Josh Young

Carlos Whittaker posted about this story a couple of days ago, and I thought I’d share it with you all.

Rolling Hills Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA was sitting on an almost paid for, million dollar church building, but the people in their congregation needed help. Instead of sitting there and doing nothing, the church decided to sell their building and use the million dollars worth of equity to reach out to the people and help. They’re going to try and find a movie theater to meet in after their building sells.

This takes a lot of faith and guts to do. Thank you, Rolling Hills, for striving to be what we have been called to be, and for inspiring us and teaching us what the Church is really about.

• Read more about this in the Christian Index

Josh Young Church Issues, Culture, Leadership

Perry Noble had a great post yesterday called “Innovation or Investigation?” that summarizes a lot of what we talked about Sunday at Amelia when I was introduced as our new Creative & Communications Minister.

Here’s what Perry had to say:

I don’t want to be an “innovative ministry leader” because in doing so the focus of my life may switch from being an obedient servant of the Most High God to being an obsessive slave of the latest and greatest technique!

I love innovation…I love doing what is new (God is always up to something new – Isaiah 43:18-19).  However, I think some in the ministry world have lost their freakin minds as they have become obsessed with all they can do…thus losing sight of all that God wants to do!  We want to be on a list rather than actually listening to the voice of God!!!

We are called to embrace innovation–WHEN God leads in that direction.  BUT…I believe that every step in life and leadership should be led by God–and so when we launch a “good idea” that isn’t a “God idea,” the results will prove to be fruitless.  (John 15:5)

This is why, as leaders, we should stay up with the times…but should also be DESPERATE for the voice of God!  Leadership is as easy as listening to God and doing what He says.  Our PASSION should be HIS VOICE, to INVESTIGATE HIS WORD and FOLLOW HIS VOICE…because by doing so we will see Him change the world we live in rather than us trying to do it all on our own!

We absolutely cannot get caught up ONLY in what is the latest and greatest. Rather, we need to get caught up in what God really wants for our lives and the Church. And through that, use ALL that he has given us to reach those who don’t know Him.

Let’s go investigate and follow.

Josh Young Church Issues, Leadership

Our church leadership team is gearing up to go to the Unleash Conference at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC this week. It’s going to be a great time for us to grow together as a group and recharge us all.

I’m looking forward to coming back with a renewed passion for what we do.  Our preaching minister, Mike Edmisten, and our worship/youth minister, Brian Morrissey, went last year, and they both came back on fire.

The only part I’m not looking forward to is 8 hours in a 15 passenger van with 11 of us.  Could get crowded…

Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Leadership

With all of this talk and thinking about training and education – bringing people to a point where they can learn things and then teach others the same thing – I thought I should probably do some reading on it.

I happened to be skimming through Dave Ramsey’s recommended reading list, and I wrote down several books that I thought would be a great help (which were most of the ones on his list).  Then I searched the catalog of our local library to see if they had any of them.  They actually had several.

So on my way to band practice at church last night, I stopped at the Amelia branch, signed up for a library card (which I had been meaning to do anyway), and searched for some of the books.

I walked out with two books.  One of them was The One Minute Manager by Dr. Kenneth Blanchard and Dr. Spencer Johnson.  It was a small paperback – only about 110 pages.

I read the book in under one hour, and I have to say, it was better than I could have expected. It was very simple, and it was written in the style of a narrated story (which I wasn’t expecting), but it was chock full of some very practical methods of managing people and getting great results.

I won’t spoil the three secrets in the book for you.  I HIGHLY suggest you pick up a copy and give it a read.  It is definitely worth turning off the TV for an hour to read (which I need to do more of anyway).  This book is great whether you manage a home, a business, a family, or a life.

I’m definitely going to apply the things that I learned in this book, and I can already tell you that they are going to work.

On to the next book!

Have any of you read anything like this (or this one specifically)?  Any thoughts?

Josh Young Book, Leadership, Productivity, Reviews

Gee.  Where has the time gone?

Life is happening.  And my blog has fallen by the wayside.

I have a few thoughts stirring around at the moment, so I’ll probably start posting them on here.

One Word: Training.

I’m beginning to lay out a plan to train some people and bring them up to do some of the things that I do so that I can focus on the bigger things.  I haven’t done a very good job on this lately, and it’s starting to catch up with me.

Be ready for me to pick your brains about it.

Josh Young Amelia Church of Christ, Leadership

I’m watching the videos of the main sessions from the 2008 Unleash Conference at NewSpring Church, and Perry Noble just said something that really hit me hard.

He was talking about the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, but he didn’t talk about the lost son. He talked about the other son.

Basically, his point was that the older son was so busy out in the field working for his father, that he didn’t know his father’s heart. He drew the parallel that we as the church can get so caught up in “doing the Father’s work” that they don’t spend any time with him to know his heart.

It’s not that we do the “wrong” things or that we’re not doing it for the right reason or in God’s name, but a lot of times we end up making it “our work” instead of the Father’s work. And we don’t spend any time with Him in the process.

I think this is one of the biggest things I can be guilty of. A lot of times I get so caught up in doing the Father’s work that I neglect spending time with him.

I really believe if we’re able to reconcile these two things, God will move in powerful ways in our lives and in our church.

Let’s spend more time with the Father while we’re doing His work.

Josh Young Leadership, Ministry

Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church has been posting several video portions of a talk he gave called Death by Ministry (via TheResurgence). Every one of them is full of great stuff. He talks about leadership methods, stress, burnout, health, etc.

Below are links to all eleven parts of the video. If you’re in church leadership (or any sort of leadership for that matter), these are a must watch. Each one is around 10 minutes long, and they’re totally worth every minute of your time.

• Death by Ministry – Part 1
• Death by Ministry – Part 2
• Death by Ministry – Part 3
• Death by Ministry – Part 4
• Death by Ministry – Part 5
• Death by Ministry – Part 6
• Death by Ministry – Part 7
• Death by Ministry – Part 8
• Death by Ministry – Part 9
• Death by Ministry – Part 10
• Death by Ministry – Part 11

Josh Young Leadership, Ministry