Category: United Methodism
Ordination Pictures
Here are a few pictures from the night of my ordination. The first one is of me being ordained. This shot was taken by my Mom from the balcony at First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
Here’s the rest of the gallery. Click the thumbnail for a larger view.
Category: Leadership, United Methodism
Glen Lake Camp
This morning I will be heading to Glen Rose, Texas to participate in the Glen Lake Golf Classic, a tournament held each year to raise money to support the camping ministry of our Annual conference. If you are not familiar with Glen Lake, it is our conference camping and retreat center where our church summer camps happen every year.Still want more, here’s their website.
I’ve had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors for the past several years at Glen Lake, but that’s not why I’m heading to Glen Rose today.
For the past 5 summers, I’ve spent a week at Glen Lake each summer serving as a dean or volunteer at one of the High School camps, but that’s not why I’m heading to Glen Rose today.
For the past three summers, I’ve had the chance to help work on the curriculum for summer camp and the previous two years I had the opportunity to lead some training with their staff, but that’s not why I’m heading to Glen Rose today.
And just in case you’re beginning to wonder… It has nothing to do with my obsession with golf. [though I do confess the obsession exists.
No, I’m heading to Glen Rose today because one night many years ago when I was a camper at Glen Lake a preacher stood up in front of a bunch of High School students who were disappointed that the rain has cancelled their pool party and shared with us how Jesus had changed his life…
And that night, Jesus changed mine.
Category: Leadership, United Methodism
Looking back at yourself
Yesterday I completed my fourth interview with the Central Texas Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. These interviews take place on an annual basis and are required for all candidates for ministry who are in the Residency program in preparation for ordination in the United Methodist Church. With that interview behind me, I have just completed my first year of a three year residency program.
Our church has a very defined and rigorous process for qualifying men and women for ordination which I think is a necessity. I don’t always like the process. It’s very long [I'll tell you how long in a minute] and it does require a lot of work, but ordination is a big deal, a sacred act that should be difficult to achieve. Along the way though, there are some interesting dynamics that you see in a process of this magnitude.
One of those happened to me yesterday when a member of my interview team asked me a question in regards to my psychological evaluation [yes, we require these!] that I completed when I was 22 years old. [I'm 31 now. That's how long the process can be] It was interesting to me because I can barely remember what it was like to be in my late twenties, married without kids, much less, 22, fresh out of college, getting ready to get married, with no seminary training and no real church work experience. So, the question that was posed to me was essentially a request for me to dialogue with a statement I had made when I was 22…
And guess what…
It was a stupid statement.
It was something that I don’t even believe anymore.
It was something that if I heard someone say today, I would strongly oppose.
The only problem was this. I was the one who said it… nine years ago.
Awkward position.
And yet it also gave me the opportunity to reflect on how much has changed in my life in the last nine years. It made me think about several particular experiences that I have had in the past nine years that radically changed my heart and life away from someone who would say something like I said at the wise old age of 22. It gave me the chance to see how God has taken my initial passion and energy for ministry and reshaped that around a clearer vision of what the “redeeming” work of God’s kingdom is really all about.
And today it’s a reminder to me that what God really requires of us is simply a willing heart.
With a willing heart, God can do amazing work. We don’t have to have all the answers. We don’t have to all the necessary skills.
Just a heart that says, “yes.”
“I’m willing to learn. I’m willing to serve. I’m willing to be changed in order to participate in the changing of others.”
That’s the word that I received from yesterday’s interview. A reminder that my highest calling is to continually place my heart and life on God’s table, willing and ready for him to continue the work of “reformation” in my life.
What has God done in your life in the last nine years?
What is it that you need to stop right now and thank God for doing in your heart in the last great season of your life?
Take a look back… You just might be surprised how far you’ve come.
Category: Leadership, United Methodism
Christmas Eve Offering
On Christmas Eve, Mike shared with our church a special giving opportunity for cholera medication sufficient to treat 80,000 people in Zimbabwe. The amount we needed to purchase the medication was $8500 and our church responded with $8500.55.
Yesterday I received a link to a news story from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, otherwise known as UMCOR, from a member of our church who helps lead our conference in mission to Africa. In her email, she said, “Please read the impact that FUMC Mansfield’s donation is making.”
