Courageous Leadership

Here's a quote from Bill Hybels, the pastor as Willow Creek Church in Chicago from his book Courageous Leadership.

"Because the Church, the Bride of Christ, upon which the eternal destiny of the world depends, will flourish or falter largely on the basis of how we lead."

What a responsibility. It all depends on how we lead...

Definitions

Integrity. What is it?

Authenticity. How do you show it?

Leadership. Can it be learned?

Song Sense

Here's a song that hit me really hard today...

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

(Chorus)
Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything I surrender...
To...

(Chorus)

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly
Something Heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time breathe in and let everything out


Thought you'd appreciate this.

Camp Memory 2

I'm back! So my next memory is also at Switch camp. I had to opportunity to answer a complex question one of my girls had about God--"How do you hear God?" It came up every night in our small group time, and I finally found a way to answer it on the last night. I told her to look around her. God doesn't always talk in an audible voice, but he speaks through the things around us. Sometime God speaks through others, and sometimes he even speaks through His word. You have to really train yourself to hear Him. After this talk, she told me she had been stuck on this for years and it was the one thing keeping her from committing her life to Christ (which was something she had done earlier that night).

How would you have answered? Have you ever heard God?

Camp Memory 1

First I have to say my team at Switch camp ROCKED!!! We came in first place and the leaders I was with were AMAZING!! The first best memory is the night my girls finally connected with God. I never knew God would use me to minister to girls that had problems I'll prob never have to deal with. Out of no where, God spoke through me. I don't have any idea what I said, but I do know it was exactly what they needed to hear. Girls whose parents are going through an almost divorce time; girls who never get to see their dad; girls who struggle with image issues. They were amazed at how much God really loves them and how often He shows it.

Have you ever experienced this? Has someone ever spoken directly to you without actually speaking to you? Has God ever spoke through you?

Ponder this...

Here's a quote to think about before I get to camp memories on Monday.

"A leader is only as good as the people he can influence and the following he can make."

What do you think?

Home...after 10 days

I finally made it back home from Camp WOW. It was a great 10 days and after getting some rest, I'd go back in a heart beat. My Switch group was so incredible. I was really worried my girls wouldn't search their heart, but after much prayer, God broke them. And it was amazing to watch my girls that I love so dearly just let God break their hearts and speak through me. I hadn't experienced most of what they are going through, but God enabled me to minister to them. I got to answer so many questions about their faith--that is what I was created to do. LifeKIDS camp was amazing as usual. God has blessed them with an incredible team of people. And going as a leader is SOOOOO much better than a student. :) staying up talking to leaders all night...amazing! God's at work in so many people, it just blows my mind to think what He's doing!! Thanks for all your prayers. I'm trying to rest up (and I'm looking forward to a nice shower). I'll share some of my favorite moments in the next few posts.

Off to CAMP!!

So for the next week I will be at Camp WOW for Summer Switch and Rated Arrgh!! I'm so excited to be a leader. Pray that God works wonders and the kids hearts will be open. I thought I'd leave you some of my favorite posts to read while I'm gone.


In the Grip of Grace

The Curse Behind the Gifts

Children of...

Faithfulness

Well there you go! Leave me comments on this post to read when I get back!

Isaiah

I've started reading Isaiah in my quiet time recently. I haven't read the prophet books yet, so I thought this would be a good time to dive into them. So I'm gonna share some verses that stuck out to me.

Isaiah 4:2, 4-6

2 In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 4 The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. 5 Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

We walk through fire and judgement so we can be purified and become beautiful like Christ. In teh end He will protect us from everything that comes against us in the world. We will not be harmed by the storms in our lives. We will not melt under the heat of wrong or foolish decisions. Christ loves us, and He loves us enough to let us stay in our mistakes.

What do you think?? I don't even know if this makes sense, but it just stood out to me.

(thanks to my mom, I got to blog!! She let me borrow her computer, but my dad said he could fix mine!)

Poor Computer

My computer has been out-of-comission for about 4 days now...but as soon as we get it fixed or I get a new one, blogging will prob be on hold. :( pray it will come back soon! I'm leaving for camp on Wednesday and I'll be back the following Thursday...look for some new stuff then!!

Thoughts from the Weekend

"How gracious (the LORD) will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of afflictions your teachers will be hidden no morel with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Isaiah 31:19-21

PERSEVERANCE

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kind, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

WHATEVER IT TAKES

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

BROKENNESS

"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalms 32:7

BLESSINGS

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." Ephesians 3:20




Where are you??

Spiderman??

Here's a post on Stuff Christians Like that was pretty funny! Craig even made the list. We heard from a few of these guys throughout One Prayer. Go check it out. It'll have you laughing for sure!!

