Nearly a year ago, we almost planted a church

Church planting has always been a passion of mine. Ever since taking church planting class under Dr. Dave Early. Since moving to Green Bay, I have assisted multiple church plants and planters! I went through the long gruesome SBC/NAMB church planting assessments. We have been approved to plant. One year ago, we were a month away from planting a church in Southern Wisconsin.

It was a long journey to get to this point. All those assessments and then a long weekend of a church planting board questions and conversations. From conversations with church planters to reading church planting books to preparing to plant; we were exploring opportunities. An opportunity presented itself to plant a church in a YMCA. We visited and it was us! We had a mission field, we had a team, we had a church sponcor and we had the partnership with the YMCA. Everything looked perfect. Then I received a phone call that sent everything spiraling down. 

Something happened internally within the sponcor church, we lost our team and on that team our connection that would glue the partnership with the YMCA. We were one month away from packing up everything and diving in. Depressed and frustrated, but at the same time relieved that God had His hand in it all. Would have been bad if things fell apart one month later, we would have been living without a purpose, partnerships and about to have a baby. 

Will we plant in the future? Not sure, only God knows that. I know, I won't do it alone. I want a team, a sponcor church and God's hand in it. Till then, I will still be helping church plants and planters! They are part of the future of the church. 

Aftermath of the student ministry teaching series "Gideon: Least to Leader"

Wow, what a great series! The idea for this series came from the understanding that Gideon came from the smallest tribe, the weakest clan and the youngest; God took him from that position to leader of Israel's army. Here are a few observations and take aways that came to the surface!

The story starts with Gideon threshing grains in a wine press. To me this a funny picture. A wine press is a hole in the ground and here we find Gideon hiding for fear of losing his grain or worse his life. Threshing grains was successful only if the wind blew away the garbage and the grains fell to the earth. In a hole this was not going to happen. Gideon was probably tired from working many times more, dusty from everything falling back down on him and wondering to himself who will stand up to these Midianites bullies? 

Who will stand up against the bullies? Who will feed the poor? Who will protect the innocent? Who will fight against sex trafficking? Who will reach out to that cancer patient? We find ourselves with those questions, who will decide something? Who God? "You will! I have given you my eyes to see! I have given you my heart to hurt?" God called Gideon from the least position in all of Israel, from a hole in the ground. Sometimes those people are the most dangerous; all in and relying on God to follow through.

Before God even had Gideon raise an army and lead, He gave him a small task. Tear down the idols and alters in his village. Gideon took 10 servants at night and destroyed everything God asked Him to. At night, not much courage? Actually yes, this is Gideon who was hiding in a hole. He was taking a small step into leadership. God gives us many opportunities to grow our leadership and courage!

The next two things are taught on a lot: the fleece and the raising of the army. One thing, I never caught before was that Gideon tested God twice with a fleece and then God tested Gideon twice by cutting his army. I think this was with purpose, because many times that is how God does things.

Gideon took his 300 men and waited near the enemy's massive army. God tells Gideon to go down to enemy camp. Upon arrival, Gideon overhears one soldiers dream and another who interpretes the dream. The dream means Gideon is going to come and destroy us all...what a confidence boost for Gideon! What did he the do? He rushed back to his 300 men? Nope, he fell and worshipped God! Gideon recognized that this was all bigger than himself, he wasn't going through it alone and God deserved the credit! 

We know the rest. God uses Gideon and 300 men to cause a panic in the enemy's camp. They fought each other and fled from an army of 300 men. God got the glory and Gideon went from the least to leader. He can do the same for you.

God provides in ways that you can never imagine!

This year has been an interesting one...one of the book biggest blessings has been God's provision and love. Material things are not necessary important, but when you are blessed; sometimes it's hard to stay silent.

I have been spending a lot of time on leadership podcasts. My favorite is Perry Noble, a pastor I have followed and has mentored me through his preaching and books. During one of the leadership podcasts, they were talking about his new leadership book and an opportunity to win a signed copy. I won! The best part is what happened after. I got a shoutout on the leadership podcast and decided to respond. I sent Perry a cheesehead and an encouraging card about the investment in my, my wife's and teens lives. 

You never want to lose your laptop in ministry...my 6 year old Mac was on its last leg. I spent a day working on it, knowing I had little time before it would never turn on again. The next day, I went on a bike ride to clear my mind and try to focus on my Sunday morning sermon. As I was leaving; I received a text, would you like a new laptop? How? When? Why? Absolutely! The Mac I was given was 3 times better than my old one; more memory, more storage, better hardware and one of the best gifts I have received.

I got a text about what I was doing one night. Only to find out a friend had an extra pre-season Packer ticket. We parked for free on the streets and I was able to go to a Packer game for free!

Out of the blue, I was Facebook tagged. Michael Ott congratulations you won a free year's worth of youth ministry curricululem! Wow, being part of the DYM Facebook page has just blessed me. Not just curriculum, but PowerPoint games and graphics. 

I could talk about checks in the mail, giftcards showing up or encouraging words from others this year...the point is: God provides and in some seasons He goes way farther than you can imagine! Not every season will you see this; but God uses a variety of things to show of His love!