I encourage you to take a few moments to read about the impact of this special gift. Thanks to everyone who made this special Christmas offering possible.
Click here to read the article.
Category: Leadership, United Methodism
A Letter from Adam
I received this email tonight from Rev. Adam Hamilton regarding my next gathering with the Young Pastors Network in Jacksonville near the end of this month. I’m very excited about this next gathering as I get to bring my wife along. Here’s what Adam had to share about what’s being planned for the agenda.
I’d be curious to hear what agenda items sounds interesting to you… Drop me a comment.
Dear YPN Participant,
Happy New Year to each of you! Mike and I just finished a phone conference putting together the agenda for our retreat on the 26, 27 and 28 of this month. Your comments and suggestions were pivotal in determining the content of this retreat. I wanted to give you a heads up on what we’ll be doing. We know several of you cannot attend, but we wanted to keep you in the loop of information.
On Monday afternoon Mike and Carolyn and LaVon and I will devote a session to the personal and family side of leading large churches. We’ll look at the struggles and the successes we’ve had in our personal lives and what we’ve learned about balancing church and family.
On Monday evening LaVon and Carolyn will lead a session for spouses based upon work they’ve done before while Mike and I will lead a session for you on preaching. Mike will take an hour and share with you his preaching style, theory and offer examples. Then I’ll take an hour and share with you a bit of my preaching philosophy along with a number of concrete ideas. We’ll be providing you a gift copy of my book Unleashing the Word at this session.
On Tuesday from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. we’ll divide the group in half so we can have more interaction with you. Mike and I will each take half of the group and look at the essential lessons we learned in leading a church from 100 to 1,000. Then from 10:30 to noon we’ll flip the groups so you’ll have a chance to interact with whichever of us you were not with in the early session.
We felt you might want to have some down time to pray, walk the beach, play and reflect upon what you’ve heard and experienced, so from lunch until 7:00 p.m. we’re providing free time for you to network or play or enjoy the resort.
On Tuesday night we’ll do a bit of improv – inviting you to bring your questions about any dimension of ministry, theology or family life you’d like to discuss.
On Wednesday from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. Mike will lead a session on his book, Money Matters. Each of you will receive a complimentary copy of the book. He will address annual stewardship campaigns in the local church. Then from 10:30 a.m. to noon I will lead you in a session on buildings, master planning and capital campaigns.
LaVon and Carolyn are planning another session for the spouses at some point during this retreat. We also want to be sensitive to the fact that some spouses will be interested in attending some of the clergy sessions.
We’re looking forward to our time with you in Florida, and to getting to know you better over these three days. This will be a terrific retreat and we wanted to give you a quick overview!
Category: United Methodism, Young Pastors Network
January Retreat
I received an email a few days ago from the Catalyst ministry at Church of the Resurrection with details about our next gathering of the Young Pastors Network coming up in January of ’09. At the conclusion of our last gathering that location was still unknown as they were in the process of waiting on some grant proposals they had submitted. The next gathering is for clergy and spouses and the email that I received revealed that it will be held at the Ponte Vedra Beach Resort in Jacksonville, Florida.
I’m pretty excited about the next gathering. I’m of course looking forward to the learning experience of spending a few days with Adam Hamilton and Mike Slaughter, but I’m just as excited about a mini-vacation for me and wife. That should be a lot of fun.
If you’d like to learn more about the Young Pastors Network, click here.
To read a series of posts I wrote after the first gathering of this group, click here.
To share suggestions on what to pack for Florida in January, drop me a comment.
Category: Leadership, United Methodism, Young Pastors Network
Strategic Planning
Our final session at the Young Pastors Network gathering was led by Rev. Adam Hamilton and was titled, “Strategic Planning.” These are the notes I took from this final session.
Mike Slaughter, Brian McLaren, and Adam Hamilton each gave one of these three ideals in response to the question, what are the most important ideals needed in staff?
- Integrity [Adam]
- Courage [Mike]
- Patience [Brian]
I liked Brian’s quote that he shared in relationship to his ideal. He said, “Loving truth takes courage, loving people takes patience.”
Adam’s follow to that thought was, “You may have a prophetic word, but you are always a pastor.”
