What is a Promotion?

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My wife Lindsay graduated today from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary with her masters in counseling. She will be finishing with a 3.6 GPA and she received the highest counseling comprehensive examination score in school history, despite having worked the entire time she was in school. Yes, I’m bragging, but she’s earned it! Since she’s on the verge of new career opportunities, I’ve been thinking about what it means to receive a promotion.

Man Walking up Ladder to Clouds

One of the graduation events that we attended this week was a special banquet honoring graduates. They also gave Dr. Stephen Tourville the honor of alumnus of the year. We use different terminology, but his position is comparable to a bishop in the Catholic church–he is the regional leader for all of the Assemblies of God churches in Pennsylvania and Delaware. During his career he has gone from pastoring small churches to being involved in regional and national leadership.

While it would be easy for someone in Tourville’s position to become arrogant, his acceptance speech for alumnus of the year demonstrated amazing humility. One thing he said really stood out to me was about promotions:

When you’re where God wants you to be, there are no promotions, only lateral moves. No position you can have is more important than the one God has placed you in.

I’m going to take this statement one step further: if you’re not where God has intended you to be, then you are eligible for this promotion. Now, figuring out where God wants you to be is between you and God, but here are some ideas:

Promotion Path Step 1: Know Who God Made You To Be

There is a growing trend to know your Strengths Finders abilities or to know your personality type, but this actually isn’t a new concept. There are actually numerous passages in the New Testament about gifts:

Click on the picture to zoom in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_gift

Since God created us, it seems logical to me to believe that the gifts we are born with are given to us by God. In order to even more fully become the people we were created to be, we should understand our gifts and abilities and try to grow in them. This starts by taking personality tests, spiritual gifts tests, and strengths tests. Once we have an understanding about what our core competencies are, then we can begin to develop these abilities.

Promotion Path Step 2: Develop Your Abilities

When you understand who God has made you to be, it’s time to develop those unique abilities. How you do this varies a lot on how you learn best. I personally prefer classroom settings and practical experience, but your development might include personal research, mentorship, internship, or anything else.

I think it’s best to start general, then continually get more specific. For example, if you think you have a natural ability towards math, you should learn how to add before you start getting into advanced physics, accounting, or statistics.

Promotion Path Step 3: Pray

This part is kind of obvious, but if you want to be in the place where God wants you, then you should probably ask him where he wants you! Ask him to guide you and direct you. This step is the simplest step, but not the easiest. It will involve patience and perseverance. Once you are where God wants you, then you have received your promotion.

Down in the comments, I’d love to hear where God has you right now. Also, what are some of your unique abilities that He’s given you?

What is Your Why?

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This is my second post on my newly relaunched blog. I still consider things to be under maintenance on this webpage, so if you have any suggestions about design, layout, or WordPress plugins I should try, I’d be grateful for your input. I would also be grateful if you share this post with your friends if you like or agree with what it says.

I am trying to get back into the habit of writing on my blog after a long absence. In the many months that passed since I last wrote, I have been spending time trying to understand why I enjoy writing.

The fact is, I’m motivated to try to write well and for people to enjoy my writing. I hate to admit it, but one of the reasons I let my blog lapse for so long was because I felt like people weren’t reading or enjoying what I wrote.

This gets me back to the title. What is your Why? What drives you to succeed or to try new things? Even though I enjoy writing, I have to be very careful to focus on the right Why? when I write.

One of the things that has spurred me on the most in my writing was my old high school English teacher Mrs. C. For most of my high school years, I earned high grades in my writing assignments, but my senior year Mrs. C never gave me the As I thought I deserved. Eventually she uttered the phrase I’ll never forget: “you’ll never be able to write in college.”

When I entered college, every time I was given a writing assignment, my first objective was to prove Mrs. C wrong. I celebrated every good grade or comment I received on a writing project, but that celebration was not a celebration about a grade but a celebration that Mrs. C was once again wrong about me. Over ten years have passed since Mrs. C uttered those words to me. In those ten years I still think about her every time I have to write anything.  I let Mrs. C become my Why? for writing.

Why do I really write? I write because I enjoy writing. I write because many people have told me they enjoy my writing. Occasionally I write because someone pays me to write. I write because it helps me process through some of the things on my mind. I write because I want to help American Christians understand missions.

Also, as a Christian, I know that my motivation should be to honor God and to do his work. In 1 Corinthians 10:31,  Paul says “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” As Christians we have a lot of choices to make, but we have to consider if the choices we make honor God.

