It’s one of those old books which aren’t always easy to understand, put there was just something about it that I could put it down.

In a world where people are constantly on the pursuit for something I honestly believe we forget to pursue God. I think of church leaders for example; we pursue the next big thing, we pursue multi site, church growth, leadership, creativity, church planting, the best show in town, small groups, social justice, youth ministry, kids ministry, direct mail, big events and so many others things. In fact whatever you want to pursue there’s a conference or a network you can attend to help you in your pursuit.

However, how many of us are really pursuing God? How many of us lie in bed at night wondering how we can get closer to God or increase our intimacy of God? How many of us wake up in the morning realizing that before we can achieve we must search? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself.

The church seems to be getting bigger, our effects seem to be successful and our models seem to be working, but at what cost?

If our number one pursuit isn’t a personal yearning and longing for the one we call Yahweh then all our effcets may bring ‘success’ here on earth, but we may find they just rang as loud noisy empty cymbols in heaven.

Lord, help me to be a man who before I do anything else learns how to pursue you. Let you word, your character, your statutes and your truth be my number one aim. Not fame, not recognition, not success or anything else this world pushes us to pursue, but let my life’s pursuit be you! As the deer yearns after the water when it’s thirsty, let my soul sing a song of never ending pursuit of you. Amen.

One of the hardest disciplines for the modern preacher is to preach the full gospel. The gospel is so vast and wide that even 50 years of preaching would not be able to cover every detail of the incredible grace and love of Jesus Christ. However, for many preachers they become comfortable with one part or subject of the gospel and that becomes the focus of their ministry. We are not talking about faith preachers nor name it or claim it preachers, but the stable sound in doctrine preacher who has given his life to the calling of God.

The writer of Jude desired to just give the incredible message of Salvation, yet being a full gospel preacher meant while Salvation is front and center of the gospel, it is not the only part of the gospel. There were issues springing up in the churches in the first century that had to be dealt with. The people in the churches had received the life-giving spirit of Jesus Christ. They had become the redeemed, the chosen, the elect! Their souls had been saved from sin and death, yet a theology had arisen that said because of the power of the grace of God, it was okay to keep on living immoral lifestyles.

Yes, every preacher has his niche, but the servant preacher realizes that there are topics that are uncomfortable to preach, yet must be preached.

There are many who fall into the trap of just preaching Salvation, yet holiness is just too uncomfortable for their seeker friendly crowd. On the other side there are many who fall into the trap of just preaching holiness that a seeker will never consider entering the doors of their church. Christ didn’t die for just half the gospel, He died so that men and women could hear the full life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.

Just as Jude stepped out of his comfort zone to deal with holiness issues, so to must we preachers step outside of our comfort zone and realize we have been called to declare the FULL gospel. It is only the full gospel that will ultimately change lives and it is only the full gospel that the Lord has anointed us to preach!

In my experience I have found that May & June are the time people tend to transition most. As a ministry leader and then as an associate Pastor I learned and recognized that this time of year was the time when volunteers quit, people wanted to try new things or people left the churches we were at. However, it was also a time when new people would come on board, new volunteers would be found and your ministry was the new thing people wanted to try.

For any leader this is a bitter sweet time. Transition is hard. Change can be difficult and sometimes you feel people are making the wrong decision in their transition. Yet transition is something every ministry has to embrace. Big churches, small churches, urban churches or rural churches all experience it.

However, I encourage you to embrace this time. Transition shows health and life. Your body transitions and changes because it is alive. The trees and plants transition during this time because they are alive and so the church, which is the body of Christ, will transition and change because it is alive.

This doesn’t mean everything should change and everyone should move on to other things, but it does mean when you see a change in the wind or a new season arriving embrace it and work with it because more than likely God is moving the pieces around to perfectly align you for a new fruitful season of blessing.

