The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve
Friday: 5:30 AM, Rise & Shine! Shower, take Maddie out, get Savanna up and off to school bus, drink 2 cups of tea, get dressed/ready for day, pack remaining things, head to Lakeland at 7:00 am; Speakers meeting at 8:00 am; Speak at ACMC Friday, attend a few other sessions, come back to hotel room and make important career coaching call, see that I don't have the correct number for the client, call my manager (Kathryn) about that. End up calling her about the phone number, but stay on with her for while talking about life just because I enjoy talking with her. Hang up and discover, Teeb is wanting some time with me. Enjoy it immensely; take shower, re-do hair and make up, get dressed; dinner at Red Lobster with Keith and Joy, return for time with the man, check email once more, answer it, finally sleep for 10 and 1/2 hours.
Saturday: Wake up feeling incredible; room is ice cold, under covers toasty, snuggle with Teeb, eat breakfast, drink two teas, head to morning sessions, attending several amazing ones such as "Connecting the Church to Culture" and "You've Got the Power." Feel completely energized by these sessions. Drink a large water bottle. Eat lunch with Keith and Joy and head back to ACMC to present my last session; Drink two large chick-fil-a iced teas. Can it be any hotter in FL? Say bye to many wonderful pastor friends and conference attendees, head back to Tampa; stop at grocery store for things for leadership meeting next day, bring home groceries, get knocked over by Maddie when I come in, hug my kiddos, unpack my suitcase, iron clothes for Sunday for everybody, help Larry on some last minute editing on notes for leadership presentation, line up shoes and jewelry for next day, get a call from Joel and Sheri asking, "do we wanna have dinner?" Sounds wonderful especially since I have no idea when I'd fit cooking in to the mix tonight; Tell them Savanna has to come - we don't want her to be away from us since we've been away. They say cool, they are bringing their kids, we meet them and have amazing food and even more amazing conversation; savor the fact that I'm sitting and talking and not standing and working; go home and put more touches upon leadership presentation, pull out my notes for Sunday's message, and go over five or six more times at least, turn on Rita Springer CD, spend time praying for the next day's services and special needs; straighten room, take bath, put on jammies, blow dry and flat iron hair,do bedtime routine (contacts, teeth, face, yada yada yada), lay down on bed but know I'm not going to be able to sleep, too keyed up with message churning inside. Put on headphones and "I Have to Believe" and lay in bed and pray some more. Take headphones off when I'm tired and able to shut my eyes and sleep. I think this was at 2:30 am.
Sunday: rise and shine, 6:00 am. Shower, check email, blog, pull notes for morning message, prop on sink while put makeup on and read through again while I do make up and hair, get dressed, wake family up, take Maddie out to potty, feed Maddie, eat fruit and make myself a cranberry tea, take Maddie out to potty again, call Stephen to wake him up or make sure he's on the way , get in car to go to church - Larry drives, I study through notes for 20 minute drive again while listening to worship, head into church building, go to sanctuary to begin 8:00 rehearsal. End rehearsal at 9:15 am. Team felt led to pray for me though I never asked them to. They just sensed they should. What an amazing group. Cell phone goes off three times. I ignore it and let it go to voicemail. Taught class at 9:30 am, "Why some receive while others do not." Class ends at 10:15 am. Head to prayer room. Sit on my favorite sofa in the prayer room while I down a low fat cereal bar and more cranberry tea, and read over my notes one last time; pray with Larry, Bill and Candy, and head to the stage. Begin leading worship service; Preach message, "God is Big Enough for my Fears". Pray for people around the altars until about 12:30. I never tire of seeing lives changed by God. Head to hospitality room to greet first time guests. Watch them eat sugary sweet pastries and drink lemonade while I chat with them. Head up to the choir luncheon. Wash hands and see that Candy has thought of me ahead of time and realizes after all this I probably don't want to stand up any longer and prepare my plate. She has it sitting on the table for me as she normally does. I sit down to a lunch that tastes like absolute heaven. At this point I reach into my huge purse that I normally carry with everything in it but the kitchen sink and pull out my comfortable black flip flops. My high heels go in my purse and the flip flops go on my feet where they will remain for the second rehearsal of the day. After eating my lunch with the choir I take Larry's plate of food up to the office building for him. He went up to get his computer and shut the office down after church but as usual he got stopped on his way there and never got back down to the other building to eat. This happens most of the time for a variety of reasons. So he is up there very hungry. I put his plate on his desk. He is ever so grateful..."thank you babe so much for bringing the plate up here..." I go to my office, use the restroom, wash hands again, grab music chart, head down to fellowship hall, see that choir members are engaged in taking tables down, putting them away, washing and putting away the dishes. I grab vacuum to do floor and Russell says, "no PD, let me take that, please..." Halleluiah. I