Changing "mine" to "ours" to "His"

So we finally finished up the last of the Degree Completion Program that Sarah and I have been trying to survive for the last 19 months and I figured it was about time I get back to blogging on a regular or at least semi-regular basis.

For my first post DCP post I thought I would share some of my thoughts and struggles with transitioning my ministry into our ministry and ultimately into His ministry. I will probably address this more in a future post as this is still very much an ongoing thing right now, but in the mean time feel free to comment with your own thoughts, ideas and experiences.

I'll be honest, there is a certain amount of pride that has kept me from doing this sooner. As the person who started this ministry and ran it solo for so long, I feel a sense of ownership which makes it difficult to release the control necessary for others to lead.

And yet in all honesty this isn't the area I struggle with the most. My biggest struggle is in fact transitioning from a solo mindset to a team mindset. I'm just so used to doing everything on my own that when someone shows up and says "how can I help?" I'm at a loss. Not because there is nothing to do but because I just don't know how to break it up and break it down.

Finally a third block to this whole process is plain old fear. Fear that if I share my plans, passions and ideas, especially the raw unfinished ones that they will be torn apart in a hail of criticism.
The problem is that because of this my ministry remains as it's always been firmly within my grasp and no bigger than I can handle. If my ministry is going to grow, then it has to cease being my ministry. If the vision is to be realized I have to let it become soft and pliable. In short my ministry must die in order that God's ministry might grow and blossom. I have to stop asking God to help me accomplish my vision and start offering to help God accomplish His.

Ecclesiology Final

Hey everyone I realize that I haven't posted in a while. Ok a long time, anyway finally beginning the last class in the Degree Completion Program though so should hopefully be posting a lot more in the future. Still I thought I would post part of my Theology and the Christian Life final assignment. Basically I had to put together a teaching or series of teachings based on a Theology topic from our studies. I choose to do a youth series on Ecclesiology (the study of the Church), I'm actually hoping to maybe teach it here in a few more weeks we'll see. In the mean time check it out and give me some feedback.

Blessings,

Aaron Brant

Here is the outline for the first week.

Lesson 1: What is the church?

1. Introduction
1. Video: “What is the Church?” by Aaron Brant
2. What is Theology?
3. What is Ecclesiology?
2. There are several different words in the Bible that we translate as Church.

1. Kuriakon “belonging to the Lord”
2. Ekklesia “an assembly of people”

1. The word “church” is not used to describe

1. A building
2. A denomination

1. The word “church” is used in several different ways in the New Testament

1. The Universal Body of Christ

1. Eph. 5:23-32
2. Eph. 3:10&21
3. Col 1:18&24*
4. Mt. 16:18*

1. The local Church

1. Rom. 16:1
2. Col. 4:16
3. Acts 14:27
4. Gal. 1:2&22*

1. House Churches
1. 1 Cor. 16:19
2. Rom. 16:5&23
3. 1 Cor. 14:23*
4. Acts 20:17*
2. The collective church

1. 1 Cor. 10:32
2. 1 Cor. 15:9
3. Gal. 1:13
4. Phil 3:6*
5. Acts 9:31*

‘*’ denotes additional verses not covered in power point but available if needed.

Sorry about some of the weird formatting Blogger apparently didn't like when I copied and pasted from Pages.

Here are the Powerpoint slides from week 1

The Happiest place on Earth

So here I am on vacation sitting at the computer when I realize that it has been way...way maybe even way! to long since I lost posted a blog so here goes.

We are down visiting family for two weeks and yesterday we went to Disneyland, you know the "happiest place on Earth", and it really hits me, while this statement may be true, should it be? I mean don't get me wrong I had a blast going on Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and yes even Splash Mountain (though it was a little cold). But as Christians we can spend time in the presence of God himself, and yet we consider Disneyland the happiest place on Earth? While my mind instantly leaps to defend the great time had at Disneyland I know deep down that truly my greatest joy should come from spending time praying, and reading the Word, or worshiping my Savior on Sunday morning in the presence of fellow believers. I don't think there was anything wrong with how we spent our day yesterday. However I do think that I really need to think twice the next time I'm not feeling so hot on a Sunday morning and I debate staying home, or the next time I think I rather watch Football than go to service Sunday night. Church can be a lot of things, it can be the most mind numbing place on Earth, the most annoying place on Earth, yes even the last place on Earth I want to be. What it should be however is the happiest place on Earth, and that doesn't rest with how good the sermon is or how well the worship band plays, in fact it has nothing to do with the physical church at all. Instead it has everything to do with me, my attitude, and my willingness to set myself aside as I enter into the presence of God, where it truly is the happiest place on Earth.

