Monthly Archive

I would never have guessed that I would LOVE going to watch kids dance, before I had children of my own.  Who can explain what happens in the heart of a father?  We go from being dudes to weepy fellows.

When Honduran melons were linked to salmonella The Journey North knew we would respond. After serving in Honduras for the past four years we have found ourselves with real friends there. Most of us hear stories like this, and we think oh man, looks like the price of melons are going up. What TJN’ers heard was that our friends were going from bad to worse economically. Today was our chance to respond:

I love it when things catch me off guard (in a good way). Every now and then something catches my eye or I experience something that wows me. I love the feeling when something makes my head turn or gets me to sit up and take notice. That happened tonight as we pulled into the hotel. You tell me, what kind of car is this??:

Man, I had a lot of fun today.  Batterson was great in the second pre-conference session (Session Notes>>>).  He was cool enough to even send a follow up email to me regarding something we touched base about yesterday…what a stand up guy. 

Here are a few other highlights from today:

• Hanging out with the awesome Minnesota Grace guys is always tops for me;
• Meeting one of my favorite bloggers – Chris Elrod (what a great dude).  He taught a session with Scott Hodge and Todd Rhoads that I sat in on to learn more about this blogging deal.
• The Session with Andy Stanley was great.  He has been leading my small group as we have been studying i-marriage.  I am so thankful for the things I am learning in small group and having the opportunity to learn from him live today was sweet.
• Spending time with Tom Nebel & Gary Rohrmayer (photo) from the BGC was a blast…these dudes have such a great vision for the movement.

I arrived late last night in Orlando for the Exponential Conference.  I am stoked about what the day has in store for Chris Reinertson (pastor of the River Church) and I.

We will be spending the bulk of the day in a pre-conference break out with one of the dudes I am really excited to be learning from, Mark Batterson.  His bio reads:

Mark Batterson - Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC.  NCC was recognized as one of the 25 Most Innovative Churches in America by Outreach Magazine in 2007. One church with eight services in four locations, NCC is focused on reaching emerging generations. 73% of NCCers are single twenty-somethings and 70% come from an unchurched or dechurched background.  The vision of NCC is to meet in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the metro DC area. NCC also owns and operates the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. In 2007, Ebenezers was recognized as the #2 coffeehouse in the metro DC area by AOL CityGuide.  Mark has two Masters Degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of a best-selling book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, and he is a daily blogger at www.markbatterson.com.  Mark is married to Lora and they live on Capitol Hill with their three children: Parker, Summer, and Josiah.

READ SESSION NOTES HERE>>>

I spent Wednesday with our area L.E.A.D Team (A group of area Minnesota Baptist Pastors committed to Learn, Encourage, Achieve and Dream). This group has been pooling resources for the past few years in preparation of a planting a new church in Central or Northern Minnesota.

We were honored to have Dan Carlson join us. Dan began working two months ago as the District Executive Minister for the Minnesota Baptist Conference. He shared a little about himself and his desire to both connect with and help resource us as pastors. It was very encouraging he had taken extra effort to connect with us. His effort caused me to think about and begin evaluating some of the ways I work at connecting with the people I serve.

There are certain things that cause leaders to lay awake at night. Most Lead Pastors I know find themselves stirred to the core by a holy discontent from time to time. Tonight, I am wrestling with this incredible desire to find ways to impact my key leaders. I know I can’t be everything to everyone and that my time is an increasing premium. That means I better know, that I know, that I know, that the way I am investing it is put to the best use. In my core, there is an awareness that I have failed at making the kind of investment into a number of key leadership people at TJN.

Having Dan make the effort to spend quality time with our L.E.A.D. Team today inspired me and I welcome the holy discontent…now lets hope it translates into a change in behavior.

How did it happen? I just put my snow blower in the back of the garage. It’s Mid-April and a few hours ago, I was looking over the steam that rose from a dark, hot cup of Pura Vida coffee. The show was too high and much to heavy for Elizabeth. So I stepped up. What I mean by that is, I called for help.

I marveled at the speed with which the bobcat moved the twelve plus inches of wet, heavy snow off my driveway. Spring isn’t supposed to have blizzards, is it? Minnesota brings to us the four seasons in all of their wonder and glory. It is always a surprise when the weather doesn’t exactly cooperate with our ideals. But we don’t need to be victims of our circumstances.

Our lives can get confusing; there are a lot of interestesting and often surprising twists and turns. We are all faced with untold adventures in the course of a lifetime. Sometimes these produce a feeling of wonder and excitement as well as a profound sense of destiny. On the other hand there are times when it if feels as if life just dumped a foot of snow onto our otherwise beautiful spring day.

I kept shaking my head as it snowed, asking will it ever end? Depending on whether the sun is shining on our lives or the storms are beating us down, we find ourselves asking very different kinds of questions. For many the questions are: Why did this happen? How do I overcome? Can I improve? Will it ever end? Is this too big for God? Most people will fight for answers. And even though we want answers, we find that the story is one that is often told one day at a time. The tale of our life is one of the great gifts God has given us. The beautiful part is that time will tell the tale.

As you look back on the years you have lived there are certainly moments of pride, pain, assuredness and uncertainty. We all have regrets and low points. The hope that is found from a profound understanding that God has a desire to see his children find their way. Through all the new adventures that await us, all the storms we experience, there are new pages for a life to be written. Face each storm with courage and oh ya…don’t hesitate calling for help when the storm is more than you can manage.

 I know that a lot of people wonder what it is like to be the lead pastor of a church.  There are a ton of challenges and some serious temptation navigation required.  I love Perry Noble’s “Top Six Temptations Senior Pastors Face”.  These are a great reminder for those of us who lead from the first chair.