Lesson #2 – Discover How God Has Created You to Serve.  I enjoy trying new things.  It doesn't have to be something big, it could be leading a different missions team each year, or even like this week implementing a new check-in system for kid's at the church, but I need to have something new going on.  

If I find myself doing all the same things day in and day out for too long I get bored, and if I do it much longer I get burnt out.  The only way to revive me at that point is to give me a new challenge, something new to try and figure out.

That doesn't mean I cannot do any managing of what is already there, as I actually do quite a bit of that, but I always need something new in front of me as well.  Leading is where I get my greatest satisfaction.

I think one of the greatest lessons anyone can learn is how God created them to serve.  Whether it is as leader or manager, preacher or teacher, in drama or music, or in one of a million different ways, finding out the way God wired you is an important lesson to learn.  What about you, have you discovered the way God created you serve?

I am going to take the next several posts to reflect on some lessons I have learned in my first few years of working at the church.  Some of these lessons I have learned from watching others, and other lessons I have learned from the hard teacher of experience.   

Lesson #1 – Don't Underestimate the Small Stuff.  Even the smallest gesture of kindness can have an enormous impact on someone's life, and the relationship they have with you.  In fact, more than likely, it is the small stuff that you do for someone that they will remember most.  

Each week we have dozens and dozens of kids here at Calvary.  On most Sunday's even the most attentive of kids struggles to remember what I taught the week before; however, I have kids remember me coming to their baseball games years after I was there.  Kids may forget what I teach on, but they remember me sending them a birthday card, or a card congratulating them on an accomplishment. The personal touch of noticing the small details in someone's life is what people remember, and it builds trust in their relationship with you.

You could dedicate hours and hours in preparing sermons, and administrating the church, but if you don't take time to notice the small details of people's lives, your ministry will be flat.   Ministry is in the details of people's lives.

My insurance company needs some help with the way they relate to their customers.  I have been with the same insurance company for over four years now, and during that time I have made every single payment on time.  Most months I pay well before the due date, and quite often pay more than the minimum balance due for my policy.  In short I have been a pretty good customer.

This past month though was an exception to my pristine record.  Life was just a little crazy and the bill got put in a pile with some other papers, and I was late in making my payment by a few days (that's days, not weeks).  The day after I paid my bill, I received this letter from my insurance company that must have crossed paths with my payment in the mail.  They wrote…

NOTICE OF CANCELLATION: NON-PAYMENT OF PREMIUM.  Cancellation Date 10/11/09  ***Cancellation Notice***  Due to your failure to remit the premium due, we hereby cancel the above mentioned policy, effective on the cancellation date stated above, at 12:01 AM….A late payment fee has been included.

Now I know that it probably gets old dealing with people who don't pay their bills, but I think my insurance company could use some help in drafting a letter to their customers who miss paying a single bill by a few days, every 4 or 5 years.  Maybe their letter could go something like this….

Dear valued customer,

We just wanted to check in and be sure everything is alright as we didn't get your insurance payment for this last month, and since you have been with us for so long we know that this is out of the ordinary.  We realize that a million things could have happened.  Perhaps our bill, or your payment, got lost in the mail (it happens from time to time).  Or, maybe you have been our of town or just haven't had the time to drop your payment in the mail.  Whatever the reason we just wanted to be sure you were aware we hadn't received your payment yet, and if you haven't already we simply ask if you could get it to us as soon as possible.

Unfortunately we do have some pencil pushers in our office that give us rigid deadlines we have to enforce, so we really need to have your payment by October 11th.  If we don't get it by then we have to close your account, which is something we don't want to do since you have been such a valuable customer for so long.  If there is anything we can do to help you in order to be sure this doesn't happen just let us know what it is.

Sincerely,

_________  __________  Insurance Company

Now that may not be the perfect letter, but opening with "Dear Valued Customer" and closing with "Sincerely" beats opening with "NOTICE OF CANCELLATION" and closing with "A late fee has been included" anytime.  To be quite honest, I am so annoyed by their letter that I am considering going through the hassle of changing insurance companies.  Which is a shame as they would have probably had me as a customer for another 4 or 5 years if they would have approached me being late this one time just a little differently.  

The way you relate to people is important.  Whether you are talking about insurance companies, churches or even friends and family.

Jack and I went for a walk today.  The goal was simply to get to the playground and back, but I thought I would let Jack lead the way this time to see if he knew how to get there.   A few observations from our journey….

1.  It doesn't matter what path you take as long as you get to the destination.  It wasn't the way I would have gone, but we still got to the playground.  Sometimes it is good to let others lead and try a new approach.

2. When you let someone take you on a new path you meet new people and see new things.  I met some neighbors today I didn't even know I had.

3. Kids will miss some nice stops along the way without guidance.  Jack wouldn't have had the chance to see the "big trucks" unless I pointed him in the right direction one time.

4. People will lose heart from time-to-time and need someone to prod them on.  At one point Jack just wanted to take off his shoes and quit.

5. You need someone to keep you from running out in front of moving cars.  Literally in our case, figuratively for many others.

6. Sometimes we get distracted from the ultimate goal by something as insignificant as jumping off stairs.  It's nice to have a partner there to remind you that there are swings and slides waiting just ahead. 

7. Life is better when you take time to enjoy with those you are on the journey with.  Sometimes it is nice just to stop, sit down under a tree, and take a break together.  