Adam talked about two different kinds of leaders. The first he described as downward spiraling leaders which are those who look at the work ahead and can only seem to consistently repeat how difficult things are going to be or how unlikely it will be that success is achieved. The second type of leader that Adam described was a leader that “radiated possibility.” These types of leaders are champions of the positives and tend to make everyone around them feel a great sense of energy and passion around a particular task. Adam shared some visuals which I copied into my notes.
In talking about mission statements for the church, Adam said, that these guiding ideas need to be either written by the leader or meet the standard of something that the leader is deeply passionate about. If this standard is not met, the leader will not be faithful to keep that vision before the people. In the case of the local church, the preacher won’t preach on it, and it won’t become a part of your church DNA.
Further, Adam said, “never allow a committee to write your mission statement. It’s the best way to kill your mission.”
Also he said, “the mission has to be compelling to the leader first and then it has to be compelling to your people.”
In developing strategic objectives for your local congregation, Adam shared the following ideas of what makes something a “smart” objective.
- Specific
- Measurablle
- Aggressive
- Realistic
- Time-Specific
Adam said that for an objective to not only build a sense of energy and purpose but also get completed by the end of the year, the objective has to meet all of the above criteria.
For 2008, Resurrection set the following three strategic objectives.
- Double the number of people who were incorporating prayer and Bible study into their daily lives.
- Increase by 20% the number of people in the Resurrection family who were participating in efforts to alleviate poverty in the greater Kansas City area.
- Develop plans for future campuses for Church of the Resurrection.
This post is from a series written following the first gathering of the Young Pastors Network at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in October of 2008. The rest of the series is available below.
- Home from Ohio
- Self Leadership
- Prophetic Leadership
- Strategic Leaderhip pt. I
- Strategic Leadership pt. II
- Strategic Planning
Category: Leadership, United Methodism, Young Pastors Network
Strategic Leadership pt. II
This post is a continuation of my notes from Adam Hamilton’s session on “Strategic Leadership” at the first gathering of the Young Pastors Network. To read the previous notes, click here.
I thought this quote from Adam was interesting in relationship to preaching. He said, “I don’t always preach something that I’m practicing, but I never preach anything that I”m not going to try to live in my life.”
Adam shared some information from Ron Heifetz’s book, “Leadership without Easy Answers,” which I thought was some of the best info we received during the entire event. Paraphrasing Heifetz’s work for application in the church, Adam shared that Heifetz believes that leadership is about, “helping followers to become more authentically human.” The process of completing this task is as follows.
- Get followers to clarify what matters most [To God].
- Lead them to care about these core values.
- Identity the present reality.
- Help them understand the gap between the ideal and the reality.
- Managers plan & budget, Leaders establish and cast vision.
- Managers produce policies and procedures, Leaders align resources to achieve vision.
- Managers control & problem solve, Leaders motivate and inspire.
- Managers create predictability and order, Leaders produce change and chaos.
Seeing this list, I was struck by the idea that I really struggle when I have to work primarily out of the role of manager. It’s just not who I am.
In establishing vision for the church, Adam identified three questions that every leader needs to be able to answers. [These are outlined in further detail in Adam’s book, “Leading beyond the Walls.”
- Why do people need Jesus?
- Why do people need the church?
- Why do people need this church?
Another quote I jotted down in the session. “People who achieve success simply do what the unsuccessful people decide not to do.”
That quote led into what Adam calls, “Whatever it Takes” leadership which he described as a key philosophy for Church of the Resurrection. To illustrate this, he told the story of a pastor on his staff who had a house call to make, but was asking Adam if it was OK if she didn’t make the visit today because there was 8 inches of snow outside. Adam’s response was, “No, because today is the day that they are going to remember that you showed up.”
A final philosophy from Resurrection that Adam shared was called “Discernment by Nausea.” To describe this, he said that when his Senior management team is faced with a really difficult decision, they tend to follow the principle that, “whatever path makes me sick to my stomach is probably the path that God is calling us to go.”
This post is from a series written following the first gathering of the Young Pastors Network at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in October of 2008. The rest of the series is available below.
Category: Leadership, United Methodism, Young Pastors Network
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