In my case, I know that choosing to use my teacher’s hurtful words as a motivation is not right. Fortunately I don’t write for grades anymore, but I struggle to escape that mindset.

What is your Why? What is the thing or person that has pushed you forward? Was it someone’s encouragement who spurred you on, or were you responding to someone’s negativity?

Book Review: Are You Living or Existing?

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Let me tell you about a friend of mine: Kimanzi Constable makes his living delivering bread   in Wisconsin. One day he decided that he was sick of that life and made a plan to change his life. He started writing on his blog, and before too long he had a successful blog and was being sought out internationally to speak at conferences.

Living Or Existing

His newest book, Are You Living or Existing, is being released tomorrow on May 1, 2013, and I had the privilege to receive an advance copy to provide an honest review.

In this book, Constable discusses the process he went through to accomplish the amazing transformation he went through to go from bread delivery man to become a writer and worldwide speaker. He lays out the process in nine simple steps which will guide you through the entire process of achieving your goals and dreams.

Here are a few things about the book that I thought were very good.

  • Constable recognizes the importance of being a wholly healthy person. Three of the nine steps Constable lays out actually have nothing directly to do with achieving your goal, but instead dealing with distractions in your life (emotional and physical health, finances, and other distractions).
  • The steps are simple and easy to follow through on. At no point in the process will you be unsure of what you should be doing.
  • The writing is clear and conversational. This makes it very easy to read and follow. Unfortunately, the conversational writing occasionally felt sloppy and sometimes seemed a little distracting.
  • Constable’s frequent use of stories from his own life provide both examples and encouragement as you’re going through the steps yourself.

The main negative that I thought of was actually probably done intentionally by Constable. The book was primarily the nine steps and the accompanying stories. There were numerous occasions where I wished that the content of the chapter went more in-depth. Since it would be hard to provide in-depth content to a wide variety of topics and goals, I can understand how it would have been difficult to write deeper content that meets the needs of all of the different readers.

Overall, this was a good book, and I’m grateful I was given the opportunity to review it. To anyone who is needing direction to accomplish your goals, then I think this is a valuable resource. Additionally, the chapters about removing distractions from your life would be valuable to anyone who needs direction bringing balance to their lives.

Three Great Ways to Get Started Learning a Language

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Most people who move to a foreign culture–including missionaries–will need to learn a language. While many businesses are conducted in English or through translators, this luxury is often not affordable for missionaries (also, learning the language and culture gives the missionary great advantages in presenting the gospel).
Since I have lived in three countries and spent significant time in a few others, I’ve been exposed to several languages. I have learned fluency in Indonesian and familiarity in Tagalog and Spanish (although my competence in all three of these languages has plummeted in the last few years that I’ve lived in the States).
I want to offer you three tips that will help you get started learning any new language:
1. Study the Basics
Take some time to learn the basic pronunciations, pronouns, tenses, colors, and directions in the language you will be learning. These topics will be covered in the first few chapters of any language book. Although it would be helpful to master these basics, even gaining a familiarity in them will help you pick more up as you listen to others’ conversations.
2. Immerse Yourself
You will learn a surprising amount just by hearing others speak. Once you have the basics down, you’ll start to recognize words and phrases that you hear. This familiarity will help you understand more of the foreign language, especially as you begin to understand the context of the conversations.
I took Spanish 1 in high school and didn’t think I had retained anything. I remembered a few basic words and basic grammar, but I couldn’t have any meaningful conversation. However, four years later, I had Mexican and Guatemalan roommates during my junior year of college. As I spent more time with them and listening to them, I began to understand nearly everything they said and was often able to respond in Spanish.
3. Don’t be Afraid to Make Mistakes
When you were a child, you did not speak your native language with complete fluency. You mispronounced words, used wrong grammar, and had a limited vocabulary. However, as your parents and teachers corrected your mistakes, you learned your native language with fluency. If you are reluctant to practice your new language because of a lack of confidence about making mistakes, then you will be unlikely to learn the language.
These mistakes always result in great stories. In Indonesian, I often confused the words for hair (rambut) and grass (rumput). A missionary I know once preached a sermon about how Jesus was born in a toilet rather than in a manger.
Have you ever studied a foreign language? What helped you learn? Any good stories about mistakes you made?

Three Great Ways to Beat Jet Lag

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What Is Jet Lag?
In order to best understand jet lag, it’s easiest to compare it to how you live your life now. Your body is used to waking up at a certain time; being hungry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at certain times; and finally being ready for bed at a certain time. Sometimes you’ll hear this referred to as your body clock.

