• Even though it was Mother’s day we had a great turnout. People are still pumped to hear about suffering and as usual the volume at which we sung to Jesus was amazing!
• As part of our series we have been preaching through Job, yesterday we looked at of Elihu (Job 32-37). Elihu is a young man who is and arrogant fool. Out of his youth he loves to say what he wants to say and like a lot of young men he is absolutely wrong! We saw how what he and Jesus say about suffering is totally different. I have already been told how God used this message to powerfully impact people’s lives! Praise God! If you want to listen to the talk either grab the podcast through iTunes or listen to it here:
http://resolved.org.au/2010/05/06/the-sufferer-is-rebuked/
• Under our Men’s Pastor Pete Hodsdon’s great leadership we have trebled the number of men coming to our Men’s weekend away compared to last year! We are looking at not wasting our lives and I am unbelievably pumped about this weekend! If you go to Resolved and you want to go to the camp email Pete at pete@resolved.org.au ASAP!
• I was amped to see new people serving on welcoming and setup! Thanks guys for your service at Resolved!
• We sung an amazing new song by Phil Wickham called “Because of your Love” You can listen to this great song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekrKOYRZC0I
And this is the songwriter teaching the song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6j_Qa-erE8
• Andrew Sellen gave us an awesome financial report and it was great to hear how God has sustained us financially and it was great to be reminded what we are trying to do with our future financially. We are so blessed to have a talented young man Like Andrew looking after our finances. If you are at Resolved and looking to contribute financially please email Andrew at andrew@resolved.org.au and he will give you the details you need. If you are not at Resolved please pray for us financially.
• I was pumped when I saw this status update on Facebook from Mez: Had the best night at resolved and Kellys afterwards for chips,pool and just awesomely amazing people :) I love to read stuff like this on Facebook!
• Make sure you check out tomorrow when I will be blogging about “What I have learned about God in my last year.”
Cya tomorrow!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
What have I learnt about myself in the last year as I have lead Resolved?
This last year has been great for me as I have sought to lead Resolved as best I can. I have learnt a lot about ministry and God in this time but I think I have learnt most about myself. Here are only a few of the things that I have learnt about myself:
• My chief sin is pride. I have found that a lot of the times this year when I have sinned, it has been rooted in pride. When I am ungrateful it is because I think I deserve more. When I am jealous of another person’s ministry it is because I think I need more success or deserve more success. I think, in the end, these are matters of pride. One of the evidences of God’s grace I have seen is that I have a church full of people either keeping me accountable or helping me not to take myself too seriously by humorously by ripping me off! I have seen these two things weakening my pride. But I know I need to live for Jesus and His glory and not my own - I guess that is the true answer to my pride issues.
• I may be a Calvinist in my theology but I find that hard to live out. When I preach a crap sermon I find myself thinking ‘What was the point of that?’ I need to see that God has, and will, call people to himself regardless of how winsome my sermon is. I preach the doctrines of grace but I find it hard to live out practically in my preaching.
• I hate playing the bad cop. As a leader, I need to hold people accountable and sometimes, in rare occasions, I need to ask some people to step down from ministry. I have found this hard to do, not because I hate confrontation but because I want people to like me. This in the end is pride!
• I am disorganized, but getting better in that. As a leader, I need to be organized and I find that because of my spontaneous side, I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of guy. I have seen how damaging this can be for my church and for people around me who need things to be organized and communicated well. I have been getting better by keeping a diary, making sure I come through on stuff, etc. Also my wife has been helping me get organized!
• I need to be far more thankful for what God is doing in other ministries. I sometimes find myself looking at other people and their ministries and being bitter. For example, I see the way God is blessing the whole RICE Movement, and early last year I was very bitter - so much so, I joked about how I am going start an evangelistic movement just for white kids and call it ‘Cracker’! I need to keep reminding myself that it is not MY TEAM or BRAND that I am building, but God’s team and therefore when God is doing amazing things in other ministries, I need to give thanks to God for the way He is working!
• I am thankful that I have read so much theology! I read heaps and I have seen the benefits of that this year. When I have sat down across from people who have significant pastoral issues, I have had a theological background on which to call when needed. I have been called back to God’s sovereignty in salvation when either there have been heaps of people at Resolved or there haven’t been as many as I would have liked. I have been comforted by the sovereignty of God when I have seen my dad struggle with cancer. I know God is in control of my dad’s cancer and so I can trust Him.
• I am a saved sinner. Preaching week in and week out, I have seen my constant need for a Saviour, and how Jesus and His death is far more glorious and far more worthy of glory. This year, I have seen the cross as far more glorious as I have been seeing my own sin more clearly!
• My chief sin is pride. I have found that a lot of the times this year when I have sinned, it has been rooted in pride. When I am ungrateful it is because I think I deserve more. When I am jealous of another person’s ministry it is because I think I need more success or deserve more success. I think, in the end, these are matters of pride. One of the evidences of God’s grace I have seen is that I have a church full of people either keeping me accountable or helping me not to take myself too seriously by humorously by ripping me off! I have seen these two things weakening my pride. But I know I need to live for Jesus and His glory and not my own - I guess that is the true answer to my pride issues.
