Take Two

We reached 10,000 hits in nine short months.  Thanks to everyone who visits here.  Hopefully, it adds something interesting, or humorous (or pitiful) to your day.

I was on a conference call the other night with Ambit Energy and a statement was made that really stuck with me. The speaker, who has made a tremendous amount of money as well as built several successful organizations, said that “good followship makes for great leadership”. The nutshell of his thought was that you can’t be a leader if you don’t know how to follow. Jesus, in his interaction with the Roman Centurion, has this principal emphasized. Jesus offers to go to the Centurion’s house to heal his servant and the Centurion tells Him that he also is a man “under authority”. He did not say he had authority but that he was under authority. The implied statement here was that whatever the centurion said was backed by the full might of the Roman Empire. The Centurion also understood that whatever Jesus said was backed by all of Heaven in that He was sent by and in fact was God. The authority however, was based on the ability to submit to a higher authority.

This brings me back to the statement from the call- good followship makes for great leadership. I have worked with a number of great leaders both in business and the ministry and I can say that every single one of them were great followers. They had to learn how to place themselves in submission to another and, by doing so, made the one that they were following greater. This behavior propagates itself among the followers who become leaders in their own right. But the recurring theme was that leaders must know how to first follow. As I mentioned in this post, it was only when I learned to follow that I again began to lead. It’s a fascinating principal.

Anyhow, that’s a random thought for Friday. Outreach tomorrow and then the first extension service on Sunday. Stay tuned!

This Sunday we are beginning our first Sunday School extension. I am very excited to be a part of this. The extension is actually part of our Food Bank ministry. The apartment complex we are going to is federally subsidized and therefore all of the residents are eligible for the Food Bank. The complex has 156 units and having children is a requirement to live there.

Our plan is to serve breakfast to whomever shows up and then transition into Sunday School. The goal is to develop the habit of attending church every Sunday morning so that after 12 weeks we can transfer those from the extension to the main church. Ideally, you would then start over again. We are having outreach at the apartments this Saturday and will be hanging fliers and other information on every unit. I’m really excited at the possibilities.

One other goal of the next twelve weeks is to hone the process so that it can be expanded as a way to start preaching points and daughter works. This is, after all, what Jesus would do. He didn’t sit in the synagogue and wait for folks to show up. He went out to the people; preaching to them where they were at and ministering to them in their locality. The Great Commission is go, teach, and baptize. It is not build it and they will come.

Having said all of that, I really feel like I have clear direction at this point with regard for this ministry. After I returned to Mount Vernon, I kind of wandered in the wilderness for a number of months sans direction. It appears now that God was doing some tune-up work on me so that He could use me more effectively. And I’m still playing the drums when I’m at the main church. 

Keep our efforts in prayer. Over the next 12 months, I would like to see as many as five or six extensions started- including one in the city where we hope to end up. I’ll keep you updated in this space as we progress.

Tonight’s blog post is brought to you from beautiful Olean, New York where it’s 30 degrees and spitting snow.  The drive here was no fun as I have a splitting sinus headache.  The good news is in upstate New York (as opposed to NYC) you can go to Wal-Mart and get Sudafed.  You can go to Duane Reade in NYC and pay significantly more than at Wal-Mart.  Anyway, I’m enjoying being up here (now that I’m sufficiently medicated).

One other difference in upstate New York versus the city- I am staying at the Country Inn and Suites in Olean and have an enormous room with two beds, free internet, free parking, free coffee and pastries/cookies 24/7 and free breakfast.  This costs me (read: our client) roughly one third of what I paid at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan a few weeks ago with free nothing.  Anyhow, as much as I like NYC, I am much more comfortable in venues like this.

Speaking of NYC, I am heading back on December 19 to tie up some loose ends before the end of the year.  As a Christmas present, Becky is coming with me for the day.  I am amazed she hasn’t blogged about it yet.  We are flying out very early and coming back late that night but we should have time to hit midtown and Times Square and the touristy things.  Also, the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree will be up so that will be fun.

One food note- I had a great steak dinner at the Beef and Barrel Restaurant tonight.  Very homey and small town.  It’s in the downtown of Olean which is decorated and looks really great.  For dessert, I had apple pie made with local Western New York apples and topped with local sharp cheddar cheese.  Yummy.

I’ll have a post about our Sunday School extension tomorrow.  Stay warm.

From the New York Times tech blog, this post advising us to disconnect a little over Thanksgiving.  I will confess, I did check my Blackberry once and have it on now (it is my main calendar) but it’s always a good idea to take some time and unplug from work.  Charity will read this and ask me to take my own advice.  I can already hear it.

