This is the last post for my blog at this domain. After 5 years of blogging at this domain, I have started a new blog at douggamble.org to kick off a new season of life. The new blog will hopefully help me focus more on content and less on management of a blog. I kick off the new blog talking about my announcement yesterday to plant a new church in Oklahoma City. While it is hard to leave friends and an amazing church God has certainly confirmed that he is calling us to bring a fresh expression of faith to the OKC area. Hope you will check out the new blog and stay up to date on the new adventure God has for us.
Archive by Author
The Ultimate Confidence Booster
I recently read Tim Sander’s Today We Are Rich. It was a fantastic read that falls into the category of must read. Essentially Sanders teaches a few “life-giving” habits that help produce confidence. The simple premise is that there is a connection between confidence and achievement. Multiple studies have shown this to be true.
If you are interested you can check out my highlights from the book here.
Good stuff but there is one missing ingredient that every Christ-follower must never forget. It’s the ultimate confidence boosting habit every single one of us needs. Here it is from Acts 4:13.
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
The ultimate confidence booster is not “thinking” your way to success but “being” your way to success. Being with Jesus is the single most important thing each of us can do to really be confident. The reason this was so vital to Peter and John’s confidence and the reason it is key to ours is ultimately our confidence isn’t based on what we “think” we can do but what we “know in faith” that God can do.
If you haven’t yet spent some time with Jesus today, why don’t you do it now?
Side note: Our church has produced a guide to help us actively listen to God more. You can check it out here.
Sold or bought?, church edition
Seth Godin had an interesting post yesterday about thinking of your product in terms of “bought” or “sold.” You can read it here to get the context.
It made me wonder how this could apply to churches. For so long churches have operated (and many still do) under the assumption that a church is like a bottle of water. People want to be a part of one and they will go find one. They will sort through the options to find one that works best for them. While this may have been true at one time, it is no longer reality by and large. People who are not already Christian are simply not looking for a church. We can’t continue to think like we have.
Instead I do believe we have to think like the “sold” products that Godin talks about…but maybe not with the same application. As church leaders we do have to show the relevancy of our churches. We do have to help people see that churches offer something they can’t find somewhere else. Unless we do this we will not reach people.
The difference between selling a car and inviting someone to be a part of our church though is huge. Sure we may need to use marketing to get the word out but the best way to let people know about our church (really about helping people to see how they can connect to life in Christ) is through our lives. We are walking billboards to our faith.
But we dare not assume that display is enough. Often it is not. We need also to take the next step and be intentional about engaging with others.
Engage them with acts of kindness and grace.
Engage them in conversation centered around faith.
Engage them with love.
No we are not really selling anything. But we have to remember that unless we are intentionally inviting others to taste and see that the Lord is good, they simply won’t.
What if Jesus had not come?
We’re asking the question “What if Jesus had not come?” in our new message series at suncrest.org.
If Jesus had not come the world would be dramatically different. Sunday’s message by Greg contained an overwhelming amount of information that shows how our lives today would be different. It is just simply true that Jesus has changed the world. From hospitals to educational institutions to humanitarian organizations, Jesus has literally left his fingerprints everywhere.
And we are his hands and feet.
It is Jesus’ followers throughout the ages who have taken His mission seriously who have shaped this world. They recognized that Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve and so they followed suit. And as they worked to spread His message of grace and truth they made the world a better place because they followed in HIs footsteps.
Their example really forces a question: How am I following in His footsteps? How am I bringing grace and truth to my world? How am I helping to bring Heaven to earth?
This could mean getting involved in a local organization that is meeting needs. It could mean sponsoring a child through Compassion International (compassion.org). It could mean inviting a neighbor over for Christmas because you know they will be alone.
What you do is really dependent on who you are. God has created you with unique strengths, skills and interests. Consider them as you seek out places you can help leave the fingerprint of Jesus. Most importantly do something. Don’t wait for the perfect thing. Do the next thing that you can do.
Every once and awhile you get something that makes your day
That happened to me the other day. Here is what the note said:
“Recently, I believe I was given a life lesson by god and then was shown your church because I prayed for a place to go (quite a few stories that I am wrapping into a few sentences). I really want a place for my kids to learn and grow, as well as myself. I am working on my husband, but he is still “missing”, but not lost right.”
This one note made my day, but not just because she said Suncrest was an answer to her prayer although that is certainly a part of it. It also made my day because she referred to her husband as “missing.” That is from a message I gave back in August. God used something I said to shape how she viewed those who are apart from Christ and it encouraged her.
I don’t know about you but it helps to know occasionally that your words matter…what you do matters…that something you spend hours developing isn’t meaningless chatter to someone.
Thanks for that one God.
Let me unpack that for you
Just something fun today without much point.
We all have “insider lingo” for the tribes we run with. NO, not the loin cloth wearing tribe variety but the people you associate yourself with the most. The group whom you believe you are a part. No matter what group you belong to there is insider lingo.
On Saturday my Daughter had a Swim meet. It was at this meet that I learned the all to famous abbreviation for “Disqualified.” I heard someone talking about how their daughter “dq’d.” I thought I could really go for some Dairy Queen myself, but then I found out she was talking about her daughter being disqualified from an event because she didn’t touch with both hands at the turnaround.
Churches have insider lingo.
It could relate to the name. I saw a church named “Stone Mill Church” referring to themselves as “the stone.” I wonder if anyone besides those who goes there knew what they were talking about.
Growing up I would hear about the “narthex.” I always thought there was a breakout of some kind of virus until I realized they were talking about the lobby.
Even leaders in churches have their own special language. One that I have heard a lot in recent times is “process.” Usually it is used in a sentence like this:
“I need to process that so let me get back to you.”
