Tag Archives: Tabernacle of Praise

Please, Take Me Home With You

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For all of you who read my blog, come to Tabernacle of Praise (TOP) on Sundays, subscribe to my posts via email or RSS,

THANK YOU!!

You are why I write, speak, and keep up a continuing presence at the library (Looking for more stuff to bring you! They may let me haunt the place when I’m dead. Who knows?). But I do have a problem.

I can’t get enough of you! 

So, I’ve decided that I want to go home with you. Yup, I’m inviting myself over, and I hope you’ve got plenty of food in the fridge…

Well, it’s not as bad as all that. Our media team (whom we affectionately call “Shock and Awe”) has been recording the teaching series at TOP. I have compressed them to MP3 files and uploaded them to TOP’s public iDisk. Now, you can download these MP3′s to your computer or any MP3 player and take me home with you!

Here’s how. First, go to the iDisk website at https://public.me.com/topinc. Once you’re there, select the audio teaching you wish to download and then click the download button. It’s that simple!

TOP iDisk Public Folder

Here is a screen shot in case a visual will be of assistance. As you can see, we have last year’s Advent series on our Identity in Christ already uploaded and ready for you. Don’t miss out on this landmark teaching! If you don’t understand anything else about God or the Bible, you have to get this. It’s all yours, for FREE!

So, there you have it. You can take me home with you, I can spend more time with you sharing what I’ve gleaned from the Holy Spirit, and you don’t even have to feed me. Pretty cool, huh?

Go to the website today, and discover who you are in our Messiah, Jesus!

Sunday Report

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Hello everyone! Yes, it is time for your weekly Sunday Report.

This past Sunday saw a rather pumped-up, on-fire group of ladies ready and rearin’ to go after a weekend at a PCA Womens Retreat. We asked if anyone wanted prayer for healing during the worship service, and a large line formed at the altar. I asked for some help to pray for the sick and many of the ladies with gifts of healing came forward and laid hands on those waiting for prayer. It was exciting to see these ladies using their gifts to minister to one another!

Afterwards, several women shared their stories about memorable moments from the conference. Those of us who weren’t able to attend were getting jealous, I think.

My mom, Rev. Eva Cole, came up and shared a message that the Lord had given her for our church. She encouraged us all to continue pursuing the fulfillment of the vision we have to reach the lost in Crawford County.

By the way, if you don’t know, my mom and dad are working with us again at Tabernacle of Praise in a very direct way. My dad is now serving as the vice-president of TOP, and so we leaders get to see them more often in our trustee board meetings. I love working with my parents in the leadership work that we do. They have a ton of wisdom to share.

One of the highlights of Sunday didn’t happen in the sanctuary, but happened in the north wing where all of the Sunday School classes were gathered. Our 3-5 Year Old Class is now in full swing (Make sure to send a big THANK YOU to Audrey and her team of children ministers.)! Our nursery was full with sixteen babies! You heard me right–sixteen. We were well covered with four exceptionally prepared women to watch the growing infants. Our PreTeen class is seeing new developments as volunteers are stepping up to serve.

Thank you to all who are volunteering!

Our church is growing and excelling on all fronts. I truly hope that you will get involved and help us to reconcile the lost and disciple believers in Crawford County. One of the first steps you can make is to take a spiritual gifts assessment. Just ask me for one, and I’ll show you how it works. Once you take that, we’ll begin to get you in action within our seven ministry teams.

We are so glad to have you aboard! This concludes your Sunday Report….

Leadership Development at TOP

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Yesterday, I wrote about my experience at a hope-inspiring focus group held by Crawford Vision 20/20 which centered on finding ways to identify, recruit and train new leadership in Crawford County as well as provide training opportunities for current leaders. The reason I was so thrilled about this is because I believe passionately that when there is a crisis on the earth and people begin to pray, God always sends the answer in the form of a leader.

Think about it. When the Israelites cried out to God for relief from the Egyptians, God put baby Moses in the river to save his life and bring him back to his people as the deliverer. All through the book of Judges, God sent leaders when His people called. Ultimately, God sent His Son to deliver us. He always sends a leader. Not a pill. Not a silver bullet. Not a book.

So, if leaders are the way Crawford is going to be transformed, then does Tabernacle of Praise (TOP) have any part in this leadership initiative? You can bet your blessed assurance it does.

TOP has been active for years finding ways to develop new leaders. It’s engrained in our mission:

TOP exists as a team to reconcile the lost and disciple believers in Crawford County and beyond.

To disciple believers is to develop leaders. This is how we do that at TOP:

The first step is what we call First Steps. It’s a three month mentoring relationship. We pair up a disciple (mentoree) with a “discipler” (mentor), arm them with the First Steps workbook and watch both of them grow spiritually as they meet together once a week for three months. During these three months, the disciple learns the enriching disciplines of prayer, Bible study, fellowship and evangelism/discipleship from their mentor, which will empower them to keep their relationship with Christ strong. This is the first step in leadership development because the first person for any leader to lead is one’s self.