8. It is nice to have someone carry you up the big hills when you are exhausted.  It is tough to finish the big journeys in life alone.

9. It takes a little longer when you let a one year old lead, but the
lessons they learn along the way make the longer journey worth it.  If you don't let others lead, they may never learn their own way around the neighborhood.

10. There is a reward at the end.  It's true whether you are talking about swings and slides, or eternity.

We recently launched a new Google group specifically for Children’s ministry at Calvary.  You can follow some of our thoughts and conversations by joining the group at http://groups.google.com/group/ccc-ministry.

We are also working on some new and creative ways to connect with parents, including a new parents e-newsletter.  Stayed tuned for more details.

A few days ago I was talking with Katie, one of our Zion interns for the summer.  We were talking about priorities.    When I asked her about her top priorities, she had many of the same ones I have…God, family, friends, etc…   But what stuck out to me was her fifth priority, which was simply to be a dependable person.

I appreciate her having this priority.  I don't think that there are too many people who would put being dependable on their lists of priorities for life, but Katie does.  Whatever she does in life, she wants to be known as someone who is dependable….someone whose "yes" is "yes" and whose "no" is "no", someone who does what they say they are going to do.  The thing about it is, having worked with her for a while now, I can say that she lives out this priority (although she did stay home sick today, but I suspect that was due to eating to much chocolate the night before!).

At any rate, props to Katie for her inspiration to me, and hopefully a few others, to be more dependable.

Yesterday Becky and I went for walk.  Living next to the mall, we found ourselves checking out some new stores in the mall including The Village Silversmith.  If you have never been in this store, it is on list of stores you must check out.

Two things make this store great. First, is the rocks.  They have all kinds of rocks, stones, and  fossils.  Everything from turquoise (Becky’s favorite) to real dinosaur fossils (my favorite) to a full sized bear skeleton (okay, maybe this one is my favorite.)  The second thing that makes this store great is that it is family owned.  This family has been in the rock business for over 40 years.  Father, mother, sister and brother are all a part of this company.  For 40 years this family has been collecting some of the most interesting and beautiful stones from around the world, and then doing what they do best, merging these stones with silver and making amazing jewelry.

While Becky and I were in the store we had the opporunity to meet and talk with John, who is the son of family.  John is passionate about rocks.  While we there I asked a simple question, but we did not get a simple answer.   All I asked was whether the dinosaurs fossils were genuine, or if they were some kind of remake.  That question lead to probably a 20 or 30 minute explanation on just about every stone in the store.

John knew everything about every fossil and stone in his collection. He could tell you how old they were, where in the world they were found, how hard each stone was compared to others, how the different patterns were created in each stone, the different chemicals and elements that are in every stone, and on and on and on.  The most impressive thing about John is that he could give you all this information without having to look it up, or even think about it.  John is a living encyclopedia, a wealth of knowledge on stones.  John even admitted “I know everything about rocks, any other subject not so much, but rocks that is what I am passionate about.”

I appreciate John’s passion.  Rocks are his life.  I was inspired by John’s love for rocks.  He has something that he loves and he is pursuing it with everything he has.  To be quite honest, I want to be like John. I want to be just as passionate about the important things in my life, like my relationship with God, my family, my friends, and my ministry.  I want to be a living encyclopedia on Bible knowledge, so when I am asked questions I don’t have to say “let me go look that up and get back to you.”  I want to be able to honestly say, “I know everything about God’s work, any other subject not so much, but God that is what I am passionate about.”

If you are ever in the North Shore Mall, be sure to stop by and talk to John, his passion will inspire you…and you will learn a few things about rocks as well.

Priorities.  What sets them?  What keeps us from keeping them?  As someone who believes in God, I also believe that he has a purpose, or even purposes, for our lives.  The number one thing that he has for us to do is love Him.  After that comes other priorities like family, a career, friends, church, community involvement. If your anything like me though, you probably lose sight of the priorities that God has for your life almost every day.

A man named Nehemiah didn’t though.  Read his story from the book of the Bible that is named after him.  Here is a guy who felt that God had called him to do a huge task, to rebuild the walls of his home city of Jerusalem, which had been destroyed.  It was no small task but it is one that he felt God has called him to…a priority that God had for his life.

As he was going about doing what God had called him to do, there were a group of people who were giving him a difficult time (as there always are whenever someone tries to do anything good.)  These guys wanted Nehemiah to fail so badly that they were hatching plans left and right to try to get the worked stopped.  Just as the walls of the city were finished, and the gates were about to be put back up they gave one last effort to get Nehemiah to stop the work and attempted to distract him by inviting him to a meeting.  Nehemiah’s response was classic, he said, “I am doing a great work, and I can’t come down.”

Wow.  Here is a guy that realized that God had called him to a very specific mission and he wasn’t going to let anything distract him from that mission.  In Nehemiah’s case getting distracted would mean death, as that is what his enemies were trying to do lure him away from the saftey of his newly built city walls to kill him.

For us getting off mission, getting distracted, also means death, although probably not literally like in the case of Nehemiah.  Getting distracted for us means our relationship with God dies, or our relationship with our family dies, or the dream that God has for our life dies.  I think all of us would be well served to adapt the mindset of Nehemiah, and whenever we are tempted to come down off our wall and be distracted from the priorities that God set for our lives to say, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”