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Check out sevenly.net

What Sevenly.net is doing is amazing! You have to take a look. To take a peak of the effective strategy they have to change the world go here.

The idea is they sell T-shirts, on behalf of charities, who design the shirt, in order to raise awareness, support and a following for the particular charity they are championing. The shirts cost $22 and $7 of that goes directly to the charity. Each week a new charity is supported and the idea is going off!

I just bought a T-shirt, for myself and Lyndal, shhh she doesn't know yet so it's a surprise, but the cause is one close to my heart, human sex trafficking in India. Among their other causes are: water; end hunger; give shoes; micro finance; end disease; medical and end poverty. What a brilliant idea, so if you're in the market for a new T-shirt, or looking to make a difference, head to www.sevenly.org!

Physical action to know a personal intimate relationship with Jesus (Darren Capuano)

Darren Capuano, must be one of the most down to earth Aussie blokes I know! When you chat to him you know he's legit, he has a heart of gold and a desire to serve, love and encourage people which is so refreshing! We had a chat recently, and consequently he agreed to speak to our Young Adults Community, 12two. In the course of our discussion Daz told me of seven physical practical steps he'd come across and used in order to deepen the intimacy of his relationship with Christ. I wanted to share it on here to offer you some encouragement and guidance in case you are stuck! So below is the result of his journey and discovery so far:

1. Repent openly of sin. Sin stops you proper authentic relationship with God. God loves you, but hates sin, so confess that sin, for which Christ has died for, and allow him to fill those places in your spirit with his love.

2. Pray, read the bible, read a devotional, just do something and do it daily. Whatever it is, start the day in an intimate place with Christ, giving him the chance to prepare you and direct you. It will be hard at first, but will develop into something you will long for and miss when not doing it. This is what will shift a theory about God, to an experience with God.

3. Listen to some worship CDs/music. They are such a great tool that allow God's presence to constantly wash over you. I find time at the end of most days to get alone, turn on a CD, pray, journal, read my Bible or just be with God.

4. Journal. However you are comfortable journaling, on your phone, laptop, iPad or a good old fashioned paper journal or notepad, find what works and start recording what has unfolded in your day. Some days will seem dull and boring, but if you push into God I guarantee that there will be much t write about as he does incredible things through you. then when life become tough, or you feel discouraged you can look back and discover how Jesus has been present in your story.

5. Seek first His Kingdom and righteousness. Matthew 6:33. If you do this then all things will be added to you. This means serve God in whatever it is you feel called to do. do it for him and in him and all of life's other problems will grow strangely dim.

6. Tell others. I believe until we ourselves have been transformed and have a real relationship with him it is hard to tell others about Jesus. Once you know, however, that Jesus is the only way to abundant life then you can't help but tell others about it. So get yourself right first, see point 1.

7. Go to Church. It may sound a bit obvious, but the one place Satan doesn't want you t go is Church. But as both Acts 2:46-47 and Hebrews 10:25 suggest, do not stop meeting together as some can develop the habit of doing.

 

'Taking something for granted'

I live on the Gold Coast! Maybe one of the most affluent, well-to-do, privileged societies in the world! Yet I, like most people I know, in fact all people I know, take this and most other things for granted!

That phrase 'taking something for granted' is an interesting phrase. A grant is something you get for nothing, the 'taking' part implies that we feel we have a right to it! So to take something for granted is for us to think we have a right to something that is actually a gift, privilege or blessing!

Just think for a moment all the things you are taking for granted right now! On my list would be some of the following: Relationships, Opportunities, Where we live, Wealth, Resources, Education, Clothes, Food, Drink, Shelter.

We take these things for granted, and we can no longer afford to. Not because they will stop if we don't, I doubt they will. We need to stop because if we continue to, we are placing ourselves at the mercy of our consumerist age, and a selfish and toxic perspective on and attitue in life. An attitude and perspective that seeks to drown out the Christ in all of us, and feed the 'it's my life, I'm going to do what I want!' value people so readily claim.

It's not enough however to just acknowledge that we take things for granted! If we only do this we feel noble, cause others to feel guilty, all the while continuing to keep on taking things for granted!

In response I think we need to do several things:

We need to thank God specifically for what He has given us. Go, do it, it'll take you a while, but it will shift something deep within you.

