Daryl Strickland

This was part of blog post from Perry Noble that spoke straight to me. You can read the whole post here.

Be who God called you to be…take risks…pray “stupid” prayers…ask people for commitment…believe in those no one else dared to believe in…PREACH JESUS…listen to the Holy Spirit…give everything your best…spend time BEGGING God to change lives…understand that God wants your church to grow more than you do…stop trying to make people happy…take some time for yourself…hire the people God tells you to hire…LEARN DAILY…spend whatever amount of money you need to spend to grow…develop your strengths, delegate your weaknesses…ignore your critics…STOP trying to be someone else…HONOR GOD’S GIFTING AND CALLING ON YOUR LIFE!!!

If you fall in one of the following categories you need to listen to this message:

• If you are alive and can click on this link
• If you think you know what repentance means click on this link
• If you have no clue what repentance means click on this link
• If you are thinking about going to see Sex and the City click on this link
• If you think mega churches water down the gospel click on this link
• If you are wondering what is holding you back in life click on this link
• If you think your sins only affect you click on this link
• If you are wondering how to go where God wants you to go, click on this link.
• If you want to see what John The Baptist looked like when he was 27, click on this link.

Once you get to the site, it is week 4 of Old Time Religion (Alter of Repentance). You can watch it our listen to it.

I was just watching TD Jakes and this stuff was to good not to share:

Here is some of what he shared:

• Dare your cancer to come to church with you today cause Jesus is in the house. I could be healed today, I could be revived today.
• If Jesus is in the house, something is going to happen.
• God needs something to work with. Bring some expectation with you. Enter His house with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Don’t come laid out like a mummy, expecting a miracle.
• Wherever there is a promised move of God you can expect opposition.
• You face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle.
• Faith must always past the test of discouragement.
• You have to go through a period of wanting to quit.
• If you are in anything and have never wanted to quit it, you are not in much.
• If you understand what I am saying you don’t shout when you get the miracle, you shout when you get the opposition.
• He is hurting me now. He just said most of us get stuck in the first dimension of faith (Simply Saved).
• Second dimension of faith. ARISE (live in victory in all areas of your life).
• Salvation is the root…Resurrection is the fruit. You can’t be saved and be flatlined.
• Third dimension of faith. You take hold of the things that had hold of you.
• He just said that’s so good, I’m going to get the tape myself.
• More on this one later.

This is better that biscuits and gravy!! Maybe it’s just me.

Yesterdays message at Lifepoint was the third in our LEGO series and it was about going the distance. At one point in the service Jeff encouraged people to write on a 3X5 card what they felt like was keeping them from going the distance and being who God created them to be. They then came forward and pinned them to a cross, symbolizing that they were giving it to God. Check out some of the the things that were on the cards.

• Sexual abuse
• Building relationships based around being physical
• Drugs (there were a lot of these)
• Hatred for my mom
• Seeing children sexually abused
• Alcohol
• Mates past experiences
• Baggage from past marriage (there were a lot of these)
• Being abandoned by my mom makes me feel insignificant and bitter
• My father was never there for me
• Insecurities (a ton of these)
• Friends
• Struggling with staying pure
• Spouses addicition
• Not forgiving his past
• My weight
• Fear
• Self-confidence
• I think that I am not smart
• Forgiveness
• Trust
• No fire in our relationship (multiple)
• Communication
• My past
• Finances (multiple)
• Anger
• Lies
• Time management
• Discouragement
• My Job
• Surgery
• I am in love with someone who is in love with someone else
• My mind
• Selfishness
• Lack of disipline
• Jealousy
• Lust
• Being to busy
• Fighting (multiple)
• Fear of committing
• Partying
• Patience
• Fear of missing God’s will
• Laziness
• Affair
• Time with spouse
• Being tired
• Lack of hope
• Temptation

There were hundreds more with the same theme. I am so glad God is drawing hurting people to Lifepoint and I am so glad He is in the resurrection business!

Read Perry’s notes from PDC at Saddleback.

link

Do you know what is better than a strong leader? A strong leader with soldout followers. I think what you are getting ready to read is one of the most effective things you could do for your pastor or team leader.

God has opened my eyes as to how many opportunities the church has missed because of lack of support of their leaders or worse: undercurrent that works against the house . I have viewed this first-hand in every area of leadership that I have ever been in.

We see all through scripture how God gives a person a vision and the ability to lead and then He sends people to support that vision. The more people that cheer on their leader, lift load off of their leader and support their leader’s vision, the greater the impact the leader and the church has.

