The Gathering Nashville – Page 6

3 Signs You Can’t Handle the Loot

Who among us thinks he couldn’t use and of course handle more money? But the truth is sometimes more money is not only not the answer, it’s a part of the problem.

As we continued in our series, “The Great Recovery,” we talked about the fourth basic belief that has made our nation great. It’s simply that money makes us responsible.

That is, that earning money, having money and possessions is not about consuming things, but using them to create things. So we talked about the three signs that having more money may make your life worse, not better. Things like: do you want more money so you can hoard it, waste it, or consume it? The question is why should God give us a lot more of what we can’t handle a little of right now; like money, success, or any other thing that we tend to abuse?

We talked about five different aspects of understanding how to use money God’s way. We talked about the importance of perspective, passion, purpose, pain, and having a plan. It’s hard to believe that the average American family will earn well over a million dollars in their working years, and yet only 5% of them can write a check for $5,000 upon retirement. How sad to think that 87% of people who retire this year will retire at the poverty level of income. It’s sad to think that 25% of persons over 75 must continue to work only because of financial obligation. This certainly isn’t what we want. It’s not the American dream. And it’s certainly not what honors God.

So we talked today about how to see money as a responsibility, how to handle it God’s way, and how to have plenty of it when we use it for God’s purposes.

Your Brand May Not Be What You Think it Is

I’ve always been fascinated by the subject of branding. Is it just a business issue only to be dealt with by those who are responsible for marketing national products with multimillion dollar budgets? Or is branding something we all need to be concerned with?

I have the firm conviction that all of us have a brand – good or bad. Some of us understand it and call it “reputation.” Others of us ignore it and wonder why we suffer as a result.

The issue to understand about branding is not the importance of it, but how you determine what your brand already is as opposed to what you want it to be, so you can identify the distance between how you’re seen and how you prefer to be seen. Your brand is communicated through your web site, your logo, your mantras, purpose statements, and the like. That’s your input. But the true importance of a brand is what other people receive and then say.

The very best way to assess the condition of your brand, personal or otherwise, is to listen to what other people say when they talk about you. First, do they talk about you? If they’re not talking about you, your brand doesn’t really matter then, does it? Two, if they talk about you, you want to listen to the words they use. Do they use words like helpful, cool, state-of-the-art, couldn’t live without it, best money I ever spent, great resource, a must-read. And then do they use those words to describe your core competency? Is it a book, a service, a seminar of professional services you might render?

So ask yourself this question. “When people talk about me, what are they saying?” And you say, “Well, obviously, I don’t know.” And that is the problem, isn’t it? In this world of engagement and two-way conversation you need to give people an avenue to speak to you and tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly. The truth of the matter is, some of what you’ll hear will sting and wound you a little bit. But even in the craziest email that you receive, or the most negative feedback that’s given, you can identify something that will help you be more focused on the task you must do.

FMBS 024 John 7:25-8:11 God Makes Me Mad

One thing we are discovering in our study through the book of John is, Jesus had a message. He was a man on a mission. He didn’t avoid controversy and he constantly made the religious elite mad; not just mad, but angry. He confronted them on every side about the truth of who He was, and what the implications of that truth would mean to them and their future.

When Jesus heals, he does it publicly, on the Sabbath, at major festivals, outside the temple courts. He preaches and teaches that He and His Father are One, that if they knew God they would know Him. In our study today, a group of religious professionals got together to try to trap Jesus by bringing a woman caught in adultery. If He lets her go, He’s condemned. If He condemns her then He’s taken the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin – accused either way. Yet the Master Teacher had a masterful response to those who tried to trap Him. Read it and you’ll understand that Jesus constantly made people mad by telling them the truth; the truth about who He was and how life would change now that the Messiah has come; the truth about why He came, but most of all the truth about themselves.

Notice what Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery. He said, “I don’t condemn you.” But He had another message for her. Think about it. Ask yourself this question: “If Jesus were speaking to me today on my worst day, what would he tell me?” Would He say, “Peace, be still. You’re forgiven”? And what instruction would He give me to change my life? The truth is, Jesus makes people mad in order to heal them and set them free; confronting the truth and then allowing His grace to cover it, redeem it, set us free, and love us back to life. Yea God! Yea Jesus!

RG2G 039 Can a For-Profit Business be a Valid Christian Ministry?

As long as I can remember, Christian businessmen have struggled with the question, “Is what I’m doing honoring to God?” Can a true for-profit Business be a valid Christian Ministry? I say “valid” in the same way a church is a spiritual endeavor.

