Psalm 71:8"My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day."

I read this the other day and immediately asked myself, "What's in my mouth throughout the day? Is my speech continually marked by a constant praise of who God is and what He's done for me?"

The obvious answer was of course, "No."

We started Redemption Bible Church believing that Biblical leadership would be crucial to planting and pastoring a healthy church. We believed both then and now that the health of our church would directly relate to the health of our elders. If you do not know, elders are the senior leaders of the church also called pastors, bishops, and overseers in the New Testament (Eph 4:11; 1 Pet 5:2; Acts 20:28). The elders are men chosen for their ministry according to the clear biblical qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. In addition to these Biblical qualifications, there are three specific traits we look for in potential elders:

At Redemption we are meticulous about keeping track of our numbers. This is NOT because we find our identity in, nor measure our worth by the numbers, but because behind every number is a name.  Every number is a life that has been influenced and impacted by Jesus.

Last week we had a members meeting and Ashely Herr, one of our elders, put together a presentation that served as a celebration of God's grace in and through our church, as well as an incredible blessing to our church family.

Here are some of the things we celebrated in a few areas of focus at Redemption:

I was frustrated - which in and of itself is not an abnormal experience for me, unfortunately. I was in the midst of one of the few short walks I take each day, trudging around the neighborhood next to my office, wrestling through one of the many leadership issues every pastor faces on a regular basis. In this particular situation I had tried everything I could think of. I did not know what to do. I was tired of trying to figure it out.

Connection Essential #3 - A Mechanic

It does not matter how nice of a vehicle you drive, at some point it requires a mechanic to keep it running. The same is true of your connection vehicle. No matter how clear the next steps and how fine tuned the system, someone has to keep it running.

Connection Question | Who is going to keep the connection vehicle running?

Connection Essential #2 - A Vehicle

Once you have determined where you are trying to go, you are ready to design the vehicle by which you can help people get to this desired destination.

Connection Question | What are the necessary next steps?

Connection Essential #1 - A Destination

No one ever sets out on a journey without first determining their desired destination. Therefore, the planning of every trip starts with a basic question: “Where do we want to go?”  A similar question is necessary in the planning of an effective connection strategy for your church:

 Connection Question | What exactly does “connected” look like at my church?

There is no shortage of reasons people leave one church to attend another.

• “My last church wasn’t Biblically faithful.”
• “My last church didn’t offer the programs I wanted for my kids.”
• “My last church had unqualified people in leadership.”
• “My last church had cutting edge worship strait out of the 1500s.”
• “My last church was amazing, but my job moved me away.”

Obviously, some of the reasons a person leaves one church to attend another are good while others are selfish, consumer-driven, and disobedient. Sometimes people leave churches because of their own sin and often times people leave because of the unrepentant sin dwelling within the leadership of the church itself.

One of my goals for this year has been to pursue growth in my prayer life. To do so, I have been reading, studying, and most importantly, praying. By God's grace I am seeing growth and have found these three things to be crucial to the consistent increase of fervent prayer.

If you have ever wondered why it is so important we fight to reach this new generation of young men with the gospel, here's why...

I love reading the stories of those God has used throughout history. The diversity of those He uses is staggering. There is no one personality type, ministry philosophy, nor theological tribe God has been limited to. All of this serves to make much of God and breed humility in us.

Outside the Bible, biographies of the people God has used to make a lasting impact tend to be my favorite reading. The stories of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, D.L. Moody, C.H. Spurgeon, and A.W. Tozer have all served my soul, my marriage, and my ministry. Besides the amazing nature of these stories, there are three primary reasons I read these great books:

One of the great mistakes a Christian can make in his, or her life is to overcomplicate prayer. Prayer is not complicated. Prayer is difficult for most of us, sure, but it's not complicated. At the root of all our petitioning of God in prayer is really the same prayer:

"I can't do this anymore..."

"What's the point of this..."

"I think it would be easier to just give up..."

These are the types of thoughts that mark seasons of weariness in our lives. Weariness is the state of physical, emotional, and spiritual depletion. It's a fatigue that extends to every facet of life and remains a reality  all Christians face. The prophet Isaiah meant to make this clear when he pictured the strongest, healthiest, highest capacity person he could and said even they grow weary.

The truth is, apart from God, creation is hard-wired for weariness.

You just had a guest visit your church and you want to help them get connected, now what?  It's simple: FOLLOW UP! Here's how... 1. Get their information

We've tried this through a handful of means, but here's where we've seen the most success.

Every so often a particular piece of Scripture grabs me and dwells deep within my heart for a long season of time. Right now that text is 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. The Apostle Paul writes,

Do you have a vision for something in your life?  You should. In fact you should have a vision for a number of things -  your spiritual life, your marriage and family, your vocation, and your particular area of ministry gifting. My guess is you do have a vision for a all these things, meaning you have some grasp of where things are currently and a hope for where they will be in the future. You see what is and have a picture of what could be.

Have you ever tweeted something you ended up regretting? Yeah, me too.

Just this past Wednesday night in a moment of frustration I vented via Twitter. By God's grace, my wife saw it within five minutes and graciously corrected both my attitude and my behavior and I quickly pulled the tweet down.

Tami and I have been together for over 10 years now and we've been married for almost seven of those years. Outside my salvation, she is the greatest gift God has given me and by His grace I can say that I love and enjoy her more now than I ever have before. Over these last ten years I've learned many things. One thing in particular never ceases to amaze me, namely that I don't always understand her. She thinks differently than I do, she responds differently than I do, and she feels differently than I do about many things. This is both a blessing and a challenge.

Redemption Bible Church is designed around a straitforward and strategic process meant to move people into what we believe are the essential rhythms of discipleship - Worship. Community. Mission.  For us, this means we have one program assigned to each of these rhythms - Worship Gatherings. Community Groups. Missional Teams. No men's ministry. No women's ministry. No Awana. No singles ministry. No grown men who read comic books living at home into their 40's working at that creepy store in the mall that sells Dungeon and Dragons figurines ministry, either...just in case you were wondering.

While there is no shortage of things, even good things, churches CAN do, there is only a small number of things churches MUST do. We've opted to only do the things we must do. Here are five reasons why.