assign a few stray youth who are lurking around to reset all the chairs in the fellowship hall so that everyone else can get down to business. Call comes to my cell from someone who deems it urgent. It's not. Urgent is a relative term. Head down to sanctuary, go to grand piano and ask choir to look at new piece, "All the Way." Great song. Teach them all parts to this arrangement. They pick it up wonderfully and we're rockin' and rolling in about 15 minutes. I remark how great this is because I have to get ready for a leadership meeting very shortly and would like to shorten rehearsal by about 20-30 minutes if possible. Finish teaching individual parts, put it all together and go through finished song twice. It sounds amazing already. Take prayer requests/praise reports. Pray. Get Larry and Savanna and head home. Walk in and start putting last minute things in order: let Maddie out, feed her, finish cleaning kitchen, clean bathroom, windex all surfaces that require it, clean bathroom, take out garbage, have Larry put music on in yard (yes, I have the flower beds wired with speakers and no, I am NOT KIDDING YOU.) Prepare coffee. Prepare tea. Place plates, napkins, cups, flatware, sugar, other sweeteners and ice out. Turn inside music on. Light about 25 candles. (This is always the atmosphere of my house when anybody comes no matter what we do.) Go to back yard - lanai. Wipe down tables out there, re-arrange plants. Realize that whole thing was just a waste because two minutes after I do it there's a lighting flash and a thunder crack and it's pouring down rain. Go to my room and change clothes, wash face, reapply make up, brush teeth, get Maddie's water and bring into my bathroom, put her in there so she won't jump on anyone. Go out to greet the 30 people who are arriving at my house. Eat dinner with the leaders at 6:00 pm. Start our meeting at 7 pm. Have one of the most stratetic meetings in the history of our church. This was the catalyst for the biggest change we will probably ever make. Everyone is beside themselves with excitement. There is much laughter. There are a few tears. Lots of sharing of hearts, ideas, dreams, soon to be realities. I sip coffee and share from my favorite chair. Meeting goes over by 40 minutes but it's worth it. At 9:40 pm we're done, but some people always stay. It's a wrap for me at about 10:15. I give Savanna and Jordan some instructions about things for the week while I sit in my rocker and have an iced tea. Finish cleaning kitchen, head to room with computer to check last minute email of the night, answer it, talk to Larry a few minutes, take an urgent call, solve part of a problem, table solving the rest of it until today. Plan to talk to Larry about it more. By the time I'm done answering mail he's asleep. I put my hand on his back and just rest it there to feel close to him while I scroll down the rest of my e-mail. I realized Maddie went to sleep before I did. This makes me sad. I look over my calendar for today to see what's on the agenda. I am going out of town again later this week and have to have everything wrapped up before I do. I see there are 18 projects that have to be done by Thursday morning, not counting any of my scheduled meetings, hospital visitation or any unforseen things. I am hoping to fit exercise in somewhere, at least 30 minutes a day. It's a lofty goal for a person who doesn't have time to shave both legs in one day.
If you are wondering how I accomplish ANYTHING, the answer is GRACE.
My favorite verse: "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." I Corinthians 9:8
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By the way, this is NOT a faith message as in, "if you are sick and not healed it's because of sin" or, "if you lay hands on a house, it will be yours." No, definitely NOT the point.
What this concerns is the prophet's reward in Matthew 10:
40"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. 41Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. 42And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."
Certain people receive because they receive the messenger (in other words, the package the message comes in.) Jesus was rejected in his hometown. They saw him as ordinary.
A preacher in America can go overseas and pray for people and miracles happen right and left. They come back to their church in America and preach the same thing and pray for people and nothing happens. Why? Many times because the people receive the person as ordinary. They don't receive the gift that's within you.
Others reject the gift of God within their peers. They know them too well. There is familiarity. And maybe that is keeping them from their miracle.
Others pass a child and don't pay attention to the gift of God within them. They are hurting themselves and missing out.
When I was in Africa I had just preached a miracle healing service and to say it was supernatural is, well, an understatement...and one of my friends who was with me from my church said, "why can't we have this exact same thing in our church?" I said, "we can." She said, "what's the difference between here and there?" I said, "The Prophet's Reward, Matthew 10". She said, you need to preach on that as soon as you get back. There's no reason this can't happen in America. I did, and our people have really received it and responded. I brought it the Sunday I got back from Africa this last time but then I felt God wanted me to teach it in my class again yesterday and go deeper with it.
If you like I'll send you my notes in Word format but you would have to give me your email address.