My blog took a back seat as others things had to take priority, but blogging is something I love and helps me as a leader and follow of Jesus Christ as much as anyone who reads this blog. So here we go, back in the swing of things.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the people I need around me so that as a church we can be everything God has designed us to be. I think the biggest headaches and anxieties a leader has, concerns the leaders around him or her. In a perfect world the team you have around you will all get on. They will have your back and you will have theirs. You will be able to be totally open and honest with them and they won’t think anything less than you. Everyone will work for the cause and there will be complete harmony!

Anyone who has lead leadership teams is probably saying, ‘in your dreams!’ Well, yes that is my dream. However, for that dream to happen, you have to have the right people around you, and you as a leader have to be prepared to invest time in those people.

I remember when we first planted our church; I believed the Lord gave me a word. He said, ‘surround yourself with people who believe in you and believe in what I have called you to do, one out of two isn’t good enough’. This word has come back to my mind over and over again. I have seen the people who are most effective have been the ones who believe in both me as a leader and the vision of where we are going. The people I have found myself hitting my head against the wall have been people who either didn’t completely believe in me but believed in what we were doing or believed in where we were going but still had questions about me.

When you have people who believe in both you & your vision, you have people who you will be able to dream with, laugh with, enjoy time with and most important lead your church or organization with.

Remember, one out of two isn’t good enough!

I love to hear the story of a self made millionaire. Someone who went from rags to riches. Someone who through sheer blood sweat and tears made a name for themselves.

The reason for this I think is the way I was raised by my father. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I never received an allowance and we were always the last to get any new gadget. For example we didn’t get a VCR player until something called DVD’s were coming on the market.

As a child I would often resent the fact that I didn’t get what other kids got. I didn’t like the fact that if I wanted any money I’d have to go out and earn it. I realized that if I wanted to be a millionaire, I’d have to be a self made one.

After paying my way through college, paying for my first car and insurance and paying for my own wedding I started to realize the value of how I was raised.

I would look at my friends who had been given plenty as a child, they were not stable. I noticed others who had been given large down payments for their first home, or daddy had paid for their lavish wedding and seeing many who collapsed under the weight of problems when things got hard. I started to thank God that I had missed out on the free hand-outs because even though I didn’t have as much as others I knew I could survive through anything, even the loss of a job, home or support.

So when we made the decision to plant a church it came as not surprise to me that we wouldn’t get the free handouts some planters get. Did I want the handouts? Oh yes. Was it best for the course of our church to get those free handouts? Oh no.

You see planting Generation Church required more blood, sweat and tears that I’ve ever experienced. However, as I look back at our first four months of existence I’m starting to realize that there is a true grit in our church, and that is to fulfill the mission and vision of God at all costs! In the beginning it was just plain tough, but now we are starting to see a little bit of momentum. Those days of sweat and nights of tears we sowed are now starting to reap a harvest and I am so excited for the days ahead. They won’t get easier, in fact I know the larger we grow the harder it becomes, but we’ll know that those early days of working through college, doing a paper round, saving for a wedding, and self funding a church plant will be the foundation that no storm will be able to shake.

So if you’re one of those people like me who realizes that if you want anything in life you’re going to have to work for it, know this. Know that God sees those days, months and years where all you sow is blood, sweat and tears. He see’s that you watered them with countless hours of prayer and He will cause the growth!

No storm in life will be able to shake you!

Being a new church this can be even more difficult. In all honesty you just want warm bodies in positions and roles so that all that is needed gets done. However, this may be fine for the first couple of months, but very soon you are going to have to replace those warm bodies with people who can take that area of ministry to another level, and this involves recruiting leaders.

The main problem I find with recruiting leaders is that there are many people who claim they can lead, many who are interested and many who have all the right skills, but so often they fall flat and get in over their heads because they really are not ready to be in that leadership role. This not only causes frustration to the individual and they feel like no-one cares, but it also causes frustration to the Pastor, other leaders and ultimately hurts the church. So the task of raising up leaders is so critical to the life of a church.

