Here is the information. Single Grain’s 50 iPhone 3.0 Beta Giveaway http://tinyurl.com/c3zxra

I’m not sure how well it works, or how quickly I can get in on the 3.0 action, but I’m pretty stoked at the chance. Here’s hoping!

If you are an iPhone user, head on over to www.singlegrain.com for your chance to try it out! I’ll post back with my own 3.0 experience.

I’ve always felt that as a pastor you can hire GOOD staff at your church. But GREAT staff are made. I know many of you have had incredible success on some church staffs and utter failures on others. So I’m curious to explore this topic, and I would encourage you to help me flesh this out by thinking through and answering these two questions:

1. In staff environments where you have seen success, what are the 3 things that your pastor did (or did not do) that helped contribute to that success?

2. What are the 3 things that your pastor has done (or did not do) that damaged or hindered your ministry?

Now, understand that this series is not intended to be a forum for anyone to attack their pastors. The motives are pure…to help educate pastors and staff people about the little things they do that influence the success of their staff. Let’s face it…pastors and support staff have entirely different ideas about how to make great staff.

Please send your answers to these questions, as well as examples, to phil@phillipcox.net. Please do not post your answers in the comments. When writing these blog posts, all examples will remain anonymous…I’m not gonna get you in trouble with your current staff.

Penn Jillette is the very outspoken member of the comedic magician’s duo Penn and Teller.  It is widely known that Penn is an athiest and takes every opportunity to promote athiesm and discount religion of any form, but has been especially critical of Christianity.  So I was surprised when I watched this video and was impacted by the words of a man who carries such disdain for Christianity.  Check it out:

It is obvious that this encounter Penn had with a Christian who genuinely cared made a real impact on him in a way that was unexpected…enough that he felt the need to share that experience with the world.

Watching this video really made me think.  What if we all could step out in faith and boldness and express a genuine love for the unChristian world out there the way this man did?  Instead of conentrating on building our little kingdoms (churches), shouldn’t we all be out there…having this kind of impact on everyone we encounter?

Notification of Request
E.W. KENNEDY SOLICITORS
Rm 41, 16 Baldwin’s Garden, 
London EC1N England,United Kingdom
http://www.btinternet.com/~Kennedy.Solicitors

Notification of Request

Dear Friend,

On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Prof Roger
Michael Needham. I once again try to notify you as my earlier  letter was returned undelivered.I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same email address on the WILL.I wish to notify you that late Prof Roger Michael Needham made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Fifteen Million, One Hundred thousand United States Dollars to you in the Condicile and last testament to his WILL.
This may sound strange and unbelievable to you with the current upsurge in
cyber crime and the likes, but it is for real and true. Being a widely
traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were nominated to him by one of his numerous friends abroad who wished you good.
Prof Roger Michael Needham, an engineer/Computer scientist who worked as
Director, Microsoft Research limited,Cambridge before he died on 1st
March in the year 2003 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Needham),
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/04/12/db1201.xml),
and was patron/life member of the Royal Academy of Engineering and also
memberof various societies and organisations . He was a very dedicated Christian wholoved to give out.
His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his life time one of
which was the Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Late Roger Michael Needham died on the 1st March in the year 2003 at the
age of 68 years, and his WILL is now ready for execution.
According to him this money is to support humanitarian/philanthropic
activitiesand to help the poor and the needy in our society. Please if I reach you as I am hopeful,endeavour to get back to me as soon as possible to enable me conclude my job. I hope to hear from you in no distant time. Your are advice to send the following information so that i can proceed immediately:

1. Your fullname……………………………………….
2. Residencial address………………………………………
3.Privatetelephone number…………………………………….
4. Fax number if any………………………………………..
5.Age and occupation……………………………………

Note: You are advised to contact me through my secured,E-mail address  edmkennedy@googlemail.com

I await your prompt response.

Yours in Service,
Edmond W. Kennedy ESQ.

Disclaimer:
The content of this message is meant to be received by the addressee only.
Use of the content of this message by anyone other than the addressee without the consent of the E.W. KENNEDY SOLICITORS is unlawful. If you have received this message but are not the addressee, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the message. No rights can be derived from the content of this message

I have recently experienced a changing of seasons in my own life. Around a year ago, I began to feel a very distinct call from God in my life. I was a youth minister in NC, but felt a call to worship leading. After many weeks of prayer, I resigned my position as youth minister and accepted a worship pastor position at a church plant.

