It has been very fun so far. I spent my morning reading my Bible and journaling in a quiet part near Lake Michigan. This afternoon I going to just wander the Magnificent mile. It’s been refreshing to refocus and reconnect with God.

Check out the video here:  http://www.fox17.com/newsroom/top_stories/wztv_vid_1460.shtml

Here is the excerpt from Fox 17’s website

Local Church Congregations Worshiping in Non-Traditional Places – Blair Simmons

It’s a growing trend — congregations are finding off-beat places to meet. It’s partially because of the economy, but in large part, their aim is to reach a different crowd.
Churches are getting creative. They’re meeting in coffee shops, business complexes — there’s even a “Cowboy Church” that meets in a rodeo arena… but if you think that’s unorthodox, check out Green Hills Church. They meet in a bar.

]]> http://mikeharderministries.com/2009/09/green-hills-church-on-the-news/feed/ 5 http://mikeharderministries.com/2009/09/green-hills-church-on-the-news/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MikeHardersWeblog/~3/X1nZCGk7i2A/ http://mikeharderministries.com/2009/08/disappointment-and-struggle/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:49:07 +0000 mike@greenhillschurch.org (Mike Harder or Brad Dunlap) http://mikeharderministries.com/?p=449 We all go through periods of intense disappointment and struggle.  Often it may feel like God has abandoned us.  In times like that I often feel like God is angry with me.  The story of Lazarus in John 11 deals with all these issues.  I am always really surprised when I read John 11:6 and see that Jesus when he heard that Lazarus was really sick, waited 2 more days before he came to his rescue.  It seems heartless that Jesus would allow someone that he was so close to and considered to be such a close friend, die so suddenly.   In a similar way, often we feel like Jesus is delaying needlessly when we need him most.  But God has not forgotten us.  He has not forgotten who we are.  Check out this week’s sermon “LIFE and DEATH” at Green Hills Church to hear the rest of the story.  Just click the link to listen: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274809927.

It has been a lot of fun getting ready to do this race.  My wife and I have been training to do it together.  Neither of us have ever swum much for distance although we were both life-guards during our  college years.  So being complete dorks, we learned how to swim efficiently by reading the book “Total Immersion” by Terry Laughlin. You can check out his website here:  http://www.totalimmersion.net/

It has been amazing to go from barely being able to swim a lap to being able to swim a half mile easily.  When I started trying to learn how to swim efficiently I was overwhelmed at how badly I swam.  I didn’t think I ever be able to swim the distance we were going to have to swim for our race.  Along the way, I learned something really important.   If you invest small amounts of time on a regular basis into any activity or discipline, you will see results that you never anticipated.  I was so surprised how quickly I developed the skill of swimming  by spending a little bit of time practicing something every week.   I was a dork about swimming.  I brought my book with me to the pool and would pause between laps to evaluate how I was doing in my drills.  I asked my wife for coaching and asked her to evaluate my swimming form.  Little by little I realized that I was getting better and swimming was getting easier.

A couple of weeks ago I realized to my surprise that  I really enjoy swimming.  When I am done with my workout, I feel refreshed and rejuvenated instead of tired and sweaty.  I think I enjoy it even more because I know I am getting better at it. Even thought the task of learning how to swim efficiently seemed daunting last winter, I now find swimming exhilarating.

The power of seeing results by daily investing time into something important can translate into every part of our lives.  I have been challenging myself to invest time daily in my walk with God.  It is really easy to become lax in my study of God’s word and in my prayer time.  I easily become busy with checking email or starting to work and before I know it, I have completely ignored God.  So, what I am trying to do is to spend 3o minutes with God every morning before I do anything else.  Just me, my Bible and Journal and my coffee (can’t forget that of course).  I think that if I spend every day focusing on Jesus and learning God’s word I will find that a year from now I will have grown in my faith significantly.  I am trying to do the following things.

1.  Read a passage of scripture every day.  I try to just pick a book of the Bible and read through it.  I usually read a chapter or 2 a day but sometimes I will just read a couple of verses and go deeper in them if I feel that God wants me to pause there.

2.  I am memorizing one new scripture passage a week.  I am trying to do scripture memory in a 3 week rotation.  I memorize one new section every week but I keep reviewing and mediating on the scripture passages I learned that last 2 weeks.  Note cards are invaluable in this process.  I write out each verse and keep it in my Bible.

