Outreach

For those of you who do not know me well, I am terribly shy. I get really nervous when having to speak to people, but I make it a goal to do so. However, I will run wild if you let me loose to speak in front of a crowd. Crowds are less personable, therefore it is easier for me to mess up and move on rather than if I think I am going to be ridiculed in a small crowd (I know small crowds are not bad I just have a fear of small versus large). So on Direct Connect outreach today I was giving a card to a passerbyer and got nervous when the card got stuck. Eventually, after seconds of fumbling and messing things all up, I gave the card to the person. We looked at each other and laughed. He openly accepted the card.

Basically, I said all of that to say this. To be nervous is natural, no matter what end of the table you sit on, but don't let your nervousness turn into a fear that will hinder you from getting the job done. In the end, if may just be the mess you made that clears the path for someone else's salvation.

16% Rule

"Welcoming people is a never-ending process. Research completed in the late 1980s found that a church must keep about 16 percent of its first-time guests to experience a minimal growth rate of 5 percent a year...As an example, a church that wants to add fifty new members this year will need to have a minimum of three hundred guests attend its worship services during the year."

-Gary L. McIntosh, Beyond the First Visit

WOW! That was the 1980s. With all of the changes since then, wonder what the percent rule would be today? If you are not inviting guest, you better get on the ball. We need more than inviting...we need guest.

Going Against the Grain

For some reason, yesterday at work, the look of my nails began to bother me. So I pulled out my nail filer and began to manicure my nails. One side of the filer, files down the nail to shape it in the desired look. The other side smoothes the nail and gives it the finishing look. Today as I was in the car, I began to picture the nail filer and how it relates to spiritual growth. God, The Mega Nail Filer, goes against our grain to shape and mold, to file down the unnecessary and excess growth that only hinders our progress. He then takes this shaped product and applies the finishing touch.

Today praying in the car, God rebuked my thoughts. I thought I was doing something wrong, which is why things are not going right. It was almost like I was pleading with God to tell me what else I need to change in order to see progress. I couldn’t help but think that I was doing something wrong and that change would actually produce results. How totally wrong! Really fast, God shut those thoughts down. Change does produce results, but God showed me that you don’t have to be doing anything wrong when things stop going right. You could be in His perfect will and have everything stripped away (like Job in the Bible). But are you strong enough to withstand the fire? Are you strong enough to endure the period of filing?

When I was panicking because I thought I was doing something wrong, God was saying that progress is taking place. He is going against my grain, so that He can use me. In order to be used He must manicure me into the style that He fills is becoming on me. To look at this another way, He has taken me into the key store and is having me shaped into the key I need to be in order to unlock the door. The door is in front of me, but I cannot unlock the door if I, the Key, do not fit in the keyhole. Basically, God is making me into the person He has decided I need to be in order to reach out in the way He wants me to reach out. God has given us each different gifts. Where one excels at praying through at the altar, another stinks. Where one excels at witnessing to people on the street, another freezes up. My key does not always fit in another’s door and vice versa. My manicured style may not be a becoming style on another person’s hand, but it works for me.

But you know the wonderful thing about being filed down? Eventually we are finished. The rugged edges are smoothed out and eventually a well-manicured fingernail is presented or a perfectly fitted key is made and opens the door to progress. God is not always going against our grain even though this act will be repeated throughout our lives. Eventually, we are in the right size and shape and are just right for that time.

God is always in control and when we get out of control He will get out the filer and start filing down again. But we don’t have to be out of control when God decides to start filing. We may be in His perfect will when he decides to make a change in us. My desire is to be used of God, but how can he use me if I am out of shape? So, my prayer changed this morning. Instead of pleading with God to show me what I am doing wrong (which he did because my thoughts were all wrong) I began asking God to help me accept this change, to remain in His perfect will even when it goes against my grain, to bless my efforts with souls (because He will supply my needs), to strip away whatever is in my way and to shape me to fit where He wants me to fit. This is now my desire.

In A Haze

Bro McDaniel delivered another awesome message last night as our revival continued. He taught on revival and the steps required to have revival. In all my years in church (going on my five year anniversary next month) I have never felt revival so strongly as I have been feeling in the past couple of months. The "coincidental" is happening. This is what I call the “God just happened to…” time. As Bro McDaniel has been reminding us the last couple of nights, God cannot break His promise. “He just happened to” is God delivering on His promises. He said if we pray and fast He will provide. His presence is so powerful my worldly vision is blurred while my spiritual eyes are taking focus. There seems to be a haze when I walk around, but my thoughts are becoming so clear. I feel that God is trying to shift my focus from material things, worldly constraints, unnecessary burdens, etc. How else would I be able to do this if I cannot see or hear His will clearly?

Back-to-School Revival in the OC

Last night we had a Back-To School Revival service at out church. It was great. To see our church packed out with Saints from Fullerton, Colton and Moreno Valley, was a wonderful sight. Just to think, this is what it will look like every service when we ourselves begin to grow in numbers. I believe God is giving us a taste of what is yet to come.

DISTINGUISHED

I just came back from a Back to School revival service at Bro. David’s church in Colton. After an hour and 45 minute drive, I finally arrived there just in time for the preaching. The moment Bro McDaniel (the guest speaker for the service) began to preach I realized that there seems to be a centralized theme in all of the Back to School Rally’s I have been to in the past couple of weeks. The theme has been about taking the gospel to the whole world, reaching outside of the four walls of the church.

I went on the UPCI.org web site today and saw on the header “The Whole Gospel to the Whole World by the Whole Church”. Bro Rutledge who was down here from Alexandria, LA preached about getting out of the factory and into the delivery truck, sharing the Bread of Life with others. Bro McDaniel, who spoke tonight, talked about letting God in so that you can take God out to others.

As Bro McDaniel said tonight, the devil is okay with us containing The Word inside of the church. The devil is saying go ahead and live this life so long as we don’t share it with others. He wants us like a contained fire, under control, of little threat. But we should not be as a contained fire, but a wildfire, spreading the word. He is absolutely correct. The devil seeks to devour because his destiny is already determined. We need to devour that which seeks to devour us. Spread the Word. The more wild and out of control we become, the more threatened and defeated the devil is. Like Bro Rutledge said in his “Divine Rythm” sermon, the world has no pride, therefore we need not have pride when it comes down to sharing the Word with them.

As I was driving home tonight, the word “Distinguished” kept popping up in my head. A distinguished fire is not a fire, but a charred place that was once aflame. Has your fire gone out, has it been distinguished by the trial or maybe contained by the circumstances? Did you try to make a difference in another’s life or were you simply satisfied with the difference that was made in you. Are you distinguished or are you aflame???