Category Archives: General Information

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Sabbatical Begins tomorrow

Detox and Declutter

 

The time has come!  My Sabbatical renewal leave begins tomorrow.  Over the weekend, I spoke at a men’s retreat for First United Methodist Church of Azle and shared about the work of HBA at my home church, FBC Paradise.

Today is about finalizing everything and getting the last bit of office stuff done before I go off the grid for the next 5 weeks. Please remember the page on our website that provides important information for the month of May.  Please go to http://harvestba.org/sabbaticalresources.

This week, I want to share just a few specifics about how I plan to spend the next few weeks and the long-term objectives.  I have given this time a title focus of Detox and Declutter. Originally, I had planned to spend some significant time on some home projects that have been on the back burner for years, do a lot of reading and unwinding, and a little traveling.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have decided to forego the big projects and just work on decluttering my life (both literally and figuratively).  I’m a bit (my wife would say a lot) of a driven personality type. Both at home and at work, I realized that I have become my own bottleneck and restoring spiritual, emotional, and physical rhythm is going to require a hard reboot, not just a change of scenery.

So, tomorrow morning I’ll be driving to a retreat cabin at Riverbend Retreat Center in Glen Rose (thanks to our wonderful partners at Tarrant Baptist Association) for a 24 hour time of reflection and transition into the difficult task of making life less difficult.

I will begin reading The Rest of God: restoring your soul by restoring Sabbath (Mark Buchanan), start my Sabbatical journal, and begin what I intend as a month of no cell phone, no computer, no social media, no email. Week one will truly be a detox from goals, deadlines, and connectedness.

At the end of the week, I’ll be traveling to Brownwood to take my dad for a day of reminiscing around the home places of some of our ancestors.  We will visit the country cemetery where generations of Lewises are buried, see the creek where my Granny Lewis was baptized over 100 years ago, eat BBQ, and tell stories that help me to remember my heritage and renew my passion for legacy. On Sunday, I’ll preach and sing at the little Methodist church in Brownwood where Dad is a member (my only such activity of the month) because he hasn’t heard me preach (except family funerals or weddings) in ten years.

My reading and reflecting for this month away will be focused on spiritual renewal through Biblical Sabbath/Sabbatical.  My objective beyond my own time away is to work toward developing a resource from a Baptist perspective that will help our churches and pastors through developing Sabbatical plans and resources to keep our pastors healthy and energized.

I can’t wait to see what we may be able to do together!

 

 

We are cultivating a Kingdom-focused culture of engaging churches.

How can we sow seeds of transformation into your local church?

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Two weeks until Sabbatical

Encouraging Words - First Notice

 

As I write this today (April 16), it is two weeks from my last day in the office before a one-month Sabbatical, which was approved by the Executive Ministry Team on January 29.

Sabbaticals, while common in the academic world, have only recently begun to gain acceptance in some branches of the church.  Part of the reason for the hesitance can be attributed to a misunderstanding of what Sabbaticals are and are not, a lack of a truly Biblical concept of “Sabbath” rest, and a good old American work ethic.

This week, I wanted to give a first notice of what’s ahead.  Next week, I will share some things regarding rationale, Biblical understanding, and clarity when it comes to the concept of Sabbatical renewal leave for those in ministry.

In two weeks, I will share an overview of what my Sabbatical will look like, with particular emphasis on the benefit to HBA. I will also include some final information regarding this Sabbatical and answer some specific questions that people may have.  If you have a specific question you would like to ask, please email me at dom@harvestba.com and I will try to answer it on April 30. I will not use anyone’s name in reference to questions and answers, so please feel free to ask what you really want to know.

During the 4 weeks of May, the Harvest Messenger will include some information that I have prepared in advance about what I am doing each week.  This will provide an additional level of accountability.

I anticipate returning in June with renewed vigor and vision and will find that the processes and people we put in place have enabled the association to continue functioning–and even thriving–during my absence.

 

We are cultivating a Kingdom-focused culture of engaging churches.

