set in now, & honestly, I have no idea what number were on any more. So we'll just start with 16, sound good?

16. I'm learning about Long Term Grace in my life. I can't even tell you
how spot on Mike Ash's message was in week 4 of our Fuel for Life Series
last month. He talked about God's purpose for Suffering and absolutely just
opened my eyes to a whole new perspective of what it means to "have a thorn
in the flesh" as Paul writes about in the New Testament. The idea that it's
possible that God actually leaves "stuff" in our life that keeps us postured
toward dependence on Him, lest we be tempted to think, "our strength is
sufficient." I love what Paul says about "His strength being made perfect
in our weakness." Man, that's so true. You know, Paul had some really
amazing insights.

17. I'm learning that my creativity is a unique gifting from God. I'm so
thankful for the people in my life that keep me focused and organized and
own all the details of my life so that I can be who God has uniquely created
me to be ... Which is creative. The team around me makes so many of my
ideas look way better than they could ever be if I had to try and execute it
alone. I love working with my team. They make me a better pastor,
communicator, speaker, & writer.

I'm just really thankful for the people I get to do life and ministry with.

Just a bloggish thought,

matt

All the Things (Part 5)

Today's installment is just one thing I'm learning with clarity about myself. I challenge you to pray for clarity about your "calling" as well.

I'm learning I'm called to do 3 things:

1. Write (Messages & Books). Writing fuels me like nothing else can. The
entire process of learning and reading and studying and praying and
developing a thought and seeing new things in Scripture just make me feel
strong like nothing else can. I struggled with this calling for several years, because, quite honestly, I never felt like I would have anything to say. (At least that other people would want to read, anyway.)

It feels good to be stepping into that calling now. Wow.
2. Speak. Speaking comes easy for me. That's the part of my job that I
enjoy. It's probably the part I get most nervous about as well though. I
feel such a Holy Responsibility for what I'm about to say to so many people
every week, it's crazy. I also have a Holy Nervousness that God will show
up and change hearts. I'm so aware that, my talent alone, doesn't have the
power to change anybody. Only with the Holy Spirit convicting and changing
hearts does anything good have the potential of happening. That's serious
business for me.

3) Coaching other Leaders. My heart beats to teach others what we have
learned and are continuing to learn about leadership, church planting,
ministry, creativity, & doing church in our cultural context. Nothing fires
me up more than a phone call with a church planter or a meeting with a young
leader.
What "fires you up?" What fills your tank? If you don't know, start having conversations with others about it. Because the sooner you find out, the sooner you'll start moving boldly in the direction of your calling.

Just a bloggish challenge,

Matt

All the Things I'm Learning (Part 4)

Here's my hypothesis: Each of us are capable of making a list of what we're learning in our lives as well. I just happen to write them down and publish them to the World Wide Web for all to see. Feel free to comment back and let us know what you're learning in your world as well. I'd love to hear it and learn along with you...

12. I'm learning what it means to Trust... Really trust. Dr. Richard
Powell, who is the pastor of MacGregor Baptist Church here in Fort Myers, FL
(& an amazing leader, pastor & guy) told me recently over lunch that, "I
would have to learn to completely turn my back on entire areas of NLC. That
would be when I could know that I've completely given away ministry to
others." I have definitely adopted that phrase, "turn my back" recently.
That takes trust. And man, it's hard sometimes.

13. I'm learning Jealousy can hit you quick. I'm amazed at how quickly I
can drift toward jealousy or comparison in my life. I see another guy's
book, or hear of something another guy is doing in a church somewhere, and I
immediately rush to judgment. I hate that about myself. That's the kind of
stuff you have to crucify on the cross ya know.