Remain by Starfield

Defender of this heart
You loved me from the start
You never change
Through the highs and lows
As seasons come and go
You never fail
Day after day
Your love will remain
Faithful and true
You are good

Chorus
You are God with us
You're victorious
You are strong and mighty to save
For Your word stands true
There is none like You
And when all else fades
You remain

When troubles come my way
You guide and You sustain
Lead me, I pray
Forever You will be
The great eternal King
Now and always
Day after day
Your love will remain
Faithful and true
You are good, you are good

Chorus
When all else fades
You remain

You remain
Cause' day after day
You never change
Day after day
You are the same
Day after day
You remain

This is a song Stephen sang a couple weeks ago at OKC. God never leaves our side. When all else fades He remains. His love is consistent and unending. His word stands true for everything in our life. Go listen to the song. You'll stop everything just to lift your hands in worship.

Trash

This was a crazy weekend for sure! But so much fun! I didn't make it to Get Smart, but I did set off some fireworks and hung out with my Europe buds! The micro mission was so much fun and I think we might have even made it on TV!! I ended up picking up trash and pulling weeds for most of the day. Here's a "spiritual revelation" I came up with as Mer and I picked up some trash....

"First I chose to be on the weed pulling team. With my dad's garden and flowers, I had some experience with this. But like usual, God likes to mess with my plans a little bit. So I switched to the trash team! It didn't look like there was any trash, so I figured we'd be done fairly quickly. Mer and I headed to the back of the school to pick up the trash. The closer we looked, the more trash we saw. We ended up filling almost half a bag of trash."

It reminded me of how sometimes things (or people) can seem so perfect on the outside, but the closer you get, the more dirt and "trash" you see in and around their lives. Sometimes, I think, it really makes us (at least me) run from imperfection if we're expecting that person or situation to be perfect.

Don't really have any challenges or anything, just wanted to throw that out there. Hope you understood it!

Updated Blogroll and Weekend Plans

I decided to finally update my blogroll. So here are some new blogs I read...

Stuff White People Like--I know it sounds odd...but it's hilarious!!

Michelle Wyatt

Nick Frary

Stuff Christians Like--just as HILARIOUS as Stuff White People Like

Jessica Waszak--a new found friend with a crazy story! and incredible insight

Mansour Journey--Katie and Alexander's journey to the Holy Land and beyond (you'll learn a lot)

Gina McLain--someone who took a chance on me (she's got some interesting question)

Erica Buchanan

Alex Lange--just started his blog (i'm sure he'll bring up some great insight...already does)

Alec Warn--just started his blog too


Go check some of them out. They're good! This is quite a busy weekend--tomorrow is worship night at Victory before the OnePrayer Missions on Saturday. After that, I'm going to hang out with the Evans family to watch CAMP ROCK!!! Saturday is the Micro Mission and church Saturday night. Sunday is a day full of church then I have a camp meeting at 1. After, I think I might hit up the movies for Get Smart. Then Sunday night we're having a ONE YEAR EUROTRAIN REUNION!! I can't wait.

Any cool plans? Will you take part in a One Prayer Micro Mission Saturday?

The Curse Behind the Gifts

Recently I've struggled a lot with being judgmental and condemning towards people, not intentionally, but that's just how my words and attitudes have appeared. And despite all the warnings from my mentor and the signs my friends have given the past few months, I continued to deliver my words in this manner...so it got me thinking. My parents told me one time about a sermon they had heard about the downside to spiritual gifts. I was looking through our cabinets for a spiritual gift test and i ran across one that had the benefits and pitfalls of gifts. Here are my pitfalls...

1) Discernment--temptation to always be right; easy to trust in personal judgment and not consult God
2) Teaching--tell what people want to hear, not what's truth; legalistic or overly dogmatic
3) Knowledge--ability to "puff up"; prideful; overbearing; insensitive to other people's opinions
4) Prophecy--easy to be pharisaical; negative; judgmental
5) Wisdom--temptation to just use human wisdom; stop listening; prideful

Well, that just clears a whole lot up-not that I'm making up excuses, but at least the last few months make a little more sense. I am believing God is more powerful than any of my "pitfalls." And someday I will manage these gifts with perfection, but for now, I'm truly sorry.

What are your gifts? Have you ever experienced their pitfalls?

Looking for the Good Stuff

I'm currently (almost finished) reading First Break all the Rules as an assignment from Allyson, and I stumbled across this quote, and who knew it would be so perfect for today!

"I deliberately look for something to like about each of my people. In one, I might like his sense of humor. In another, I might like the way he talks about hsi kids. In another, I'll enjoy her patience, or the way she handles pressure. Of course, there's a bunch of stuff about each of them that can get on my nerves. If I'm not deliberate about looking for what I like, the bad stuff might start coming to mind first."


Are you looking for good in everyone, even if you aren't on good terms? If not, try for a day to see how your life is different when you look for a little bit of good in everyone. You'd be surprised at what you find.

Just what I needed

So I went to Edmond tonight to attend the experience (if you missed church, def make time to see it!) and as I was leaving, a staff member stopped me and thanked me for coming. At first, I thought well sure, this is still my home church, but as he continued to speak, he made me tear up. He told me that just seeing me there made him want to worship God more. He was tired from the other experiences and he said just seeing me engage in worship affirmed that he could do the one last experience. (I was in need of some genuine encouragement today).
Friday I hung out with Jessica for about 6 hours...again, just what I needed. I love my friends dearly and thank God for them daily, but I was at the point where just being around them was pulling me down. Right after my mentor suggested I spend some time with some other people my age, Jessica called me (how crazy is that!?!?!)