Sad to say, that many Christian businessmen and women don’t feel validated by their churches and even their other brothers and sisters in Christ. The question is, “Isn’t Monday through Friday a time to worship God, to serve God, and to do ministry, or is it just delegated to Sunday morning?”

Far too often in the American church, we train people to do church work (which is volunteer), and serve the ministries of the church (which is a very good and valid thing), but fail to also validate the energy, dedication, and sacrifice that these same people make to make their businesses successful. It’s time that we give a bigger view to what ministry is, and today we’ll talk about that on Renegade’s Guide to God.

Why Your Leadership is At Risk

It seems more than ever we are enamored with the idea, or should I say, ideal of leadership. More books, podcasts, and conversations are held about leadership than ever. And yet leadership is far less complicated than we might think. And for that very reason, multiple leaders and maybe even you, are at risk.

Leadership is about the leader. I know that flies in the face of conventional wisdom. But here’s what I mean. Leaders lead from within, eventually. Yes, we may adopt tactics, styles, and strategies of leaders we admire, but leadership is dome in the trenches every day, over time, where the routine grinds us down to our real essence.

That’s why leaders who hide behind the latest fad are always at risk. Why? It’s because leadership is about projecting and extending into a movement or organization, what you are. If you are empty, mad, and burnt-out on the inside, more than you know, that’s exactly what you are reflecting on the outside.

So more than ever, we must give attention not to leadership, but to the leader. As leaders, we have a long journey ahead of us. Our well-being, our health is key to the health and success of our movements.

Leaders are notorious for going so fast, and doing so much that they ultimately self-destruct. You’re at risk of that too. And if you think you’re not, you’re even more at risk than you know.

So here is the greatest risk you face today as a leader. It’s not your organization. It’s not market forces. It’s not even the deadbeat employees that you’re trying to get rid of. It’s you. As long as you are healthy, vital, vibrant, and growing; as long as you’re passionate to the core about what it is you’re doing, you and your movement can face any storm, and can navigate any sea change. Short of that, before long, you’re going to be dead.

It’s Not a Job, It’s a Calling

As we continue in our series “The Great Recovery,” we are talking about the six basic beliefs that can rebuild a nation. And we’ve come to a third basic belief. And that is, simply, that work is a calling. It’s not just a job, it’s not just a way to pay your bills, it’s a way to be in the world.

We talked about what’s gone wrong. Why is work something that we dread? Why are so many people unemployed, waiting for someone to give them a job when in all of history we’ve been self-employed? We haven’t waited for a corporation or a government, or some force outside ourselves to do for ourselves what God has called us to do. And that is, work. We talked about the difference between calling and just working for a living.

To find your calling is to find your F.I.T.T. in the world. And before you can stand out, you have to find out where you fit in. So today we asked four basic questions.

What is fulfilling for you?
What is inspiring to you?
What are the talents that you can develop into skills?
What is your temperament that allows you to sustain your calling?

It’s time to take your life back and move into your calling. This talk will give you practical, hands-on advice and teaching on how to do it. You have no excuse not to get started. And the sooner you do, the better off we’ll all be.

Hope is Everything

Yesterday we continued in our series, “The Great Recovery,” with the second of the basic beliefs that can rebuild our nation. And that is, hope is everything.

The great thing about hope is that everyone can have it. And then those who have it can give it. And once it’s given, everything begins to change. At your workplace, in your family, anywhere you go, anywhere people gather, they need hope. And you’re just the one to infuse it.

We talked about the difference in hope; the three different kinds of hope: Hope as a want, hope as a wish, and then hope that actually works. We talked about the five hopes of God, and how we can make them work in our everyday lives.

The first basic belief that rebuilds a nation is that God is for us. The second is, hope is everything. And once you have hope you have everything you need.

FMBS 023 John 6:60-70, John 7:1-20 Misjudging Badly by Appearances

Jesus is now being public with His intentions. He’s making claims that rightfully should shock His listeners, unless of course they’re true. The guy in the room who claims to be God and is, you would expect that everything now is going to change. So Jesus is not only training His disciples, telling His story, but also slowly and methodically moving toward Jerusalem where He pushes the religious elite into a corner where they have to come after Him.

One of the most poignant and pointed questions in this passage is when Jesus looks at Peter and says, “Others have left me. Will you leave me too?” And we have to give it to Peter here. For all the times he got it wrong, this time he got it right, in spades. He looked at Jesus and said, “Where can we go, because we believe and know that you are the Son of God?”

Here is a beautiful and balanced view of belief. We believe in our heart and our spirit, with our emotions, whatever you want to call it, but that part of us that makes us human; and we know in our mind, that part of us that helps inform our emotional decisions and makes sure that we make wise ones.

