6 years ago today I became a daddy, and it has been a blast. As well as a great time of growth in learning about the grace of God towards an imperfect and messy dad.
I am blessed to be Jordyn’s daddy and am grateful for the life God has given me to watch over.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDYN!!!!
Marriage is hard. Many books about marriage give great theory but stink when it comes to the lab of real life. Mark and Grace Driscoll know this and have written a book about the realities of marriage. In a fitting way they have titled it “Real Marriage“.
Starting next week I will be reviewing the book chapter by chapter with guest appearances by my wife Lauren.
We hope this journey through this much-needed book will be both beneficial and helpful for many. I encourage you to read along with us, and to join Mars Hill Church and Pastor Mark in the Real Marriage sermon series starting this week.
If you want to buy Real Marriage click here.
Below is a video intro for the book from Pastor Mark and his wife, Grace.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:4-7 ESV)
In church planting there are many lessons that Jesus teaches. One of the most recent and biggest lessons I have learned is to hold “my” plans with an open hand. I have learned that I must surrender my own designs, timelines and dreams of Redemption Church fully to Jesus. To not do this, is to sin against the Lord, by saying that this is my church and not His. Jesus is the senior pastor of Redemption Church, and that is something to rejoice in, the Good Shepherd is leading His flock. He is faithful in it. He is wise and full of grace towards us. This has been the lesson that Jesus has taught me recently.
How did He do this?
In November we signed a lease on a location on the corner of Southern and 528 in the Rio Rancho Shopping Center. The location seemed like a great location, that needed some work but not much. We had begun to paint and to make the place ours. We were planning and excited about a January 22nd launch date.
The week after we painted, we learned that this location would not work. We would not be able to have a occupancy needed for a small but growing church plant.
Jesus put us on our knees. Jesus was about to show us that in church planting planning is important, but not as important as trusting Him.
There was another unit in the same shopping center that was bigger, and in many ways better. However it did require more work. There was not another option though however. We couldn’t stay in our current location, and even if we were to move out of the shopping center there was not many other viable options in the area of Rio Rancho we wanted to plant in. So we went to the owner of the building, and he granted us permission to move into this space.
We really are excited about this move, because this space when the work is done will be great and allow us to grow. We are excited about the worship area we will have, where we pray many people will meet Jesus, and the kids area where our children will learn about our senior pastor, Jesus. We now will have space for training events, where we pray more church planters and gospel centered leaders will be raised up by the Spirit.
We now have plans ready to be turned in to the city of Rio Rancho. With this work, and with needing to wait on permitting we have pushed back our launch date from Jan. 22nd to Feb. 19th. We are bit bummed to not be starting sooner, but also realizing that a 4 week delay will be worth it for a great location for the next 4 years.
Jesus has taught me many lessons in church planting. That He is the Good Shepherd and Senior Pastor of Redemption Church, and that He will lead us in love and faithfulness, has been the most breath-taking and amazing thus far.
How can you pray for Redemption?
The new year always brings about thoughts of “how this year can be different”. While in many ways this is not helpful and usually ends in disappointment and failure, there is something to planning how to approach the year. Planning out how you will date your wife, spend time with your kids, put money in savings among other things are not bad things.
One area I highly recommend planning out is your Bible reading. Not in a legalistic, “If I fail I am a bad Christian” type of way, but in a “I love Jesus and want to spend time with Him” way.
I can hear some say, “But Los isn’t that being legalistic?”. My answer is, no. Discipline is not the same as legalism. Legalism is about finding your salvation and standing with God by your works. Discipline is making a plan, and being intentional with important matters while still finding your worth before God in Jesus alone.
So work towards being disciplined this year. One of the key areas for my life is in starting everyday in the Word of God. I have tried to do it at night, at lunch time, but for me the morning is best. To have the Word of God on my mind all day helps me get through the day and in the right state of mind.
It helps keep my “mind right”. What’s that mean? When I worked for the UNM basketball team I noticed that as we would head to the game on the bus the players would have their headphones on and were jamming to music. The music was their way of getting their mind and focus in the right place to prepare to play the game.
It is not different for us with the Bible. For me, reading the Bible in the morning is like rocking the headphones on the way to the gym, as I get ready for the day, God’s Word gets my mind right. So plan to get your mind right every morning in 2012.
Need help with a plan? Justin Taylor has a post with a number of plans you can choose from, I am doing this one this year.
One of the most overlooked areas discussed in the church is that of leadership. As a church planter and pastor I have seen the need to understand what good leadership is and requires.
Obviously our fist place to learn about leadership is in the Bible and really studying the life of Jesus. However, by God’s grace we can and should learn from outside sources, whether leadership books from the business world, or in movies, history books and other places as well.
The 10 part series, “Band of Brothers” is one of the best places to learn about what good leadership is and isn’t. The series follows the 506th Parachute Infantry Division who are in the 101st Airborne during World War Two. The first episode starts with the group in training before heading to Europe and D-Day. By episode 10 the war has ended, the horrors of the holocaust have been seen and the division has lost a lot of men from that first episode.
Before every episode there are interviews with the surviving members of the “Band of Brothers” who really trained and fought in WWII. These interviews make this series real, authentic and full of emotion for the viewer.
How is this series so good for learning about leadership? Especially leadership in the church? Simple, as pastors we are engaged and on the front lines of spiritual warfare, we are leading people who are in their own battles as well. We are leading people on mission to spread the name of Jesus in a foreign land, they will meet hostility. Watching how men such as Major Dick Winters led when emotions were high and danger was imminent is so valuable and encouraging. Seeing how Lt. Sobel and Lt. Dike failed as leaders by worrying about ego and personal safety are lessons all leaders need to see and learn from. Watching how “the mission” is what forms community and family more than just talking and studying together, helps to guide a pastor to lead his people into authentic Gospel Centered living.
Any church planter or leader would benefit greatly from watching “Band of Brothers”, as would those he leads.
After a healthy break from the blog world and some time focusing and mapping a direction for losgriego.com, I’ve decided to start blogging once again.
It has been a crazy fall.
Redemption Church is on the verge of launching in early 2012.
We have been blessed to see Jesus do some amazing things in our small core team already.
And I want to share what I have learned, am learning among other things.
So check back as I will be discussing church planting, theology, sports and adding a few random thoughts here and there.
If you want to learn more about Redemption Church, click here.
