Kenneth Olson.org

Sunday Reflection

Really loved our service yesterday, we enjoyed such a clear and pronounced presence of God. I love those times! There's something about being in God's atmosphere that helps you identify with His heart for you and others. It imparts His perspective and priorities.

For me, I was really overtaken by an experience of supernatural love for God's people. Call it a pastoral moment or whatever, but I truly have a deep commitment and love for those God has called me to serve. Hard to wrap thoughts around it or fully express it in words, but I can identify with something the Apostle Paul once said, It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart - Philippians 1:7 (NIV)

There's nothing like letting God's love in you for people, be the motivating factor of your life. That's my modus operandi for both life and ministry. Even preparing preach, I often pray, Father help me to love people through what you who have me to say and do. 

Love should be our truth north in every aspect of life. Scripture tells us, three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Cor 13:13 (NLT)

Church Planting Movement

I'm in Orlando, FL attending the Exponential Conference this week. It draws people from all over the nation who are passionate about planting churches. Over the past few years this conference has been a catalyst for church planting which has become a serious and bonifide movement crossing into every area the of the church in America.

Without a doubt it's timely and of God. I recently heard about a study that showed 60% of the American population is currently unreachable by the church. 

Surprising for sure, but one thing is true, America is ripe for a spiritual awakening, for new, innovative and impacting presentations of the Gospel that reach into every arena of our culture.

It's evident God is getting our attention and calling people everywhere to get on mission. To impact our generation for Jesus. A generation that is not only growing, but dynamic and diverse requiring us to be light on our feet, spirit-led and fully engaged.

A Mentality for Success

In science there is a law called the law of entropy. It states that everything in the natural world over time tends toward disorder, decay and death. Essentially it's a scientific description of the curse of sin and it's effects in the natural world.

The force of death and defeat are so persistent in our world you can't afford to turn your back spiritually even for a day. This is so true when it comes to our thoughts. 

Without intentional effort it's easy for our minds to drift toward doubt, unbelief and playing out the worst-case scenario. This is exactly what the enemy wants us to do, to spend our time and energy envisioning limitations, what we can't do and how we're going to fail.

Recently, while on vacation, I challenged myself to make a shift in my thinking. I realized If I'm going to go to the next level of God's blessing and plan for my life I need to plant and cultivate some new thoughts. 

When I was a young boy I used to love sitting on an old, rusty tractor seat that was behind an old barn on my parents farm. Because it was shaded, many hot summer days you would find me sitting on that old tractor seat dreaming of my future. I would dream up infinite scenarios of what I wanted to do in life. I would think about all the different ways I would succeed and do something significant. 

That's  a good example of how God expects us to use our imagination. Instead of allowing our minds to run unchecked, dominated by past experience, our physical senses and playing out 1001 ways we're going to fail to reach our goal. I believe God wants our minds inspired by His Word, to run free with expectancy and creativity, imagining the possible ways we'll experience victory, breakthrough, and the dream in our heart.

Be sure to take time to develop a mentality for success, to dream and think of possible ways you're going to succeed in God's mission for your life. Resist and root out every thought and imagination of failure, doubt and defeat.

First, Ten

I found the following blog post by Seth Godin about the new face of marketing absolutely fascinating - enjoy!

First, ten.

This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing.

Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you...

Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they'll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.

If they don't love it, you need a new product. Start over.

Your idea spreads. Your business grows. Not as fast as you want, but faster than you could ever imagine.

This approach changes the posture and timing of everything you do.

You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They're not anonymous and they're not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants. Like this group of ten.

The timing means that the idea of a 'launch' and press releases and the big unveiling is nuts. Instead, plan on the gradual build that turns into a tidal wave. Organize for it and spend money appropriately. The fact is, the curve of money spent (big hump, then it tails off) is precisely backwards to what you actually need.

Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing. 

California Dreamin'

We're on the home stretch of our spring vacation in California and have been having a great time. It's been priceless spending time with my kids, enjoying the outdoors and making memories. We've soaked up the local scene in Hollywood, enjoyed the beach in Santa Monica, great scenery and seafood in Santa Barbara and currently relaxing in the high desert of Palm Springs. So therapeutic to unhook and be refreshed spirit, soul and Body.