• I may be a Calvinist in my theology but I find that hard to live out. When I preach a crap sermon I find myself thinking ‘What was the point of that?’ I need to see that God has, and will, call people to himself regardless of how winsome my sermon is. I preach the doctrines of grace but I find it hard to live out practically in my preaching.
• I hate playing the bad cop. As a leader, I need to hold people accountable and sometimes, in rare occasions, I need to ask some people to step down from ministry. I have found this hard to do, not because I hate confrontation but because I want people to like me. This in the end is pride!
• I am disorganized, but getting better in that. As a leader, I need to be organized and I find that because of my spontaneous side, I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of guy. I have seen how damaging this can be for my church and for people around me who need things to be organized and communicated well. I have been getting better by keeping a diary, making sure I come through on stuff, etc. Also my wife has been helping me get organized!
• I need to be far more thankful for what God is doing in other ministries. I sometimes find myself looking at other people and their ministries and being bitter. For example, I see the way God is blessing the whole RICE Movement, and early last year I was very bitter - so much so, I joked about how I am going start an evangelistic movement just for white kids and call it ‘Cracker’! I need to keep reminding myself that it is not MY TEAM or BRAND that I am building, but God’s team and therefore when God is doing amazing things in other ministries, I need to give thanks to God for the way He is working!
• I am thankful that I have read so much theology! I read heaps and I have seen the benefits of that this year. When I have sat down across from people who have significant pastoral issues, I have had a theological background on which to call when needed. I have been called back to God’s sovereignty in salvation when either there have been heaps of people at Resolved or there haven’t been as many as I would have liked. I have been comforted by the sovereignty of God when I have seen my dad struggle with cancer. I know God is in control of my dad’s cancer and so I can trust Him.
• I am a saved sinner. Preaching week in and week out, I have seen my constant need for a Saviour, and how Jesus and His death is far more glorious and far more worthy of glory. This year, I have seen the cross as far more glorious as I have been seeing my own sin more clearly!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
How is Resolved going after our first year?
In one word, Resolved is going awesome! God has blessed us so richly! Here are a few things that are happening, in which I can see God’s grace:
• God has been bringing people (who previously didn’t know Him) to know Him, through the ministry of Resolved! I love that He uses our feeble attempts at communicating His word to bring people to Himself!
• The Elder Board is really working well. We meet up once a month and discuss where the church is at theologically, pastorally, practically and spiritually. It is one of the highlights of my month. God has blessed Resolved with a group of guys who, although young, have got a strong grip on who He is and what He is doing and who are open to correction and rebuke. They are intelligent and are great leaders! So please pray for Sellen, Bobby, Paul, Pete and myself as we lead Resolved!
• I love the fact that my wife is at Resolved! My wife, Kate, is a beautiful woman inside and out and she is such an encouragement to me and to a lot of girls whom she meets up with. She also pastorally oversees our elders’ wives/girlfriends and she does an amazing job in doing this! I am blessed to have her as my wife!
• I love the student ministers we have! Steve and Anna have been doing a great job! Anna is our Women’s Pastor and has been meeting up with girls and looking after the female leaders of our community groups and has been doing as great job! Steve is our pastor-in-charge-of-evangelism and he organized awesome outreaches over Easter! Also, they are both in these roles and doing these things without getting paid by Resolved! Thanks guys so much!
• We are doing a sermon series called “When I’m hurting, God is...” which has been getting a lot of traction, not only with the people who have been coming to Resolved for a while but with new people too! Pray for the non-Christians that are coming along, that they would see their need for Jesus! It has been a massive evidence of God’s grace that people have been amped for this series!
• I am thinking through a lot of stuff to do with social media and how to use it effectively and it has been really exciting to think through this stuff. I will be sitting down with Andrew Sellen to think through this more but it is very exciting!
• We are going on Man Camp again this year, and under Pete Hodson (our Men’s Pastor) we have trebled the number of men that are coming from last year!
• We have changed our community group teaching strategy to sermon-based community groups. How it works is this: The preacher preaches on a text on Sunday and writes a Bible study on that same text, for that (following) week’s community groups. So you hear the sermon and then you get a chance to talk about it and explore and apply the text more deeply in your community group. When I outlined this new way of doing community groups, the leaders said ‘Let’s go for it’! I love these guys!
This is just the tip of the iceberg - God is doing amazing things at Resolved! Pray for me, as the Pastor, that I will work hard in humility and worship to Jesus, and that He would be glorified and I would be forgotten!
Hans
• God has been bringing people (who previously didn’t know Him) to know Him, through the ministry of Resolved! I love that He uses our feeble attempts at communicating His word to bring people to Himself!