This was a huge undertaking for someone who had zero experience in this line of work, and I was very grateful to this church for taking a chance on me. I started in January leading worship for around 120 folks on Sundays, and during my time there we experienced significant growth (I believe there were around 215 in attendance last Sunday). I absolutely loved leading our people in worship each week!

But the job was much more than worship leading, and I soon realized that I was totally unprepared for what was needed of me there. To make a long story short, last Sunday was my last day as Worship Leader at my church. I was let go by my superiors, not because of Sunday worship but because of the other, day-to-day stuff. And to be frank, I couldn’t argue with their decision. I know that I can take this difficult experience and use it to learn and grow.

It has been a long and painful process that is not quite over. I’m now left trying to figure out what’s next for me. Is ministry my future?

I ask my readers to please be in prayer for me as I search for God’s direction right now. I have had a few ministry opportunities come my way already, but I need some real clarity before I dive back in.

On a very specific note: one of these opportunities is with a brand new church plant, serving alongside a great friend of mine in a community in which I used to serve. Kind of exciting to think about.

Seasons. We all experience them. The question is: will we embrace them?

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”. Jeremiah 29:11

Also, I wanted to inform you guys that my friend Danny has retired from the “blogosphere.”  Thanks, Danny, for helping get TechTheology off the ground, and for helping in the transfer.  See you at ‘Bucks!

Six months ago, I accepted a position as a worship pastor at a new church plant, something that I had never done professionally in my life.  I had been a youth pastor for the previous 7 years or so, and done some worship leading from time to time.  Music is a passion of mine, and I really wanted to focus on using music as my means of service for God.  So, in a HUGE leap of faith, I left the comforts of a job that I knew and decided to jump into this worship thing with both feet.  And all in all, it’s been good. But sometimes….

I know that all of us in ministry are subject to quite a bit of criticism in our line of work.  God knows that I dealt with that in youth ministry, and worship leading is no different.  But sometimes there just comes a time when I have a tendency to get extremely discouraged in the face of criticism.  Oh, it’s not that folks don’t mean well, or that they are expressing things out of a vindictive heart.  On the contrary, most of the time criticism really does stem from a deep desire for “excellence.” 

But what happens when the criticism becomes the main focus?  A good balance of criticism along with encouragement is healthy and necessary for growth.  But when the balance shifts, one way or the other, it has devastating effects.  For me, the result is simple: loss of confidence.  That’s what I am struggling with right now.  I have zero confidence in my abilities as a worship pastor right now.  Having fielded such criticisms as song selection, style, tempo, administration, planning, transitions, key choices, stage design, slide backgrounds, etc, I begin to wonder if I have any business doing what I’m doing.  Am I really that bad of a worship pastor?  Am I really making it MORE difficult for our people to approach the throne of God?

If I am, then shame on me.  Suddenly, I have gone from being confident in my abilities to being scared senseless that I am going to fail each Sunday.   And that is never a good place to be.  I lie awake every Saturday night in a panic.

Through all of this, I am reminded of one simple scripture.  

“Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.  Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  2 Corinthians 3:4-6

And that really is the reality of it.  As tough as it is feeling this way, I have to trust in the call that God has placed within my heart, and trust that in those times where I feel hopeless and totally incompetent, He will guide me.  I must never place my faith in my own abilities, but instead let go and let God take care of it all.  Isn’t that what this whole worship thing is about anyway…God?  

It’s not easy.  But I gotta keep pluggin’ away because God will use me, no matter how incompetent I may feel.

PS.  It’s good to be back writing.  I’ve missed you, blog!

So here is a list of some of the things I miss the most:

• Friends Viewing Parties - While in college, Thursday night was Friends night.  Often, we would have Open House in our dorms (semi-conservative Baptist U) and my roommate and I would invite folks to come over and watch the show.  What fun times!  A small dorm room packed with friends sitting on the bed, the floor, anywhere they could get.  While I never claimed to be a “ladies’ man,” I remember one particular night where the RD of the dorm came by to see who this Phil guy was that had so many girls sign in.  One of my proudest moments!  
• Sharing a dorm suite/house with two of my closest friends - My last couple of years at Campbell U, I was fortunate enough to share a dorm suite, and later a house, with two of my closest friends.  Those were good times.  Sure, we got on each others nerves, but we had the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.  Trips to Los Arados Mexican Restaurant, playing music, N64, talking about the ladies, making fun of my friend’s Britney Spears posters (while secretly glad he had them), heading to the Caf or cooking together.  That sense of brotherhood is something that I think gets lost as we grow up.  
• Ditching Class - Yeah, I know.  I’m such a bad influence.  Even so…some of my fondest college memories came from ditching class.  Mostly to do something pointless, but it was totally worth it!  I remember one moment that I am particularly proud of.  It was the first REAL spring day of the semester…you know, one of those days that it just sickened you to waste in a classroom.  Sitting in the back of the class as it was set to begin, I looked out the window and just couldn’t take it anymore.  I turned to my buddy sitting next to me and proceeded to give him a hundred reasons why we should ditch class and go play golf.  After countless seconds of him protesting, he relented.  As we packed our things and headed down the aisle, the prof was calling roll….and got to my name.  As I walked past him in the front of the classroom, I simply responded “I’m not here today.”  The look on his face was priceless…he stopped calling roll and just watched me leave.  As I walked out the door, I turned towards him and swung an imaginary golf club.  I can still see the smile that crossed his face as I turned away.  I still don’t know if it was a gutsy move, or the most idiotic thing I’ve ever done, but it makes for a great story.
   