15. I'm learning about sins of Commission & sins of Omission. This isn't
new information for me, but I was recently refreshed to the categories.
Sins of Commission are those things we do that don't please God. Sins of
Ommission are those things we DON'T do, that consequently cause us to miss
out on God's best for our lives.
Where are we guilty of a sin of "Omission" in our life? Where are we hesitating to take a step of faith, instead of pushing through and just trusting God.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

All the Things I'm Learning right now (Part 3)

After an extended absence from the blogosphere, I'm now back in full force. Here's the third installment of, "All the Things I'm Learning right now," by Matt Keller. Thanks for reading...
9. "When" is Coming!!! A few months ago I wrote a blog titled, "It's not
if, it's when." Well, guess what, "When" is coming soon. I can feel it.
God's timing is exact, and He is exactly beginning to move and open doors
like crazy around the NLC world. December 2nd was a huge day for us.
We're so excited about the Big Opportunities God is placing in our hands!

10. I am learning to be more secure in who I am in Christ, regardless of
the approval of man. With or without man's approval, I'm learning to be
more secure in my calling and my responsibility to that calling than I've
ever been before. It's a great place to find yourself in. However, it's easy to let slip away too. I'm still working on that part!

11. I have a responsibility & a calling to develop young leaders around me.
I'm learning in the last few weeks that God has uniquely gifted and called
me to have a total passion for leadership development of young leaders
around me. We're actually trying to be very strategic as we head into 2008
about how we leverage that calling and passion in my life. Stay Tuned to
hear more about that as we get closer to the New Year.
More tomorrow, but for now I submit...

Just a bloggish thought,

matt

More of what I'm learning right now (Part 2)

So on Monday, I began a new series of blogs about "All the Things I'm Learning right now..." Here's the 2nd installment...

6. It only takes 1 idea to succeed. Never underestimate that truth that: The power of one idea plus God, can equal Breakthrough into a whole new level. Don't be too quick to give up on an idea. Some of the best ideas ever were simply morphs of a "pretty good idea." Make every idea a beach ball, and give permission to people near you to bat it around until it becomes great. Your job is to simply keep it from hitting the ground.

7. Risk ought to be regular. Plain & simple, if we're not taking enough
risks, we're not positioning ourselves for true success. When was the last
time you took a risk? What's keeping me from taking more risks on a daily
basis? What if I developed an ability to risk in the small things everyday
so when a big risk came along it wouldn't feel so foreign or awkward to me?
Huh.

8. The only way to win is to lose first. Can we really go up, before we
hit rock bottom? Hopefully, but more probably, no. God uses failures and
shortcomings in our lives to mold us on a heart level into what God wants /
needs us to become so we can become what He wants us to be when we finally
do succeed.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

How do you explain Daylight Savings Time to a 7 year old?!?

So last weekend, my oldest son, Will, started asking me about the time change. (Of course, he thinks the time change is just a great excuse to go to bed an hour later and get up an hour earlier) so this has been no small amount of trepidation on our part! Anyway...

So Monday morning he's in the bedroom at 6 am asking me to explain to him how it's possible to "lose or gain an hour." I tried to explain as simply as I could by using such logic as, "Well, see the government declares a time when we all move our clocks forward or backward and then..." or "okay so you have to look at the whole thing in light of a one year period of time." All of which yielded no fruit.

So finally, I got out a piece of paper and drew the numbers 1 to 24 in a big long row.

then... I said something like, "In March, we all "rename" 2 am, 3 am, and 3 am, 4 am, and 4 am, 5 am..."

to which I think he responded, "That's funny."

Then I drew another set of numbers under that and said, "Then in November we all "change the names back" to what they were before."

I don't know... I think he got it, I'm not sure I ever fully answered the question of "Why" for him though...

Maybe it's cause I don't really know why we do that myself...

Oh well, I guess I'll try again in 6 months...

All I know is, I'm still hungry at 11 am and tired at 10 pm. Weird.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

NLC Extreme Food Drive - A Huge Success!!!