Michael, Gabrielle and Emily

Originally uploaded by ryaninmtv

Yesterday was th Christmas parade in Mount Vernon. Our church had a float which promoted our upcoming children’s Christmas musical. Michael plays Billy the Goat and Gabrielle is in the choir. She wore a donkey costume yesterday (no editorial comment please) and they had a really good time. Charity, Becky, and I, along with a number of adults (including our own fearless Brother LJ) walked along side and passed out flier for the musical and candy. The most difficult part was avoiding the horse in front of us that seemed to be in some gastrointestinal distress. We had a great time, passed out thousands of fliers and will hopefully make a great impact on our community.

The Sunday School extension starts next week. I’ll have some thoughts on that a little later in the week. I am going to upstate New York on Tuesday and Wednesday for work and may take a few pictures while I’m there. Have a blessed Sunday.

Who knew?  Jesus has his own laundry service in Texas.

HT: Mark Roberts (newly re-located to Texas)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends and readers.  We have so much to be thankful for this year.  Our family, church, and businesses have been blessed.  We have our health.  I truly am grateful for where God has placed me.

I had the opportunity to lead our Thanksgiving service at church on Tuesday.  It is a time where everyone gets the opportunity to testify about what they are thankful for.  This service can be like herding cats but this year was quite good.  Again, I have so much to be thankful for.  As a side note, our services are now archived online.  Go to the church web site and then to Photo and Video and click on online services.

Have a great Thanksgiving and, as my pastor says, remember to stop one bite short of gluttony.

I had some reservations about this post but in the end decided to put it out there. If you’re interested, that’s great. If not, don’t worry, I’ll have more interesting stuff at a later point. But I was excited that the opportunity was presented to me and so, for what it’s worth, I’m going to throw it out to my readers.

As I mentioned in this post, I had a meeting with another Pentecostal pastor while I was in New York who was doing a business presentation. I really didn’t pay that much attention at the time because I was scheduled to preach that night and was focused on that. After I got done preaching and got back to my hotel, I started doing some research on the internet about his business proposal. I liked what I saw.

Let me insert this observation- I don’t believe in chance. Things happen in our lives for a reason whether we know at the time of the occurrence or not what that reason is. I believe that God arranged this meeting in New York because He cares about our business (and so do you based on the comments in that post) and so I made some inquiries and decided to go forward. Starting yesterday, I am working as a Marketing Consultant with Ambit Energy, LP of Dallas, Texas.

I believe the business is so incredible that I had to write a post on it. The deregulation of energy, both electric and gas, will be one of the greatest opportunities of the next fifty years. There is tremendous potential and I wanted to be a part of it. If you are interested in Ambit Energy click here. If you think this may be an interesting business opportunity click here. If you live in Texas or Metro New York City (the five boroughs plus Westchester County), at least take a look and see if you can save money on your electric bill. Ambit is also starting natural gas service in the Chicagoland area of Illinois on December 1, 2007. They will be expanding to Maryland, Michigan, and Ohio in the first quarter of 2008. I’m looking forward to signing up myself once service is available in Ohio.

I thought long and hard (and prayerfully) prior to entering into this business arrangement. The group I am working with has a large number of pastors and ministers and their integrity has been first rate throughout my due diligence. I could not be happier or prouder to work with these brethren.

Again, if you want to check Ambit’s rates versus your carrier you can click here or, if the business interests you click here. I have also placed permanent business links (along with my other day job) in the sidebar. As always, you can leave a note in the comments or shoot me an email if you have any questions.

Thanks for your time. Thus endeth the commercial.

And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mark 9:35 (KJV)

Do you ever wonder why you are, where you are at this moment? Whether you are happy or fulfilled (or not), do you ever question what reason or purpose God has for you where you are at right now? I had a bit of an epiphany this weekend regarding this very thought. Allow me to share-

As most of you know, I am an ordained minister, a member of a General Board of the UPCI, now a member of an Executive Board of the UPCI and in my local assembly…

… I am the drummer.

This had bothered me at length until about two weeks ago when I found myself in a pattern whenever I was speaking with my pastor. Every time he asked me to do something, my answer was the same; “whatever you need”. I wasn’t being sarcastic or smarmy (those of you who know me know I have great capacity for both) but I genuinely wanted to serve my pastor in whatever capacity I could. I was learning to become a servant (novel idea, I know).

We are starting a Sunday School extension at a housing project in Mount Vernon in December. Yesterday, my pastor asked if I would help lead this effort. Again, I said “whatever you need” (FYI-I’m still the drummer on Sunday nights). Harold Hoffman once said that if you wanted to know if you had a servant’s heart, judge how you feel when someone treats you like one. That’s been a very profound lesson for me over the last several months.

Here’s my point- I am grateful for the leadership positions that I’m in. I get to meet a lot of great people and serve in an area that I am passionate about. But if they all went away tomorrow, I feel certain that I could be just as happy serving my local church in whatever capacity was necessary. I have prayed that I want to be more like Jesus. Maybe Jesus is seeing if I’m serious.