Well, if you travel to the other side of the world, what used to be lunch time is now in the middle of the night and what used to be time to get up in the morning is now time to eat dinner. Basically, jet lag is what happens when you take your body clock and make it adapt to a whole different time zone.

How Do You Get Jet Lag?
You’re most likely to get jet lag when you travel to another time zone, usually ones that are far enough away that you’re daily routine is displaced by several hours. You can actually give your self some of the symptoms of jet lag when you have to adjust to a new schedule or when you have to adjust to Daylight Savings Time.

Three Great Ways to Get Rid of Jet Lag

1. Adopt your new timezone before you get there. The trick to doing this is to set your watch to the timezone you’ll be traveling to. This will confuse your stomach and your sleep schedule, so snacks and naps may help you get started as long as you don’t over do it. It can be tricky to decide when to start the transition. I usually preferred starting the day before I left, but many travelers will suggest that you start when you board your first plane.

However, it’s important to not start this process too early. You need to finish well in your old timezone so that you can succeed well in your new timezone. If you start too early, then you’ll be tired and groggy in both timezones!

2. Drink lots of water. Water helps you feel refreshed when you’re tired (since your sleeping schedule will be all out of whack), fuller between meals (since your eating schedule will be all out of whack), and hydrated (since airplanes will dry you out).

3. Spend some time outdoors. If the sun is shining, you it won’t feel like bedtime, no matter how tired you are. If it’s dark out, then you can start giving yourself mentally ready for bed even if you’re not that tired. Also, if you take time to go on a walk while you’re outside, you’ll get a short-term energy burst and longer-term assistance in feeling tired sooner.

Have you ever experienced jet lag? What was it like? What did you find helpful in getting through it?

Missions: Protecting the Home Front

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The objective of most sports is to have more points than the other team at the end of the game–even sports like wrestling, boxing, and martial arts include scores to determine a winner if one person didn’t clearly win the fight. To score points, there is usually offense and defense–offense’s objective is to score points and defense’s is to prevent points to be scored.

In the “sport” of missions, it is necessary to play both offense and defense. The offensive players are the missionaries on the front lines, churches and supporters who help get the missionaries on the field, and the prayer partners who lift up their missionary friends.

Even with missionaries on the front lines, the American church still needs defense!

Do you know what countries/regions missionaries get sent to? Places like China, India, the former Soviet Union, and the nations of Africa are some of the first places we think of when we think of where missionaries are needed. However, did you know that many of our missionaries go to Europe? Did you know that other countries appoint missionaries to minister to the United States?

Europe was once the center of global Christianity, but now less than 3 percent of the population are Evangelical Christians. The United States sends more missionaries than any other country, but now is receiving missionaries.

How to play defense in the American church

There are countless ways for the American church to step up and play defense, but I’d like to offer three:

Lose the checklist mentality. It’s easy to let your faith become a checklist. Go to church–check. Read my Bible–check. Smile at a homeless person–check. With a checklist mentality, our faith becomes about meeting minimum requirements, not about becoming growing and vibrant.

Focus on your heart. The Book of Proverbs is a guide to Christian living–its words contain so much wisdom that it would take several lifetimes to try to apply all of the lessons. One of the key verses (in my opinion) in the book of Proverbs is 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” When you focus on your heart, you allow yourself to be someone who can be completely used by God.

Make partnerships. The opposing offense will try to succeed by using teamwork, so you’ll lose if you try to do defense alone. Partner with your church and other Christians, allow yourself to be discipled and take time to disciple others, and evangelize to those who need to hear the Truth.

I’ve only listed three of the many ways to play defense. What are three other defensive plays do you think will work?

 

How To Choose A Missions Sending Organization

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If you search “Missions” on Google, you will get thousands of results in only a fraction of a second. A closer look will reveal that there are hundreds of missions-sending organizations. If you or a team are interested in going on a short- or long-term missions trip, you’ll inevitably find that the opportunities are endless.

Here’s a guide to help you get started in your missions trip planning. I hope this guide will help you make the best decision about a ministry partner next time you go on a missions trip. Since I work at the national office of the Assemblies of God, I have to highly recommend going on missions trips with the AG. GoAG.org is a great resource for helping you get started.

Go Independently
Unless your group has the backing of a strong church and has great overseas partners, this probably isn’t ideal for long-term missions, but it can work well for short-term trips. When you plan your trip independent of a sending organization, then you design a trip that will specifically work for you or your group and you may be able to reduce your overall costs. A major drawback to this approach is that you must take care of all of the logistics instead of having the help of an established organization.

