Last week, I ran across one of the more popular Fathers’ Day Cards of the Year,
“Top Ten Things You’ll Never Hear a Dad Say”
A couple of the better ones:
You’ll never hear your Dad say, “Well, how ’bout that?… I’m lost! Looks like we’ll have to stop and ask for directions.”
You’ll never hear your Dad say, “You know honey, now that you’re thirteen, I think you should start unchaperoned car dates. Won’t that be fun?”
And my personal favorite,
You’ll never hear your Dad say, “I know we have a long drive in front of us, and that we’ve only been driving for 30 minutes, but I’m just wondering….does anyone want to stop and go to the restroom?”
That card got me thinking, “What would you never hear your True Father say?”
You will never hear your True Father say, “You aren’t good enough.”
Unlike some of the stories I’ve heard about fathers and children on earth, God is not waiting on you to prove yourself to Him. He says that He accepts you just as you are. And while He loves you too much to leave you where you are, you don’t have to do anything to earn His love, his favor, or a seat at His table. “See what great love the Father has for us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are.”
You will never hear your True Father say, “I don’t have time for you.”
So many pictures of dads on earth are pictures of busy men who are telling waiting children “I’ll be there in a minute.” Maybe you have felt that God is so busy running the universe that he doesn’t have time for your concerns. The Bible tells us that He has counted every hair on your head, that he wants to give you the desires of your heart, and that in the end, He wants to “pitch His tent with us.” God has time for you. And He wants you to spend the rest of forever with Him.
Finally, you will never hear your True Father say, “I’m done with you.”
In this world, we can find ourselves in so much trouble that people walk away. We’ve all had relationships end, sometimes with a bang, and sometimes with a fizzle. But God says that He will never leave us or forsake us. He says that He will be there for us no matter what we’ve done or how long we’ve been doing it. He says that He will stay by our side for good.
Even though I had a great dad, even though I do remember him getting lost once and needing directions. His best quality was that he kept all his promises. It’s what I try to do as a dad. But good as my dad was, and no matter how much I try, no human can be perfect.
That’s why I’m so thankful for a True and Heavenly Father whose promises are a sure as the rising and setting of the sun, and will be with me no matter where I go or what I do.
The same is true for you. He loves you just as you are. He has time for you. And He will never leave you.
Happy Day After Fathers’ Day.
What would you say are the top ways you have found to utilize Twitter and grow your network? Here are a several of mine:
- Add value. Initially, I tweeted about what I wanted people to know about. Then, I started tweeting about what I thought people needed to know. Finally, I’ve started to realize that I need to tweet about things that others want to know about. Are your tweets something people look forward to?
- Minimize asks. I have quit following several of my friends, mainly pastors, who use Twitter as their personal telethon. While causes are great, and Twitter is powerful, an overload of asks will shoo away your followers.
- Be consistent, but not constant. People tell me all the time that they look forward to my #1stThought of the day. It’s a consistent mini devotional from pastor to people. But friends have also told me that they drop tweeps who constantly hog their Twitter (and Facebook) feeds with too many articles, pictures, and, shall we say, graphic details of their day.
- Retweet. If you see something valuable, add it to the twittersphere, and be sure to accredit the friend who passed it along. The love will come back to you in the end.
- Focus. What are the point of your tweets? I try to place mine in 3 buckets: spiritual leadership, social media, and executive staffing. Focus will expand your network more than you think.
- Own a hashtag. My buddy Scott Williams (@scottwilliams) owns the #Fistbump. I look forward to it. I’ve tried to make #1stThought my contribution to the twittersphere. What’s yours?
- Write a blogpost with tips for Twitter. Yes, I’m shameless.
That’s seven. What three would you add to round out the list?
(this post was originally written in 2009, and continues to be a top viewed post)
Today is the 175th birthday of Texas. At least that’s what I wrote yesterday on Twitter. Funny, my declaration about Texas got more retweets than nearly anything else I’ve put out there in a while.
But one of the responses corrected me. My daughter replied and reminded me that today is the day Texas declared independence. It wasn’t until later that the Alamo fell, and even later that freedom was won.
I thought about that today on my run and realized the same was true for the United States. Our nation’s “birthday” celebrates when we declared freedom. Freedom was actually won years later. There seems to be a pattern in a lot of nations’ histories:
Freedom has to be declared before it can be won.
I think it’s an axiom of the spiritual realm. In order to be free, you have to declare it before you have it.
Are you waiting until things come together before stepping out in faith? Are you hoping that one day you will magically realize a new destiny?
Freedom is out there for you. A bigger future. An expanded destiny.
But you must declare it before you ever have it.
Name your future. Step into new freedom with God. Yes, there will be hard work, battles, and time will pass before it’s realized. But there’s a bigger dream out there for you.
And God wants you to declare it today.
As I travel around and continue to do more and more work in executive search for churches, I find I’m running into more and more great resources for people in church work. Resources are even more cool when they are run by people I know. Take a look at these two solutions for part time staffing needs:
1. Sermon Transcription – Don’t you wish there were an efficient way to get transcriptions of your church’s sermons? Ginger Schell has built a great thing in Digital Sermon Transcriptions. Digital Sermon Transcription converts audio sermons into text format for pastors, church leaders, authors, and publishers. They provide polished transcripts that can be given to church members or posted online and rough draft sermon transcripts for a reduced rate to individuals who plan to use them in blog posts, newsletters, or as the basis of books. They transcribe all digital formats, cassettes, CDs, and DVDs. Pretty impressive.
2. Outsourcing Part Time Work – Ever find yourself needing a part time assistant, bookkeeper, or executive pastor? Bryan & Shannon Miles have recently built the Miles Advisory Group, and you need to know it. Through flexible and creative outsourcing solutions (Virtual EAs, Virtual XPs, Bookkeepers, & CFOs) for churches, MAG enables churches to focus on their ministry with greater effectiveness. It’s a young company that is off to a fast and exciting start!
Hope that’s a help to you in church work!