I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of our church. Yesterday was the last week of our "Fuel for Life" Series and the "Extreme Food Drive" that went along with it. The Single's won by about 80 items, but the true winners are the 100 needy families that we helped yesterday afternoon. In all, we had close to 4,000 items brought in over the 5 weeks of the series. Already, we're getting responses from the families who received the food. Each one makes me cry.

I knew when we were putting the series together that I wanted to link it to a "community service" event, and this one was amazing! Mike and Scott did a great job each week, keeping it light and fun during announcement time.

After church let out yesterday, we had all the food set up on tables in the foyer and people & families were able to "pack the grocery bags" and then take them directly to the community and give them personally to the families! It was so amazing. I can't even begin to tell you the joy I felt in my heart watching hundreds of NLC'ers packing groceries after church.

We have truly been given so much, my heart for our church, is that we would leverage all that we've been given for the sake of those who are in need, both physically & spiritually.

I'm so proud of our church!

(NLC family... If you have a story you want to share about your experience yesterday with the food drive, I hope you'll comment back and we'll post it).

Matt

DC Trip Successful

I just wanted to let all of you that prayed for Quigs and I know that our trip to Washington was a great success. We shot video for 5 1/2 hours & got nearly an hour of video recorded, which is incredible! We battled lighting issues all day but had plenty of sunshine for warmth & ease. (At least it wasn't raining & cold!)

In the evening, we had dinner with David Stine, who is an ARC Church Planter in Pentagon City. His church is 8 weeks old. It was so timely to spend time with him and encourage him as he's just getting out of the starting blocks. God really used us to speak a timely word to him.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us. We felt a God confidence all day long, that's for sure. I am so excited about the new series that begins November 11th... "Leave No One Behind." It's going to be powerful, moving and hopefully very honoring to all the veterans of the USA. If you know any veterans, you'll definitely want to get them there on the 11th!

I'm looking forward to the final installment of Fuel for Life this weekend. It's going to be a great finish!

Thanks,

Matt Keller

Prayer for Washington D.C. Trip

Hey guys, pray for me this week, Josh Quigley & I are flying to Washington D.C. to shoot 2 videos from the World War II Memorial & the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They are for the next series that we're doing that launches on Veteran's Day, November 11th! I'm so excited about the series. It's called, "No One Left Behind." I don't want to spoil it for all of you, but I also feel strongly that I need you to pray for me. My grandfather served in World War II, & I have a feeling this is going to be pretty emotional for me.

We are also scheduled to have dinner with 2 church planters while we're there to encourage them and help anyway we can.

I'll let you know how it goes,

Just a bloggish prayer request... thanks,

Matt

Three Signs of a Miserable Job - Book Review

Often, people will ask me what books I'm reading, so here goes one: I just finished reading "Three Signs of a Miserable Job" by Patrick Lencioni. Here are my thoughts in random order:

1. Overall Rating: 7 - It's not his best book, (5 Dysfunctions of a team is) but it's got a great, simple concept that every leader needs to hear.

2. I got to see him at Catalyst last month. His delivery was rough at Catalyst, but again, his content was simple, and strong. I was excited about reading it.

3. He uses story form. His story in this one is good. I enjoy the escape literarily speaking and the ability to actually interact with a set of characters in a book.

4. The last 25 pages are the dynamite. He nails it all down and drives it home. It's good stuff.

5. You get some really interesting looks from people who see you reading a book about a "Miserable Job." That's a little awkward, & funny...

6. He basically says there are 3 Main Things People Need in order to NOT be miserable in their job (or read, service opportunity at a church, etc.):

First, They need to be known. They want to know that their boss or leader knows they have a life outside of work. And that they take a genuine interest in that life outside of work.

Second, They need to know that what they do matters. His word is Relevant. That they actually make a difference in someone's life. It's our job as leaders and bosses to connect the dots for people in our departments from what they do, to how it impacts someone's life everyday.

