Today at Victory we hosted the Significant Church Conference. I’ll just leave you with some of my favorite takeaways that I’m able to share:

• Why do the people that attend your church say that it exists? (It should be your vision)

• Small thinking and dreaming isn’t from God

• In Leadership you’ll either be an overseer or a doer, but never both.

• 4 Things we need to respect
• Peoples children, time, money, and relationships

• 4 Church Killers
• Legalism, the bizarre and insane, long services, and being too intense.

• Our goal isn’t to see through people, it’s to see them through!

• God wants to reach people through you more than you do (but our unbelief hinders us)

• #1 temptation of people in life is that God is withholding something from us.

• When we can’t be an example in leadership, we must become examples in repentance

• Bad cultures can last 6 minutes, hours, days, months, years, etc… We have to step in as leaders, believe in ourselves and the gifts God gave us, and turn that culture around

• Pastors of churches reaching the lost study 5x as much as pastors who aren’t

• Don’t see peoples faults, see their future. Don’t see peoples habits, see their hearts

I also got the opportunity to drive a pastor and youth leader to the airport after the conference. It was a wonderful time where I got to ask questions about ministry and just soak in wisdom from their experiences. I am grateful I had that opportunity. (I’ll share what I learned later).

There were plenty of more… these just of few of the great nuggets shared. One of the biggest themes that kept coming up in me was “it’s not about me”. Getting our eyes off of building our own “kingdoms” and focusing on setting people free with the Word of God and equipping them to go out and change the world through what God has placed in their hearts.

I’m really refocusing my life on caring about people. It’s so easy to get caught up in planning out and building ministries that we lose focus of what is really important in God’s eyes: people. My prayer lately has been Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours… let me to see people how you see them. Let me never become a person that says, “I love the ministry, I just can’t stand the people.”

As I’ve been growing I realize how right John the Baptist was when he said, “He must increase, I must decrease.” It really is all about Jesus . . . and that is what gets me going everyday.

As most of you know I’m training for the Chicago Marathon in October with Pastor Larry. It’s been an amazing experience so far. I’ve run nearly 300 miles since March! Insane! Anyway… I said I’d keep you posted with some lessons I’m learning along the way.

• Both life and success are both a marathon as well as a journey, not a sprint or a destination.
  

• Motivation to do anything in life will never strike you like lightning… just do it and the motivation will come.
  

• In training for a marathon, I’ve realized that the 6-7 months you spend training, no one is there patting you on the back for all your hard work or pushing you to run harder. It is often the same in life and ministry… they can both be “thankless” jobs, but that is why we find our worth and affirmation in God!

Just some thoughts…. learning so much… I’ll have a volume of sermons after October!!

One of my life goals is to run a marathon. In January of this year, one of my mentors (Larry Bettencourt) finished his first marathon and this inspired me to make the decision to run my first this year. Pastor Larry and I decided that we’d run the Chicago Marathon together in October.

I started running in March and started our actual marathon training in May. Today I just finished my first 12 mile run. 12 miles…I’ve put in over 200 this year! Considering in high school I couldn’t finish nor was I at all interested in finishing one mile…I’m even impressed!

Pastor Moore, who is training for his 3rd marathon told me that through my marathon train I would get a lot of sermon illustrations and life lessons. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more… but here is one that’s been building up in me.

Saturdays are our big runs… this is the day we generally increase in mileage each week… I’ve gone from 4 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 12. These days are what people call “putting in the mile days”. You don’t pay attention to your pace… you just run nice and slow and the whole point is to just break through physical barriers so your body can adjust.

I think where most people miss it in life is that they don’t “put in the miles’ they’re supposed to put in. I’ve had several youth pastors (with experience) ask me how I got on staff at Victory. Honestly… I put in the miles. I often think that if I were a student out of Bible School and applied to work there… I wouldn’t have a prayer, but I’ve been serving in this ministry for going on 6 years, I went to every service I could, helped out as often and anywhere I could, always went the extra mile, and went out of my way to look for ways to learn, serve, get mentored, etc.

When I suggest people pick up a second job and go to a larger church and just spend time serving there and learning the culture of a big church . . . I find that few people are willing to put in those miles… and that is why few people will ever accomplish what God has put in there hearts… they’re not willing to stick it out and constantly day in and day out put in the mileage.

I could go on… but I don’t like long blogs… I need to get better at this… more on the marathon and more lessons to come!