Encouragement

What Does it Take to Wake You Up?

by Andy Wood on October 6, 2008

in Ability, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

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In spite of all her lamentable weaknesses, appalling failures and indefensible shortcomings, the Church is the mightiest force for civilization and enlightened social consciousness in the world today.  The only force in the world that is contesting Satan’s total rule in human affairs is the church of the living God. -Paul Billheimer

What does it take to rouse a sleeping giant? 

Whatever it takes, I think now is the time.

One of the biggest clichés and repeated experiences in history is that of unrealized potential.  It’s one of the reasons I believe heaven will be a place in which God wipes every tear from our eyes.  When we see what was in light of what could have been – with our lives, and with our corporate potential – we will have no alternative but to weep.

For years, as a global body, the Western church has been asleep at the wheel or, worse, awakened to fight the wrong battles, the wrong enemy, or with the wrong weapons of warfare.  We’ve made an art form of “trivial pursuit,” and the world is worse off because of it.

The first Century Church didn’t keep up with its time, didn’t spend its energy keeping up with its time.  The first Century Church changed time.  It rewrote history.  It radically impacted culture.  The church was the forerunner, not the runner up. – Erwin McManus

If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I’m referring to you.  I’m referring to me.  But the news isn’t all bad.  We serve a God who is wonderfully capable of  waking sleeping giants.  He did it on a national scale, both with His own nation and at times even with foreign, pagan countries.  And I believe He’s doing it today. [click to continue…]

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Leading Broken People

by Andy Wood on September 8, 2008

in Esteem, Leadership, Life Currency, Love, Words

A couple of weeks ago David Hayward, a pastor and gifted artist/cartoonist, posted this picture on his blog site, in a post titled “How I’m feeling about the church lately.”

(Used by permission)

(Used by permission)

I can relate.  For more than 30 years, it has been my privilege, my headache, my joy, and my nightmare to work with broken people or broken churches.  Prior to launching Turning Point Community Church in 2003, three of the four churches where I was senior pastor had experienced major divisions, open conflicts, forced termination of my predecessor, or some other kind of grief or pain.  Some had lived with the crud for so long, they’d arrived at the conclusion that this was somehow supposed to be normal.  “I’m sure it’s like this everywhere,” they’d intone.  “Oh, no it isn’t!” I’d scream inside, all the while smiling on the outside.

The brokenness isn’t limited to the organization.  David’s cartoon reminded me of something we used to proclaim loudly here.  Underneath the doorway leading into our rented facility, our church used to hang a banner that represented a passion and sense of calling for us.  Every Sunday, every worshipper at Turning Point walked under its message:

A Place to Begin Again.

I roughly estimated that for a long season, 80 percent of the people who arrived at Turning Point for the first time came here to heal.  Some came from broken marriages; others from broken lives of addictions or economic messes.  Many came bleeding from the most insidious wound of all – the church wound. [click to continue…]

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Guess I Won’t Do That Again

by Andy Wood on August 12, 2008

in Gamblers, LV Alter-egos, Turning Points

(A Turning Point Story)

Pam was 15 and pregnant.  Somehow, in the wake of some poor choices, however, she made a good one.  Pam decided not to get an abortion, and a young man – an all-star outfielder in his high school – lives today because of that decision.  But Pam’s decision was costly, because her family didn’t approve.  Pam needed a place to go.  So at a time when our own children were four and two, Pregnant Pam came to live with us.

We helped arrange a private adoption, and the time came for Pam’s baby to be born.  Robin was committed to walking with Pam through all of this, so she stayed at the hospital with her, and I kept the little ones at home.  Having been through all of this together, the kids and I were excited about seeing Pam’s baby.  So we planned a little trek up to Medical Center East in Birmingham.

Being something of a hospital veteran, I decided on this Saturday to go in through the Emergency Room.  I herded my little brood through the waiting room, through the double doors, and into the elevator.  After a delightful visit, we reversed the process – into the elevator, back through the double doors, breezing through the ER waiting room.  The kids were walking ahead of me, self-assured and chattering away.  They marched through the exit doors and started down the sidewalk toward the car.

