Author: Brady Boyd (page 25 of 35)

Dream Centers Update

August 19, 2010 / / 5 Comments /

Last week, the elders agreed to move forward and secure a building for phase one of the Dream Centers. We are actively meeting with local commercial realtors and ministries and should have some space soon to open a medical clinic and maybe space enough to begin offering ministry to our military families who are struggling. There are still several large buildings that could be donated to us, but while we pray and wait, we want to take a small step to launch.

Also, I want you to know that the Dream Centers will not be an exclusive ministry of New Life Church. It will be led by a coalition of churches, ministries, business leaders and military officials, all who have a desire to pastor our city. New Life will certainly lead the way, but it has always been my desire to see a group of people work together to meet the greatest needs in our city with no one caring who gets the credit.

Notice that I mentioned Dream Centers, plural, not singular. Many people are under the impression that only one big building will house all the ministries, but that is not the case. There will be multiple sites around our city with multiple outreaches all operating under the umbrella of the Dream Center board.  One central location is not sufficient to meet the staggering needs of our city.

So pray that we will launch soon, even if it is a small space. Pray for the resources, both financial and human, to begin well. Pray for a coalition of servant leaders to rally around this God idea. Most importantly, pray for thousands of people to rediscover the dream that God has placed inside of them.

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Pray Until You are Skinny

August 10, 2010 / / 1 Comment /

People sometimes quit praying for the same reason they quit a diet. It is really difficult and it seems to take too long. No one starts a diet and wakes up two days later able to wear their skinny clothes. The same is true oftentimes with prayer. Sometimes there is an immediate answer, but most often it takes weeks, months and even years to see the breakthrough.

I was reminded this morning in our prayer time that it is easy to get discouraged and tired after praying for such a long time without the big miracle happening.  This is why the psalmist wrote:

 “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.

Psalm 57:7 NIV

This is my prayer today – “Father in heaven, help me to remain steadfast, unmovable, and unshakable. Help me to pray and believe and not lose heart or grow tired. Help all of us to keep praying until we are skinny.”

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How is Everyone Doing?

August 6, 2010 / / 1 Comment /

It’s amazing how little I know about what is happening at New Life and I am supposed to be the leader. I think this is true about a lot of leaders, not just me. It is easy to encase ourselves in our office and forget to look below the water line of the ship. So, from time to time, I ask a few people on the staff how everyone is doing. I’m not asking for them to relay the latest gossip, but I do want to know what I don’t know.

This week, I asked someone about the morale of the staff. This trusted person told me there was a concern we were going to lay off some people because another local ministry just laid off some of their staff. I would have never known this if I had not asked.  We are not considering lay-offs, instead we are preparing for a season of growth and increased ministry. I’m sure this rumor would have died a slow death on its own, but I got the chance to kill it quickly because I asked the right question.

I am not a proponent of chasing down rumor fires and putting them out. That would exhaust me and keep me from my primary purpose. I realize there will always be a handful of misguided opinions on a staff our size. What I do suggest is that from time to time, we peer below the water line to make sure we have not run aground on something that could have been avoided by a more attentive captain.

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Are you a workaholic?

July 20, 2010 / / 2 Comments /

Workaholics have damaged and destroyed more families than alcoholics, especially among leaders in the local church.  I meet pastors all the time who work incessantly at building God’s house while ignoring their own. All the while they justify their long hours with phrases like “this is just a season and will not always be like this” or “God has given me a big assignment”.  Meanwhile, back home, their spouses and children get what is left over at the end of the day.

How do you know if you have become addicted to work and performance? What are the signs that you may be out of balance? Here’s a few to consider.

•1. You have not taken a full day off from ministry in more than a month.  When was the last time you turned off your phone and refused to check work emails for an entire 24-hour cycle?

•2. You have not taken more than five days of vacation in a long time. Five days is what it takes for me to detox from the demands of ministry. I cannot even rest and regenerate until the sixth day. If all you have taken are a few days here and there, your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual tanks will eventually run dry.

•3. You feel guilty for not attending every event at the church.  When was the last time something significant happened at your church and you stayed home instead of attending? I know this will be shocking news to you, but your team is capable of doing stuff well without you looking over their shoulders.

