Fathers Day Book Reviews

I have read through 2 books that would be great gifts to pick up for your dad (if you have been slacking and still haven’t got then a gift yet).

Here are the 2 books:

Eyes Wide Open (Jud Wilhite): Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the one who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out your identity in Christ.

For More about or to Purchase Eyes Wide Open.

The Disappearance of God (Albert Mohler): More faulty information about God swirls around us today than ever before. No wonder so many followers of Christ are unsure of what they really believe in the face of the new spiritual openness attempting to alter unchanging truth.

For More about or to Purchase “The Disappearance of God”

Both books where great reads. I think any father would enjoy either book this Fathers Day.

HERO by Fred Stoeker & Jasen Stoeker

I got the chance to read the new book “HERO” by Fred Stoeker (Every Man’s Battle) and Jasen Stoeker. This book is really focused to the single guy that it wanting to prepare himself for that “right” woman.

One of the things that I really liked about the book was that the authors laid out 9 Myths that guys think/talk about. Myths like…

Stronghold Myth #3: There are two kinds of girls, the kind you date and the kind you marry. But if you can, marry an experienced girl. She’ll know how to keep you warm at night.

Stronghold Myth #7: You can’t afford to be too vocal or rigid about your standards and boundaries in  your relationship.  That just makes you look weak to her.

Overall this is a good book to read if you are a single guy and looking to grow yourself before or while in a relationship. I don’t necessarily agree with %100 of what the authors write but overall I think there are some great principles you can take out of this book.

You can pick up a copy here.

Blog Interview w/ Jason Hayes

Jason Hayes is a speaker, author, strategist, and church consultant for Threads, a movement connecting young adults to God and the Church. He is the co-author of Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and The Churches That Reach Them, featuring research cited in news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. His work has been featured in numerous websites, articles, and magazines across the US and internationally.

Now to the interview. I asked over 20 top leaders and pastor these two questions. I hope that their responses give you insight and direction.

Q. How did you know you were called into the ministry?

Honestly, I never really had a “burning bush” experience where God laid it all out for me.  Instead, I simply found the Lord gradually placing a greater and greater passion in my heart for the Church, teaching the Word, and reaching today’s generations with Christ.  I eventually became so captured with these things that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else but full-time ministry. I publicly recognized this call at age 18, but I am still growing in what all that means and seeking to better grasp His will for my life.

Q. What is one thing you know now that you wish you would have known your first year in ministry?

I wish that I would have had a better understanding of the reality that our greatest ministry may not always be found in the programs of our church, but rather through our presence in the lives of people.

If you feel that you may be called into full time ministry please check out Catalyst College of Ministry. It is program that will train you and develop you for ministry.

Blog Interview w/ Vince Antonucci

Vince Antonucci is the Lead Pastor at Verve in Las Vegas,  a church plant expert, author of the book “I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt”,  and does humanitarian aid work in remote villages in Vietnam. Vince is also an avid blogger. I really enjoy Vince’s wisdom and writing style.

Now to the interview. I asked over 20 top leaders and pastor these two questions. I hope that their responses give you insight and direction.

Q. How did you know you were called into the ministry?

VA. Wow, I wish that was an easy question to answer. Well…basically the moment I became a Christian I thought I should go into ministry. I wouldn’t even have understood what you meant if you had asked me if I was “called,” I just knew that all I wanted to do with the rest of my life was to share what I had found in Jesus. Basically my first conversation with a Christian was with a Pastor the week after I became a Christian, and I told him I thought I should go into ministry. He told me I could still share Jesus in another profession, so I stuck with my plan and went to Law School. I loved my first year of Law School, but the entire time felt like I was in the wrong place. Then the Youth Pastor of the church I had been attending before Law School asked me to do an internship with the church during the summer. I was like, “What are you smoking?” because law school students don’t do internships at churches, but I said yes and did the internship. And I never went back to Law School. I just knew that I wanted to focus all my time and energy for the rest of my life on connecting people with Jesus.