[click to continue…]

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The Ring

by Andy Wood on March 14, 2008

in Following Your Passion, LV Cycle

NinjaI had never seen a rank test before.  What I did see impressed me.  And taught me.  I know it’s dangerous to talk in layman’s terms about something you don’t fully understand, but I want to tell you what I saw.  (No, this picture wasn’t it.  I just thought the little fella looked cute.)

For those of you, like me, who have never taken a martial arts class, a rank test is a challenge a student must face in order to receive a higher-ranked belt.  White belts challenge for yellow, yellow belts challenge for blue, and so forth.  I walked in on a Monday night several years ago to what I assumed was a routine karate class, and found out my kid (age 8 at the time) was being tested.  What made it interesting was that he didn’t know it at the time.

Best I can tell, the rank test involved two different parts.  First, students had to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of what they had been taught.  The different moves and techniques were reviewed over and over under the watchful eye of the master.

Then came The Ring.  At least, that’s my name for it.  [click to continue…]

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The Face in the Window

by Andy Wood on March 12, 2008

in Esteem, Life Currency, Love, Turning Points

(A Turning Point Story)

Joel024This is an article I first wrote about my son 16 years ago, about what a powerful thing encouragement can be.   It means as much to me today, if not more, as it did in 1993.  Click “share this” and forward it to the encouragers in your life.  Thank them for being your “Face in the Window.”  And let somebody know you’ll be theirs….

It was one of those forgettable days, when nothing seemed to go right.  I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted.  The summer heat was unbearable, the humid West Alabama air unbreatheable.  But I had to bear it, and I had to breathe it on this day. 

Name a pitiful emotion – I’m sure I felt it on that day.  Rejection, anger, discouragement, depression, loneliness, fear, shame – they all showed up with the intention of staying. 

“Nobody needs you,” they said.  “And nobody believes in you.”

It was a day of giving.  Normally that rejuvenates me, but not today.  On this Saturday, I had given time, love, and tenderness, together with a whole lot of physical energy.  I had given my best (I thought).  Apparently, others had disagreed, and I had been humiliated in front of a large family gathering. 

I was spent.  I would say that I came home with my tail tucked between my legs, but honestly I don’t think I was standing that tall.

[click to continue…]

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The Encourager’s Creed

by Andy Wood on December 16, 2007

in Esteem, Love

Encouragement 3
Today and every day I will offer the most elegant gift another human can receive: the gift of encouragement. I will recognize that my gift is theirs to receive or to refuse, and that it comes with no expectations or demands.

Today and every day:

I will give the lonely a reason to believe in companionship again. And in so doing, I will banish loneliness from my own heart forever.

I will give the open-hearted a reason to grow – to expand their knowledge or their experience, their character or their self-confidence. And in so doing, I will discover paths of my own growth I never knew existed.

I will give the dreamer a reason to achieve – to accomplish a major step toward a goal or project. And in so doing, I will find myself closer to my own dreams than ever.

I will give the sojourner a reason to feel connected – to God, to self, to me. And in so doing, I will embark on my own wondrous journey of intimacy.

I will give my coworkers a reason to say, “Thank You,” but I will not demand that it be said. And in so doing, I will experience the exhilaration of true teamwork.

I will give the ordinary a reason to feel respected. And in so doing, I will possess greater respect from myself and from others.

I will give the solemn a reason to laugh or smile. And in so doing, I will be reminded again not to take myself too seriously.

I will give the decision-maker a reason to say, “Yes” with enthusiasm, or, “No” with courage. And in so doing I will be delivered from my own inaction.

I will give the weary a reason to go on, refusing to quit. And in so doing I will sow the seeds of my own prevailing strength.

I will give the apathetic a reason to be passionate about the things that really matter. And in so doing, I will face the trivial and meaningful in my own life.

I will give the cautious a reason to get out of that dull routine and live a little. And in so doing I will protect my own spirit from stagnation.

I will give the cynic a reason to believe the world is a beautiful place. And in so doing, I will rediscover for myself the splendor of the grand and the grace of the simple.

Most of all, I will recognize that this day is a gift to me. Today and every day I will take the time to encourage the encourager. I will recognize that my greatest gifts become available to others only when I offer them first to myself and to my God.

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