First of all, Dave Ramsey is a stud. Second of all, he’s right (debt is dumb).  Thirdly, if KW had a building, we’d be participating in this.  Fourthly, I encourage you to attend at a location nearest you.  Call me up, we’ll go together.

Today I was invited to speak the MBA Ministerial Council about the vision of KingsWay and interlaced it with 10 core convictions/principles that are guiding KingsWay:  Here they are in brief:

#1. You can’t impact your community if your community doesn’t know that you exist.
#2 Churches need to be more strategic (Jesus said “I will build my church,” but we need to do some things, too.)
#3 Most churches try to do too much. (KingsWay will do three things: Worship. Grow. Send.)
#4 Each person who comes Sunday is a gift
#5 Expand your vision and travel to see other churches that fire you up.
#6 Be a man (or woman) and lead (And do whatever God tells you to do.)
#7 Loosing a “saved” person to gain an “unsaved” person is a sacrifice I’ll make every time.
#8 It’s the Sunday morning worship experience, stupid. (If the worship experience isn’t engaging, no one will engage in our vision/discipleship process/cycle: Worship. Grow. Send.)
#9 We exist for those who aren’t currently a part of us.
#10 Be willing to bet the farm-you might loose it anyway.

Agree? Disagree?

We’re in a pretty neat message series right now: “He still moves stones”– those heavy “immovable” issues in our lives that threaten to keep us in the grave and from living the full life that Jesus promised in John 10.  we’ve already covered “Anger” & ”Pain/Grief.”  This sunday we’ll talk about “doubt,” and the week after, “unforgiveness.” 

Do you have any stories/favorite scriptures dealing with “doubt” or “forgiveness/unforgiveness”?  Let me know–  (adam at kingsway-church dot com) or post below.

“Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson)

Some of this was hokey and new-age ish, but the good part: “your playing small doesn’t serve the world” is pretty powerful. 

Moses was frightened by his key role in freeing the Isralites from Egpyt. (Remember “who am I that I should go to Pharoah to bring my people out of Egypt?”?).  Yet he was the man for the next 40 years that God used.  He didn’t get a big head, but was used by God in a big way! Imagine if he died, still cowering in fear in Midian having never accepted the challenge to approach Pharoah.  What a waste of a life that would have been, mired in self-represed humility.  Imaine if Peter had never risen to the occasion and preached to the thousands on the day of Pentecost.  Imagine if Paul stayed in the house on Straight Street, wondering how God could possibly use someone like him.  Fortunately, they got over their humble selves, and with God’s help (Eph 3:16…), changed the world.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

Here it is!!  The long-awaited new Logo. 

Things I like about it:  The cross is prominent.  It’s a “rugged” cross. It’s also a sort of crossroads, where people can decide which way to go– perhaps the “Kings Way”?  Tag-line prominatly displayed: “Worship. Grow. Send.” All around, very solid.

Thoughts?

Heading up EARLY this morning to the GREAT state of Michigan  to pick up our portable church equipment!  Did I mention Michigan is a great state? 8 of us are heading up to Churchinabox/Portable Church Industries to get trained and  figure out how everything is supposed to be set up.   Join us at Hamilton-Maineville  Elementary at 3:00pm and go through the trial run setup with us!  (we’ll leave it up for sunday AM)!!  Can’t wait!

I heard John Maxwell give a leadership talk– which I always find fascinating.  He mentioned that leaders carry around two buckets in ther hands. One has gasoline and the other has water.  When they approach a spark of contention (a situation that needs to be dealt with), they either take that bucket of gasoline  and when they are done with that spark, you’ve got a major fire on your hand.  Or they take the bucket of water, drown out that little spark of contention and the issue goes away. 

Which are you? (I think I’ve done both in my life)