Therefore, I have four character traits I look at even before approaching someone about a possible leadership role, and these are:

1. Availability

I ask the question how available are they? Are they a person who never has time for anything? Are they a person who will make themselves available or will often have reasons for not being free? While we live in such a busy world, and people’s schedules are always full, there are people who will make themselves available. These are the people who you need on your team. They will make your life so much easier and one word of advice, don’t take people at their word that they are available, look at their lifestyles, their friendships and their work commitments; this will really tell you if they are available.

2. Reliability

 If there is one thing above anything else I can’t stand in this world it is something or someone who is not reliable. Whether it’s a car, a computer, an organization or a person, I value reliability highly. Unreliable people will annoy a leader and also kill a church! If you find a leader who is reliable, wrap them in cotton wool and don’t let them out of your sight because they are the people to not only build a church on, but also people who will make a difference.

I’ll share the final two on Wednesday. But how about you, what type of character traits do you look for in a leader, employee, friends, partner?

1. What God has planned will come to pass!

On September 19^th 2010 Generation Church was birthed. It had been a journey of around 18 months and on this day we saw the reality of what seemed only like a dream.

The biggest problem with dreams is that they are full of fantasy. Rarely do dreams actually turn out the way we dream them. Generation Church was no different. I spent nights lying in bed at night wondering what our launch service would be like. I imagined hundreds of people coming through the doors, putting extra chairs out, running out of room, people choosing to live their lives for Jesus Christ, then August 22^nd happened!

I look back on August 22^nd as one of the biggest highs of the year, yet at 10:30am on that Sunday morning it seemed anything but a high. August 22^nd was the day of our second preview service. Our first one had attracted over 60 people and I was hopefully of a half decent crowd. Yet at 10:30am there were about 15 people, and that included the band. By the end of the service at 11:30am, 20 people had showed up. Yet as I drove home I had this incredible feeling that the vision God had for Generation Church was starting to form.

Our first preview service was full of people from other churches, people whose lives had already been changed by the life-giving message of Jesus Christ. Now on August 22^nd these church people had gone back to their churches and all that was left was our core team (about 12 at the time, of which 4 were on vacation) and a few people who otherwise would not be in church that day. After talking with some of these folks, I discovered that God had deeply impacted their lives that day and that is when I realized that God was really in this thing and Generation Church was not an Alex Penduck fantasy, but a plan God had devised before this world was ever formed and we had the privilege to be part of it!

If God has spoken something to you, do not be dismayed, disgruntled or question him, if he has said it, it will come to pass! It may not look like what you imagined, it may not start out how you thought, but it will happen and the way it happens will be exactly how God had planned!

So this week as I return from an eight week blogging break I want to share with you four things that will stay with me for a lifetime from 2010, and also what my 2011 plans are.

The first two days I want to share about two lows I experienced. This isn’t to hang my dirty laundry in public, but to help explain how God is working through our lives whether life is good or bad!

1. If you want to be anything for God, then know that the things you fear the most will probably happen to you.

When my wife and I decided to step out on the journey to start a new church, known today as Generation Church I had three fears.

Raquel & I talked about these fears and said if all three would happen to us, we would still continue on our calling to plant a life-giving church in Harford, County, Maryland.

The three fears were:

• Not getting support and blessing of our then current church
• Being rejected by our then denomination
• Not being accepted by a certain church-planting agency

The thought of anyone of these happening let alone all three would have caused to question our God-given calling. Yet God had done a life-changing work in our lives. He had not only transformed our hearts, but had re-wired our minds and deeply affected our souls.

So when one by one our fears became a reality, the physical and emotional hell we experienced could not stop us from the life heaven had started to give us in our hearts.

Many times of questioning, doubting, crying, worrying and fighting for a chance people to actually see our hearts were in the matter of weeks silenced by that still small voice of God. In a series of moments of uncompromising love God whispered into our hearts and souls that we are his and he is ours. That all we needed in life was him.

It was in those moments I realized that if I wanted to do anything of worth for God I would have to come face to face with my greatest fears and realize that they are not to be feared. For perfect love casts out all fear, and the love of Christ experienced in the soul of His children banishes fear for good.

