Greg Peters Live

As the Lead Pastor at Parkview, my responsibilities are very clear: ministry of the Word, vision casting and leadership empowerment. Staying focused on these areas is always a challenge. I am certain that you also find it difficult to stay focused on the 3 main areas of your job as well. So many things clamour for our attention. Right now I find myself in the weeds and reeds of ministry – I have to get out. I need to get re-focused on my primary areas of responsibility.  Casting the vision also has elements of managing the vision and I realize that, but I can’t spend the majority of my time there.

One of the things that makes my ministry particularly challenging at this stage of my life is that our church has a gaping hole! We are in strong need of an administator or what is commonly referred to in the church world as an executive pastor or church administrator.  What makes this need a little more larger than normal is that I do not have the gifts or passion of an administrator. 

What I am thankful for is the people that the Lord continues to place around me who can help in this area of weakness.  You each know who you are and I thank you for your kingdom service.

Every church needs leaders of leaders, leaders and those who support the leaders. What is your role in the kingdom and how are you guiding people to life change in Jesus Christ?

“Christian talk is cheap. Our belief in a cause is demonstrated by the level of our action, not the level of our voice.” Shawn Lovejoy, Lead Pastor, Mountain Lake Community Church

In the last post I stated that we shared with our leaders the 5 essentials in developing leaders.  I gave 2 of the five and now in this post I will share the latter 3 principles.

1. Reward equippers over doers. This principle is the one area where I have probably failed to lead the most. I have thought we were doing great when our leaders were effectively doing and as a result we have produced some phenomenal doers but are lacking in equippers. This is only one persons fault – mine! It is real simple – what gets rewarded gets repeated. I have been rewarding doing and that is what has gotten repeated. We should ask ourselves – Am I doing ministry through a team? How successful are the people around me? How many people have I empowered to do ministry? Doers add and equippers multiply!
2. Grow people where God has planted them.  All the lay leaders that a church will ever need are already in the church. What a terrible joke it would be for God to have a divine plan for your church or ministry and not resource the plan with the needed leaders!  God will not be calling your ministry to new heights and not empower you with the necessary leadership base. You have people who God has planted in your ministry – it is your responsibility to equip and empower them.
3. Make lifelong learning a priority.  We have all heard it said that leaders are readers and readers are leaders.  It is also true about learners and leaders.  If we are not learning we then become our own leadership lid.  The learning that is required to attain maximum effectiveness is not learning that comes accidentally or unintentionally.  We must target specific areas where we need to grow. This is one area we can actively do something about! Begin growing in your learning today!

Rick and Carol Siboni taught all our leaders this past Saturday on the subject of leadership development. Our desire it to make leadership development part of our DNA and culture.  We are asking all of our current leaders to pass the baton and find another individual who can be empowered to become all that God intends for them to be.  The one passing the baton would help empower and develop the “baton receiver” in the areas of head (strong theological worldview), heart (integrity, passion and character), and hands (relational and leadership skills).

Each one who is being asked to find a person to empower has been given 5 essentials for developing leaders. I will share 2 of the 5 in this post and share my thoughts about each -

1. See people through the lens of potnetial.  When you believe in people and help them see who they can become they tend to see the vision you give them and rise to new levels in their life.  All many people need is someone to believe in them! Satan wants us to see ourselves a notch down and take us there. God wants us to see ourselves a notch up and take us there. Every time someone has taken the time to invest in me and believe in me, my life has seemed to gain obvious positive momentum. We must see the potnetial in others and help them reach a whole new life level.
2. Cast down the idol of excellence. One of my favorite sayings is that people are weird and so am I.  The truth is there are no excellent people – there are no people who have no baggage, dysfunction, or skeletons. So if you are waiting for the perfect person wait no longer. God can use a messed up you and a messed up “baton receiver”. Both of you must be on the way to health in the areas of head, heart and hands, but thankfully God can use you before you become excellent – which by the way, that will be heaven.  Then as you move forward, you will strive to give God your best and serve with a spirit of excellence. When you stumble you will stand back up and move forward with the same continued spirit.

We have all heard the stories – ie. geese flying in a “v” formation, what 2 horses can pull together verses what they can pull individually, ten hands put the ball through the hoop, etc

We have all heard the cliche’s – ie. there is no “I” in team, teamwork is dreamwork, all for one and one for all.

To me teamwork is a major secret to success. Teamwork is important in every area of life.

• God – this is my favorite team - He and I make an army. I try to start each day with Him and know that my time with Him changes everything.  He is beyond description!!
• Marriage – my wife is my biggest asset! From a human standpoint, Denise, is the biggest reason for all my successes in life. She is honest with me, loves me more than I deserve and is loyal beyond reason.
• Parenting – Just this week alone, Denise and I spent time with Seth’s school teacher and a couple of the children’s workers from church. This evening he is spending the night with very dear friends. Denise and I are his coaches but we have a great team around us!
• Church – In just the last few days I have had several people comment about the incredible team God has surrounded me with. It is wonderful to hear people in our church talk about the other leaders in our church that they respect. Not only do we have incredible leaders, but our volunteers are phenomenal!!
• Staff and Elders – I know this group could fit in the above category, but I wanted to say a little more.  Our Elders have a heart for the Lord and have a laser focus on the spiritual health and development of our church family. Our staff are an incredibly dedicated group of extremely talented people who have a passion for God and a love for people. Both our elders and staff are very loyal to me and that is invaluable. There is no competition, we serve the Lord together!