I usually translate that to mean I don’t’ want to give you an answer right now so let me delay it. Apparently “think” isn’t an acceptable word anymore to say you really need some time to think about it.
By far though my very favorite word that teacher/preacher types use is the word “unpack.” I used to use it before my wife broke me of that habit by mocking me relentlessly. Apparently no one but us preacher/teacher types think we are cool by using it. Usually it comes out like this:
“Let me unpack this passage for you.”
Apparently God packed the Bible like a suitcase.
I’m sure the very first person who used it thought it was a descriptive way to talk about explaining a Scripture passage. But it’s so overused now it is comical to me. I see it everywhere and it makes me think we preacher/teachers need to find a new word. Maybe we should just be direct in what we are saying. “I’m going to tell you what I think this passage is saying” and leave it at that.
Weakness Based Leadership, part deux
I posted yesterday some material that has been really helpful to me from Dan Allender. The starting place for true transformational impact is weakness and brokenness. I totally think we can do some good with our strengths. I just think God can do even more good through our weakness.
Here’s how I see this working out in equation form:
My strength + God = my glory and limited impact
This is how the best of us want life to work. We want to work from a place of strength and giftedness AND certainly include God in that picture. We want Him to bless our efforts and plans and then thank Him for helping us. And no doubt He does. But the result is that we really get the honor and the impact of our effort is very limited. We do some good, but it doesn’t last.
I think it should really work like this:
My weakness + God’s strength = God’s glory and exponential impact
In brokenness we seek God and God goes to work in and through us to accomplish something we could have never done on our own AND He gets the glory AND the impact is unlimited.
Weakness Based Leadership
This is mostly repeating content from someplace else but it is so good I felt it was worthy to post here. I’m talking this Sunday on the power of brokenness. It’s a part of the upside down nature of the Gospel. Our weakness and brokenness is the pathway for God’s strength. I like how Dan Allendar says it in Leading with a Limp:
“A leader will trust in the goodness of God only to the degree that he has a history of brokenness and surrender.”
I’ve certainly seen the truth of that in my life. It’s the times that I have been broken that I’ve been able to experience God’s healing. It’s the times I admit my weakness that I see God’s strength. Here are four realities Dan says we have to embrace if we want to experience God working through our weakness:
1. I am never sufficiently good, wise, or gifted enough to make things work. I guess Stuart Smalley was wrong.
2. My failures will harm others, the process, and myself, no matter how hard I try to avoid failure.
3. The greatest harm I can do is to try to limit the damage I cause by not participating, by quitting, or by pushing for control.
4. Calling out for help from God and others is the deepest confession of humility.
It’s the starting point of true transformation and impact in our lives.
Faith is Risky Business
Dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. —Søren Kierkegaard
I’ve been thinking a lot about risk lately. We live in a risk-adverse culture. We live in a society where you can buy insurance to protect your insurance! We don’t like risk and yet risk can be so good for us.
Think about it. When we risk something good for something better, we grow. Regardless of the outcome…regardless of whether we fail or succeed we learn something and we change.
Now I’m not talking about needless change or gambling your life’s savings or even extreme sports. I’m talking about getting out of our comfort zone guided by faith and risking something for the sake of our faith.
It seems as we grow older we lose this since of hunger for risk. Maybe it was just me, but did you ever climb up on your roof to jump off? I did. And I got in trouble every time! Yet, the reward of being able to say in my little 10 year old mind “I did it” was worth every consequence.
I’ve noticed in my own life that if I am not practicing what I want to call the spiritual discipline of risk every once and awhile I grow stale and complacent. Risk by it’s very nature is a catalyst for growth.
Jesus said, “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it (Luke 9:24.)” Faith itself is a risky adventure. Faith is about risk. You risk your life for the sake of “greater reward.” I love how Hebrews describes some heroes of faith who risked it all because of their faith.
“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (Hebrews 38-40).”
The greater reward didn’t come on earth. It came later. The risk paid off, but not immediately.
When I think about risks I’ve made they look like…
- every move we’ve made to a new church;
- planting a campus;
- moving our campus to a building we remodeled;
- even having 5 kids!
- almost walking away but turning back to a barista I know nominally and inviting them to our comedy show;
- having a tough conversation I really don’t want to have.
Risks can look different. Some are bigger than others. The key is that in faith you step out and trust. On the other side of risk you find you are not the same person. You’ve grown. You trust God more.
How do you feel about risk?
Leaders are +
Last night I was reminded of a really important leadership lesson: leaders are positive.
At one of our quarterly leaders gathering, Greg had to communicate some tough information. It was not fun. It was not pretty. But he did it with vision, hope and positivity. Afterwards we gathered as campuses. I expected that I would need to continue in that same vein to effectively cast a vision for the next year and inspire our leaders to rise to the challenge.
I was wrong.
Why?
Because they were so positive about the future they didn’t need my motivation or inspiration. They were already there. They were hyped about what God was doing already and what they were anticipating he was going to do in the next season.
It reminded me that leaders don’t give into the temptation to grow negative. Sure, we all have our moments. But a leader is able to step out of the negativity and see the “what can be.” So here’s a few things that have helped me stay “positive” even when the going gets tough:
1. Ask, “How does God look at this situation?” His perspective is always the best and always the one filled with hope.
2. Focus on what you CAN do. Don’t focus on what you can’t do.
3. Get all your concerns and negative thoughts/feelings down on paper (or on screen) so you can really process them. Sometimes just the act of writing down what is causing negativity can help you see that it is not as bad as you think.
4. Pray for a positive attitude.
5. Exercise. Physical exertion alone is often a release for negative feelings and thoughts.
There’s more. What do you do to stay positive?
