I went home every weekend in college. [1) My girlfriend (future wife) was there. 2) My mom did my laundry and gave me money! DON'T JUDGE!] When I would get back on campus my roomate Jonathan and friend Wes would convince me that we needed to go get pizza. This wasn’t a hard thing to do. I LOVE PIZZA & HAD MONEY! They never paid for it.

I’m a humble guy and this story illustrates how generous I am with my money. KIDDING! But I was a biblical studies major in college and Luke 16:9 helped me cope with getting duped into buying the pizza every Sunday night.

LUKE 16:9-11
9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. 10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?”

- We are designed for generosity and charity. God doesn’t just suggest it for us to do, He commands it.

- Being generous with what you have helps others and makes friends. I’ve never met anyone who had too many friends or helped someone out too much. If you CAN do it then DO do it. (haha do do)

- What you do with what you have is an indicator of your relationship with God. The last part of Luke 12:48 says, “Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. Even more will be asked of the person who is supposed to take care of much.”

WOW! It has been an incredible couple of weeks. God is doing so much at Waters Edge Church and I’m consistently amazed that I get to be a part of it. Over the past 2 weeks we’ve seen 399 people go public with their faith by getting baptized! Whether it is people finding Jesus or Jesus finding people, IT is happening at WEC.

Last October Kristi and I were visiting WEC for the first time. We attended every service in Yorktown (the only campus at that time) on October 3rd and we were hooked. I’m sure it sounded like we were kissing up to get offered the job, but it was no joke when we told Stu and Rob that we couldn’t get enough.  The services had everything that WEC is known for.. unexpected elements, excellent worship, baptism (one of the members of my current community group was baptized that day), and both of us were laughing, crying and captured by the services. It was like God was grabbing us and screaming this is where you need to be! We are grateful that it happened and I joined the staff on November 8, 2010.

It’s been an INCREDIBLE 2 weeks! 399 Baptized.

It’s been an AMAZING year. Costumes, pre-shows, welcomes, community groups, WEC Hampton!, amazing growth, bought in volunteers, Family Ministries, new staff, new friends.

It will be an SUPER FANTASTIC future. 3rd Campus and so much more to come for WEC. I’M STOKED!

 

I normally hate acronyms. In fact I hate them so much that I cringe when I hear people suggest the use of them. This comes up quite a bit in ministry, unfortunately. My friends and came up with acronyms that were hilarious. Some were clean and others…not so much. One I remember quite well:

F – FAST

A – ACTION

R – RESPONSE

T – TEAM

I’m sure that you might could come up with some great acronyms. Comment below and share.

I came across an acronym. I cringed at first, but then took a second look. It was actually a good one, and it was pretty useful. So, I decided to share it with you. It is from a North Point training done back in 2008, but it is really relevant for anyone that is trying to do something meaningful.

You need to know your DESIGN:

D – Drive – What drives you? What are your passions?

E – Experiences – What’s your story?

S – Spiritual Gifts – What are your gifts from Romans 12?

I – Impact - What area do you want to impact the most?

G – Genius – What do you do repeatedly, successfully and happily?

N – Nature – What is your personality?

Great things to ask yourself if you are trying to accomplish something that God has given you, or really trying to figure out where God wants you. Really no matter where you are it is good to know these things about yourself. I hope you find it helpful.

 

It is heard echoed at conferences, blog and other places by sought out speakers, writers and consultants. The best secret they can give to be a successful church planter, pastor, business person, etc. is to be who you are. Great advice, unless you don’t like yourself.

There are a lot of conferences out there that show you how to do something. They show off other peoples systems that are working and for the most part working well. I went to one of these conferences several years ago.  It was a great conference and I really learned a lot. Then several months later I found out that the church that had hosted the conference was changing there whole strategy.

I don’t want this to be too boring so here is the main points.

1>> BE YOU! – God created you unique and with things that only you can add to whatever place you find yourself in. Really!!

2>> Be Confident! – (unless you are wrong) Most leaders arrive in their position, because they have confidently followed a conviction or vision from God.