Category Archives: Fitness

October 13, 2010

Momentum

By alexpenduck

Once of the funniest slights I have ever seen in my life happened when I was 18. I was our churches youth pastor and took about 10 of our youth to a place called, ‘Cardin Mill Valley’.

 This place is beautiful, full of mountains (well large hills really) and streams, which all funnel down into one valley. We had spent the day hiking as we stood on top of the largest hill we realized it was time to go home.

 

Instead of walking down one the trails we decided the quickest way down was straight down. So we all got on our backsides and slowly made our way down the steep slope, that was except for one of us. Adrian decided that he could walk down the slope like a regular path.

 

Adrian was the last to make the decent as he was in charge of making sure all the kids were following the correct route. I led the decent and looked back regularly to make sure everything was fine. Then in a split moment the calm decent turned into frenzy. Adrian’s walk had quickly turned into a jog, and his jog had turned into a run. As Adrian came hurling down the hill the momentum of his body was so great his legs could not keep up. Adrian flashed past me at the speed of a gun and then suddenly he disappeared.

 

As we made our way down to check if he was okay, we saw Adrian lying on his back in a thorn bush! Adrian was okay and we laughed so hard my sides literally did split.

 

However, this episode taught me a huge lesson about life. Momentum is something that we all need in life. Momentum will push through even the toughest situations, but momentum must be keep in control otherwise you will end up being out of control.

 

We all experience momentum, whether it is the momentum of a new healthy lifestyle or on the flip side it is momentum dragging us towards an unhealthy diet. It may be momentum to get organized, or the momentum that drags us into a state of clutter.

 

Very often the place we find ourselves today is because an action we started has gained momentum. Without momentum it will be impossible for you to push through the boundaries of your current life, but that momentum has the ability to push you way beyond where you are capable of holding your own.

 

As we have started Generation Church I have realized that momentum is essential; too many church plants stutter for years because they cannot gain momentum. However, I have also seen too many church plants who had so much momentum that they could not keep up and five years down the road the church that started out with such a clear vision now looks nothing like what it was intended to be, all because their momentum got out of control.

So today you may need to do a little pushing to start the ball rolling to gain some momentum, but some others you may need to make some drastic changes to your life/organization to stop momentum taking you places that you may never recover from.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Church Planting, Direction, Fitness, Generation Church, Leadership

June 2, 2010

The Back Door Mat

By alexpenduck

Growing up I was always a backyard kid. You would find me kicking a ball in the backyard instead of in front of the TV playing Super Mario Brothers.

Being a kid who loved to play outside I soon found out that there was a mat at the back door for a reason. I was told time and again to make sure I use the mat to scrub the dirt off my shoes before entering the house.

The mat at the back door always had a few pairs of shoes which were too dirty to be cleaned. No-one dared to walk through the house with any type of loose dirt on their feet.

The reason for the mat was to make sure that the dirt from the outside didn’t pollute the inside of the house, simple as that. Now every time I enter any type of building I always make sure I wipe my feet on the mat.

Most of us have physical mats for our homes, but very few of us have spiritual mats for our mind, body and soul.

So often our lives get plain filthy from playing out in this world. We were not created to stay inside all the time (for us Christians that means we weren’t created to stay inside the church all the time!). However, there comes a time when we are to transition from outside to in and we must make sure we don’t bring the loose dirt with us.

I have developed a system in my own life which I like to call my spiritual mat. This helps to make sure I’m not a loose dirt carrier. The system is very simple. It comprises of three parts.

For the body, I have the mat of workout! Let’s be honest most of us allow loose dirt to filter our bodies through junk food and laziness. For me an intentional effort to workout wipes me clean.

For the mind I read and I dream. I read books that will not only stimulate my mind but will help me think purely about ourselves above myself and to help me develop into someone I am not yet. I also dream I what God desires me to become.

The final mat is the one for the soul. This is the most important yet one so many forget about. For the soul there is only one mat that I have found will wipe off the loose dirt. That is to daily make the choice to worship my God. I do this through a one chapter of the bible a day bible study (I take one chapter and just explore what it is truly saying) and I also worship through having a daily conversation with my savior where I tell him how much he means to me and how much I appreciate him.

When I use these three mats I find my life is so much cleaner and I rarely have to go back and sweep the places I have already trodden. If I don’t use these mats, let’s just say there’s a lot of cleaning that has to take place, and I HATE cleaning!

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Christianity, Church, Fitness, Leadership, Worship

April 23, 2010

The Place of Okay!

By alexpenduck

One of the most devastating places an individual or organization can find themselves in, is in the place of okay!

The place of okay is the location between great and very bad. Often the place of okay is traveled through after you have been to the place of great and sometimes you find yourself in the place of okay after pulling yourself out of the depths of very bad.

You know the place! This is the place when someone may ask you, how is everything going? You answer, it’s okay!

I’m currently in that place with regards to my health, fitness and weight. Last year I knew I needed to do something about my own personal health. I was in a place of urgency and knew something had to be done. So I did something about it, I was motivated and had an urgency to workout everyday and eat the right things. I the space of several months I went from very bad to doing okay. It was here the urgency left and the motivation deserted me. Now I’m not working as hard because I’m not as urgent. This is dangerous!

I was once on staff at a church that found themselves in the place of okay. When I started they were in a very bad situation. People had left in droves the months preceding and the people that remained had become anxious and very sad of the situation. This led to an urgency to do something about it, and so we did. It was a beautiful example of paid, unpaid, young and old working together to bring this organization back onto its feet; and on its feet it got!

Then all of a sudden we started to travel through the place of okay! People started to think we were okay because we were back on our feet. We became less urgent, not so anxious and the motivation started to leak. There at the place of okay it stayed. I wonder today what that organization today could be if everyone had stayed with a sense of urgency and not walked through the place of okay?

So here’s the leadership lesson in all this! The best leaders are the ones who can take their people and organization through the place of okay in the shortest amount of time. Anyone with something about them can lead in times of urgency, good leaders can lead in times of victory and success, but the great leaders are the one who can take their people through the place of okay without stopping and losing motivation.

Do you have what it takes to be a great leader?

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Church, Church Planting, Direction, Fitness, Leadership

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