Church Planting Boot Camp: Day 2

Im so tired... but its all been worth it.
It took me 4 hours to get to Houston from Dallas, but it was 4 hours of dreaming, some phone calls, listening to John Piper and dreaming some more... I actually dozed off a couple of times on the road.. Not good.

Before I go to bed, let me leave you with the experience that I enjoyed so much today.
As you all know, I have been learning some amaing things at an Acts29 Church Planting Boot Camp in Dallas, Tx.

Well, here we go.
We started out with JR Vassar telling us to go deep with the Sabbath rest.
Ministry will disorient you at times, thats why you need to Sabbath.
Disconnect from TV, myspace, facebook, email, blogs at least one day a week. Huh? Yea, that was harsh to hear.
He talked a little about not abusing people to build our ministries but build our ministries by building people. Wow.
Hey guys, Christ died for you. Jesus did it all... get out of "performance mode" and chill... take a nap. The Kingdom wont desintegrate.
Sabbath deflates our inflated selves.

Jonathan Dodson was amazing.
He talked on this topic: Spirit-led Ecclesiology, Following the Spirit through Church Planting.
We sometimes rely on our research, books, timelines, and blogs to plant our churches.
We sometimes just plow trough all "obstacles" that arise while we are planting a church.
For example, a guy commits a sin, and is supposed to teach next week. What do you do?
I often see pastors just call that "an attack from the devil." Hehe... and they just rebuke it and continue with their plans, leaving the "brother" to fend for himself.
I learned that the question we must ask is this, "What would the Holy spirit have me to do in this situation?"
Lets restore our brother. Lets help our hurt brother.
What a difference that would make.
What do you do when the unexpected and unplanned things happen?
Stephen gets killed in Acts 7.
Angels tell Peter to go to Cesarea to talk with a gentile named Cornelius.
What do you do? You rely on the Holy Spirit.

Matt Chandler talked about Jesus deconstructing worldviews in Luke 15.
Real quickly. this is what got me the most.
When the prodigal son came back to the house, the father made a party for his son sayiong, "My son was dead, but now he lives."
The older son gets angry and jealous because they are throwing a party for the unfaithful son.
Look at me. Ive been here my whole life "serving" in the "house." I have always "obeyed" my dad's orders.
What does the father do?
Does he tell his servants, "My older son does not gt it... turn up the music and lets party. We get it. Forget him." No Way!
The father goes outside where his older son is at and PLEADS with him to come inside.

If you are reading this bulletin/post/blog and you find yourself feeling like you have serves Jesus and have been faithful to Him your whole life, but still feel down and out, ready to give up, feeling anger, jealousy, bitterness....
I encourage you to drop me a message, send me an email, text me... whatever.
Lets pray together so that we may both go in the house and glorify God.

Goodnight.