LifeStation Communities

Our world is broken! I would think that no matter what political party you side with, you should be able to agree with that thought. Their seems to be an increase in violence, anger, fear, judgement, abuse, poverty and the list goes on and on. So how do we respond? We argue and fight. We point fingers blaming someone else.

This morning as I read in the scriptures I began to think, what if we stopped making excuses, what if we stopped pointing the blame and started to simply seek to honor God and give him thanks for today. The scriptures say we are without excuse. God has made Himself known, but we focus on the wrong things.

In this season, what if I keep it simple? What if I chose to remain focused on seeking to Honor God and give thanks. What if I stop worrying about what others think, say, and do and make sure I am personally without excuse?

Romans 1:20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21 for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

Construction tradesmen have the opportunity to become certified as “masters” of their trade. As a leader of GCM Inc I want to lead by example and continue to grow and develop in my knowledge and skills. After 2 1/2 long years I graduated with my Masters in Leadership (Summa Cum Laude)!

If we want to get technical my Masters is in Ministry, with a leadership focus. So why did I pursue this degree?

In 2005 I earned a bachelors in Bible from Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School. I also earned an associates in Business from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. I then entered full time pastoral ministry for almost ten years. After talking about following Jesus in the places you live, learn, work and play I felt like God was inviting me to live out what I had been preaching. I then entered my dads construction company full-time.

With no prior construction experience, I jumped in, and every day I am learning the construction industry. With only seven years of construction experience, I know that I am not going to be an expert in everything construction. Yet with my limited experience I believe I can be a good leader in the construction industry. So as the Vice President of GCM we are surrounding our company with individuals who know the industry and have tremendous experience and I desire to lead them well. As a follower of Jesus, I want to be a part of a company that honors my beliefs and core convictions. I want to equip those around me to use the gifts and abilities that God has given them, as they live out their calling and passion in life.

So I pursued a Masters in Minstry, with a leadership focus that had courses on: self-care, spiritual development, development of organizational leadership, conflict management and organizational change and the pschologhy of leadership. I believe this will help me to lead our company well. I have learned a lot and now I am excited to learn how to apply what I have been learning! My hope is that, as a result of the last 2 1/2 years, I have become a better person, who is learning to lead like Jesus. My hope is that I will help lead GCM Inc to become a better company, with a team of people who are learning and developing their skills and that together we will be “masters” of our trade!

Are you developing yourself? Are you developing those around you? Do you view your work as your ministry? Do you want to know more about my company or my story?

I’d love to learn with you. Let’s grab food or a drink together!

So two years ago Steve Blount bought a farm house, from the 1800’s that @gcmbuilt and @Rhino-Excavating are going to call home. After a long permitting process and all kinds of improvements including building addition with a community room today we got our Temporary Occupancy Permit. We are ready to move in. Pretty exciting right?

I was pretty pumped about our ability to move into our new building but then I had the opportunity to grab lunch, with one of our new employees, from our Special Projects Division. Man the story that he shared with me it’s what I live for. This dudes story stoked me! He shared that he believes God placed him in our company. His coworkers are impacting his life in tremendous ways.

I shared with him that 6 years ago I felt called to step into the world of business. It has not gone as I expected as I have not had the opportunity to spend time with people like I had hoped. In the midst of our companies busiest season of growth my to do list has been almost unmanageable, with everything else that is going on in my life. A few weeks ago something hit me. As a Pastor my job was to equip others for ministry. I stepped into business and have felt like I have to be the one doing ministry, but I don’t have time. So a few weeks ago while changing a tire with another new employee I felt lead to pray for him. As I did he became overwhelmed. God was doing something in him, but God was also doing something in me. In that moment God as I prayed over him, God showed me that as a business leader, who happens to be a pastor, my role is still to equip others for ministry. This guy who I prayed over is being used by God to change the life of my newest employee!

I have to mention that probably a key to what God is doing right now is a result, not of me, but the ministry of their project manager. Ever since joining our company he has been waking up every morning before 5am to read his Bible and pray before he comes to the office. He has been asking God to build his team. I believe every morning he wakes up and prayer for his guys.