Third, They need to know that they are making progress. He calls it "Measurability." That what they give their lives to on a daily basis is actually making progress. This one is a by far the toughest one to actualize in terms of bringing it down to where the people we lead, are living. But it's a good point, none the less.

7. I would recommend this book as a good read for every leader, especially in church work, where people are volunteering themselves and their time to be apart of something bigger than themselves. We have a huge responsibility to make them feel known, relevant, and like they're making progress. It's a long story for 3 points. But definitely worth the read.

Just a Book Review Bloggish Thought,

Matt

10 Things You Don't Want People to say about Your Bible!!!

10. Wow, the pages sure are white!

9. Why do the pages still stick together?

8. Wow, It still has that new Bible smell!

7. What do you mean, "you don't know where it is?"

6. You know they've updated the translation right?

5. Why is it so dusty?

4. When was the last time you picked this thing up?

3. It looks amazing for getting it in 1993!

2. Are Bible covers still cool?

1. Yes, all 66 books are included in every Bible!!!

Happy Monday Everybody!!!

Matt

Pain brings Healing?!? Can that be right?

So here's a thought, I've been thinking about lately... What if the path to healing in our lives always includes an element of pain? In other words, what if there is no healing without pain? The Bible says that, "By His stripes we are healed..." The verse is speaking of Jesus' stripes. The pain He had to endure, the blood He had to shed in order that we, fallen humanity, might be healed of our sinfulness.

His pain brought our Healing. And what if, in some way, there is pain involved in the healing work of God that is on going in our lives? The pain of working through shortcomings. The pain of dealing with past hurts. The pain of remembering uncomfortable events in our past. The pain of ill-spoken words. Pain.

I know it's true for me that any time God wants to take me to a new place of wholeness in Him, I always have to walk through a painful place. A place where God "breaks me down," so He can build me back up into more of His image. It's the breaking part that is painful. It's right... but painful none the less.

I am so thankful that God knows how much we can handle and doesn't ever leave us or forsake us. I'm thankful that He walks with us in the pain and lovingly leads us to "Paths of Righteousness for His name's sake," as Psalm 23 says.

I don't like the pain, but I do like the idea of living in a place of healing and wholeness like I never have before. So perhaps pain is a blessing from God! Kinda makes you think differently about praying, "God, Bless Me!" doesn't it???

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

What I realized during my "Getaway" with my wife!

I mentioned yesterday that Sarah and I spent the weekend away together... just the two of us! Here are a few things I realized while being with my wife this weekend...

1. It takes me 48 hours to relax.

Sarah and I spent the first 2 days doing alot of sighing and unloading. I love being married so long now that we know what each of us needs in the way of "decompressing." We spent the whole first evening at dinner watching the sunset, and just sighing and then making some "blurt out statement" about some detail thing or issue that we had been facing in the last week or so. It really wasn't until the 2nd morning that we actually "felt" relaxed.

2. I have to "getaway" to "Go Long!" in my thinking.

Again, it takes us about 2 days before we're really able to start thinking about some "long thoughts" for our family, or the church or our dreams or our goals. That's why getaways are so stinkin' important! Because "long thoughts" can't be rushed.

3. Life is too short NOT to get away.

Sarah and I watched the podcast from LifeChurch.tv on Sunday morning and the pastor, Craig Groeschel, is doing a series called, "30 days to live." It's good stuff about considering the bigger picture in your life. As we sat there watching it together we both realized that what we were doing together, just the two of us, was the most important thing we could be doing in that moment! May we never look back with regret in our marriage that we didnt' take full advantage of these opportunities.

4. My wife is AWESOME!!!

Yeah, so I'm not really gonna go into all the details, but suffice it to say that, "MY WIFE IS AWESOME!!!" I feel sorry for people who have "settled" in their marriages. & after a weekend like this, I'm glad that we didn't settle in our marriage a few years ago! I never knew that marriage could be this good. That's all I'm tellin' ya...

Just another bloggish thought,

Matt