The second step is to get involved in Focus Groups (our small group ministry). To be a leader, there must be people to follow. Focus Groups provide the environment for a person to hone their leadership skills. At first, a person entering a Focus Group has to get to know everyone and simply become a contributing member to that small group. Our Focus Group leaders are always looking for fresh recruits to serve on the Focus Group leadership team. Once a person has been recruited and trained for their role as a leader in a Focus Group, watch how their leadership grows exponentially.

During these two steps, we encourage everyone to get involved in volunteer projects at the church and surrounding community as well as our ministries in the church like Sunday School, Shock and Awe, Front Door Greeters and more. Through these experiences, the disciple has a myriad ways to shape their leadership and people skills.

After these steps, one of several things can happen. 1.) The leader may feel that God wants them to continue serving in their current capacity, 2.) The leader may feel that God has called them to start a ministry or work outside the church, or 3.) The leadership of TOP may recruit them for further leadership roles within TOP.

Developing one’s leadership takes years of learning and practice. It’s important to know that leadership development is also organic in the way it grows, not mechanical. Although I spoke about our leadership development process here at Tabernacle of Praise as a path with clear “steps,” sometimes steps get out of order as one grows spiritually. That’s okay. There’s margin for that in our development path.

God bless you as you follow His path for your leadership.

To Meet with Leaders

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This morning I will be attending an elders meeting at my church. In our church world  there are many meetings to attend. There is the Sunday morning worship meeting, Sunday night worship meeting, Bible study meeting, Focus Group meeting, prayer meeting, ad infinitum. This biweekly Monday morning, however, is different. I am meeting with my leaders. In all the other meetings, I meet with those who lead their families, coworkers, and peers. But in this meeting, I meet with those who are leading me. The elders would probably argue this point, because I am their pastor, yet the truth remains that I am led by their wisdom just as much as they follow me.

This is just what happens when you meet with leaders. To meet with leaders is to…

Love. Before the meeting will begin, the elders and I remind ourselves of why we come together. We love the God who rescued us by sending His Son, Jesus, to die in our place. We love the Church which that Son established on the earth to be the agent of change to a lost and dying world. We love Tabernacle of Praise, the local church He gave to us to care for! There are no other people in the world who love more than good leaders do. Love is what motivates them to lead.

Dream. You cannot come to a meeting with leaders and not dream. Things cannot stay the same. There must be a place that we are going, a place that we can see in our mind’s eye. Leaders must dream. It is their very thought process, the pattern by which they work out their mission. Take away that unrealistic, radical thing called dreams, and you take away the lifeblood of a leader.

Be confronted. When meeting with true leaders, you will be confronted. They will confront one another in love in order to get the most out of every member for the good of the team. Weak, cowardly leaders are the ones who watch their team mates lag behind or compromise the values of the team over and over without nary a word said to correct the situation.

Be challenged. Leaders smell apathy like a pregnant woman smells body odor. It nauseates them. Mediocrity is on a close second to apathy. These are the bane of a good team, and good leaders will not tolerate them. Each time you’re with leaders, you’re uncomfortable, but when you’re away from them, you realize that you are better than you ever were before.

This is why I love meeting with the elders.

What happens when you meet with good leaders? What do you love about the leaders in your life? Leave your comments in the section below.

Innovation at Tabernacle of Praise

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At Tabernacle of Praise (TOP), one of our core values is excellence. We strive to become better at what we do because the reason that we do what we do is so urgent. We must constantly reassess if our methods are working, even if that means change or some work. It’s that important. This pursuit of excellence naturally causes us to become innovators in life transformation here in Crawford County. Here is one such innovation.

Our Focus Groups (the small group ministry of TOP) are merging with the intent to reinvent themselves and multiply out into the community.

That’s right. For a limited time, there will be only one (relatively large) Focus Group active at TOP. There are several reasons for this:

God is giving us a heart to reach the lost and dying in Crawford County like never before. I thought this change was only started in my heart last year until I began to speak with the elders about it. They told me that had already felt the Holy Spirit pushing us to change the way we interact with the community. This was confirmation for me. We immediately began drafting plans of a new way of doing small groups.

This change has to be widespread. This change in focus and ministry cannot be limited to one Focus Group to make it last. We need all the Focus Groups to have this perspective deeply embedded in their DNA and culture.

This change of heart has to be caught rather than taught. We are merging the Focus Groups so that all the Focus Group members will be able to see and experience this change of heart first hand as we reach out to the community of Leesville. All of us together will be a part of innovating a new way of doing small groups.

We need help! We need as many people as possible to be involved in this transformation at the church. We are learning as we go, and so we need everyone’s input and support to make it happen.

I will blog later about the specifics of the changes we’re making in Focus Groups. If you want to be involved right away, come join us in this awesome, innovative work every Wednesday night, 6:30 pm, at the church. Can’t wait to see you there!