Who or What was in your path today?

    I just read this insightful blog from SimplyKurt.com titled "In Your Path" (check it out here). Anyway in his post Junior High Pastor Kurt Johnston talked about a message he gave on how different people influenced his life growing up by how they chose to react when they found him in they're path. 

   As I was thinking about this and it's application in my own life, I realized that the principle goes  much deeper. You see it's not only who was in your path today and how did you choose to react to them, but also what was in your path. For instance here is a quick example from last night:

Three 12-Packs, three chances to do the right thing.

          Sarah (my wife) came home to our apartment with some groceries from the store. She was unable to carry everything up and left two twelve packs down the stairs in the car. I gladly offered to go down and get them. When I came back up with the soda I had to resist the urge to simply drop them on the table and return to watching the box in the corner with all the flashy images (it's mesmerizing really), opening the pantry door I found a large pile of empty soda containers, and I do mean a large pile. Again resisting the urge to be lazy and throw the new cases on top of the pile I moved the cases and piled them next to the trash can. Lining up the full containers I shut the pantry door and returned to watching the flashy lights. Unfortunately in true man fashion I left the huge pile of empty boxes next to the trash can instead of taking it down to the dumpster. Later when my wife returned from putting our 19 month old to bed she was needless to say not amused with my pile of boxes. Now I must admit my initial reaction was one of irritation, I mean I gladly brought up the soda's, I didn't just leave them on the table and I had cleaned out the pantry, what more could she want?? But the truth is I had left the job incomplete. A series of obstacles had been placed in my path and while I had overcome the first two I chose to ignore the third one, which ultimately negated the lesson I could have learned finishing the task before me. The situation could have left me with a sense of personal satisfaction instead it left me irritated. 

      Movie Time.

Later that evening my wife and I crawled into bed to watch a movie together before going to bed. My wife had rented "Taken" from RedBox, and so the next few hours were comprised of both visual entertainment and relational closeness. Now it was a great movie and great time spent with my wife, but was that all? You see I can either pass through the moment enjoy it and move on or I can stop and wonder "was there some significance to this event on my path?". Now I am firm believer that God can talk to me anytime through any means He chooses. God didn't say "darn it, he started watching a movie. Guess I'll have to talk to him some other time." It didn't need to be a quote Christian movie for God to speak through it, all it took was for me to say "wait a minute, what is God saying through this". I think on some level I realized this, but sadly I would have walked away spiritually untouched  if not for a profound statement by my wife which caught me square between the eyes. "He came for her. Just as Christ came for us." From the mouth of babes... (and we always thought this meant children). What a powerful statement, sermon's could be preached, lessons could be taught, and most assuredly a blog post could be written about such a statement. It touched me to the core, but I could have easily missed it. I could have rolled over and gone to bed, thinking how sad it is that human trafficking is happening in our world today, but ultimately untouched and unchanged. 

I whole heartedly agree with Pastor Kurt on this one, but why settle for just looking at why certain people cross our paths each day (which is definitely something I personally need to work on)? Why not also look into the events as well, why not look for God in every moment of every day. We might just catch a glimpse of something special, that would have missed.  

Well it's getting late, until next time keep your eyes open

Aaron

Nearing the end as I approach the beginning

     As I enter into the weekend of our second and last week of Summer vacation from our degree completion program through life pacific college, I find myself both refreshed and equally exhausted. These two weeks have been a much needed respite from school, however these two weeks have also been really busy at work as I have been scrambling to finish up projects due to be shipped to Mexico sometime in mid July, as well as upgrading the safety features of three of our the biggest lines in the plant by the end of June. Needless to say it's been somewhat hectic. 

   Anyway when it comes to the youth group Sarah and I have both been excited about the new directions things have been going. This last week was arguably one of our best weeks ever, the message, media and activity flowed together perfectly. One would think that the better things get the more satisfied we would become, however I find in my life the opposite to be true. The better things get the more I want to raise the bar. I'm not complaining it's far to easy in this life to get complacent and I for one know that I could greatly benefit from a little drive in my life and ministry. 

Sarah and I have many new ideas we want to roll out over the course of the summer and still more we want to kick off in the fall. Look for further posts as we plan for and implement these ideas. 

Aaron