     

New Favorite Sandwich

Ok, I admit it, I'm a quasi foodie :) I love to try new restaurants and food whenever I get a chance. Lately, I have absolutely enjoyed the Iggy's fried egg sandwich at Good Day Cafe. Somethin' about the combination of avocado, egg, tomato and ham accompanied with spicy potatoes that is soooo tasteful. I think I'm hungry......?

 

Sunday Reflection

Extremely proud of my wife and partner in ministry today. Sara definitely "brought it" this morning with a timely message challenging us to get out of our religious and even self-imposed boxes. Boxes that hinder us from obeying God and staying true to our convictions. 

She shared the Lord has been impressing upon her it's time for God's people to value and give whole-hearted attention to six things. They are, for God's people to.....

1. stop being miserable
2. be done with shallow, counterfeit Christianity
3. open our mouths and speak our faith 
4. reach out to God and receive His power to be immovable, unshakable and unstoppable
5. truly love and obey God (if you love Him you'll obey Him)
6. do the great commission

Working Vacation

I've been on vacation this week, however I say that in the technical sense. Actually, I've been working on a variety of projects, mostly to get caught up and in position to go on our real vacation in about a week.

In the next few months we have a pretty steep incline ahead of us as we incorporate to become a church plant and transition to a new facility and location. There's an endless number of details and things to consider, pray about and plan for. 

Articles of incorporation, by-laws, vision/mission, form of government, leadership structure, finances, demographics, marketing and a transition plan just to mention a few. What's my approach to navigate through it all? Much Prayer.

Someone once said, the history of every great accomplishment is the history of answered prayer or conversely, every failure in life is a prayer failure.

Sobering words, but so true. Much time alone with God is the most strategic and effective thing I know. It's our super-natural, God-given instrument to process the plan of God for our lives. To prepare us for our future and our future for us!

There won't time in heaven to catch up on our prayer lives, the time is now!

Revised Company Logos

In light of the economic challenges, I thought these logo parodies were rather humorous.

The Problem With Procrastination

Really enjoyed teaching this past weekend on The Problem with Procrastination. As I was preparing to teach, I was struck by how much the Bible has to say about this subject. 

Procrastination is actually a passive form of rebellion, a sin of omission that erodes at the foundation of our lives and puts us at risk to the enemy's devices. It clouds and confuses God's direction for our lives and diminishes His power to do what He's asked us to do. The devil loves using it because it flies under the radar of most Christian's and is effective at deceiving and de-stabilizing their lives.

I believe it should outright alarm us if we're viewing any part of God's Word or the leadership of His Spirit as optional, something we'll get to when we feel like it or when things settle down. James 1:22 declares, but be doers of the Word (obey the message), and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves (into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth) - AMP 

Procrastination actually has a pretty predictable pattern. When you delay in doing God's Word, your conscience begins to bother you and you are plagued by a sense of guilt. You then begin to justify and rationalize your behavior in order to control negative feelings. However, this only paves the way to procrastinate more and perpetuates the cycle, taking you deeper into deception and sabotaging whatever you want to accomplish. 

Eventually, you'll forget what God asked you to do and be unable to make the connection between problems your experiencing and what's causing them - procrastination.

Putting off to tomorrow what you can do today always comes with a cost. Missed opportunities, stress, sense of guilt, loss of productivity, creation of crisis, inconveniences to others and the most detrimental, in my mind, procrastination is a barrier to realizing your full potential.

I love hearing about success stories, especially the "rags to riches" kind. W. Clement Stone is a perfect example, he was the co-auther of one of the best-selling motivational books of all time, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. At age 6 Stone sold newspapers on the streets of Chicago to help his widowed mother pay the rent. At age 13 he had his own newsstand and later went on to found a multi-billion dollar insurance empire.

During his life he generously shared his formula for achievement and success and it allowed no room for procrastination. His message was, if you want to be successful, don't wait for tomorrow. Just do it now.

He would tell people, When you wake up in the morning, start with the phrase, do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now. He would tell people to repeat those words 50 times in the morning and 50 times before bed.

No doubt, he understood the greatest obstacle to achieving anything remarkable was procrastination. He knew that a journey of a thousand miles always begins with the first mile!