Personal Log 7.26.20

I've spent the last 4 – 5 days working 12 – 14 hours in the heat & due to that I'm recovering from a mild – moderate case of heat stroke, so as I'm recovering in the cool I thought I'd blog a little...

When you have a child & there's no growth you take them to the doctor to determine the cause; it might be a glandular issue, it might be something else entirely but the normal course of action is having them thoroughly checked out by a doctor or team of doctors.

The same concept goes for anything: 

Look at your spiritual life, if there's little or no growth find out the cause, maybe it's priorities, are you spending more time w/ hobbies or on social media than you are in Scripture or in prayer? Maybe you're not reading things that are challenging you, maybe you need to be involved in [a community] ministry/outreach that will grow your faith.

If you're musician, look at your skills, have you grown in the last 5 years? In the last couple of years? Why or why not? Take a diagnostic of where you're at & where you want to be; if you're strictly a rhythm guitarist then focus on that: learn new rhythm patterns, new finger picking styles, learn new chord voicings, experiment w/ some lite alternate tunings or capo positions… if you're a lead guitarist, learn some new scales, experiment w/ some patches or pedals to breathe new life into your playing but do something that will jump start some growth. Try playing w/ some blues or bluegrass players,  watch them, learn from them, expand & grow.

Before this pandemic hit I had talked w/ someone who was sharing about her fellowship, she said, “There's no growth in our children's department, our youth are non-existent & our praise team consists of the same three people for the last ten years, I don't know what to do. I'm so discouraged about everything in my church but I feel God doesn't want me to leave but nothing is changing & no one in leadership is open to change”, the pain in her voice matched the tears on my cheeks as I listened & prayed w/ her.

Just as many people will not do a diagnostic on their lives, many fellowships simply will not do a diagnostic on their departments/ministries.

More & more I'm coming to believe that 2020 is the Year of the Reset: during the stay-at-home orders earlier this year I took a prayerful inventory of my life, my skills, my faith, my ministry & my goals; it was revelatory to say the least. I came away from that time more focused & more determined to fulfill my purpose & that purpose involves other people & their skills & talents. I need to do what it takes to accomplish this, sleep or no sleep; great things never came from comfort zones. I'll share the second part of my self-diagnostic at the end of this blog.

Many people also took a good hard look at their lives & determined what was truly important to them, hopefully many pastors & leaders also looked at their congregations, departments & ministries through a diagnostic lens & determined they were going to do some things differently. 

Unfortunately, I have heard of some fellowships around the country that couldn't wait to get back together last month just to resume their same routines, their same format, same programs, same sermons, same songs & there's zero growth, their attendance is dwindling, interest is diminishing & morale is spiraling downward…

Like I've shared w/ a few people around the country, do a diagnostic, zero in on some things that can unleash growth both in your life & in your fellowship. God made the world w/ all it's diversity in six days then He rested from that work on that seventh day because He was done but His Spirit is the Spirit of Creativity, He creates through us now & I'm certain He has new & creative ideas for you personally & for your fellowship to impact others, impact your community & bring glory to God.

I'll close w/ this: during my self-diagnostic during the first part of this year, I learned that part of my lack of growth was limiting God. I know that sounds funny but look at both Psalm 78:41 & Matthew 13:58.

Psalm 78:41  

“Yea, they turned back and tested God, and limited (tavah = pain, wound, limit) the Holy One of Israel”

Matthew 13:58

“And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief (apistia = weakness of faith, from apistos = without trust in God, from both alpha = Christ, the beginning & the end & from pistos = worthy of trust).”

I have faith, in some areas I have great faith & great creativity/growth because of it, but for me doubt is not the problem, unbelief is one of the factors that inhibits growth & limits God. 

I'll try to do a more in-depth study on this later, I'm tired & need to rest for a little while but I just wanted to encourage those that are not experiencing growth in some area to find the root cause of it & make the necessary changes.