We need to thank others. Who are those people who, in the last week, helped you out, blessed you, benefited you, but your response has been less than fitting? Make a point of honouring and thanking them.

We need to look at all we have and ask the very serious and difficult question: How can I use what I have to help others and actively advance the Kingdom of God? The answer is alot more than we currently are.

We need to start looking for ways to bless and help others, in such a way that it costs us. Only when it costs us something will it mean something to us and release us from the attitude we are talking about. 

At its core a 'take-it-for-granted' attitude stands against the cause and life of Christ, and because of this we need to actively and aggressively weed it out!

How to encourage someone

It almost seems ridiculous to write ablog about how to encourage someone, only generally I don't think we do a very good job of it. So here are six keys I think are essential to keep in mind when encouraging someone: 

1. Speaking courage into people's lives.

This is what encouragement is. It is the act of speaking into another's life, value, worth, love, and belief, so that they feel empowered to do what they have previously feared doing. So be intentional about speaking courage into people's lives. 

2. Value the person not just the act.

So often we attribute a persons worth based on what they do, rather than who they are. Make sure when you encourage that you speak to the identity and character and nature of a person, not just to the task they did well. 

3. Take the time to do it.

It's ok to take a minute or so to build someone up. It's not a must, but don't let the opportunity to encourage be wasted because you threw out a 'good job' as they walked past. Someone the other day offered me a one-line encouragement, just after they broke eye contact and turned away from me. The thought was nice, but the impact lame.

4. Be authentic and sincere.

Don't encourage someone who you don't genuinely feel is worthy of it. Don't over encourage with things that are inaccurate to try and make a person feel great. Don't encourage every person you meet with the same phrase, saying or words. If you do I garautee that they'll see right through it and your words will be valueless, and your future value as an encourager of them wasted.

5. Don't include the negative if your intent is to encourage.

If you have some critical feedback to offer, don't cover it in encouragement, just say it. There is a time and place for it. Just as there is a time and place for encouragement. It is good to say positive things when speaking to someone about something negative, but if your intent is just to encourage, avoid drawing attention to weaknesses.

6. Avoid comparisons.

It's tempting to encourage someone in comparison to someone else. It doesn't help anyone. It devalues another, it pits someone against someone else, and it strips the person you are encouraging of originality and freedom. 

So with that in mind, go encourage someone!

Limitless 2: Encouragement (Michael Hands)

Limitless is our Youthstreet series about watching God blow past our limits and do the impossible. The idea is that each week we are going to issue a weeklong challenge that ties in with the Limitless theme, as we watch what God will do with our obedience and courage!

The second week we looked at what it means to be encouraged by the Scriptures and as a result encourage others. The challenge this week is to authentically encourage as many people as you can, whilst being encouraged by the Gospel.

You can listen to the second message of the series, here!

 

The Global Leadership Summit

Next Friday 22nd October at Newlife Uniting Church we will be hosting the Global Leadership Summit (GLS), where for an incredibly cheap investment you can be exposed to some absolutley incredible teaching from the likes of Bill Hybels, Erwin McManus, Michelle Rhee, Henry Cloud, Steven Furtick, John Dickson, Mama Maggie Gobran & Wes Stafford, Corey A. Booker & Patrick Lencioni.

The GLS is a Willow Creek Church initiative that seeks to empower, encourage and equip leaders in all aspects of the Church to step up to the next level! If you live on the Gold Coast, or are visiting next weekend and want to come, email me and I can fix you up with a great priced ticket! This is an event not to be missed! If you're not on the Gold Coast, but are wanting to go, the event is being held in all major Australian cities from this weekend. Check out the GLS site, as linked above!

Don't be robbed of hope!

I've been thinking allot about hope recently, and how it sits in tension with disappointment. I'm not sure the two are mutually exclusive, but I do know that constant disappointment can rob us of hope: that friend stands you up; the task you were counting on someone to do is forgotten; your prayer to God isn't answered; you get forgotten or replaced; the event you have your heart set on is a failure. These things can rob us of hope, which happens when our hope in things is constantly not fulfilled.

As leaders we are charged with the responsibility of carrying the hopes of the communities we lead. People look to us to know that it is still worth hoping in God, in people, in the future. How do we maintain this though when we are gradually being robbed of hope, ourselves?

We need to learn how to hit the hope reset button. We need to develop the resilience, so we don't let people failing to fulfill their responsibilities, commitments and word, define us or steal our hope. 

