Had a great all staff meeting on Monday night at the home of Marlin and Elaine Gill. After discussing mission, vision and goals, we all gathered around Kenny Thomas prayed and licensed him as a Minister of the Gospel. Kenny was blown away. The leadership team had been watching him and grooming him, and he didn't even know it. Kenny just started revamping the kids environment at Epic and never has looked back. So we laid hands on him and prayed for his anointing to increase and it was awesome. It reminded me not to overlook the little things, because God uses the simple things to confound the wise. Kenny is passionate about God, and about kids knowing about God and His son Jesus. I will call him Pastor Kenny, he still can't believe it. I think it's awesome.
After that, we had some cake and coffee and talked at length about the road Epicchurch.tv has been on. Marlin and Elaine shared about God calling them to start a church back in 94-95 (Marlin kept reminding God that he was a Doctor not a Pastor). They shared the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows. Through it all I thought "these guys are sold out to Jesus on a level that is hard to fully understand". The reason for my reaction to their story was, they grew up in church and then did something crazy, they went against the norm and totally pursued the calling God gave them. Amidst all kind of obstacles and roadblocks, they are here today, still excited about God, still passionate about serving Jesus, and still pumped up for the vision called Epicchurch.
Then I looked across the table to Justin and Amy Potter, our Youth directors at Epic. I wanted to know their story. I wanted to know because, Justin just spent 10 or so hours of his off time from work, to help me with lighting in the auditorium. In addition to the time he and Amy put into preparing for Revolution on Wednesday nights. I thought surely he grew up in church and thought that serving was the "right thing to do",out of obligation to the system, not out of passion for the Savior. Not that all people who grew up in church are that way, I'm just stating my observations. Obviously the Gill's are not those type and they grew up in church. It is my blog, and my opinion...nanny nanny boo boo. Back to Justin. I found out he never even stepped foot in a church growing up. Not even like me, the Catholic boy, who at least heard about Jesus.
But yet he encountered the grace of God, and the love of Christ, and you can't slow him down.
So it is the Kenny Thomas', Justin Potters, IV Marsh's, Jack Alford's and Moviepastors, Elaine Gills and countless others that pour out passion in all things Kingdom of God. Passion and a desire to see lives changed by the Gospel of Christ. I love being around people like these. But I really love to be around people who don't know, or want to know Jesus more. So enough typing and off to the streets of Decatur.
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13 years ago
1 comment:
I just found your blog through your Facebook post! Cool to see your insight into different things!
On this particular issue, I was really interested to read others opinions on this because it reflects on my own experiences a lot. So here is my totally uneducated opinion on the matter!
I think the difference between the two types is in large part due to natural personality, i.e. Passionate people are passionate and emotional about everything and after God fills that hole in their life they are REALLY awesome at being passionate for God. Now let me say I know for a fact that none of what I will say is always true but from past experience this isnt always true just an observation...
I bet if you examine it closely, a large % of the really passionate and leaders had that same personality trait prior to coming to know Jesus as their savior. Look at hoMany times those same those people may have been incredibly passionate, emotional, and a leader at work/careers/hobbies/music etc, or alternatively without Him, they may have had passion and desire for drugs, money, sex, etc.
I would consider myself in the other category. I am a very tempered person. I doubt this is a great thing to admit, but I dont get overly excited, emotional, or passionate about anything much. I would definitely fall into the RCA class you spoke about. I wish I fell into the other class, but for some reason I just dont have that same personality trait. I have more of the typical Engineer personality.
I do definitely also agree with the part where you mentioned that maybe those RCA personality people need to be involved in the right ways. I have seen it personally in the past and I have seen it happen MANY times to others. Maybe these people have been asked to contribute in ways they dont feel comfortable with, or have been denied the opportunity to participate in the areas that they may be passionate about, and maybe feel left out or betrayed. Or even like you said, they may be asked to do so much that maybe they do burn out. So in the end they say (right or wrong), "You know what? These 'people' dont really care what I can contribute, but I do love God and I think he cares, so I want to still do as much as I can, but without really having to deal with the whole human element of it" I think this can affect both personality types, but especially those with the personality characteristics that arent strong enough to get past that!
Anyway, just my opinion and 2cents!
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