As you consider this week’s passage, ask yourself these questions. How do we tell this radical story in a cynical world? How do we help confront the world with the truth that Jesus is God in human form, that He has come to rescue the world, that He is the Messiah, He is God’s first and last answer for the hope of the world? How do we tell this in a way that helps people consider it, believe it, and know it as Peter did? And how do we answer the objections of those who call attention to all the weird and goofy stuff that has grown up around the American church to obscure and hide the true simplicity?

RG2G 038 Four Sure Signs You’re in the Wrong Church

I firmly believe that everyone should attend church. But not everyone should attend the same church. It truly does take all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.

Like anything else in life, churches have personalities, different emphasis, and styles. One size certainly doesn’t fit all.

I’ve often found that good people stay in the wrong church way too long simply because they feel guilty, ever daring to look around for a better fit. Just like in marriage, in life, or at work, fit is very important. Today on Renegade we talk about the four sure signs that you’re in the wrong church; and then the four questions you need to answer as you go out and look for a better fit. What does that fit look like? We’ll help you recognize it today.

Dave Rave – 5 Things Smart People Say

daverave I made a collection of the top ten things we say that we don’t mean. You know, crazy things that we say when we’re hurt. I’ve also noticed that there are things that smart people say. Over and over and over again, I hear them repeated in successful businesses, growing churches, and thriving families. I hear them said casually, almost as though it’s become a habit of success. Here they are.

Smart people know when to say, “yes.” Yes is a good word. It’s a word that we all want to hear. But it has to be used sparingly, diligently. And every “yes” has to be filtered through a strategic focus on why we’re here, what we do, and what we’re best at.
Smart people say, “no.” This rivals right up there with the power of “yes.” Knowing what you don’t do saves you a lot of trouble, money, and aggravation.
Smart people say, “What would you do?” By this they are inviting dissent and disagreement in a positive way. They are asking other people to offer their intelligence, their skill, and their experience to the issue at hand.
Smart people say, “thank you.” And they say it often, repeatedly; not just to important people, but all people. To the VP of marketing and the guy who sells him his hamburger, there are no big I’s and little You’s when it comes to thank you’s.
Smart people say, “I’m sorry.” They don’t throw it around casually, but they know when it’s appropriate and they are not afraid to use it.

Take these words, apply them to your own team, your family, or your movement and ask yourself this question: “Do we use these words, do we use them appropriately, often, and as a habit of success?”

If You Hate Your Job, Here’s What You Need to Understand

Not a week goes by that I don’t hear someone say, “I hate my job. It’s great money, but it’s draining the life out of me. And I’m so discouraged, I don’t know what to do.”

Here’s what you need to know, if that’s where you find yourself in life. You are going to lose this job soon. Yeah, that’s what somebody needs to have guts enough to tell you. The fact that you hate your job isn’t a secret. It’s showing, either in attitude or performance. And before too long, someone will come up who loves that job, do it better and cheaper, and you’ll be on the road. So consider this your wake-up call. Get ready, because you’re about to be unemployed.

Now, the good news is, you’re probably good enough at it that you’ve got some time to prepare to get out. Here are some things I would suggest:

If you hate your job, suck it up and do that job well. And do that because you can, as an act of will, as a strengthening and even a demonstration of your inner character. You’re getting paid. You have a responsibility. So be good at the job you hate. And when you finally get to the work you love, it will be easy to be great because you’ve already developed the discipline it takes in an environment that was less than hospitable.
Begin right now to free your mind that you can do the work you love, you can find and embrace your life’s calling, and you can do the work that not only fulfills a desperate need in the world around you, but a deep need in you as well.
Begin to form a one-sentence mission statement. When Paula and I were developing Making Marriage Fun Again, the mission statement was, “Helping good people grow great marriages over time.” Each and every word in that mission statement matters. “Over time” isn’t an add-on, because great marriages aren’t grown overnight, but over time. When we decided to give our mission a vision, we came up with Making Marriage Fun Again. That’s our vision, to in the next 10 years help a million couples across the U.S. make their marriage and their life fun again. Mission statements are critical. They are at the core of what will sustain you over the long haul.
Begin to inquire about people doing what you want to do. Ask them the question that you are going to have to answer before you can begin to take your passion and calling and turn it into a profitable business and economic model.

We could add more points, but you get the idea. The wake-up call here is, if you’re not mooing out loud because you’re in a job you’re just tolerating, you better get your “moo” on soon, because your going to be out in the field all by yourself, and you’ll need that “moo.”

Six Basic Beliefs That Can Rebuild a Nation

Yesterday at The Gathering I launched a new series called, “TheGreatRecovery.com.” With this new series we join the nationwide emphasis led by Dave Ramsey called TheGreatRecovery.com.

