At church this past Sunday morning our new minister/youth guy Trey preached his first sermon. Going into church I leaned over and told KC, I'm sure that Trey will be good but I'm ready for Lester to come back and start preaching on a regular basis. He has been on vacation.
I will have to admit that half way through the sermon I was trying to focus but it was difficult - I felt like I had been hit by a mac truck and did not feel well at all. I have been battling a chest cold for the past four days and it took all I had to drag myself out of bed that morning.
Trey talked about who he was, where he was from and how he met and married his wonderful wife Abbey.Then towards the end of his sermon he showed us a video. (Which is attached here - Dancing Guy ) Well if you watched the video you see how that woke me up and got my attention again. He then talked to us and shared how our calling in life should be to be part of “the movement”.
The movement for Christ.
It is telling us that we need to go out on a limb and be that “first guy” who is out there dancing alone anddoesn't care if anyone else is around him. (And most of you who know me well enough, know that when it comes to dancing I have NO problems being that first guy out there acting a fool.) But when it comes to more serious things than dancing and having fun we should be that guy or girl who is the first. We should be the first one to walk down front at church and kneel to pray to God in front of the entire congregation. You know what I'm talking about. Remember those time, especially when you were a youth. Don't you remember when that moment would come at the end of the service and the preacher or speaker would encourage those of you who wanted to, to walk down and pray before God, confessing all of your sins and asking for forgiveness. Well, remember (or maybe it was just me) how you would want to go sometimes, but you didn't want to be the "first person" to go down there. What would people say? Would anyone else follow me down there? Or would they have to drag out the last song two extra verses because I decided to go do this? But then after a few of your friends went and did it, you felt comfortable enough to do it as well. Enough of your comfort zone, support group and mostly peers did it, so you figured you would as well.
Well, let me tell you. When it comes to this adoption - it definitely was a movement in our lives. KC and I knew NO ONE who was in the process of what we were about to undertake and knew nothing about what we were going to have to face. Luckily we have met SO many amazing people who are doing this as well since then and they have become some of our closest friends.
While I would never take back a single thing, and am so blessed that we have gone forward and pursuedthis, it really took us out of our comfort zone. KC & I stopped and thought - we are about to start something that no one within our family or friends knows about. We don't know how everyone will feel about it. We don't know what challenges we will have to face. What friendships we might lose over this. What struggles in life might come towards Zoe and even Olivia because of what we are about to do. But then we focused on what God was calling us to do. God wasn't calling us to just "adopt a baby". Yes, that was the overall goal, but God was calling us, we believe, to an even bigger thing, he was calling us to start a movement and follow him. Start a movement in our lives, and from that we will touch so many people. We can show so many of our friends and family members what it is like to not only adopt a baby, but one that is internationally from a different race.
So let me focus back on the main purpose of this entry and not take you down too many rabbit trails which Ihave a tendency to do. Our focus in life should be to "join the movement". But as KC pointed out to me in church, we are doing that - we are being the followers that God calls on us to be. I stopped and thought about it and I couldn't help but smile. It truly is that amazing and when I stop and think about it, I get chills all over. We ARE doing what God says in James 1:27, "...look after orphans and widows in their distress..." Well, that is exactly what we are doing. We are following. Doing what we feel led to do and doing it with a heart full of every emotion a human can possibly feel: Fear - Excitement - Joy - Doubt - Love - Anxiety - and so many more (but I couldn’t think of any more off the top of my head.)
So this week focus on what YOU can do to do the work of God. What "movement" can you make in yourlife that helps direct others towards Christ through what you are doing. My papa always tells us that you can truly tell what type of a person someone is by the way they carry themselves and the actions they takes. Without speaking a single word to them - you can see who they truly are.
After this message and remembering that, I looked in the mirror - who was I staring back at? What did heshow to the world and what did others see in return? I believe that is something we should all check out every once and a while.
I am also attaching here to transcript of the video, just in case you can't watch it -
"If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:
A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almostinstructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!
Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it's not about the leader anymore - it's about them, plural. Notice he's calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.
The 2nd follower is a turning point: it's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut, and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.
A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers, because new followers emulate followers - not the leader.
Now here come 2 more, then 3 more. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point! Now we've got a movement!
As more people jump in, it's no longer risky. If they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to joinnow. They won't be ridiculed, they won't stand out, and they will be part of the in-crowd, if they hurry. Over the next minute you'll see the rest who prefer to be part of the crowd, because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining.
I will have to admit that half way through the sermon I was trying to focus but it was difficult - I felt like I had been hit by a mac truck and did not feel well at all. I have been battling a chest cold for the past four days and it took all I had to drag myself out of bed that morning.
