| 2010 Labor Day Conference 14 days left for Early-bird rate! |
I don’t know who first introduced me to so called self-help books, but Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends And Influence People” became a staple part of my reading diet from around the age of 13! It quickly became clear to me that some people accomplish much more than others not just because they work harder, but also because they work smarter. As my library of this type of book began to grow, I realized that virtually all of them draw from the Bible as their main source of inspiration. I want to use this week’s e-letter as a chance to think through the impact of developing your leadership skills as a vital part of the process of building infrastructure through which we see the Holy Spirit move.
Sometime ago, I was having a conversation with Wolfgang Simson (author of Houses That Change The World), and he commented to me on how many house church movements around the world seem to be led by doctors. He suggested that this may be because the Lord reaches out to use people who have already been prepared by life for the many challenges they will face in following the Lord’s call. Although Paul in the New Testament comments that “there were not many wise” among the believers, this should not be taken as a description of spiritual growth through ignorance! On the contrary, it seems to me that most people I have met in leadership positions within house church movements have clearly demonstrated significant achievements, either in the form of “street smarts” or academic “smarts” or at times both. Doctors are usually forced by their chosen profession to develop both. Here are a few ideas from this physician as to skills that can be developed by the wise application of Biblical principles to the everyday experience of life.
- As the saying goes, “Time is money.” That may not sound Biblical, but it is not far from the thought that we should be “redeeming the time because our days are evil.” Redeeming the time is just a fancy (Biblical) way of saying use wise time management. If you have never been through a Franklin-Covey time management seminar, it will be worth every penny that you pay for it. The Franklin Time Planner, or other similar tools can transform your use of time. And time is one asset that we are all given precisely the same amount of! There is no such thing as “not having enough time.” We all have exactly the same amount of time, we just don’t all use it equally wisely!
- Similarly, we can learn to use the financial resources that we have wisely. And this again starts with solid Biblical principles. When Napoleon Hill named his classic book, “Think And Grow Rich,” he was only re-stating what Solomon had said years before when he stated that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” A number of years ago one of my English friends from the East End of London (the very poor part of London where Felicity and I lived and worked before we came over to the States) came to visit us in our new home just outside Austin. One of the first things he said to me on seeing our home has always stuck with me. “I knew you would have a swimming pool at this house because you always said in the East End that God would give you a swimming pool one day.” As one financial guru put it, money is like water in a river; it is either flowing towards you or away from you, it just depends which way you are facing! Understanding something as basic as the impact of interest working for you (saving your money at interest) or against you (using a credit card or other form of loan and paying interest to others) will profoundly impact your financial position. If all you do is put away $100 per month from the age of 20 until the age of 65 at 5% interest you will retire with $202,000. If you double what you put away, and understand enough about investment to know how to increase the interest to 8% over that same time period, you will retire with over a million dollars, five times as much. Now compare that to always buying a car on credit! You will pay that same $200 a month for the car at about 8% over your working life and effectively give the car finance companies the same million dollars over your working life. That’s crazy!
Let’s put our time and our money to work in the Kingdom, learning as in the parable of the talents to multiply the talents (time and money) that our heavenly Father gives to us.
Enough philosophizing for this week. Let me remind you of one rapidly approaching date/conference that you don’t want to miss if you are in reach of Orlando, FL. During the day on Friday, June 11th, there is a House 2 House day conference at Northland. Go to this link to register. On the Friday evening, and through the weekend, at the same location, Neil Cole will be leading a Greenhouse-First Story conference. Go to this link to register for that and make a great weekend of training out of these two valuable times.
Many of you know of the writings of Rad Zdero, a Canadian who has authored a number of books on House Church life and practice. He has recently published on the web an excellent article, “My Letter to a House Church Critic.” Enjoy at this link.
Now for a little light relief. Enjoy this short video on the ideal Sunday morning service!
Enough! The above is my 60 seconds worth for this week. Why not commit to what it takes to become part of the infrastructure, part of the answer to the needs around us.
Tony and Felicity and the House 2 House team.
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Recent Stories:
Each week H2H publishes a story/article about simple church and/or living out our life in the Kingdom. Recent stories include:
- The Big Bang (For Your Bucks) Theory and a follow up. By Jim Melon and John White
- Simple Churches: Too Ephemeral? by Kent Smith
- Frank Viola interviews Felicity Dale about An Army of Ordinary People
- GOD USES ORDINARY PEOPLE TO DO THE EXTRAORDINARY by Felicity Dale
House2House is a donation supported ministry.
An Army of Ordinary People We match Amazon’s Price!
by Felicity Dale
An Army of Ordinary People contains the key to explosive, transformational, 21st century evangelism. Renowned church planter Felicity Dale shares stories of how God has always used—and is still using—ordinary believers to carry out his work in simple ways throughout the world. Some of these stories are dramatic—people being led to the Lord by the friends who counseled them through drug addictions and criminal pasts. Some are everyday—a dad spending his Sunday teaching Bible lessons to his kids, or a couple inviting their neighbors over to dinner and a spiritual discussion. But in each of them, there is a light bulb moment, when someone just like you thinks I can do that! And as a result, the gospel is spreading . . . and lives are being changed.
The Rabbit and The Elephant We match Amazon’s Price!
By Tony & Felicity Dale and George Barna
Today’s Western culture is indifferent to church and Christians. Yet the early church existed in far harsher conditions—and it thrived. Much like a new litter of rabbits, the infant faith quickly grew and spread. And the result was a world transformed.
In The Rabbit and the Elephant, Tony and Felicity Dale (Simply Church) and George Barna (Revolution) say that the same thing is happening today. As Christians, we are the church – whether we meet in office buildings, college dorm rooms, coffee shops, factories, or homes – and the Holy Spirit uses us to expand that church to the far reaches of the globe. By practicing “simple church,” we’ll find that a small gathering of friends loving Jesus together and reaching out to the community around them can help us to be the church, the way God intended.
The rabbit and the elephant. Something small and something big. Find out what lessons they hold for you, for the body of Christ, and for the future of church as we know it.
~~BACK IN STOCK!~~
2009 Conference DVD set
Seven disk set from the 2009 Labor Day Conference.
House2House
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Clayton, WA 99110-0229
House2House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