Needless to say, my God takes care of me. He shows me daily how much He loves me. What more can I do, but love Him back! With that, I close my weekend with a smile (which was very much needed).

How did He show you how He loves you this weekend? How does He do it daily?

Gotta love HIM!!!

You might have grown up in tornado alley if...

The first thing you do if you hear tornado sirens during the day is check your watch to see if it's noon.

You don't get worried unless the sky looks "green".

You might go indoors when there's a tornado, but you won't "seek shelter" for anything less than an F3.

You know what Doppler radar, Hook echo, wall cloud, and rain-wrapped all mean.

You've never exactly memorized the tornado precautions, but you've heard them enough times that you know them by heart anyway.

Watching the weather is entertaining. And red on the Doppler radar is exciting.

The phrase "Tornado on the ground, take your immediate tornado precautions" sends exciting shivers up your spine.

You've seen photos/videos of tornados and said, "Wow, that's a nice one!"

You can feel/smell tornado weather brewing a few hours before the storm actually begins.

There's an odd feeling as though you've misplaced something if you make it all the way to June without a tornado warning near you.

You think people that live in earthquake and/or hurricane prone areas are crazy.

You know what people are talking about when they mention the "May 3rd/Moore" tornado and the "Greensburg/May4th" tornado.

You watch the movie "Twister" just so you can point out all the inaccuracies in it.

You know your weathermen by their first names. i.e. Gary.

When you hear the tornado sirens go off, you go outside to watch the storm and take pictures.

Most of the tornado video footage comes from everyday people with camcorders instead of from actual news/weathermen.

You're sure there's a giant tornado magnet hidden somewhere in Moore. And that there are smaller ones distributed throughout trailer parks.

You know that the four seasons are actually: summer, late summer, winter (if you're lucky), and tornado.

You don't consider it windy until the windspeed is faster than 30mph.

You are highly entertained by people from outside tornado alley when there is a tornado watch.

You learned that some other states don't have tornado drills from this list.

There's enough random stuff in your tornado shelter that you could live there for a year.

You stand under your carport or open your front door to watch hail and/or thunderstorms.

You know the difference between a basement, a cellar, and a storm shelter.

The weather is a completely acceptable subject for conversation, at any time, for any occasion.

Your local mall has "tornado shelter" signs posted.

It doesn't bother you the next day to find out that your area was under a tornado watch the night before and you had no idea. Unless, of course, it caused you to miss some interesting cloud formations.

Getting to "play" in the basement/cellar/storm shelter numbers among your favorite childhood memories.

You keep matches, candles, and candleholders in more than one place in your house.

Your town will never get hit by a tornado because you're between two rivers or because an old Indian legend says so.

You complain about severe weather reports that interrupt the TV show you're watching.

You can get together all your most important possessions in 2 minutes flat.

When tornado sirens woke you up in the middle of the night...you rolled over and went back to sleep.

You've ever tried to reassure someone by saying that "if anything forms it will only be a little tornado"...and couldn't understand why this didn't calm them down any.

It's normal for your area to be under a tornado watch for multiple days in a row.

When looking at houses/buildings you give them a "tornado survival ranking". i.e., how big of a tornado it would take to destroy it. Also, if you are in a new building or house, you evaluate in your mind the best place to take shelter.

You've ever asked (probably w/ disdain) "Don't they know the difference between a warning and a watch?"

You know what towns/cities a tornado normally passes through before coming your way.

From watching radar maps, you've heard of almost every small town in your state. And you know what towns are around them, but you have no idea where in the state they are.

You laughed at everything in this list, but you also respect a tornado's power. And you know that after it's over, clean-up and re-building has to begin.

Well, looks like I grew up in tornado alley :) did you? would you add anything to the list?

Full Weekend

My week was so crazy last week, so I wasn't able to blog. I was gone almost every night with something. And the weekend didn't slow it down: Fri-Toon Town training, Sat-Wendy's 17th birthday party and Nick's wedding! then Caroline's Graduation party, Sun-church and LIFESTOCK!! Needless to say, I was exhausted this morning. Last week I finished one of my books of "summer reading" and it reminded me of something I blogged about earlier this year...

"I once took a little dog through a course in obedience school. One of the lessons he had to learn was to respond to my voice only. There were forty-nine other dogs and their masters in the circle, adn commands were given by more than one person at a time. Each dog had to distinguish, out of all hte noise, the one voice that called to him. so do we who are trainees in God's obedience school. We learn to love the sound of His voice, and our obedience to Him, in matters large and small, changes us into His image, "from glory to glory" (2Cor 3:18). That is a promise."
--Be Still My Soul, by Elisabeth Elliot


Are you listening to His voice among the other sounds calling out to you? Are you being obedient?