Why I'm a Restoration Movement Minister!

I'm part of the Restoration Movement


It
has been a part of my heritage.

I went to a Christian Church
growing up.

My preacher Terry Tanner
was a great man of God - who influenced me.

My Alma Mater
was RM in and out!

And I like its plea
though some would disagree with the issue of baptism.

I believe we are save by grace, through faith, (We confess, repent), in baptism, unto good works.

And of course some of the best authors I've read out there go by the names:

Jack Cottrell, Denver Sizemore, Don DeWelt, Mark Moore (I do like Jeff Walling too)

Speakers: Bennett, Bousman, I always liked David and Ronnie Jones.

In my first ministry in Ohio, I never forgot meeting Clarence Mansfield and Ben Merold. Great mentors.

When I was in Indianapolis - it seemed all the churches were too busy and not alot going on ....except for the wisdom I gained from my friend, Guthrie Veech.

I moved to Virginia and well lots of great preachers all around there. Those preacher meetings were ones were they treated me with respect and I admired these guys being in ministry and what they were doing for the Kingdom.

In North Carolina - there was times where I felt alone - but God was there and still alot of influence from RM preachers like Phil Curry and gaining insight from the guys from the triangle and triad area.

I believe I'm RM because I believe in its tenants and its plea. We are to be people of the Word.

That's all I want to do is people to say of me: Gerrard was a follower of the Word.

Top 10 DOs & DON'Ts for a Missions Trip.

Top 10 DOs for a Missions Trip.

1. Do take it seriously.

2. Do make the trip worth taking.

3. Do take students that are ready. There is nothing like spoiling a missions trip by having a student there that doesn't want to be there.

4. Do have an application process. Screening and questioning why the want to go.

5. Do have team building together. Gets them prepared for the trip.

6. Do fundraising together.

7. Do your scheduling and when everything is to be done.

8. Do investigate the site and do some prep work before forming the team.

9. Have all the RIGHT paper work, applications, liability forms and passports together and deadline.

10. Do have alot of prayer time and effort both individually and as a group. Pray up and never Give Up!

Bonus: Do have Fun! Be yourself and try to make an impact on the Kingdom of God recognizing it is bigger than any one congregation.

Top 10 DON'Ts for a Missions Trip.

1. Don't treat your missions trip as Site sighting or Cruise. If you want a trip or to travel do it yourself. Missions Trips aren't the time or place or focus for such.

2. Don't waste or be invading of the missionary's work. You being there sometimes hinders the work being done. So try not to be in the way.

3. Don't send students unless they want to have a life change and want to impact the world.

4. Don't Go. Sometimes the best investment isn't spending all the $$$ to go on the missions trip but to invest and raise $$ for the mission and missionary themselves and sending good over to help them achieve what needs to be done. With rising gas prices and the extra fees for luggage and airport travel sometimes the mission can best served if you just send the funds.

5. Don't glorify. Sure the pictures are nice and we like to pat ourselves on the back and say what a wonderful job we did on such and such missions trip. We've seen the powerpoint presentations of look what our teens did (and they did do some good things). But problem is sometimes it glorifies and boosts egos rather than Glorifies God and saying "Look at what God did through us."

6. Don't pray! Sometimes we forget the power of prayer and investing in. We think the funding and the going and reaching people on this missions trip is impossible. Until we reach out in faith and pray - we won't see God work. So if you don't pray - don't expect great things.

7. Don't expect everything to work out! Emergencies happen. Be flexible. Not everything will come together as you would like. Plan to fail at times.

8. Don't be surprised at what God can do. Sometimes the best trips have been what God has done and not even regonizing it until later.

9. Don't use Missions organizations. Afterall who wants to be organized and have an organization that actually sweats the details for you? (I suggest this as a Do use mission Organizations: places like Missions Alive, CIY, Group Workcamps are great)

10. Don't take the trip lightly. Do take it seriously. It could be the one trip that helps your students decide they want to impact the Kingdom. Continue on missions and share and be the hands and feet of Jesus to others.

Others you would add?

COUNSELING Sign of weakness or strength?

"Would you go?

Why is it in so many Christian circles counseling is seen as a weakness? This is true especially among ministers? Oh they are fine to give counsel to others but they would never dream of going for counseling themselves. So many pastors feel like it is a sign of weakness and fail to accept the fact they NEED counseling. Many take the false belief, "We are supposed to be super spiritual humans...faster than a speeding crisis and able to leap tall problems in a single bound." Bottom line the source for this kind of thinking is pride. Yes, good old pride. One of the sings God hates. It's pride that says, "I don't need help. I can fix it myself." It's pride that says, "I don't want anybody to know that I'm not perfect and I have problems." Who are you kidding? We all face problems in life and sometimes we need a hand to help pull us out of the hole we fell into."

Read the Rest of the Article


So is it a sign of weakness or strength? what are your thoughts?

Retreats, why?

So Laity Lodge


And Chris Cree
are rounding up several people for a Group Writing Project.

The Topic? Retreats!

I immediately thought of Adam's post on I Kissed Retreats Goodbye


Now the writing assignment is suppose to be on the importance of retreats.

Here are my Top 10 Reasons for going on a Personal Retreat:

1. Reflection - helps you evaluate where you been.

2. Self-assessment - helps you know your strengths and weaknesses.

3. Time alone with God. Nothing like just you and God battling it out.

4. A time to listen: to others, to yourself, to God. Listen and be Still. Like Elijah and in the mountains.

5. Getting a vision. Helps determine direction and where you are headed for the future.

6. Relationship building. Nothing like being away and having some time to build rapport.

7.Healing. Sometimes you need to heal. Time away helps heal wounds.

8. Forgiveness. The hardest person sometimes to forgive is yourself. Time alone and being away from the busy schedule of life - helps maintain focus.

9. Beauty. Taking in the beauty of God's creation and pausing. Sometimes we miss what God is doing because we're in the midst of our own world rather than God's.

10. Time to study. Read, be a learner and be willing to ask the tough questions on what have I learned in the past year? What are my goals for the future.

Retreats; especially personal retreats can be a good thing if they are done purposeful and with God in mind.

The Parable of the Lost Hubcap!

I lost my Hubcap. Not just any ordinary hubcap but to my new car. I've known to have lost some hubcaps. (Why is that? Is it the vehicles I own or my driving? Hmm that's for another post).

Anyways ... I looked everywhere for it. I knew I had another hubcap at home. (For some strange reason this car came with a set of extra 4) I had to look for it though. I searched and searched and still didn't find it. You see Hubcaps are of value. They are valuable to me. They are worth something. They were worth the time and effort for me to put in to look for it.

A hubcap has value. That reminds me of another parable. A parable found in the Scriptures about Finding something more valuable than a hubcap. Even the Shepherd left behind his ninety nine sheep to find the one. So how much valuable are we.

BTW I never did find that hubcap!