• Goldeneye 007 - My first love.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours my friends and I wasted playing this game on the N64.  Between Goldeneye and MarioKart, it’s no wonder I never had time to study.  While it was always fun to play solo, Goldeneye came into its own as a multiplayer game.  I can remember having a standing room only crowd packed into a tiny dorm room, yelling and screaming at one another, watching 4 guys try to dominate the Bond world.  Loser rotates out.  That was some of the most intense gaming competition I have ever experienced.  Simply amazing.
• Ming the Merciless - For three years, I was on staff at a Christian camp in South Carolina.  As a rule, every staff member was given a nickname that was to stick with them for the rest of their lives.  Here it is…Hello, my name is Ming, and I’m a former McCall Staffer.  Being on camp staff was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but also the most rewarding.  It also provided me with my story of the DUMBEST thing I’ve ever done. It was the last night of another long, grueling summer, and some friends and I really wanted to go out with a bang.  So we decided that we would, after the campers were in bed, hike one of the longer trails armed with only a MagLite.  Why?  We were on the hunt for rattlesnakes.  That’s right.  Not satisfied with hunting the copperheads that infested camp property, we wanted a REAL trophy.  So we proceed to hike the trail all the way to Reedy Cove Falls, which I believe is the second largest waterfall in SC.  This trail took us through the mountains, down rushing creeks over slippery rock towards the top of the waterfall, and ended with a steep descent down down a sheer bank to the bottom of the falls.  So there we were, 3 of us…one flashlight.  It was tough going on that trail in the pitch black night, but we made it back alive…and snakeless.  Looking back, I can see just how stupid and dangerous that venture was, but the three of us felt such a sense of accomplishment, and have a memory that will last forever.
• The Huxtables -  The Cosby Show was THE television icon of the 80’s.  I’ve always loved the humor of Bill Cosby, and my family frequently gathered around the tube to watch the most famous family in television.  I remember one particular night, watching my Father laugh until he cried.  It was Cliff’s parents’ anniversary, and the family had put together a performance of Ray Charles’ The Nighttime (is the Right Time).  The moment when little Rudy Huxtable appears and lip-syncs “Babaaaaay…Babaaaaay” still stands out as one of the fondest childhood memories about my dad.  He absolutely lost it.  He laughed and laughed, louder than I’ve ever seen him laugh before.  That sort of sums up his personality…he loves life, and it’s infectious.  I still smile when I see that episode.

• Graduation Day - School was never really my thing (as if it wasn’t obvious from some of my above references).  I constantly struggled, and motivation was just plain absent.  In fact, I ended up dropping out of Campbell, and a few years later I transferred to Anderson College (University now) in Anderson, SC.  I had grown up quite a bit by this time, and better understood the importance of a college education.  It was still a struggle, but I worked extremely hard.  My last semester, I had to take Hebrew in order to graduate (because I didn’t make it out of Greek the year before).  Talk about pressure!  I studied and studied, and struggled through that last semester.  It was brutal.  The proudest moment in my life was when my professor called me into his office, and informed me that I simply needed to make a 12 on my final to make it out of Hebrew and graduate.  Needless to say, I walked into my very last final exam with an air of confidence that I had never experienced before.  The exam consisted of two parts:  a master verb chart and sentence translations.  I knew that chart like the back of my hand, so I filled out the chart…and proceeded to write random sentences about nothing in particular on the translation pages.  I may have even slipped a couple of Monty Python references in there for good measure.  I turned in my exam, smiled at the prof, and walked out of that room knowing that the day I had wanted most in my life was finally going to happen.  When I walked across that stage on graduation day, it was the greatest moment of my life.