This is a grassroots, common sense effort to step into the breach of fear, doubt, and uncertainty, and show that God is still alive and working in the lives of His people. As we step up to live life God’s way, good things can happen. When millions of us take personal responsibility, work hard, love our families, serve a noble cause, and make life good for ourselves, we make it good for everyone else.

We started off yesterday with the first basic belief that built our nation: that God is good, and that we were one nation under God; and that if God were on our side, we could do anything. We could build a nation, fight our wars, create an economy where everyone could win, and lead the world in creative, innovative products and services.

But lately, we have entered a climate where we’re not really sure about God’s place in our lives. With this talk, we faced some of the hard questions, the basic of which is, “What if God is not for us?” Where would that leave us, and what would those of us do who love God and believe that living a life for Him is why we’re here?

What if you lived in a society that doesn’t honor God? Can you still do it? Can you still see the blessings of God? Can a handful of people make a difference when a nation full of people are indifferent? You might be surprised at the answer.

FMBS 022 How to be Safe in a Storm and Fed in a Famine

We start today in John 6:16, with the account of the disciples meeting Jesus in a storm, walking on the water.

Remember this, Jesus never did anything for show. There was a meaning, a purpose that tied into His larger mission in everything He did. So walking on the water and meeting the disciples was certainly a teachable moment. Not only the metaphor of storms, water and spiritual calm, but that Jesus was the Lord over creation and over nature. There is no realm into which His power does not extend.

From the storm we go to another metaphor of bread, that Jesus is the bread of life. It is a repeated theme here that comes over from John 4, and the woman at the well. Jesus told her that whoever drank His water would never be thirsty again. Now there is bread that satisfies, walking on the water, healing the sick. There’s a picture developing here that Jesus Christ is the mighty Messiah, the Lord of all creation and the servant of God sent to redeem and to reconcile for God. What a beautiful picture John is painting; like a word-artist telling stories that lead us to that ultimate place of absolute confidence in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, His love for us, and His plan for our future.

RG2G 037 Why You Don’t Deserve a Second Chance

We often hear people say, “He deserves a second chance.” But do we deserve a second chance? There’s something else going on in our lives when we do get a second chance. When we’re able to re-enter our lives in a saner, spiritual way, God is at work. And one of the principles that we misunderstand is that grace is not something we earn or deserve.

We often talk about the love of God as if it’s a given, like air, sunshine, or the fact that we get thirsty. God’s favor cannot be assumed, or taken for granted. Because once we do that, we take God for granted. We begin to ignore Him and make a world on our own image and reflection rather than His. The song we learned as kids is still true. This is my Father’s world. He’s got the whole world in His hands. But everything He gives us is a gift, not earned. The question is, what is our response to a God who gives us everything that we can’t earn or deserve? Do we abuse it? Do we use it? Or do we turn it into an act of worship that not only pleases God, but transforms our own lives in the process?

Religion is about rights, rules, and obligations. Christianity is about love, grace, mercy, and a relationship.

Dave Rave – 5 Signs it’s Too Soon to Settle

daverave There is nothing sadder in life than to see someone who has settled for second best. We all start out with high hopes, but life has a way of beating us down over time. Here are five signs it’s too soon for you to settle for mediocre or second best.

You still want it. Desire is key to achieving anything. Without it, nothing in your life will ever be great; not your career, not your marriage, not your relationships; not even your faith. If you still want it, it’s a sign it’s too soon to settle.
You know what it takes to get it. It’s one thing to want something. It’s altogether another thing to understand the price that has to be paid, and the strategy that needs to be implemented. If you know what it takes to get what you want, it is way too soon to settle.
You believe there are people out there of good will who will be willing to help. No one succeeds alone. Truthfully, no one becomes mediocre alone. The difference is the people you run with. If you believe there are people of skill, accomplishment, and goodwill out there; if you could find them, they’d help you, and you know they’d be willing. Then it’s way to soon to settle.
You’re convinced that achieving your dream, your wants, your goals will help a lot of people. Paula and I have a goal of reaching a million couples in the next ten years with the message of making marriage fun again, of growing great relationships, children, marriages, and families. We believe this can change the world. If you don’t feel similar about what you’re into, you need a bigger vision.
You have a vision for success beyond success. There’s nothing sadder than someone who has reached their life goals only to sit down and retire and die long before they’re dead. If you have a vision for how you can stay engaged, growing, and excited for the rest of your life, then it’s way too soon settle.

Don’t settle for mediocre or second best. Just because you haven’t achieved it so far doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Persist, continue, never give up. Life has a way of giving good things to people who won’t settle for less.