Q. What is one thing you know now that you wish you would have known your first year in ministry?

VA. That’s a tough question.  I had no idea how difficult ministry would be, but I’m not sure I would have wanted to know. I doubt it would have kept me from doing it, but it would have scared the crap out of me. I think I knew this, but the one thing I would want to make sure everyone knew is to absolutely keep their focus on Jesus and do whatever it takes to continually grow in their intimacy with Him. Okay, that’s what I wish I had known – what a temptation it is to get your identity from your ministry and its results rather than from Jesus. And how no matter what you do in ministry it won’t feel like enough, so you must get what you need from Jesus.

If you feel that you may be called into full time ministry please check out Catalyst College of Ministry. It is program that will train you and develop you for ministry.

Why Are Youth Pastors Wimps?

For the past year I have been out of the Youth Pastor role and one of my new roles is that I am the Director of a discipleship training program called Catalyst College of Ministry. Part of that job is to travel and promote our ministry to potential students.

So last year I began to try and contact youth pastors about coming and ministering at their youth ministries or even just letting us come in and have 5 minutes to tell their students about our program.  I have contacted over 50 youth pastors. Either by phone, or email. And most of them I have or had a friendship/relationship with.

And here is the crazy part. For the most part (about 80% of the time), I GET NO RESPONSE! I can email them back and forth about life but the minute I ask about hooking up for a service…I NEVER HERE FROM THEM AGAIN. Why can’t they just say “I appreciate your offer but no thanks.” Instead they just avoid the whole thing. Then I run into them somewhere and they act all weird.

To be honest, it is hard calling and asking youth pastors to let us come in and minister. Because I know that I am usually going to get a run around and/or not get any response at all. And the truth is I would just much rather someone be like “NO” then like “Let me check into it” and then you never hear back from them.

Here is the worst part, when I was a youth pastor I was a wimp. I ignored people that asked to come to our services. I  didn’t want to hurt peoples feelings, or be a jerk, or take the time to actually make it happen.  I am sure that my students may have missed an opportunity to be ministered to by someone other than me.

So youth pastors (and pastors too), return your calls and emails in a timely fashion. Don’t be afraid to tell people no when they call to want to come to your youth group or church. Or if you say “I will get back with you”, get back with them. I wish that I would have honored people more when I was in that position because I now know how they felt when I didn’t return their calls.

If you are a youth pastor or pastor that would like for us to come and serve you or just promote our program please leave a comment or email me at JFrench@capefirst.org. We will even cover most of the costs.  Hope to chat with you soon.

Blog Interview w/ Greg Atkinson

Greg Atkinson has been writing, speaking and training Church leaders since 2000. In late 2003, Greg launched MultisensoryWorship.com – a website geared to encourage, network, resource, and equip Christian pastors, media ministers, artists and worship leaders. Greg is also a writer and blogger for many different magazines and websites. Greg also works as a consultant – specializing in areas such as innovation, strategy, technology, social justice, worship, creative communication, new media, and engaging the senses in corporate worship.

Now to the interview. I asked over 20 top leaders and pastor these two questions. I hope that their responses give you insight and direction.

Q. How did you know you were called into the ministry?

GA. I accepted Christ at an early age (6) and knew as an elementary school student that God had a special plan for me. I believe God called me and spoke to me in that still small voice as a child. For my 5th grade “What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up” project, I was the only one who did his project on being “a minister” – everyone else was like President of the United States or owner of Disney World, etc. – cool stuff; however my 5th grade teacher remembered me and 16 years later she attended my ordination.

Q. What is one thing you know now that you wish you would have known your first year in ministry?

GA. You cannot please everyone. I know people say they know that, but it really doesn’t hit you until about 5 years in. You will not always be liked. You can have the greatest heart, attitude, intentions and be being used by God in amazing ways, but someone will want you gone. That’s life and you have to learn how to deal with that, move on and not let it get to you.

If you feel that you may be called into full time ministry please check out Catalyst College of Ministry. It is program that will train you and develop you for ministry.

Blog Interview w/ Boyd Bettis

Boyd Bettis is the Connections Pastor at Rivertown Church in Jacksonville, FL.   He oversees small groups, volunteers, and host teams. Boyd is an avid blogger. Check out his blog for some great thoughts and insights.

