Listen...

"What matters supremely, therefore, is not the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, One who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters...there is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me." J.I. Packer in Knowing God As I craft and work through what drives my life, I must listen more to what God's Word says about me and who I am to God than what others say, the culture says, and especially what I say...I must listen...not tell, try, react, reach, or talk...I must listen...

On being an effective church...

"Effective congregations are led by pastors and leaders who are clear about their mission and focused on achieving a vision. They are healthy, growing, committed to reproduction and open to changes that will move them from one level of effectiveness to the next." (Paul Borden in Direct Hit). As I wait for the team to arrive from CO, I'm excited about this- listening to God together for the vision and mission He wants us to have at United Church. Yes and YES!

How is my thinking?...

Philippians 4:8 - "finally, friends, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, DO these things." Right??? NOPE - ...THINK on these things...what I think about determines my attitudes about things, which determines my behaviors...I must think properly about the church, about followership, about God's will...reframe my thinking in light of this: Jesus Christ and His church is the hope of the world. Not what I like about church, not what I like about the music, not what I dislike about _________________, etc. Christ and His Kingdom is what it's about. And what was Christ most concerned with when He was here? Doing His Father's will by finding the lost ones...I must become as concerned about the lost things in Luke 15 as Jesus is...more concerned with the lost things then with me and what I want...

Winning...

I really do hate to lose...and bowling with my CECL pastor's team tonight proved it- one of my many negatives is that I'm ULTRA-competitive in nature- don't ask my kids about Monopoly!!! One of the top 12 strategies for pastors given today by Mike Holba was that we are in kingdom work "not just to participate, but to win." At first, I was like "Yeah!" and then I was like "Huh?!" and thn I was like "Ohhhhhh..." (all in the span of about 5 seconds) when he said next "and winning is doing God's will." So the question for me is "Am I doing today what God wants done?" and tomorrow it's the same question, and the day after that, etc...THAT'S when I am winning...that's when United is winning...that's when my family is winning...when we are doing God's heart with ALL of our heart.

Would we be missed?

If our church was gone next week, would our community miss it? Are we mor about helping them than getting them inp our building? Questions that we will be discussing over the next couple days...we I'll be visiting a local church in a small town that does a coffee shop, thrift store, and food pantry that is really making a difference...

Going back to school...

Yes, I'm headed back to class - and really looking forward to it!! I'll be at Green Lake Conference Center for the Center for Excellence in Congregational Leadership (CECL) this week- and then will be joined by a team from United Church on Friday! Flew out of Denver last night, and had the most delightful thing happen: a staff member from my former church (Oakwood Church in Hartland, WI) was sitting in the plane as well! Elizabeth Cole and I had an excellent time catching up, talking about family, ministry, and God- it was SWEET!!!Great way to kick off the trip...looking forward to how God is going to continue to show Himself in the next few days to help me be the pastor at United He wants me to be! I'll keep posting throughout my class various thoughts and ramblings- feel free to comment below, or just ignore! All I know is this: it's sunny, green, and cool- welcome back to WI :)

a new step begins...

Yesterday was a momentous day for this old boy...a unanimous vote from the United Church of Crook, CO gives me the awe-some and awesome position of their senior pastor.  This church wants to make an impact in Logan County, and wants to see God build men and women for the ministry to which He has called them.  I'm REALLY excited to work with them to make that vision a reality.  God is at work.  I will trust in His power and His Word to see His will done in His people for His glory til He comes back. Yes and YES!

what the future holds...

"Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track." Proverbs 3:5-6 Msg

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matt. 6:33-34 Msg

 These verses are such great reminders of who holds the future, and how I am to respond to the anxiety that rises within me...As the Pierce family looks forward (?!) to an exciting new (yet fairly unknown and definitely different) future, these truths MUST be held on to...selling a house, when to move, where to move, what questions to ask, schooling, distance, new friends, missing old friends, finances, new church dynamics, etc...but, I (and we) MUST 'cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you' (1 Peter 5:7).  So may this, in the days and months to come, be the default of my heart.

Sticky teams are the glue...

Osborne's book "Sticky Teams" is such a great resource for building and creating the right kind of leadership teams - I really need to follow MUCH of what he is saying - love the thoughts about meeting in homes, gotta work through the thoughts about having more meetings (cause it builds relationships, but how do we value people's time???...) So far, this book is a MUST read...

why are things easier to tear down than build???

I was taking down the bridge from our Easter service today...took about an hour to take apart what took at least 15 hours to build last week...watched "Extreme Home Make-over" on Sunday night - took down a house in under a day...watched the rude comment said to someone damage a fresh relationship...it takes an afternoon to unload the moving truck when it took WEEKS to pack up...what is it about this tear down principle, both emotionally and practically?  Jen put me up to this thought when she said "that's probably a good idea for a Fresh Start article (a women's devotional that goes out regularly at Oakwood)." She's RIGHT, so I won't unpack it a lot here - I'll let her do it in her SUPER capable way...just food for thought on a rainy day in WI...