Tag Archives: growth

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The Goal of Spiritual Rhythms

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Sunday I started a new series at CCC called Summer Reset: Reevaluating our Spiritual Rhythms. 

When new year’s goals and resolutions roll around almost every year, millions of people make a goal connected to their spiritual life. It might be reading their Bible more, praying more, or being more generous, which is fantastic. But often we fail to move the needle in those places, or at least to the degree we’d like to see.

Many times we get frustrated with ourselves, think something is wrong with us, and then fail to reengage with God.

Have you ever asked why that is? There are many reasons this happens, but I think one of them centers on our spiritual rhythms.

Have you ever asked yourself: What is the goal of spiritual rhythms or practices? When I read my Bible, pray, give, fast, or any other spiritual practice, what am I hoping will happen?

What is the goal of spiritual practices?

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I like the word rhythm and practice because it helps me see life as a rhythm. Rhythms get the idea of movement, timing, seasons, and life in that way. Practices help me to know that I am practicing, I have not arrived. Every time I fast, feast, pray, sit in silence or join in community, I am practicing. And, if I don’t get it right (which is often) or if things feel stale (which happens), I am practicing. 

Why I like to use the words spiritual rhythms or spiritual practices.

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What is your goal when it comes to spiritual practices? To your spiritual rhythms?

If you think about the question, you will start to think of things like growing close to Jesus, growing in my faith, and learning about Jesus. And those are good answers. 

Spiritual practices are how we connect with God and relate to God. But spiritual practices also do something else; they are how we become more present to God, others, and ourselves. They reorient our hearts and lives around the things of God, which is crucial in our world that is so loud and easily distracts us. 

Spiritual practices are the ways that we become more present to God, others, and ourselves.

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This is why the goal of spiritual practices is so important. If we don’t know the purpose, we won’t understand why we need to practice them or what we are trying to experience or accomplish when we practice them. We will also miss what God is trying to do in us, around us, and in those practices. We can read our Bible, pray, take a sabbath, and miss all that it could be.

While spiritual practices do many things, I think they bring about two important things:

  1. They are about our formation, becoming more like Christ, and how we walk with Christ as his disciples, as his apprentices, alongside him.
  2. They help us to be present with God, ourselves, and others. They help us be aware of what is happening in us, what is going on in others, and what God is doing. They help us not to miss things.

As we practice them, we look for how God is forming us. As we experience difficulty or struggle through practice, we look for what God is doing in us, how we are being shaped, and who we are being shaped into. 

How God shapes you.

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1 Leadership Lesson I Wish I Learned Sooner

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Recently, I was talking to a brand new church planter. He was excited, anticipating what lay ahead for him.

He asked me, “What is one thing you know now that you wished you would’ve known when you first planted a church?”

I had to think. There are lots of things I wish I would’ve known. I wish I would’ve taken to heart rhythms and pace personally. That I would’ve poured more into my soul than leadership insight, that I would’ve put more emphasis on individual conversations instead of big numbers.

After a minute, I said, “I wish I would’ve understood that when it looks like nothing is happening, that something is happening.”

I grew up in a farming community, and farmers understand that there are seasons to their planting and crops. There is a season of clearing away branches, dirt, and weeds. There is a season of prepping the soil. There is a season of planting, watering, fertilizing. There is a season of harvesting the crops and selling those crops, enjoying the harvest.

Then there is a season where the dirt sits.

I didn’t understand or appreciate the season where the dirt sits. I pushed and pushed so that ministry was a constant pursuit of up and to the right.

This is true in the church, church planting, leadership, and relationships.

There is a season in a marriage where you are digging in, working on emotional health, navigating your family of origin stories, and trying to move forward. This is uncomfortable work, but necessary for a marriage to fully bloom.

In leadership, you must spend seasons working on your character, who you are, and who you are becoming so that when you get there, you have the integrity to sustain the work.

In a team, you must spend the seasons growing together, learning how to work together so that you can work together when the storms hit your group and organization.

We all love the planting season, the growing season, the watching new things take off, but for those to happen, we must have the seasons where the dirt rests. You, as a leader, must have the seasons where you rest, so you are prepared for the hard seasons ahead.

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Will You Mentor Me?

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mentor

Since Revolution Church is filled with people in college and their 20’s and because we’re part of Acts 29, myself and the other leaders at Revolution will often get requests to mentor someone. Either in our church or a church planter or worship leader.

This has caused me to think through, what makes an effective mentor. They are important, but I think we often set ourselves and the person we are seeking help from up for disaster.

A mentor is someone further ahead of you in an area you want to grow in. 

No one person can mentor you in every part of your life.

This is the problem we run into. We look for someone to be the end all be all for us.

When someone asks for a mentor, I explain this to them and then ask a series of questions:

How to find a mentor

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  1. What is the 1 or 2 areas you want to grow in as you think about your life in the next 3, 6, 12 months? This could be finances, prayer, marriage, boundaries, health, etc.
  2. Why do you think I can help you? I want to know why they think I can help them. Not because I want to pump up my ego, but I want to know they’ve done their homework on me not just threw a dart at the wall and picked the closest person.
  3. What are you doing or have you tried to grow in this area? Often, not always, but often people seek a mentor because they are lazy. I want to know what books or blogs this person has looked at in this area. Are they actively seeking to grow in this area or just hoping to rub off success from someone. Which leads to the last part.
  4. How much time are you willing to put into this? Anything worth doing will take time. You won’t grow in your handling of finances, health, marriage, career, preaching, etc. without putting in time and effort. This is a commitment you are as the person getting mentored is making, the mentor is coming along for the ride and if I as the mentor am not convinced you are into the ride, I’m getting off.
4 things to keep in mind when you look for a mentor.

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If you are worth your salt as a leader, person or pastor, you will be asked often to mentor people. You must be selectively in who you mentor because you are giving up one of your most precious commodities as a leader, your time. If you are asking to be mentored, to succeed and have it be worthwhile for you, you need to do your homework and be willing to put in the work. There is nothing more exciting than working with a person who wants to grow in an area and helping them to grow in that area. Love seeing that happen.

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