Now to the interview. I asked over 20 top leaders and pastor these two questions. I hope that their responses give you insight and direction.

Q. How did you know you were called into the ministry?
BB. Crazy thing is I knew I was ‘called’ before I even knew what ministry was. I felt God leading me to do ministry about eight months after I became a Christian. I had no church background or knew the definition of ministry. I just knew from that moment on I was to spending the rest of my life telling people about Jesus. So, the next thing I did was go out and buy a suit, because I thought I needed one to be a ‘real pastor’….ha. It’s really the calling that keeps me doing it. I can’t imagine my life doing something else than preaching the gospel to people.

Q. What is one thing you know now that you wish you would have known your first year of in the ministry?
BB. Well, In actual ‘paid professional’ ministry, I am actually wrapping up my first year as an actual paid staff pastor of a church. I’ve done ministry in a volunteer role for the past three years. Have a clear vision and direction for the people who are working with you. People need to know where they are going. You don’t have to have a huge audacious vision, you just need to have a vision. It doesn’t have to be something ‘big’, people just want to know where they are going and where you’re taking them. People want to know where and why. Finally, be honest about the vision. If you don’t really have a clear idea yet, be honest about it. Let the people know. They’ll respect that.

If you feel that you may be called into full time ministry please check out Catalyst College of Ministry. It is program that will train you and develop you for ministry.

Blog Interview w/ Dave Ferguson

Dave Ferguson is a Lead Pastor and Spiritual Entrepreneur with Community Christian Church and the NewThing Network. Dave is also an author. He wrote the book “The Big Idea”. It is an incredible read on how to get accross that one “Big Idea” every week at your service.

Now to the interview. I asked over 20 top leaders and pastor these two questions. I hope that their responses give you insight and direction.

Q. How did you know you were called into the ministry?

DF. In the middle of my freshman year in college I began to grapple with a question that would change everything.  The question was this:  “For what will you trade your life?” I knew that I was going to trade my life (whether it was 20 years, 50 years or 100 year) for something and I wanted to be intentional.  I had lots of options:  I was very interested in politics; I think I could have been an entrepreneur; but ultimately I decided I wanted to trade my life to “help people find their way back to God.”

Q. What is one thing you know now that you wish you would have known your first year in ministry?

DF. Invest and take risks in other high capacity leaders.

If you feel that you may be called into full time ministry please check out Catalyst College of Ministry. It is program that will train you and develop you for ministry.

Style Doesn’t Dictate Spirituality

I had this thought. Why do we associate style and spirituality?

For instance, that church plays “secular” style music during worship in their church so they can’t be spiritual. Or, the pastor speaks out of the King James Version of the Bible so he must be spiritual.

The reality is style has nothing to do with spirituality. God says we will use foolish things to confuse the wise (1 Cor. 1:27). It doesn’t matter if  you sing hymns or scream them. It doesn’t matter if you speak in old English with 3 main points that all start with the same letter or use movie clips and stories. What matters is that you (the minister or leader) are connecting with God during the week so you can connect them (the congregation) to Jesus on Sundays.

Stlye doesn’t dictate spirituality but the secret place does. Did the worship team spend time in the secret place with God this week? If they did then they will lead the people into true worship. Did the pastor spend time in his secret place with God this week? If he did then we will speak the people the words that God spoke to him.

We should be very careful to judge a churches  style and methods. (Remember when Michal judged the way king David danced before the Lord and God made her barren – 2 Sam. 6:16) God calls us each to reach a different spectrum of people with different styles and methods. The only method we should all have is that we will not compromise the true Message of the Gospel.

Last week I heard Larry Stocksdale say “Lighthouses should never compete.” I agree. We are all called to light up a different area of the harbor.

Great Day Yesterday

Yesterday was a great day for Catalyst. We had two meetings that could be incredible opportunities for the program. I am not a liberty to talk about them yet but man it is exciting.

If you know anyone who is thinking about going into the ministry and is in need of training Catalyst College of Ministry is a great choice for them. For more info click here.

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