3.  I journal every morning.  I try to write down insights from the scripture I am reading and I write down all my prayers.  This keeps me focused and fully present.

4.  Finally read other books to make me grow.  I am convinced that unless I read extensively I will never grow. So, I am reading books by people much wiser than I am.  Right now I am reading Tim Keller’s “The Reason for God.”  Its a great read!

Jesus gives us a lot of insight on leadership and the kinds of leaders we need to follow.  We are doing a mini-series on leadership at Green Hills.  This last weekend (July 19th) I taught a message titled ‘Shepherds and Wolves’ that talked about leaders we need to  run from.  It was a very challenging message to put together.   If you are interested to find out more about leadership you are welcome to check it out here at itunes.

Just click the link to listen: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274809927

It is so easy to live in the future and not in the present.  If we are not careful, we can miss life while we plow right through it.  I used to think that when I got my iPhone my life would be so much easier because I could keep my calendar synced up and I could find a lot of extra time once I had all my calendar issues settled.  But instead of being less busy, I have simply filled the time with other busy things.

This week I have been thinking about the concept of slowing down.  John Ortberg, the author of “T he Life You Have Always Wanted”,  devotes a whole chapter that is very worth reading about this concept.  His premise is that if we don’t slow down we will miss the most important things in this life.  Ortberg says we must choose to slow our life down or else it will constantly be out of control.  We will never enjoy life unless we choose to slow down.  No one else can do that for us.  We must practice it as a discipline.  In the same way that we train for a 5K or a Triathlon, we must train to be people who enjoy the moment.

Last year I had the opportunity to start a church.  Although it is a labor of love, it is a lot of hard work.  There is constantly something to do and people to minister to.  In the midst of all this I must choose to slow myself so that I can enjoy the journey God is allowing me to go through.  There will never be another beginning to Green Hills Church.  If I am not careful, I will miss the joy in seeing a new church bloom.

We all need seasons in our lives to rest.  Doing things are very important, but if life is constantly doing and never being then it is not enjoyable.  I don’t want to be a human doing, I want to be a human being.  That’s why God has given us the Sabbath, a time to rest.  God from the beginning has chosen to model that we need to take time in our lives to rest.  He told the people of Israel to rest every week and every 7 years they had to let their land rest.  Rest is very important.  It allows us to live, not just to do.

Summer time is a great time to slow down.  The pace of life around us naturally slows down due to the change in seasons. This summer, my Co-Pastor, Brad and I decided that we were going to enjoy the summer.  We decided that we were going to slow down and choose to rest because the fall is an exciting and very busy time.  It’s just really hard to honor that commitment.  But this week I have realized that summer is passing by very quickly and if I don’t choose to slow myself, I will enter the fall fatigued.

So here are some ideas on how to proactively rest.  I don’t mean that you shouldn’t go to work or that you should slack off on work but I think there are some ways to slow life down.  First of all turn the TV off.  Thats right.  Football isn’t here yet and all your favorite shows are on hiatus until the fall, so why do we need to watch reruns for hours at a time at night?   Try this, instead of watching TV, pick out a book and immerse your mind into another world.  I know some people like reading non-fiction, I think there is no substitute for escapist fiction.

A second idea is to choose to be either 5 minutes early or 5 minutes late to things.  You would be surprised how much pressure you relieve when you do this.  You take the control of the situation instead of falling into the tyranny of deadlines.

Lastly, I think a great way to slow down is to remove something from your calendar that is important.  Our lives are constantly filled with things that are important and urgent.  Many things we think are important really aren’t.  I often find myself doing things that I dont want to do, in hopes of impressing someone.  Sometimes we need to let those things that only seem important to fade away into the background and let the truly important things like family and God rise to the forefront.

Some of you have checked out my buddy Josh Bronleewe’s music- especially his song “Wake Up” that I posted a while back on the blog.  I was listening to a new song he posted on his myspace page called “Highway.”  It’s really mellow and it slowed me down as I listened to it.  I hope you like it:  http://www.myspace.com/joshbronleewe

If you got a free evening, I highly recommend you checking out a Sounds game.

Here are some pictures of the event.