Today, I am celebrating my teams and our teamwork!!!!!

Rather than me give you the wallet speech, click here and get it from the guru.

I have a question for you – what have you done lately? I have an answer for you as well – nothing.  If you were to ask me, what I have done lately? My answer is the same, nothing.  I base these answers on Isaiah 10:13-15,

 For he says:
      “ By the strength of my hand I have done it,
      And by my wisdom, for I am prudent;
      Also I have removed the boundaries of the people,
      And have robbed their treasuries;
      So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
       ¹⁴ My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people,
      And as one gathers eggs that are left,
      I have gathered all the earth;
      And there was no one who moved his wing,
      Nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”
       ¹⁵ Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it?
      Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it?
      As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up,
      Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood! 

 This passage was just a good reminder to me that everything that is accomplished in my life, my family and our church is not because of me; in fact, it is in spite of me.  Everything that you accomplish is what the Lord does through you. You and I are a tool in the Carpenter’s hand. He bangs, He shakes, He saws, and then and only then does it get accomplished.

When we understand this principle, I believe it will result in a few different things:

•            We will walk in humility
•             We will be united in love
•             We will give God the glory that He is due
•             We will live life with a different attitude

Enjoy the privilege of God working through you today.

This past weekend I gave a “financial footnote” before the offering. I truly believe I don’t talk about money enough! I wanted to share a few things I said and a few things I didn’t say.

• Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:21
• God doesn’t need your money. He wants what your money represents – your heart!
• If you are looking for a barometer to help gauge where you are spiritually just look at your bank statement.
• If you spend more on entertainment, eating out and your hobby than you do investing in the Kingdom, than that tells you something – actually it shouts something at you!
• With the condition of our economy, now is a great time to re-evaluate our spending.
• We give by grace and not under the law. The law said to tithe (give 10%) but we are not under the law any longer – that was Old Testament regulations and we are under New Testament grace. But remember grace always went beyond the law, it never undercut or short changed the law. If you are looking for a place to start your giving 10% is a great place to start.
• When you give according to grace your financial situation becomes God’s financial situation.
• God can do more with your 90% than you can do with your 100%!
• God has called us to be conduits not reseviors.
• One man said to me this past weekend, “Pastor I loved what you said about giving, I just wish you would have reminded them that they can’t outgive God”. This is a man who went bankrupt years ago and is feeling the impact of a challenging economy, yet swares by the joy of giving.
• Scripture guides us to giving the first fruits not the last fruits.
• God doesn’t want your table crumbs and pocket lint, He wants the first portion. It reminds us that He is first in our lives.
• Giving is not a financial issue it is a trust issue.
• Can you trust God?
• A moderate amount given over a long period of time becomes a huge investment.
• You will be suprised at just how much of a difference you can make in the kingom. Just be faithful!

This past Saturday, while he was here for our 12th anniversary, Dr. Tom Messer spoke to about 60 of our church leaders.  It was a fantastic challenge and our leaders were so encouraged by our time together.  We recorded the session and I wanted to give you an opportunity to hear the talk. Click here and then click on the play button to listen now. The talk is almost an hour but WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT OF YOUR TIME!

I am still reflecting and rejoicing over this past weekend.
I am so excited about what God has done and even more excited about what He is going to do!!
We had a fantastic pastoral staff meeting this morning! The Lord has blessed us with a great team that enjoys expanding the kingdom and serving the Lord.
One area that we spent some focused time on this morning is our team’s area of weakness (when I say team I am including myself). My tendency as an eternal optimist is to see the proverbial glass half-full and not pay attention to some areas that might need attention. So after several weeks of thinking through what I believe to be an area of weakness, we talked about that area today. We all agreed and had a good discussion about how we can better serve the people of our church. In fact, tomorrow afternoon we are bringing in 3 of our support staff and putting a plan in place.
My purpose for sharing the above story is to challenge each of us to face the weaknesses of our lives.  Maybe overall you think things are excellent at home, at work, with friends or whatever; but just think about how what is excellent could become even better with a little fine tuning.  Perhaps, there is an area of your life that is not going well and you know it, but you just haven’t done anything about it. Let this post be an encouragement to you to face your area of weakness.
For me personally, I have been struggling with my diet and exercise. Hopefully it is not overly noticeable – but it is a current weakness and I am working on it, ran yesterday and plan on running tomorrow, although I did just have 3 glasses of soda for lunch – told you it was a weakness!
What is your weakness and what are you doing about it?