Category Archives: Ministry

Ministry

ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE

Each February it seems I end up in Phoenix for Pastor Tommy Barnett’s Pastor’s School.

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Going to Phoenix First Pastor’s School is annual pilgrimage to remind me of what is important for the life of a pastor. That pilgrimage always brings me back to the importance of people and how much we all matter to God and to each other.

One of my all time favorite sessions each year is sitting in the Prayer Pavilion either by myself or with just one or two others and listening the voice that gives me real clarity in a world that many times is very cluttered by too many voices.

Here is the prayer pavilion  I love to spend time in.

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Adam my Son- in- law and I at Pastor’s School

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My good friend Paul Callaway .

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Another great thing is getting to see friends from all over the country.

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Ministry

AOL (Acts Of Love) January Harvest Sunday

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Last Sunday January 25th was Harvest Sunday at Prescott First Assembly of God.

We chose to bless single parent moms and single Grand mothers with a free oil change and a winterized car.

The day was a great success for both the church family as well as the moms who were blessed with some great car care from the church.

Here are a few photos of some great servants!

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Thanks to all who rolled up their sleeves and helped us help others.

Midas of Prescott

Ponderosa Tire of Prescott

Arizona Mudd SLingers

Prescott Auto Body

And Prescott First Assembly church.

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Books I'm Reading, Ministry

BRANDING FAITH

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Phil Cooke was one of the presenters at the AWAKEN 08 conference in Pasedena California.

I’m reading his book that basically speaks to today’s way of communicating you message in the best possible way.

Today, faith-based organizations and non-profits struggle under our present cultural framework – the power of global media. The media’s influence in our lives is pervasive, and today, education, business, religion, leisure, science, even family life, are all measured against that influence. The answer to who’s influencing you, is the same as who’s influencing the culture.

It’s the media.

That’s why our challenge today is how to express our faith in a media-dominated culture. How to tell our story alongside the maddening swirl of media “clutter” – TV, radio, computer, digital music player, Internet, mobile phone, and other technologies competing for our attention. How do we get our message heard through the massive and growing wave of media static out there?

This book is about getting your message heard. It’s about telling your story, and making that story connect with your audience.

I’m sure by the time I read Phil’s book and put it into practice, the rules to the game will change and I will have to buy, read and digest his next book.

 

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FASTING, Ministry, Mountain biking

GOD AND YOUR BOD

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This morning nine of us road our mountain bikes up some of the steepest climbs I have ever done here in Prescott.

After it was all said and done my watch told me I had been 4 hours on my bike and my calorie counter told me that I had burned 2905 calories  on the epic ride.

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After getting home it was really key to replintish the well.

You have a physical well of limited energy that you have been drawing from this week. Have you been doing anything to ‘replenish’ the well? As I study, lead, write, have meetings, spend time with family and friends, exercise … I am expending my limited energy resources. I have to remind myself all the time that God designed me in such a way that I am responsible for replenishing this well. I have lost count of the times I have ‘gone to the well once too often’ without re-supplying it and have come up completely dry and have got myself in real physical trouble.

The most critical, yet easy to do, rituals that can replenish our physical wells are:

Eat a healthy breakfast EVERY SINGLE day.

Eat something healthy & life giving every 3-4 hours.

Have a set time of exercise each day.

Stop every 90 minutes of your work day, no matter what you are doing, and take a short break… break for your brain, emotions, and body. Don’t keep the ‘pedal’ pressed all the way to the floor, without a break

Get 7-8 hours of sleep every day.

Are you paying attention to your physical well? What do you need to begin to do to replenish your energy resources each day, so that you can live with more vitality and vision.

A great resource to check how many calories you burn up during exercise is found at the link below called healthdiscovery.net

http://www.healthdiscovery.net/links/calculators/calorie_calculator.htm

 

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FASTING, healer, Ministry

GOD AND YOUR BOD

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I love this message I taught a while back  and thought I would post the outline on my blog as a reminder to keep myself controlled when it comes to my health.

GOD AND YOUR BOD

Your Bod is God

Pastor Steve Lummer

Your body is:
A TEMPLE, it is to be TREASURED not TRASHED.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 CORINTHIANS 6:16 NIV

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 1 Corinthians 6:19

HOW TO CONTROL YOUR BODY

1. KEEP YOURSELF ACTIVE.
Proverbs 19:15 Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry.

2. EAT TO SATISFY NOT TO STUFF.
Proverbs 13:25 The righteous eat to their hearts’ content, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry.

3.WATCH THE INTAKE OF SWEETS AND MEATS.
PROVERBS 23:1-3 When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what [a] is before you, 2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. 3 Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.

4. ASK YOURSELF, “WILL THIS BRING GLORY TO GOD?”
1 CORINTHIANS 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

5. TAKE BAD EATING HABITS TO THE CROSS. ( does this include dark chocolate M&Ms?)
Proverbs 23:2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.

6. BEFORE YOU EAT ….. PRAY OVER YOUR MEAL.
Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

7. SPEAK YOURSELF INTO A HEALTHY EATING LIFESTYLE.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

8. DON’T EAT WHEN YOU ARE DEPRESSED.
Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

Dear friend, I pray that you are doing well in every way and that you are healthy, just as your soul is healthy. 3 John 1:2 (nasv)

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Ministry

AOL (Acts of Love) CONTINUES

This Sunday is another AOL (Acts Of Love) service event form our church to our community.