I see God’s faithfulness. No, it’s not what I had thought, but man I am so excited that God is working in the lives and hearts of some of our employees. What excites you? Are you looking and praying with open eyes and hears to see what God is doing in the lives of those who you live, learn, work and play with? I love our new building but life change is what it is all about!

So, I am pretty passionate about this idea of sharing your faith and life wherever your life is stationed. In the places we live, learn, work and play we should be asking God to open our eyes to see people as He sees them. We should be asking God to provide us with the courage to get to know others. For those that we know, we should be asking God to show us how to develop even deeper friendships. I gotta be honest. It seems to me that people who do not believe in God are a lot better at developing friendships, where they are sharing life with others than followers of Jesus are. Some of the kindest communities that I am observing are not within the walls of the church, they are happening on the soccer fields, the local gyms, and in the workplace. But they are also happening at the local bars. See, people are good at developing friendships. They are good at sharing life, but I believe that without the faith most of these relationships are missing something. Often, they lack hope and purpose. Faith brings life even in the midst of darkness. And as you and I know, life is filled with dark moments. Followers of Jesus, we are called to share our faith and life with others because we are called to be light in the midst of darkness. You don’t light a lamp and put it under the bed, you put it on a lampstand for all to see (Luke 8:16). Followers of Jesus, we need to engage people in deep and meaningful relationships so that we can shine the light of Jesus into their lives. Followers of Jesus, you need people investing into your life so that they can shine the light of Jesus on to you, when you are in the midst of dark days.

            One of the greatest lessons we can learn from Paul is that he believed that the investment he was making into the people of Thessalonica was an eternal investment. He believes that people will be his reward when standing before God. Their presence in the Kingdom of God will bring him joy. This my friends, is love. This perspective of wanting others to be present when standing before God is the deepest way we can look at sharing faith and life. It is an investment into forever! Be encouraged…..this is not easy to live out. May you experience the blessings of God as you learn what it means to share your faith and life with others in the places you live, work, learn and play. May you follow Jesus wherever your life is stationed! 

Taking it deeper:

• https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Overlap-Learning-Faithfully-Resources-ebook/dp/B081MYJ8QX

            In our last post we discussed how Paul was sharing his life with the Thessalonians as he came and lived among them for an extended time, and he likely invited them to come to his workshop. As Paul spent time with people what did they talk about? As you spend time with people what should you talk about?

            I believe that it is important to be able to engage people in small talk, but the goal should be to develop deep and meaningful conversations where people can be real about the struggles and triumphs of life. As a follower of Jesus, I believe we should be able to engage others in conversations about the meaning and purpose of life, which should lead one to talk about their beliefs and God. As followers of Jesus there is a way to do this that is not pushy or arrogant. There is a way to engage people in faith conversations that invites them to be open and honest, versus defensive. Just today I had a coworker say, “in the past there were two things I learned to avoid talking about at work. Religion and politics.” Yet today we talked about faith and politics in the midst of conversations about work and life. It was an open and beautiful conversation.

            We already discussed that Paul was not looking to please man, because living to please God was his life’s aim. As he spent time with people, he was looking to encourage them to live in such a way that God would consider their lives worthy. Paul believed that God gave him the courage to declare the Good News, with boldness. I believe that followers of Jesus should be asking God to give them this same courage and boldness to discuss the Good News with their friends. We were meant to talk with others about issues of life, death and eternity. But we are meant to do it in a way that is humble and sincere.

So how does one share their faith with others?

            The first thing that is really important when sharing your faith is that it is done with pure motives. (1 Thessalonians 2) The motivation for sharing your faith should come as a result of your love for others, and belief that God has called you to be His messenger of good news. And in today’s culture I believe that followers of Jesus need to learn to listen and care about the stories of others. We need to learn to be quick to listen and slow to speak. As follower of Jesus we need to stop defending our beliefs and invite others into a relationship with us. We need to show them how our faith impacts the decisions that we make. I believe that Paul set us an example to follow. He states in 1 Thessalonians 1:7 “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord when you welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit, in spite of your great suffering. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. Paul seems to be stating that an effective witness for Jesus provides an example for others to follow, as they follow Jesus. Paul backs this up in 1 Corinthians as he states “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)

            As followers of Jesus we are meant to share our faith and I believe the best way to do it is by being a humble presence in the lives of others.