A beautiful example of this is geese flying in the V formation. The lead goose is working his tail feathers off leading the way and his leadership reduces turbulence for all the others. Research shows us that because of this setup, geese can fly 71% further in this formation than alone (that’s crazy). But the best part is what the other geese do, they honk like crazy affirming the lead bird’s efforts and this encourages him to keep it up!

I am going to say this as clearly as I can. If you can’t support your leader 100%, get off the team now (99% doesn’t cut it when souls are on the line). Lack of support will cause one of the following things to happen: 1) No Growth In Your Ministry, 2) Slow Growth In Your Ministry, 3) Leader Burn Out In Your Ministry. The above mentioned things all effect your church’s ability to reach people that are destined for hell.

If you find yourself in this spot, resign today. It doesn’t mean you are a bad person, but maybe you’re in the wrong ministry. Or perhaps you have some issues that you need to deal with personally. Either way, don’t slow down growth because of selfishness; lives are on the line and this is serious business.

If you’re in the V formation and you’re honking loud to cheer your leader on, keep it up!! Continue to lighten their load by helping out with anything you can! Continue to encourage and cheer them on! Focus on your leaders’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. Don’t bring them problems, bring them solutions. If you do this, watch out, your church will be positioned to reach it’s potential!

How do you know that you are making a difference?

At Lifepoint we judge success on stories. Here are a few from this week:

• Got a prayer request Monday and things looked bad. The doctor said this persons baby had a badly deformed face (in the womb) and they should see a specialist. We prayed, she went to the specialist with her Bible in hand and guess what… They can’t explain it but the baby is fine.. I can.
• Got this comment from a new tithing family: “Earlier this evening my daughter was observing that everything at Lifepoint was free. She said her tithe must be helping to pay for it. My wife says she is as analytical as her father. I love LIFEPOINT! (I love this guy!!)
• Here is one from one of our guys that arrive at the office a 5:30am and pulls a trailer. He was coming out of his pocket to equip his truck to pull one of our new trailers (that was given to us!!!!). Here is his email: “My wife and I struggled with paying for the re-fit, but not that much, we just didn’t feel it was right for the church to have to pay for this and though it was somewhat of a stretch, and not in the Dave Ramsey budget, we agreed to do it and felt really good about it. The bill came to about $200. I had to go pick up one of my boss’s associates today in Charleston, and what the heck, no big deal, my boss is paying me and if this is what he wants me to do with my day I’ll do it.When we got back to Wilmington the guy dropped me off at the truck place where I had left the truck to get it rigged and against my protests he gave me $200.

  The Lord’s pretty cool ain’t he? However it took my wife to point out the association for me between the $200 and how much the truck cost.

• Heard word through the grapevine that some Lifepoint folks are helping a family out that is going through an incredibly rough time. They are providing meals, doing yard work, etc. and this family has never stepped foot in the doors of Lifepoint (that’s cool and that’s Jesus).
• Here is one that was sent to my wife: “Kelli, We just wanted to thank those on Sunday who ran out to help in the rain. The heart Lifepoint has for service speaks so loud to us. Please know how grateful we are for the acts of service you have shown to us and our community. It truly is the picture of Jesus! Thanks so much!!

In the ebbs and flows of ministry there are seasons of working your fingers to the bone and seasons of intense praying, planning and thinking. This week has been one of the later. At Lifepoint we are approaching an extremely exciting and critical season of our ministry and this week was full of meetings, planning sessions and big time prayers. I feel exhausted but I don’t feel like I accomplished much however, I am as pumped about this fall as I am any thing we have done. As a matter of fact, I am as excited about our next series as I am about any series we have ever done (more to come soon).

Here is a cool phone conversation with Steven Furtick and Perry Noble. If you are a pastor or staff member at a church this is a cool conversation to here these leaders hearts.

A couple of things that stood out to me in the conversation were:

• Church planters focus so hard on what others have that they miss what God has given them.
• We should be thankful for what God has given us and pray as to how we can go to the next level.
• You won’t be judged on what you did but rather on what you were called to do!!

I was reading my devotional tonight and this rang out loud and clear:

Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Unless God remains at the center of your efforts, you labor in vain.

This is my biggest fear in life. I never want to be a part of something that God is not in (been there, done that) and I don’t want to lead anyone in a direction that God doesn’t want them to go.

So how in the world do you stay relentlessly centered of God? Read this post it’s a good start.