When a power board is overloaded it will flick a safety switch. When this happens all the appliances, plugged in, are turned off. That which blew the switch, and those that didn't. Disappointment is like this, someone let's us down repeatedly, or many people let us down all in a short amount of time, or God seems not to show up in a crisis, and it blows out our hope circuit. When this happens the very real potential exists to unplug all of that in which we hope, and drown in disappointment.

Instead we need to just detach and deal with that one (or multiple) incident, situation or person that let us down, not everything. Once we identify that, we then need to hit the little red reset button, that enables all the other things to be reinstated with our hope.

Don't allow the pain of disappointment, regardless of how often you experience it, to rob you of hope! Your people need this, as do you!

 

Preaching with an iPad (the pros and cons)

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an iPad to preach? It wasn't until I broke my wrist and needed to conduct my sister-in-law's wedding that for the sake of juggling rings, notes, microphones and hand gestures that I opted to try the iPad as a viable preaching alternative. I followed this by speaking five sessions at a camp, and used the iPad to preach from again. This is what I learnt from the experience...

Reasons for using an iPad to preach:

• No paper to have blow away, loose a page, get out of order, fall off your stand.
• Smoother page change and less distractions.
• Portability.
• You've got access afterwards to ur calendar, phonebook, other docs.
• Bible is on it to so you don't have to carry an extra one.
• Paper notes require a functional printer (assuming you type and don't write them by hand).
• You can play a game on it if the sermon your preaching gets too boring
• You can type the sermon on it and it's good to go, no printing necessary.
• Brightness, regardless of lighting you can always see what your reading.
• if you have one why not use it.

Reasons against using an iPad to preach:

• Paper notes don't run out of battery.
• You can lose your place easily if you use a scroll down program.
• Set up to use colour coded notes takes longer as you need to edit on a word processor, then save with larger font and export to PDF, to then use on your iPad. All of which takes more time.
• You can't screw up a page of your notes and throw it at someone who falls asleep.
• It's tech dependent, and often needing of Internet access, to transfer files before preaching.
• Programs can crash mid-sermon.
• Editing is limited if only using iPad. You can't scribble adjustments just before you preach, or between multiple sermons.
• If you accidentally drop your iPad and whilst trying to stop it hitting the floor with your foot, you propel it into a wall smashing the screen, it is more expensive and depressing than using paper notes.
• Notes don't have Screen orientation change, when you move the angle.
• It's much less dangerous to wipe the spit off of your notes than a touch screen device.
• It's heavier than paper notes to carry round whilst delivering your sermon.
• The look an message it sends may be a distraction that is not desired.
• Why use it just because you have one!

In conclusion, it was interesting and worked for the circumstances, but I'm not sold on the idea and prefer to stay old school! Would love to know what you think if you've tried it... What did I miss?

 

Limitless 1: Big Asks of God

Welcome to the new Youthstreet series called Limitless. Limitless is about watching God blow past our limits and do the impossible. The idea is that each week we are going to issue a weeklong challenge that ties in with the Limitless theme, as we watch what God will do with our obedience and courage!

The first week we jumped into asking the huge impossible things of God, and watching him blow us away with how he moves!

You can listen to the first message, of the series, here!

Is Steve Jobs dead?

Sadly Steve Jobs has in the last 24 hours passed away due to pancreatic cancer. What follows this is the phenomenon of disconnected grieving, where we grieve for someone we have never met! With Steve's passing many questions will be asked:

Can Apple sustain its ingenuity and creativity?

Can Steve's shoes be filled?

What is the value of a life?

What should our lives be about, and how valuable is immense wealth and brilliance if we die anyway?

Why should the death of one move us more than the death of thousands at the same time?

Is Steve's life a life to be admired?

What would Steve say to all these questions and all the others asked?

And so many more...

Personally I feel the death of anyone is tragic, yet inevitable, but how might Steve's life and impact of that life still be of benefit to the world? Clearly part of the answer to this is through the products he created, but I wanted to feature this video of Steve's insights and reflections on the value of life, that he communicated recently at a graduation ceremony for Stanford University. I found his words to be refreshing, brilliant and real. I hope this can be a blessing to you as you reflect on Steve Jobs' life and impact, and consequently yours.

(You'll need to copy the URL link into your browser, sorry the embedding didn't work, not mac savvy enough!)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html