Practicing What I Preach
May 29, 2009 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
I have been harping on the idea of Focus a lot lately. It has been the topic of a staff retreat, lots of personal conversations with leaders, and several blog posts. Since it has been such a high value for me, I thought it might be a good idea to practice what I preach.
And so yesterday I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how to focus myself more on the roles God has given me in my life. Here are two simple things I am going to implement to help me do this:
Focus My Online Time
I started by deleting all the extra “web presences” I have but never use. MySpace, Brightkite, LinkedIn, Wayfaring, Qik, and several others had to go on the chopping block. My primary tools are Twitter, Facebook, and my blog and so I am going to focus my web time there. I am also going to go back to my old habit of only checking my email at certain predetermined times throughout the day and only reading my RSS feeds twice a day.
Focus My Schedule
My assistant Kim is already a great help with keeping my schedule sane, but I need to focus more. I work much better with a block schedule so I am going to tighten that up and allocate certain days to certain projects. I am also going to create a weekly focus plan that helps me keep the main things the main things in each of my God-given roles: Christ Follower, Husband, Father, Pastor.
I’m looking forward to seeing how these simple tweaks help me focus my life more.
Amazing Grace
May 1, 2009 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
I don’t remember the last time I went a week without posting to my blog. In fact, I am pretty sure it has never happened…until now.
My last post was a week ago today.
I bet you’re wondering why…well, the short answer is this week I have been “Mr. Mom.” My wife (Grace) is in California with my 5 year old for a 12 day trip to help her sister out with her new baby.
When we first talked about her going, I said “sure..no problem.” She said, “can I go for a couple weeks?”
“Absolutely…I can handle it.”
Famous last words.
I have grown in my appreciation for my wife so much this past week. Her job (as a stay at home mom) is indeed a full-time job. She is a cook, maid, teacher, cab-driver, administrator, accountant, laundry-lady, peace-maker, mentor, coach and so much more.
The biggest struggle of this week has been keeping everything organized in my head. I am used to leaving for work in the morning and being able to focus on a single thing at a time (I am not a multi-tasker). But I haven’t been able to do that this week. A portion of my brain has to stay focused on…
Hang on a second, the kids are calling…Sorry about that–I had to mediate a little argument (I’m not just adding that for literary flair…it actually just happened). Go ahead and add “referee” to Grace’s job description. Where was I? Right…
A portion of my brain has to stay focused on taking care of the kids at all times. I have to make sure I pick them up from school at the right time and run them to practices and other events. I can’t just run home and eat dinner…I have to time it right so I can get it cooked (which I have missed a couple times). This week I have run medicine to school for a sick kid, run the laundry late at night so a uniform was clean for a game, coordinated many conflicting schedules and collapsed each night into bed exhausted.
Wow…this is quite a job.
I found myself drawn today to Genesis 2:18:
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
Many people balk at this concept of a wife being “a helper” to her husband but it is a great thing, a God-ordained thing. And don’t forget that “helper” is a word God uses to describe himself several times in the Bible. Basically, what this passage is saying is that Adam lacked something. His wife Eve provided what he lacked and he provided what she lacked. Apart, they were incomplete. Together, they were “one.” God called Adam to lead his family and Eve to help him–they each had equal but different roles.
With Grace gone, I feel incomplete. Not just as a husband and father, but as a pastor.
Grace is truly “a helper who is just right for Noel.” Her role in our family frees me up to lead and teach at Riverview. She may be one of the most important people at our church because she plays this role in my life. She is a great multi-tasker and keeps our house and family running like a well-oiled machine. That gives me the freedom to single-task on my duties at Riverview.
Let me add a little caveat: if you are a working or single mom, I am not trying to pour guilt all over you for the choices you have made. I believe there are many different situations where a wife can fulfill the role of helper to her husband in different ways.
I just think our culture poo-poos the job of Stay at Home Mom, and I believe that is a great disservice to families everywhere.
And with that, I have to run home to make tacos for dinner and then run Jesse to baseball practice and help Ethan with his homework. I’ll post this tomorrow morning…I don’t have time to hit “Publish” right now…
Tags: femininity, marriage, personal
My Story
Apr 3, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
.:mood:. Really Tired
.:itunes:. 8 Mile Road by Eminem
OK, I promised last week that I would share my story today for what Tim Challies is calling Testimony Tuesday. Some of this I shared at Riverview this weekend, so if you were there it will be a bit of a repeat for you.
I grew up in a Christian home. My parents are first generation Christians, so they were very excited about their faith.
I don’t remember ever not knowing who Jesus is.
I don’t remember ever not going to church…because I always have.
When I was little, I asked my mom what it meant to be a Christian. She shared the Gospel with me and I prayed a little kid prayer to Jesus to save me.
That starting point was a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that I really believe God began a work in me that he has continued and continues. The curse was from that point forward many people (myself included) figured I was OK with God. During the next decade and a half, I rededicated myself to Jesus half a dozen times, which is probably a common thing for many people in my situation.
When I hit High School, I began to build a destructive world-view without even realizing it. I had one set of Christian friends at my church. With them, I attended retreats, listened to Christian music, served at the church, etc. I had another set of friends from school and with them I developed patterns of sin and behavior that were contrary to my faith.
I was a hypocrite and I honestly saw nothing wrong with it.
When I hit college, I tried to live the same kind of dual lifestyle. That’s kinda hard to pull off, though, when you live on a dorm floor with people you want to party with and have bible studies with. It was that year that I realized that my hypocrisy was at odds with my faith.
The only difference in my life was now I felt guilty for my hypocrisy.
That year the bottom fell out of my world: I was one of the youngest leaders appointed in my campus ministry and I was one of the first ever kicked out of leadership team for living an immoral lifestyle.
That summer, I went to Africa on a short term mission project. Since there wasn’t too much to do (except ministry), I set out to read the New Testament for myself, looking for answers to two specific questions:
1) What does it mean to be a Christian?
2) What does the church look like?
At the end of that summer, I had grown some pretty strong convictions. And being an arrogant young male punk, I thought I was the only person in the world that held them.
A couple years later, I began dating my wife (she wasn’t my wife at the time) and we found this crazy church that met in the Kellogg Center at Michigan State University. We attended one time and decided this was the church for us.
Little did I know that this church held many of the same convictions I had come to a few years earlier, including:
1) A team approach to pastoring (instead of a senior pastor model)
2) A desire to bridge the gap between the church and culture
3) Being a church on mission, living for those outside of the faith instead of those inside
A short time after joining Riverview, I attended a Wild at Heart conference in the Rocky Mountains with a few of my best friends. It was there that I finally made my hypocrisy known. It felt so relieving to release the burden I had been carrying for years and years. I came home and brought my wife into the loop on my hypocrisy (yes, I had hidden stuff even from her).
Since that time, my relationship with Jesus has deepened every year. I became a pastor at this crazy church and I am now trying to figure out how to vicariously plant hundreds of churches the rest of my life while never leaving Riverview.
Oh, did I mention that when I was a kid I made God a deal? I would do anything he wanted me to do, but I would never go into ministry and I would never go to Africa.
God’s cool like that.
Tags: personal
