The Crossings

Mother/Daughter Discipleship

Creativity in Ministry & Life

I view ministry, specifically in the church planting world, as a creative endevour. I don't mean to say that is not a spiritual endevour because it absolutely must be. However, God is the originator of creativity and I believe we wants his creation to mirror his creativity. I have seen this video several times and I enjoy it each and every time. No matter what you are doing in life you are a creative - it is just more obvious in some.

Creativity

Politics...

I will definitely be watching this.... it could be very interesting. Rick Warren is hosting a "town hall" meeting with both of the presidential candidates. According to this video they both agreed to come if Rick was the one asking all of the questions.

Culture, leadership, politics

What A Weekend!

My sweet girl in her flower girl dress... I was blessed to be the pastor at my brother's wedding this weekend.

YouTube Thursday

Trying to think through my brother's wedding this weekend. Hmmm.......

YouTube Thursday

Discovering The Default

We have been talking about leadership for several weeks and will spend most of the fall on this topic. The past two weeks have been on spiritual gifts and we will hopefully round that out by finishing this next Sunday. I am finding that many people have a filter they hear through when it comes to the topic of spiritual gifts. I am finding that people are hearing sermons on the need for church volunteers. Folks are hearing through a filter of traditional church recruiting.

I think I need to address this because the Barnabas Project is NOT about getting more of our church insiders to sign up for church tasks. I guess people are so conditioned to hearing this type of talk that their mind is trained to travel that path. Actually, the Barnabas Project and our recent discussions of spiritual gifts are to challenge people to take others under their wing and help them discover their gifts and begin using them. We are not having a big volunteer push....

I'm learning that vision is about much more than the words you choose to communicate it. Vision is choosing your words based on your understanding of how they will be interpreted. I am praying for Barnabas leaders to be birthed and discipled at The Crossings. Sure, God has called them to serve and help His church on Sundays.... but, even more is his command for leaders to make disciples. Sunday is such a small moment in the life of a Christ follower. We are called to lead in every moment of life.

Katy, leadership, The Crossings

Why Barnabas?

He took a chance on Paul who led Luke (Acts 9:27, 11:25)

He led Mark (Acts 12:25)(probable source for Mat. & Luke)

His leadership had a HUGE personal impact on over 63% of the NT

I began really thinking about this concept after the idea was planted in my head by Betsy Glanville a couple of weeks ago. God gave me a clear picture that we need to be all about birthing and growing leaders at The Crossings. However, I really struggled with defining a leader. I began preaching the message that God gave but I was still unclear as to all of the nuances.

Well, I'm still unclear of many of the nuances but I do believe God has provided our definition of leadership. We are praying that God would birth and/or identify 100 Barnabas leaders. I am praying for men and women that are willing to take others under their wing to encourage, disciple, and love for the glory of His church.

We are well on our way... I love being a part of God's movement in the church!

The Crossings

Barnabas Project

Who would you say was the most influencial leader in the New Testament? Well, if you read the title of the post you know my answer. I will have more on this soon...

I love this book...

What if you could do a word cloud of the book of Ephesians? What if the most important words that were used the most were larger based on their frequency?

I am loving this book! We take a break this Sunday for July 4th but pick up in chapter 4 next week.

Ephesians, Katy, The Crossings

Disciples... What?

If we are going to be leaders for His church ... to further His Kingdom ... as stewards of His story ... then we must know what it means to be a disciple. We (the american church) have lost this definition somewhere along the path and without knowing what we are aiming at we will never hit anything. If we don't know how to define a disciple then we don't know how to create disciples. WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE!

I am asking God for leaders in our community at The Crossings. I am asking God to burden our leaders to raise new leaders. I am praying daily for 100 leaders before the end of 2008. However, a leader must be a disciple. So, maybe first we need to ask this question - how do we make disciples?

I understand you may find this incredibly simple but I would challenge you to define your personal means of discipleship as YOU, leader, are on mission for His kingdom.

Father, give us wisdom and vision for Your church!

church, leadership, The Crossings