Tips

I believe the church should always be focused on Jesus and the will of God first and foremost. Whatever threatens that, or anyone who doesn't recognize that Jesus is the heart of the church, should not be involved.

Churches can do great things through acts of love. These are some ideas on how to operate through love.

Vision Through Spiritual Growth
- Leaders are placed in ministry by the hand of God. That is something leaders must constantly remember. Through personal spiritual growth, God equips them with the vision to lead their ministry. I think the closer they are to God, the more obedient they are to Him, the more insight He will bless them with. When leaders are enveloped in the Word, and spending consistent time seeking God's will, He will bless them with a direction and ideas for their ministry. This is where the ideas come from that draw people to church. It is not about drawing people to a church. It is about God using the church to draw people to Him.

Leadership Through Humility and Compassion
- I think those are the two most important qualities a leader can have. Humility and compassion are keys to great leadership. Some argue that pure bravado, authority, and dominance show a strong leader. I argue that a broken person can be a great leader. A leader must be humble enough to accept his/her own weaknesses, to recognize when he/she needs help in certain areas. A leader has to fight pride and know when God has blessed them with something great, and an idea is not about making themselves great. When we are humble and move out of the way, we stop trying to focus the spotlight on ourselves, God can shine through. A leader must also have compassion. Through compassion a leader can understand people, their point of view, their pain, their mindset, and a leader can connect to people. Establishing that connection is what causes people to follow a leader. King David didn't force anyone to follow him in the caves, they did it by choice. People just want someone to care about them, try to understand them, and not expect anything out of force. People don't want to follow out of fear, authority, or lack of power. That's not a choice, that's forced. True leadership is through humility, and followers come through compassion.

Team-Building Through Encouragement
- Once the vision is cast, it is likely that the leader can't carry it out by themselves. They need a team, a team is raised up through encouragement. You need to build up future leaders. Recognize their strengths, where they excel, where they succeed and ask them to join your team. You need to let them know your admiration and respect of their gifts. Its crucial for a leader to step aside and let a team member shine when God has blessed them in an area more than the leader. The leader isn't supposed to be the best at everything, they are the person God put there to build a team. To find the people that are the best at one thing, and bring them together. So the team can be full of encouraged people, who are passionate about what they are doing, and confident they can succeed and their leader supports them. That's a good team.

Poor Blake Griffin

As the Los Angeles Lakers were taking game 1 from the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, and trying for their 15th NBA championship, the Los Angeles Clippers secured the number one pick in this year's NBA draft. Once again, signaling the end to a disappointing season, and the beginning of another.

These two teams may share the same arena, but they couldn't be further apart.

NBA Championships:
Lakers- 14
Clippers- 0

Conference Titles:
Lakers- 29
Clippers- 0

Division Titles:
Lakers- 30
Clippers- 0

The Lakers even have cooler fans, Jack Nicholson comes to every game and sits courtside. All the Clippers have is Billy Crystal.

Poor Blake Griffin, the forward from Oklahoma is the likely No. 1 pick. I bet this is what he looked like after he found out the Clippers got the first pick.

College Food

Corn dogs were a staple of my diet at college. I elected not to get the meal plan, and in an effort to save money I bought food every week at Publix, stored it in my mini fridge and microwaved it up. Yum!

Needless to say, my menu options were limited and corn dogs and chicken nuggets get old after a while. Even when I tried to eat healthy, there are only so many turkey sandwiches I can eat.

Don't get the wrong impression, I made it work, and it wasn't horrible. Sometimes I supplemented my diet with some Chili's or Chik-fil-a, but I actually craved vegetables by the end of the semester.

So, its great to be home and enjoying my mom's cooking. I had some barbecue chicken, broccoli, and potatoes for dinner tonight. Sure, it took longer than 30 seconds to cook, and it didn't come on a stick, but it was good.