Monday Morning Reflections

The saying holds true, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” (Sang in the 80s hair band style!) I really missed being together with our people when we had to cancel last week. This Saturday night’s “CORE” was AWESOME! What a great turnout for such an “iffy” weather night! We had well over 50 adults and 19 kiddos. It was so good to see people hanging out before and after the event. Jenny and I had made plans to take the Jackleys out to dinner after Brandon shared with our group and they were left there standing seemingly FOREVER because of everyone standing around talking. It reminds me of the “old days” that still happen quite regularly where we have to “run people out” of the church in order to lock up.

How about Brandon and Jill Jackley’s story of faith and expanding the Kingdom of God through chicken sandwiches!?! What came through, in my opinion, was their heartbeat for missions and evangelism. They actually got out of “ministry” in order to DO ministry and to “build a platform for sharing the gospel!” Wherever you are in life . . . that is your ministry field! How we need to hear that! We often think ministry happens, “out there” somewhere. It happens in our lives, everyday!

It is also quite inspiring to hear their huge amount of faith that is lived out daily. When he said, that they would pray “thank you Lord for providing for us TODAY.” . . . not “I can’t believe we are SO behind with our bills, etc.” I needed to hear that we walk by FAITH NOT BY SIGHT! Something he said to me afterwards that “he wished he had said” was awesome! “If you want God to do something big in your life, then do something big for God.” Like we have been talking about lately around here. . . looking foolish by the world’s standards so that God’s glory might be displayed for all to see!

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NIV)

It was also great to hear about the “J-curve” principle that he shared. We are at the point where we are getting ready to experience a major explosion of growth . . . we just need to be diligent about being ready for our guests. I will talk about that in my next post. Honestly, I feel like we need to do something HUGE for God. Something that no one, not even ourselves would understand or wrap our brain around. Who knows what God will do through a group of people totally sold out to a vision to reach THEIR WORLD for Christ!

To say the least, it was a GREAT weekend!

I am looking forward to the RETREAT this weekend! Don’t miss it!!