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OIL CHANGE MINISTRY TO SINGLE PARENT MOMS

I am really looking forward to watching our church show God’s love in a practical way to single mothers this Sunday morning–no strings attached!
Moms drive into the church parking lot, hand over their keys, then go inside the church for a great service.
This is a wonderful opportunity to share God’s love with those in need.
The Oil Change Outreach will be:
January 25th Prescott First Assembly
1455 Willow creek rd
Prescott, Az. 7781455
9:00 am–12:00 pm

To make this event successful, we need your help! Below are simple ways in which you can help. We need:

Men to volunteer their time to change oil or drive vehicles
Women to act as hostesses to the single moms
An offering for this ministry.
Oil, Antifreeze, Windshield Washer Fluid Snacks–Donuts, Muffins, Juice
I want to thank Midas of Prescott, Arizona Mud Slingers and Prescott Auto Body for Partnering with Prescott First Assembly in this Act Of Love.
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FASTING, Ministry, what I am working on right now

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Jack Bauer and 24 is a big hit right now because the new season has just started this week.

The show is broken into 24 hour periods.  Just like our lives, we only have each day to live and make every minute count.

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In How to Spend a Day in Prayer, Lorne Sanny give us some practical tips on how to utilize your day with the Lord.

Scheduling your time

Divide the time into three parts:

1. Wait on the Lord-to realize His presence, to be cleansed, and to worship Him.

2. Pray for others. Ask specific things for them. Use Paul’s prayers in the New Testament to pray for them, and pray for them what you are praying for yourself.

3. Pray for yourself. Be totally honest with God, and yet not too introspective. (In many cases, a person will do better to pray for himself before praying for others.) As Lorne Sanny said, “You will end the day worse than you started if all you do is think of yourself and your own problems.”

That really covers it all. Our walk with God, our walk with others and our walk with ourselves each day.

Each morning is a great time to reflect on how God has given us everything we need for that day.

Jesus tells us how important it is to focus on today and let tomorrow take care of itself  when he tells us in Matthew 6:34 “So never worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

remember:

TODAY IS ALL YOU HAVE.

TODAY IS ALL YOU NEED.

And TODAY IS ALL YOU CAN HANDLE.

Have a great day!

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FASTING, God and your bod, Ministry

TATOO

Some time ago a newspaper in Tacoma, Wash., carried the story of Tattoo, the basset hound. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut his leash in the car door and took off with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice. Motorcycle officer Terry Filbert noticed a passing vehicle with something that appeared to be dragging behind it. As he passed the car, he saw the object was a basset hound on a leash. “He was picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could,” said Filbert. He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued — but not before the dog reached a speed of 20-30 mph and rolled over several times. The dog was fine but asked not to go out for an evening walk for a long time.
There are too many of us whose days are marked by “picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can.” Too many people spend their days running trying to catch up like TATTOO.
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Did you know that Jesus was a very busy person too?
Growing up, the mental image I had of Jesus was that of him sitting around all day teaching his disciples and occasionally doing a miracle or two. However, a careful study of the Gospels will reveal that there were constant demands on his time.

Statements like “master all men seek thee”.

In fact in Mark 6:31 the bible says of Jesus and his disciples, “there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.”

As you read about the life of Christ you notice something.  Jesus was often BUSY, yet never in a  HURRY.

We are in day 15 of our 21 day Daniel fast and I want to include not just abstaining from certain foods but as well abstain from a certain way of life. It is my goal to focus in on personal quiet time with God and not let our culture direct how I live and who I am.

A quiet time each day with God is the best possible way way to do that.

Quiet time is a place where we stop and …SEE HOW BIG OUR GOD IS AND SEE HOW SMALL OUR PROBLEMS ARE.
 

 

 

 

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Football, leadership, Ministry

WHEN YOUR VISION GOES INTO OVERTIME

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Sometimes our vision seems to linger in the waiting room for too long. When I am feeling like the wait is unbearable I’ve got to lean on the old biblical term called “perseverance”.

I like what Bob Gass says about perseverance.

Perseverance means:

1. Succeeding because you’re determined to, not because you’re entitled to.

Achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think the world ‘owes them.’ No, if you’re wise you’ll ask God for direction, stand firm on the word He has given you, go forward and refuse to quit. You must adopt the attitude of the man who said, ‘We are determined to win. We’ll fight them until hell freezes over, and if we have to, we’ll fight them on ice.’ Recalling the trials he’d faced, Paul said: ‘”I started, and I’m going to finish. I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door…And that’s not the half of it”‘ (2 Corinthians 11:23-28 TM). One word describes Paul; relentless.

2. Recognizing that life is not one long race, but many short ones in succession.

Each task has its own challenges and each day its own events. You have to get out of bed the next morning and run again, but it’s never exactly the same race. To be successful you must keep plugging away. It’s said that Columbus faced incredible difficulties while sailing west in search of a passage to Asia. He encountered storms, experienced hunger, deprivation and extreme discouragement. The crews of his three ships were near mutiny. But his account of the journey says the same thing over and over: “Today, we sailed on.” And his perseverance paid off. He didn’t discover a fast route to the spice-rich Indies; instead he found new continents. The scriptural key to success is running the race each day (Hebrews 12:1-2). So, this year; persevere.

Last week during an NFL playoff Game Brenda and I watched the San Deigo Chargers play Paton Manning and the Colts in a game that went into “sudden death” overtime with 17 – 17 tied up game. As the teams came out the play in overtime, John Madden said as he was commentating the game something I think anyone in leadership can use when it seems like your vision is in “sudden death overtime”.

 

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John said that “Phillip Rivers is a seasoned quarter back and he knows that in situations like this he has to do four things:

1. DON’T HURRY.

2. STAY CALM.

3. DON’T FORCE ANYTHING. 

4. DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID.”

What great advice to anyone who feels the pressure of a “vision in overtime.”

By the way, Philip Rivers drove his team down the field and Darren Sprouls the “lightening bug” ran in for the winning touchdown.

 

“We will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 NIV

 

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