How can we sow seeds of transformation into your local church?

 

October 10 could be your springboard!

Harvest Baptist Association exists to cultivate a Kingdom-focused culture of engaging churches by sowing seeds of transformation into local churches.

On Tuesday, October 10 from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. we will be hosting our first ever Day of Discovery for Pastors and Leaders. Pastors are encouraged to bring one or two key leaders from your church. (Maximum of 3 total per church)

 

Eventbrite - A Day of Discovery 2017

During this fast-paced day, we will be highlighting and sampling some of our top discovery processes:

 

P.L.A.C.E. – This process is designed to help every member of your church find their place in ministry. Instead of trying to enlist ill-equipped people to fill ill-fitted ministry openings, this process focuses on empowering and releasing God’s people to the ministry for which God made them.

The 5 modules of P.L.A.C.E. are: Personality, Learning Spiritual Gifts, Abilities, Connecting Passion to Ministry, Experiences in Life.

Day of Discovery participants will receive an access code to complete the online P.L.A.C.E.assessment in advance of our day together. ($14.95 Value)

 

Leading from Your Strengths – This process is designed to build unity and strong ministry teams by helping team members to identify their own strengths and gain an appreciation for the strengths of others.

Strengths are measured in 4 areas: Problem-solving, processing information, managing change, and facing risk.

The detailed 20-page unique strengths report also gives insight into: a broad overview of your strengths, your value to the team, do’s and don’ts in communicating, ideal work environment, keys to motivating, keys to leading, areas for improvement, and much more.

Day of Discovery participants will receive an access code to complete the online LFYSassessment in advance of our day together. ($26.95 value)

 


Church Unique – What does your church do better than 10,000 other churches? How has God uniquely gathered your church in your context to do your ministry?  How will you glorify God and make disciples on your unique vision pathway?

Church Unique is primarily about your church’s identity. It shows church leaders how to identify and unlock their congregation’s individual identity as a tool for unleashing their one-of-a-kind potential.

Day of Discovery participants will receive a copy of Church Unique. ($14.42 on Amazon)

 

Younique – FIND YOUR TRUE CALLING. A Break-thru Process for Personal Vision and Life Planning.

God created you with one-of-a-kind potential and placed you on earth for a specific purpose. Due to the busyness of life, you’ve likely never identified your unique calling in a way that brings life-changing clarity. Most haven’t and like a distinct echo, the promise of a vision-guided life remains elusive, drowning under the demands of life.

You work hard, follow Jesus, you feel successful. But do you still sense that something is missing? Younique provides a proven pathway to more meaning, amazing clarity, powerful focus and real progress!

Day of Discovery participants will receive a $50 discount to participate in an HBA-facilitated Younique cohort.

 

Dangerous Pastors/Dangerous Disciplemakers – Do you have a discipleship program in your church?  How’s that working out for you?  Here’s the hard truth – “discipleship programs” don’t work! We don’t need a program.  Even a process can turn into a program if we try to implement it church-wide. What we need is to empower disciple-making lifestyles one life at a time.

Dangerous Pastors (2014-2016) focused on helping senior pastors focus on personal discipleship and developing a disciple-making process to implement in their churches.

Dangerous Pastors 2.0 (launching in 2018) will re-focus on engaging church members in the dangerous expedition to empower a disciple-making lifestyle focused on the mission of God and the mission of the church.

A Dangerous Pastor risks leaving the shallow existence of “doing church” to engage the people of God to pursue the mission of God in the deep waters of the Christ-life.

A Dangerous Disciple embraces the mission of God to exchange the shallow existence of “churchianity“ for the amazing adventure of the deep waters of the Christ-life.

Day of Discovery participants will receive a 30% discount to participate in a Dangerous Pastors/Dangerous Disciplemakers Expedition.

Total cost for the day is $35 per person and reservations are required by 12:00 noon October 9.

 

Register Here:

 

 

Date: October 10, 2017
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Event: A Day of Discovery for Pastors and Leaders
Venue: HBA Mission Center