• The Elder Board is really working well. We meet up once a month and discuss where the church is at theologically, pastorally, practically and spiritually. It is one of the highlights of my month. God has blessed Resolved with a group of guys who, although young, have got a strong grip on who He is and what He is doing and who are open to correction and rebuke. They are intelligent and are great leaders! So please pray for Sellen, Bobby, Paul, Pete and myself as we lead Resolved!
• I love the fact that my wife is at Resolved! My wife, Kate, is a beautiful woman inside and out and she is such an encouragement to me and to a lot of girls whom she meets up with. She also pastorally oversees our elders’ wives/girlfriends and she does an amazing job in doing this! I am blessed to have her as my wife!
• I love the student ministers we have! Steve and Anna have been doing a great job! Anna is our Women’s Pastor and has been meeting up with girls and looking after the female leaders of our community groups and has been doing as great job! Steve is our pastor-in-charge-of-evangelism and he organized awesome outreaches over Easter! Also, they are both in these roles and doing these things without getting paid by Resolved! Thanks guys so much!
• We are doing a sermon series called “When I’m hurting, God is...” which has been getting a lot of traction, not only with the people who have been coming to Resolved for a while but with new people too! Pray for the non-Christians that are coming along, that they would see their need for Jesus! It has been a massive evidence of God’s grace that people have been amped for this series!
• I am thinking through a lot of stuff to do with social media and how to use it effectively and it has been really exciting to think through this stuff. I will be sitting down with Andrew Sellen to think through this more but it is very exciting!
• We are going on Man Camp again this year, and under Pete Hodson (our Men’s Pastor) we have trebled the number of men that are coming from last year!
• We have changed our community group teaching strategy to sermon-based community groups. How it works is this: The preacher preaches on a text on Sunday and writes a Bible study on that same text, for that (following) week’s community groups. So you hear the sermon and then you get a chance to talk about it and explore and apply the text more deeply in your community group. When I outlined this new way of doing community groups, the leaders said ‘Let’s go for it’! I love these guys!
This is just the tip of the iceberg - God is doing amazing things at Resolved! Pray for me, as the Pastor, that I will work hard in humility and worship to Jesus, and that He would be glorified and I would be forgotten!
Hans
Friday, June 19, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Leadership: Energy
We all love people with energy. We like people who seem to do a lot of things very well because they seem to have boundless reserves of energy. We all would love to be people that have this energy but can we all have it?
I think the answer is yes and it is all about changing our attitude and doing less not doing more.
Attitude
How do you see your life? Are you grateful for all the opportunities in your life God has given you? Many of you have the opportunity to be at least one of the following: parent, spouse, teacher, leader, lawyer, pastor, musician, nurse, student, friend, activist, blogger, preacher, etc. You get to go for walks with those you love, work in an air conditioned environment, watch movies, read books, play sports, learn, cook great meals, go out to eat meals, etc.
Do you thank God for all of the things you get to do? Because of your place in the west you are privalleged more almost all the world so is your day filled with thankfulness?
Attitude is so important, if we have an attitude of thanks for the great things God has put in our lives we will enjoy life more and when we enjoy things they give us energy!
How is your thankfulness?
Do less not more
One of the problems we have in our fast paced culture is that we feel we need to do more and more and more. But the result is we do things that we hate and that drive us down or we do things we love doing but we take too much on and then we are despondent when we know we are doing a sub par job on most of the things we are doing.
The thing is we need to do less but do what we do better. We also need to choose the things we do better.
What are your main responsibilities? Do they get the lion’s share of your time?
How many things do you do each week that energize you?
How many things do you do each week that drain you emotionally?
How many things do you do that you could get other people to do?
If a leader lacks energy, he or she will not inspire people.
If a leader is not inspirational are they really a leader?
I think the answer is yes and it is all about changing our attitude and doing less not doing more.
Attitude
How do you see your life? Are you grateful for all the opportunities in your life God has given you? Many of you have the opportunity to be at least one of the following: parent, spouse, teacher, leader, lawyer, pastor, musician, nurse, student, friend, activist, blogger, preacher, etc. You get to go for walks with those you love, work in an air conditioned environment, watch movies, read books, play sports, learn, cook great meals, go out to eat meals, etc.
Do you thank God for all of the things you get to do? Because of your place in the west you are privalleged more almost all the world so is your day filled with thankfulness?
Attitude is so important, if we have an attitude of thanks for the great things God has put in our lives we will enjoy life more and when we enjoy things they give us energy!
How is your thankfulness?
Do less not more
One of the problems we have in our fast paced culture is that we feel we need to do more and more and more. But the result is we do things that we hate and that drive us down or we do things we love doing but we take too much on and then we are despondent when we know we are doing a sub par job on most of the things we are doing.
The thing is we need to do less but do what we do better. We also need to choose the things we do better.
What are your main responsibilities? Do they get the lion’s share of your time?
How many things do you do each week that energize you?
How many things do you do each week that drain you emotionally?
How many things do you do that you could get other people to do?
If a leader lacks energy, he or she will not inspire people.
If a leader is not inspirational are they really a leader?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)