Tweet In case you missed my earlier posts, I’m in Sierra Leone for a couple weeks. I will share more later, but wanted to give a quick update. We are…
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Tomorrow a group of five, including me, will leave for 10 days in Sierra Leone. We are going to support a church planting ministry called Africa for Jesus. We will meet people in remote villages, encourage them in their efforts, teach pastors and families, and share God’s love to the people of Africa. I’m excited.
I have traveled extensively doing mission work, but this will be my first trip to the continent of Africa. From the research I have done, this will be the most primitive setting in which I have ever ministered…and I’ve been to some rough places. I’m praying God uses this time to strengthened my faith. (I realize that is a scary prayer.)
Our children have become media junkies. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a study of children ages 8 to 18, which found, not surprisingly, that they are consuming a astounding amount of media entertainment each day. Children now consume an average of 7 ½ hours per day or 52 ½ hours per week of media saturation.
Daily media consumption of U.S. children:
That’s how we planted a church. We looked for people who were influencers within a circle of friends to find a core of people to start our church and we invested in them and released them to lead in the church. We continue to invest in influencer type people that come to our church to lead our ministry. I have personally looked for influencer type people to add to our staff.
I am tired of watching marriages fall apart. What breaks my heart most is when two wonderful people allow temptation to overtake them and fall into the sins such as adultery or pornography. I wish I could say it was rare, but it happens every day. I have seen and believe that marriages can be fully restored from these times and even made model marriages after them, but the goal should be to keep either spouse from reaching this point.
Cheryl and I believe in date nights. We actually believe in date days and date weekends and date vacations. Obviously, with our children mostly grown stretching dates over several days becomes easier for us to do, but the point is we have made a practice of spending quality and quantity time together on a regular basis. It’s perhaps been a key to protecting and growing our marriage.
Today was one of the hardest days in ministry that I’ve had in many months, yet it was a confirming day at the same time. Let me explain.
Cheryl Smith is an author, speaker and consultant who understands the power of social media. As an online friend, Cheryl has inspired me with her leadership and networking skills. Cheryl is consistently connecting me with other pastors she feels would mesh well with me. She’s always right. I suspect she does this for others also.
I’m participating in a long, massive blog post project Stuff Christians Like is conducting. It’s called the “Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian Scorecard”….
Kent Shaffer is an influencer, a creative genius, and apparently never sleeps. One of the best church leadership blogs I follow is Church Relevance. It is considered an honor to be considered for one of Kent’s lists of top churches or top Christian blogs. He is the co-founder of Acre Scout, which helps connect buyers to commercial real estate, including churches. He is an active part of Lifechurch.tv. He consults regularly for churches and ministries wanting to become more effective and efficient. You can follow Kent on Twitter HERE.