•4. You have a high turnover on your team. Workaholics demand the same performance from those around them as they do of themselves. Typically, workaholics hang around each other, like alcoholics, and enable each other to continue their destructive behaviors. All those who cannot keep up with the frenetic pace are quickly discarded.

•5. You are constantly frustrated that you are not growing fast enough. Workaholics are obsessed with numerical measurements of growth. Even when attendance is growing, it is never fast enough for workaholics. Their identity is wrapped up in performance and results, instead of the internal spiritual maturity that is most important to God.

I was once a workaholic and it almost cost me everything. I am guilty of all five symptoms listed above, but I have been restored to a balanced life that allows me to work hard at the church I love while not sacrificing my family on the altar of ministry.  Be diligent at your job, using your time wisely, but remember to rest well, stop feeling guilty for the occasional nap, and spend time alone with God. Talk to Him about stuff in your heart instead of what is happening at the church building. It works, believe me.

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Dream Center Update

July 12, 2010 / / 2 Comments /

There is a lot of excitement at New Life about the Dream Center and that leads to a lot of questions. I will try to answer the most common ones today and will try to keep everyone updated as things progress.

Right now, we are praying for a building or buildings in the downtown area or south of the city, near Fort Carson. These are the two areas where the needs are most intense. We need the buildings to be donated and we need space for medical clinics, counseling and residential treatment. We have looked at several buildings and have had preliminary discussions with some key groups about getting donated space.

We have also spent a lot of time meeting with community leaders and the chaplains at the local military bases to evaluate what needs are not being met right now in our city. We do not want to replicate services. We want to support the ministries and agencies that are doing a great job, while providing services that are most needed.

Once the buildings are acquired, we will need hundreds of volunteers and the partnership of other local churches and ministries to operate the Dream Center. We suspect the operating costs to be as much as $100,000 per month, but it could be much less if we open the center in phases.

Keep praying with me and get ready to help pastor our city. The needs are great but our God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine

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Praying for Big Stuff Again

July 5, 2010 / / 5 Comments /

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine …” – Ephesians 3:20

I have a pretty big imagination and I have some friends who are crazy creative, but I wonder if any of us are asking for the big stuff like we did when we were younger and less cynical. This passage in Ephesians says God is able to do a lot more than we can ask or even dream up on a sunny day.

What happened to our fierce faith and bold determination? Have we surrendered our idealism and settled for pragmatism? I believe in common sense living and making decisions based upon facts, but the Kingdom of Heaven requires us to live by faith, which means we have to take risks and rely on things that are not seen. It actually pleases God for us to live like this.

Life tends to drain us of this tenacious faith. The economy tanks and we run for the foxholes to wait it out. The pressures of paying a mortgage cause us to think in 30-day cycles instead of looking further toward the horizon and imagining all the possibilities that may exist. We ditch our five-year vision plans and strategically survive instead.

Recently, God has challenged me to pray for some big stuff. I am asking Him for a donated Dream Center building that is bigger than we think is needed and better than we deserve so we can pastor our city. We don’t have the money or the staff to even operate a Dream Center, but we do have the vision and the courage to ask for a miracle.

What big prayers should you be praying right now? Have you settled for foxhole living or have you started dreaming big again? My prayer is that all of us will regain our fierce faith and live with bold determination because God is able to do immeasurably more than we are asking or imagining.

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Stuff I am Praying for Right Now

June 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments /

I have a list of stuff that I am praying for on a regular basis.  Some of these are personal and some affect all of us.  I am making these things public because I think there is tremendous strength when believers pray in unity.

  • I am praying for my kiddos to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to discover how they were created to serve God on the earth.
  • I am praying for Pam to be strong and courageous because I sense God is about to use her voice to ignite thousands toward serving disenfranchised children across the planet.
  • I am praying for New Life to embrace the mission of serving the poor in our city so the Gospel can be proclaimed.
  • I am praying for miracles and healing to become common among us as it was in the early church.
  • I am praying for those who don’t know Jesus to find Him.
  • I am praying for those who are crippled by fear and anxiety to be filled with strength and courage.
  • I am praying for marriages to be strong and healthy.
  • I am praying for our troops who are in harm’s way and for their families who are home waiting for them to return.
  • I am praying for open doors for those who are without work right now.

There’s a lot more on my list, but these are things that seem to surface most when I have conversations with God.  Let me encourage you to pray earnestly, without ceasing and with bold faith. Don’t lose heart. God hears our prayers and works all things for our good if only we will believe and obey.