As I looked back on all that God restricted us from I cannot put into words how thankful I am that my fears became a reality. Had those fears not taken place I firmly believe that Generation Church would not be what is today, and on the path to where it is going. Not saying those fears were wrong, just Generation Church found definition through those low valleys where all around is a shadow of death!

So if your fear is finances, the loss of a job, loneliness, mistrust, humility or anything else then let the love of your heavenly father sink deep within your soul and know that those earthly fears have nothing on the love that is within you and the only thing you should fear is the day your soul is not touched by that love.

I wasn’t thinking numerically or financially. I wasn’t thinking about the space we were meeting in compared to a living room only five months ago. Yes we had grown in all those areas, but it was the life paths so many of the people have been on.

I started to think of those who would not have been in church that day unless Generation Church had started. I thought of the marriages that would have broken up if not for the love and support the people of Gen Church had given them. I thought of those who only a few months ago were so closed off to Jesus, now worshiping God in their own unique way.

Then I started to think of how far I had come. From sitting in my church office only two years ago thinking life was great because our church was growing, but having not had a meaningful conversation with someone outside of ‘the faith’ in over five years. To now, not having an office, not having a church salary, not organizing event after event to keep all the church people happy; yet week after week having conversation after conversation with people who do not know God. Reaching out to people I was told I’d never reach. Seeing Christ transform life after life in His image, not ours!

I haven’t got there yet, wherever there is. There is still long way to go. However, as I look back I can’t help but think how far I have come, how far the many of us have come.

Yes there were times when I didn’t even think I’d make another step, times of wanting to give up. Times when the opposition of others almost killed my spirit and faith; but God held strong! He carried me and I’ve watched Him carry so many others and now I can only look back and think, wow, I can’t believe we have come this far!

You may be going through some stuff today. However, just look back and take in for a moment how far you have come! It’s probably way further than you could ever imagine! Then look forward and keep on going!

3. Doing Life Together is easier said than done!

As soon as we moved to Maryland as first associate pastors we realized that life here is a little different to most other places. People are always busy, but these folks out here are crazy busy! In fact in the first six months of living here I found myself living such a busy life I felt it was almost spiraling out of control.

I honestly do not think people know how to slow down. I’m not talking about working hard, everyone works hard all over the world, I’m talking about cluttering their lives with extra curricular activities. Actually, I’d go so far to say many people in the north east have never heard of the word margin!

When it comes to the church this has a massive effect. Let’s be honest, for the majority of people going to their kids 3 baseball games a week is more important than going to a small group. Or going to church for one hour on a Sunday morning is the preferred choice than volunteering for one service, attending another and helping set up or tear down. It’s part of the beast and to be honest, after living in the north east for coming on four years, I can hardly blame them, life is so hectic.

Planting a church is all about mobilizing people, engaging people, connecting people and also gathering lots of people who will donate a lot of time! That’s hard enough anywhere, but combine it in a culture where everyone seems to be fighting to gain more free time, it’s going to be difficult to gather those people.

However, there are two ways to look at this, in a negative sense, or as an opportunity! I firmly believe this is a great opportunity. Too often church leaders, and also church planters rely so heavily on a model, yet this is an opportunity to break the model and discover new ways to engage and connect people. New ways to teach people about margin and clutter in our lives and new ways to discover how we can do church on a weekly basis.

The problem is we have to think outside our box and most church planters while proclaiming to be innovative and creative really do have a small box. Our way of measuring success and failure is very narrow. However, when we step outside the box our old ways of measuring are no longer useful.

Church planting in the north east is tough, but it is also unique and I know we serve a God who thrives on the unique! I have a huge passion to see life giving churches birthed throughout this region, but to do that we need to break the mold, create an oasis in the desert and cultivate our relationships with people far from God instead of thinking a simple invite (which we still must do) will be the answer to all their problems.

These are great times to be planting a church and I am overwhelmed that God would choose me to be part on one and an awesome one at that!