Look Within Your Denomination
If you attend a denominational church, then it is valuable to look at the opportunities within your organization. They will likely have a missions department or will be able to endorse certain organizations. Depending on what you plan on doing on your trip, your denomination’s office may be able to connect you with people on the missions field who can host you and your team. Additionally, staying within the denomination may have special opportunities or incentives. For example, in the Assemblies of God, churches can receive awards for how much money they give to missions each year, and the money spent on the trip counts towards that total.

Choose Based On Your Ministry
A friend of mine is a missionary to surfers, others teach English, others do entrepreneurial work, others work with children, others do manual labor–the opportunities are endless. Some missions-sending organizations work specifically with people and teams who want to do a specific kind of ministry. For example, the English Language Institute helps missionaries use English teaching for evangelism in countries across Asia. If you or your team have specific gifts, then an organization that specializes in that kind of ministry will be great ministry partners.

Choose A Great Organization
Sadly, not all organizations are efficient or reputable. Some organizations have high administrative costs, which means they don’t efficiently spend the money they receive. A simple Google search will help you assess the reputability of the organization you intend on working with. There are also organizations that specialize in investigating ministries and non-profits to assess their reputability. MinistryWatch.com or CharityNavigator.org may be a good places to start.

What do you consider when you decide on ministry partners for a missions trip? Have you had a good experience with any? What characteristics do you think a good missions-sending organization have?

Someone Is Always Watching You

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Did you know that there is someone out there who is always watching you? This person mocks you every time you trip, every time you are clumsy, or every time you mess something up. Staring at you, laughing at you, jeering at you.

No, you can’t get away from this person. Their all-seeing eye remarkably catches all of your embarrassing moments, but always seems to be looking away when you have an accomplishment. This person knows about all of your typos, recognizes all of your flaws, and their opinion of you is plummeting.

This person probably can get you fired, probably can get you audited, probably can get you arrested, can probably ruin your life, or probably get you killed. In fact, they are probably planning every step of your premature demise.

You can’t run from this person. When you sleep, get ready, work, relax, or whatever you are doing, you are being watched. A long list of wrongs is growing, but the list of accomplishments is covered in dust.

I’m not talking about God, Google, or Big Brother–though they see a lot too. I’m not talking about your parents, your boss, your best friends, your worst enemies, but someone who knows you deeper in every way.

Stop being your own worst critic.

How To Become A Missionary

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Whether you’re a pastor, evangelist, tech person, teacher, editor, photographer, underwater basket weaver, or counselor, God can use your specific talents in missions. Regardless of what you may think, the job description of a missionary is very broad and can accommodate every kind of background.

If you think God is calling you to missions, it can be an arduous task to fulfill that call. Here’s a few steps to help you get started. This procedure I’m describing is written to help those who want to serve in long-term (5+ years) missions, but the process will be fairly similar for short-term missionaries. If you want to serve less than a year, then your process will likely be fairly simple.

Be A Maturing Christian
If you aren’t committed to Christ, then you won’t be a very effective missionary. You can begin the process as a new Christian, but a lot of organizations will want to see signs of Christian growth in your life. If you aren’t sure where to begin, make sure you faithfully attend church, find ministries you can serve with, start a Bible reading plan, and find someone to mentor you in your faith–this process is referred to as discipleship and it’s something you should continue your whole Christian life.

Talk To Your Pastor
If you are a mature Christian or a new Christian who has begun the discipleship process, talk to your pastor about your desire to be a missionary. Most importantly, be willing to listen to him/her. They may encourage you to wait, serve longer in the church, take specific classes, go on a missions trip, or gain certain experiences first–don’t let this discourage you. Prayerfully trust their discernment.

Get Your Church’s Endorsement
It will be very important to have a supporting church working with you. If your church is independent, then it may be as simple as talking to your pastor. If your church is part of a denomination, then you may have to get endorsement on a statewide or national level.

Find Someone To Partner With
This can be a specific missionary that you can begin serving with or a missions-sending organization. Initiate the application process with the organization or begin communication with the missionary. You will likely have to jump through some hoops, but this is one of the most important steps so keep your head up and keep a good attitude during this stage.

Be Flexible, Patient, and Persistent
You’ll likely have to submit references, get a background check, and go through interviews. Once you’re approved, then you’ll have to start finding financial and prayer partners. This whole process from your first call to the time you arrive on the field could take a few years. You will experience discouragement, you will experience frustration, and you will feel like giving up, but once you pass through this process then you will be a missionary.


What preparation do you think candidate missionaries should receive? Anything you’d add/remove from this process? How can you help an applying missionary get to the field.