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The Three Leaders Every Team Needs

June 23, 2010 / / 2 Comments /

Every great team has three types of leaders. This is true for churches or companies of any size. If any of the three types are missing, there will be stagnation, chaos and ultimately, failure. If a team has the right balance of the three, there will be growth and productivity.

Visionaries are people who see the future and dream about all the possibilities.

Strategists are people with the ability to take a dream and create a clear, tactical plan that can be followed by others.

Administrators are people who can manage all the details of the plan and provide accurate data to the team.

All three types of people are leaders for sure and all three groups need to be on your team.  If you are missing visionaries, you become stagnant and lose your innovative edge. If you are missing strategists, nothing is ever planned well and often there is poor execution of the big ideas that are discussed in your meetings. If administrators are missing, there is never any accurate data to determine if you are indeed hitting the mark.

What is your team missing? What type of leader needs to be added to your team so you can hit the mark and move forward?

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Where’s the Preacher?

June 14, 2010 / / 6 Comments /

I just took three Sundays in a row off from the pulpit at New Life Church and it may have saved my life. That may be a bit dramatic, but let me explain why I am not the speaker at New Life every Sunday.

Sermons on the weekends are not just 30-minute talks. A 30-minute message drains as much emotional energy as the average 8-hour workday. If a pastor has to speak more than once each weekend, the emotional drain is multiplied and if there is not a break from speaking, significant emotional and physical health is often compromised.

The elders at New Life are a group of guys who not only oversee the spiritual health of our fellowship, but also help me maintain a healthy balance between ministry to the local church and personal health. We have agreed that I should speak at New Life at least 36 weekends each calendar year. That’s an average of 3 out 4 weekends each month. The remaining weekends, I have staff, some members of the fellowship and some pastors from other churches teach.

I am not whining about my job, but I am being candid. Pastors who speak more than 40 weekends a year, with multiple weekend services are headed for burnout. There may be a handful of Superman pastors who can do this long-term, but there is a long list of those who have tried and have ended up losing their families, their health, or worse, their own spiritual vitality. I do not want to be on that list.

I miss New Life when I am gone, but I have to trust that I am not the only person who can teach Scripture.  I believe in the power of team and I believe the church is strongest when a multitude of voices are heard on Sundays.

I will be back at New Life this Sunday and I am fired up to talk about Ephesians for the next several weeks, but I will miss some Sundays and I do not apologize for my absence. I am running a marathon and want to be an old pastor who finishes the race well rather than a young foolish one who is convinced his preaching is all that a church needs.

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Are We Distracted?

June 13, 2010 / / 0 Comments /

“Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:25 NIV

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

Have you noticed how easy it is for our kids to get distracted? At my house, television, video games and even the computer easily distract my two kids. Pam and I seem to be always repeating ourselves and getting them re-focused on the chore at hand, like getting ready for school, brushing their teeth or eating dinner at the table.

Sadly, adults are not much better at staying focused. We seem to always be drifting away from our primary mission and God has to snap his fingers and regain our attention. We seem to get caught up in the temporal and forget the eternal.  We forget our primary assignments in order to chase after things that once caught, dissolve like sand in our hands.

For me to stay focused and not get distracted, I try to remember my primary assignment which is to love God, love Pam, be a dad to Abram and Callie and lead New Life.  There’s not much time or bandwidth left for anything else. The moment I try to add something to this list, one of the primary assignments has to take a secondary role and that is never good long-term.

Next, I try to anticipate distractions because they are as certain as death and taxes. I know something is a distraction because it deflects my attention away from my primary assignments.  Once I realize that an event or situation is consuming my time and energies, I have to determine if it is a distraction or an emergency.

Emergencies are different than distractions. Emergencies are something that can be solved with the right amount of attention and care. Distractions are like mirages. The closer you get to it, the further it moves away.  Distractions are something that cannot be solved by any amount of attention or care.  Distractions are perpetual time wasters and drains on your emotional batteries.

My charge to you today is to make a list of your primary assignments. Next, make a list of things that are distracting you from these assignments.  Are they emergencies that can be solved or distractions that will only drain your batteries? Let’s fix our eyes straight ahead, refuse to be distracted and remember that eternity is something that deserves our primary focus and energy.

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