So here are few questions.

• Is there anyone in your life that God may be inviting you to share your faith with?
• What do you think about when you think about sharing your faith with others? What do you picture yourself doing or saying?
• Have you ever prayed and asked God to give you boldness and courage to share your faith with others?
• Do you know how to ask questions that invite people to think about faith and God?
• Do you take time to reflect on your day to see where God was moving in and through you? If not, you might want to consider learning about daily reflection questions that provide you with an opportunity to notice God moving around you.

Taking it Deeper:

• https://www.amazon.com/Questioning-Evangelism-Randy-Newman/dp/082543324X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=questioning+evangelism&qid=1620092507&sr=8-2
• https://www.goodsoil.com/blog/does-relational-evangelism-really-work/
• https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/share-the-gospel/evangelism-principles/relational-evangelism.html
• https://www.abigailfolds.com/blog/john-wesley-quiet-time-questions
• https://revlisad.com/2019/02/06/ending-your-day-with-reflection-questions/
• https://up.intervarsity.org/resources/daily-examen

DISTANT SOCIETY- Your meant to share your life

            We all have different personalities and some of us are more social than others, but the reality is each of us is meant to share our lives with others. We are not meant to do life alone. But how does one go about sharing their life with others?

            A few posts ago we looked at the example of the Apostle Paul. He loved people so much that he was willing to sacrifice for them. It says that he labored day and night so that while visiting them, he would not be a burden to them. I feel a problem in our society is that we have become so self-absorbed and our expectation of others is so unrealistic, that we end up creating the distance between ourselves and others. Author and pastor Matt Carter speaks of how our garages and fences have made it almost impossible to get to know our neighbors. As the church, we drive 30 minutes to an hour to attend our favorite worship service, which makes it very hard to build relationships with those we attend church services with.

            So, what does it look like to share your life with others? I believe we need to learn to be intentional with the relationships that are naturally happening in the places we live, learn, work and play. Paul developed a relationship with the Thessalonians and then he intentionally made time to spend with them. In Paul’s case he traveled to Thessalonica and stayed there for an extended period of time. While there, it sounds like he made good use of his time. Author Ronald Hock believes that while working, Paul was intentionally spending time with the Thessalonians in his work shop. It’s almost like Paul said, “hey this is something I have to do, I want to share my life with you, so please come join me while I work in my shop.” Many would say that this is true discipleship. Spending time showing others how to live in the midst of everyday activities.

            As a man in the construction business, I am looking to spend more time getting to know the owners of the companies we subcontract work to. For me, this naturally makes sense. I or my team deal with these owners on a weekly basis. Why not take the extra step and try and meet with some of them once a month to get to know them at a personal level? Another avenue I want to pursue is some of the families who our kids play soccer with. Every weekend we spend time with them. Our kids love being together. It makes sense for us to look to deepen our friendships with those we are already spending so much time with.

            So here is the question. Where are you naturally building relationship that you could be a little more intentional with? Is there an opportunity for you to invest into the relationships with your coworkers? How about your neighbors? Do you have kids? How about building deeper relationships with the parents of your kid’s friends at school? How about a family from the soccer team? Do you go to the gym? Maybe there is someone there who you can intentionally get to know in deeper ways. Invite them out for coffee or a meal? Have them bring their family over to your house on a Saturday night. What I am talking about takes risk. They might say no. You may have to give up a Saturday night or wake up early to meet someone for coffee. What I am talking about takes sacrifice, but I believe this is how we are meant to live. We are meant to share our lives with others. We are meant to learn to love others and the only way we do this is by intentionally spending time with them.

Taking it Deeper

• https://www.amazon.com/Social-Context-Pauls-Ministry-Ronald/dp/0800662040
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc4tsw3kCok&ab_channel=VergeNetwork
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D13B2uGgklA&ab_channel=VergeNetwork
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCAV5U/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3