Spiritual Gifts

I was sitting at church the other day listening to our pastor speak and I started gazing around the room just to people-watch and see what they were doing during the sermon.

In front of me was a little boy peaking over the pew, to my left was this guy who was half asleep and a mom who was writing her shopping list… they were udderly and completely bored with what they were doing… When I looked to the right I saw a gal, completely enthralled with every word. Frantically taking notes of every point and anecdote. She was using her giftedness and had found complete joy

I started wondering, what causes some of us to be consumer Christians, while others joyously serve in the church?

After talking with many people, I came to a conclusion: we enjoy be a part of the church when we use our spiritual giftedness. Conversly, we simply consume Christianity when we are bored for lack of using our gifts.

People who know what their giftedness is are the most effective servants in the Kingdom.

• They Love what they do
• They Experience more joy
• They Have more fun
• And they are owners in the church, not simply participants.
  

Why? Because they are doing exactly what God designed them to do

LeaderTreks Video Podcast

This month on the LeaderTreks video podcast, I make a debut... Although it is incredibly minor... I spend some time talking with Dr. Dave Rahn, Professor Huntington University and VP at Youth for Christ.

Watch online at:
http://www.leadertreks.com/yp_resources.asp

or subscribe

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=202501457&s=143441

Next month, January, I'll be the featured speaker.
Don't miss it.

Off to Tampa Bay

This weekend I am off to Tampa Bay to speak at Baylife... I'll be teaching at a D-Now weekend about wisdom and how to make wise choices...

It will be fun to see students I have worked with for the past two years.

Although, I'll admit I am a bit nervous to speak on Wisdom... it seems like one should be really wise before speaking on wisdom... and I do not feel that wise.

Mission: Esther

This Summer, along with the four churches we served through construction, we also had the opportunity to come alongside children in a foster care type program.

One of these children was Esther. Esther was born to a mentally handicapped mother in Costa Rica. In a country like Costa Rica there is little hope for a child in this situation. She was seized by the government and was blessed to be assigned to the Christian foster care organization called Casa Viva.

After many interviews and training sessions, Esther was placed in the home of a young Costa Rican family. This family took Esther in and made her a part of their extended family.

After some time, the family began to notice brown water coming in through their back wall and even up through the floor. They discovered that the neighbor’s septic system was leaking in through the concrete!

As a Casa Viva family, they qualified for additional support from our summer teams. While construction continued on the church, I led a team of 5 students to the home of Esther to stop the leakage.

We sealed the walls, and laid a tile floor that has stopped the sewage water leakage. Now the family could again use their entire house again.

What a blessing it was for that family. What a blessing for Esther to be placed in a Christian home like this.

Speaking at Wheaton Academy 9/12

Today, September 12,2006 I spoke at Wheaton Academy and taught about the name change that Paul took on in the Acts 13.

Listen Here>
Download Here> (Right click and select "Save Target As")

If you'd like the notes that I passed out to the students who listened, drop me an email and I'll gladly share them with you.

Speaking at Wheaton Academy 9/7

I spoke at Wheaton Academy on September 7th, 2006 and talked about the name change that Simon Peter experienced, when Jesus Christ changed Simon's name.

Listen here>
Download Here> (Right Click and press "Save Target As")

If you'd like a copy of the notes I passed out to students... drop me an email (matt@leadertreks.com) I'd gladly share them with you

Returned from Costa Rica

Earlier this month my wife Kristin and I returned from Costa Rica after spending 8 weeks in San Jose working with 4 LeaderTreks teams. While in Costa Rica we did construction on 4 different churches.

The first church we worked on was a tiny church that had several hundred people attending it. They were packed in. Standing room only, as a matter of fact when we came to visit the church they made 20 Ticos (Costa Ricans) get up so that we would have a place to sit.

The church had begun to put a big new tin roof on, we came in and filled 4 feet of dirt, built walls and poured a large concrete floor. By the end of the two weeks the church had tripled it's sanctuary and had room for plenty more new Christians.

One day while we were working on the church it began to pour rain... but the student leaders said they wanted to complete the dirt filling. So literally I stood in 6-8 inches of mud shoveling and shoveling in the pouring rain for several hours. It was the longest hardest day of work we did all summer long, but we saw more work accomplished than we thought possible.

What a great day it was!