Emergent Brethren

It’s a tradition that many people laugh about— making New Years resolutions. It works for some to improve their lives, but for many it does not. What’s your experience with New Years resolutions?

Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and author of the book, Platform, says that the average person makes the same New Years resolution 10 separate times without success. Even after a heart attack, only 14 percent of people make any lasting changes around diet or exercise. Change is hard!

But here’s some good news! Dr. Gale Mathew did a study of 267 participants over a few years. She learned that you can increase your chances of success by 42% simply by writing down your goals. WOW!

So, I would first encourage you to begin 2016 by praying and asking God what it is God would want you to be about or do. Next, write these plans down so that you find greater faithfulness to God, your work, family, friends, and even yourself in the New Year.

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3

God bless you!

Jeff

The New Year is almost upon us! I’m looking forward to it. This past year has been huge in the amount of transitions! I’ve moved 5 times in 2015. Now, I’m settled back in my home and looking forward to being in one place for a while.

The past couple of weeks, I’ve read my first book by Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story. I didn’t know what to expect, but was quite impressed with his writing skills. It’s a very readable, thought provoking and inspiring book.

Miller writes about a movie company that wants to make a movie about his life. In the process of writing the script with two other writers, he discovers what’s important to make life better, or “how to live a better story.”

New Years is a time to reflect over the past year and consider what you’d like to be different or better for the New Year. What elements would you like to be in your life story for next year? Joy? Conflict? Adventure? Challenge? Discouragement? Opportunities? Love?

I’m sure that we’ll experience all of those elements in our story next year. The real test of a “good” story in our life is how we respond to any element we find ourselves in.

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou (pronounced how-oh-lay ma-ka-hee-key ho) — That’s Happy New Year in Hawaiian. May your life’s story be brighter in 2016!

Jeff

What do you think about a new church canceling it’s second worship service ever in order to watch an NFL game? Would you cheer if your church did this? Or, would you wonder about the spirituality of the pastor and leadership to make such a decision?

I’m not making this up, but a new church plant in Seattle is going to watch a Seahawks game on TV instead of holding their worship service.

Would you like to learn why? Check-out their reasons at: http://www.oamchurch.com/go-hawks-goes-to-church/.

In case you’re very curious, here’s one of the reasons they are doing this: “We’re not salesmen, we’re gardeners. Our job is to cultivate the field God has set us in. Something’s already growing. We see it. Our job is to encourage and develop that growth in people who are seeking a heartfelt relationship with Jesus and each other.”

The leader of this church plant, Jim Henderson, has done more than one evangelism training event with Church of the Brethren. Does he have an idea worth considering?

Jeff

One thing I love about the personality assessment, Clifton StrengthsFinder, is that it reveals how unique a person truly is! The assessment reveals what your top 5 talent or strength themes are out of a possible 34. According to Gallup’s research, to find someone with the same top 5 themes that you have, in the same order is one in over 33.3 million. Thus, there’s only about 250 people in the world with your top 5 themes in your theme order. To go further, Gallup also says that to find someone with the same top eight themes in your same order is one in over 77 billion. So, at this moment, you are a unique person on this planet. No one exists who is just like you!

Today, I read a devotional by Billy Graham. He begins by telling that the first astronauts were required to give twenty answers to the question, “Who are you?” Can you give twenty answers to that question? What kind of answers would you give? Do you know who you really are? Graham writes, “Scientists agree that our desperate search leads all humans to seek heroes and to imitate others, to ‘paste bits and pieces of other people on ourselves’.” What Graham means by that is we imitate others in the way we do things. Yes, we learn by doing, but instead of doing it through our own creativity, we try to act or be like someone else. For example, do you know someone who tries to drive like a Nascar driver on the freeway? Do you know an armchair quarterback who thinks he makes better decisions than the one on the field?

The problem of imitating and trying to be like others is that our true self that God created does not come out. There are many passages, like Psalm 139:13, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…” God intimately knows us because he uniquely created us! By imitating others, we do not honor the way God created and gifted us.

Graham concludes the devotional by writing, “Consider this: there are three of you. There is the person you think you are. There is the person others think you are. There is the person God knows you are and can be through Christ.” As you go through this day, seek God to understand and be the person you were created to be. Nobody can do things just like you do!

Jeff Glass

Gallup has created a wonderful personality tool called, Clifton StrengthsFinder. It has been proven to help people achieve greater success at work and in relationships. Can it also do the same for personal evangelism? I’m doing research through Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, MN.), to discover if StrengthsFinder can also empower Christians who feel inadequate for personal evangelism.

As part of my Doctor of Ministry research, I surveyed Christians who have taken Clifton StrengthsFinder and who come from a variety of Christian backgrounds. I want to thank everyone who took the survey! Your participation in this survey provided information to support others to be more faithful to God’s call to share our faith.

Soon, I will start a series of posts on how Clifton StrengthsFinder can empower Christians in personal evangelism.

Thank you for assisting in this research!

Jeff Glass