Trey talked about who he was, where he was from and how he met and married his wonderful wife Abbey.Then towards the end of his sermon he showed us a video. (Which is attached here - Dancing Guy ) Well if you watched the video you see how that woke me up and got my attention again. He then talked to us and shared how our calling in life should be to be part of “the movement”.
The movement for Christ.
It is telling us that we need to go out on a limb and be that “first guy” who is out there dancing alone anddoesn't care if anyone else is around him. (And most of you who know me well enough, know that when it comes to dancing I have NO problems being that first guy out there acting a fool.) But when it comes to more serious things than dancing and having fun we should be that guy or girl who is the first. We should be the first one to walk down front at church and kneel to pray to God in front of the entire congregation. You know what I'm talking about. Remember those time, especially when you were a youth. Don't you remember when that moment would come at the end of the service and the preacher or speaker would encourage those of you who wanted to, to walk down and pray before God, confessing all of your sins and asking for forgiveness. Well, remember (or maybe it was just me) how you would want to go sometimes, but you didn't want to be the "first person" to go down there. What would people say? Would anyone else follow me down there? Or would they have to drag out the last song two extra verses because I decided to go do this? But then after a few of your friends went and did it, you felt comfortable enough to do it as well. Enough of your comfort zone, support group and mostly peers did it, so you figured you would as well.
Well, let me tell you. When it comes to this adoption - it definitely was a movement in our lives. KC and I knew NO ONE who was in the process of what we were about to undertake and knew nothing about what we were going to have to face. Luckily we have met SO many amazing people who are doing this as well since then and they have become some of our closest friends.
While I would never take back a single thing, and am so blessed that we have gone forward and pursuedthis, it really took us out of our comfort zone. KC & I stopped and thought - we are about to start something that no one within our family or friends knows about. We don't know how everyone will feel about it. We don't know what challenges we will have to face. What friendships we might lose over this. What struggles in life might come towards Zoe and even Olivia because of what we are about to do. But then we focused on what God was calling us to do. God wasn't calling us to just "adopt a baby". Yes, that was the overall goal, but God was calling us, we believe, to an even bigger thing, he was calling us to start a movement and follow him. Start a movement in our lives, and from that we will touch so many people. We can show so many of our friends and family members what it is like to not only adopt a baby, but one that is internationally from a different race.
So let me focus back on the main purpose of this entry and not take you down too many rabbit trails which Ihave a tendency to do. Our focus in life should be to "join the movement". But as KC pointed out to me in church, we are doing that - we are being the followers that God calls on us to be. I stopped and thought about it and I couldn't help but smile. It truly is that amazing and when I stop and think about it, I get chills all over. We ARE doing what God says in James 1:27, "...look after orphans and widows in their distress..." Well, that is exactly what we are doing. We are following. Doing what we feel led to do and doing it with a heart full of every emotion a human can possibly feel: Fear - Excitement - Joy - Doubt - Love - Anxiety - and so many more (but I couldn’t think of any more off the top of my head.)
So this week focus on what YOU can do to do the work of God. What "movement" can you make in yourlife that helps direct others towards Christ through what you are doing. My papa always tells us that you can truly tell what type of a person someone is by the way they carry themselves and the actions they takes. Without speaking a single word to them - you can see who they truly are.
After this message and remembering that, I looked in the mirror - who was I staring back at? What did heshow to the world and what did others see in return? I believe that is something we should all check out every once and a while.
I am also attaching here to transcript of the video, just in case you can't watch it -
"If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:
A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almostinstructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!
Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it's not about the leader anymore - it's about them, plural. Notice he's calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.
The 2nd follower is a turning point: it's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut, and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.
A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers, because new followers emulate followers - not the leader.
Now here come 2 more, then 3 more. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point! Now we've got a movement!
As more people jump in, it's no longer risky. If they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to joinnow. They won't be ridiculed, they won't stand out, and they will be part of the in-crowd, if they hurry. Over the next minute you'll see the rest who prefer to be part of the crowd, because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining.
And ladies and gentlemen that is how a movement is made! Let's recap what we learned:
-If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.
-Be public. Be easy to follow!
-But the biggest lesson here - did you catch it?
-Leadership is over-glorified.
-Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he'll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:
-It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.
-There is no movement without the first follower.
-We're told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.
-The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
-When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in."
Until my next post - later.
-j.w. godwin
Yea! It is finally up and running. So proud of you guys! Love, Elizabeth Utley
ReplyDelete