Every person in the world has been called by God. Called to work a specific gift or ministry. Sometimes though we become so caught up in someone else’s vision or dream that we forget about our own or we put the dreams and visions God has given us on the bookshelf for a later date and time. Is this the right thing to do? In my mind, NO!

Yes, we are to always have a servants heart and be dedicated to the vision of those that we serve but that doesn’t mean that our own dreams and visions can ‘t be getting fed. God gave us those dreams and visions for a reason. If we don’t work towards them mentally, physically, and spiritually, when the spotlight is on us we will not be ready and we will be screaming “WAIT! I am not ready yet“. Unfortunately if we aren’t ready the spotlight dies and we miss out on what God has planned for us. (Thanks Pastor Melva for that vision)

A lot of people quote Ecclesiastes 3:1 which says: “There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth” and they use that as a pull to have you work their vision and to be honest I completely agree with that scripture and that there is a time and season for everything but even during the winter months the earth is preparing for spring. During the fall the earth is preparing for winter. You have to always be preparing for the next season.

Many of you might be asking, “How do I prepare for the next season?”. In order to explain and show this I would like to use me as an example. God has called me to be a child evangelist. At the age of 13 God began giving me dreams and visions of the work He has in me however since that time I have been always serving someone else’s vision and keeping the visions and dreams God has given me on the bookshelf. Change is here. I will always serve my pastors and their vision and will still sow into the lives around me but I also have to grow in me as well. How do I plan on doing this?

Here’s how:

Mentally: Reading is now going to be a “hobby” in my life. I have set a goal to always be reading something. I know people who are always reading … sometimes 3-4 books at a time and they are the quickest people I know. Their brain is being stimulated with new information. I am currently reading a pre-released copy of Tony Morgan’s new book “Killing Cockroaches”. You will be seeing the book review here on my site on March 1st but anyways … got off subject there slightly but I am mainly reading the book because it’s about leadership. I am also looking forward to reading “Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney” by Lee Cockerell. These are both books on leadership of which will help me become a better leader.

Reading isn’t the only way I plan on stimulating my mind. There are other ways which include listening to books or the Word on CD while driving or sitting in the office. I know people who play “The Bible Experience” even while they are asleep.

I also did a search on Google for ways to stimulate your mind and found a great article from Reader’s Digest that offers some great suggestions including taking Vitamin B and eating grapes instead of cookies (man … I love cookies though). The site actually has a lot of great tips that I will be implementing. Try it … what’s it going to hurt?

Spiritually: Getting in the Word more. I currently spend about 30 minutes a day in the Word. That is just strictly reading the Word (not listening to preaching via CD or online) but I plan to increase that to an hour a day. The Word of God is what it’s all about. In the past I have had an issue of memorizing the Word. I would read something one day and then forget what I read a week later. This bothered me but the more and more I am in the Word the more and more it becomes real and becomes a part of me. People want the Word to be personal … of which it is. If we don’t know the Word, we can’t make it personal to those that we are ministering to. How can we show that God is a personal God if we can’t show His Word as being personal? (WHEW THAT WOULD PREACH)

With all that said … I have to make every attempt to be in the Word more and more. To know God intimately. To know what makes Him laugh … smile … and even blush. That’s where I am going. Becoming a real God Chaser … not just a religious person.

Physically: The ministry God has in me isn’t a low impact experience. It’s high impact and for that to be the case I must be in good health. This means I need to start eating healthier and start exercising. PERIOD!! Enough is enough. It’s not a resolution it’s a order of change. We all talk about losing or for some people gaining weight but we never take it further than just talk and if we do it ends up being this thought bubble that gets popped after a few short days. We really gotta stick it out. They say quitters never win so why do we keep quitting.

For me I have made the commitment (keyword) to exercise three times a week. After all, I do have a fitness center down on the first floor at home that I can use free of charge and best of all I can watch my cartoons while exercising. LOL

I also am making a commitment to start eating healthier. Cutting out soda and fast food from my life is going to be key. Yeah I will enjoy it once in a while but not as often as I am now. I am also going to start eating more veggies. If you know me at all you know I HATE VEGGIES but I am going to start eating them whether they taste good or not. Sometimes things that are good for you don’t always taste or feel good. Veggies and exercise are just two of those things. LOL

Over the next several months my life is going to be going through some major changes (Announcement Coming Soon). Changes that will affect the rest of my life. In order to be all that God has called me to be I have to be investing not only in those around me but also investing in myself or allowing others to invest in me. I encourage you do to the same.

So now, what has God called you to do? Are you living it out? How are you investing into yourself? Ask yourself these questions. I would love to hear your answers.

One of my strong points is my ability to organize. I am not OCD about organization but I enjoy living an organized life. This comes in handy especially when planning large events. This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity of organizing the KidZone Services for World Outreach & Bible Training Center here in Milwaukee. Planning for such events is a lot of fun and a lot of work but I hope that through this post I am able to share with you some tips that may help you in the future to plan large events successfully.

1. Eat Healthy – This is key. This goes for any event whether large or small. If you don’t eat healthy your body will not have enough energy to endure the event. This past weekend I made the horrible mistake of eating on the run and having the mentality that I didn’t have time to eat much. I paid for it big time. At the end of each night I ached so much … it was unbelievable. I wasn’t hungry … because I had to many other things on my mind … but my body crave the energy from the food. Eating healthy before and during the event will provide you with not only enough energy during and after the event but will also help you stay on your toes mentally during the event.

2. Confirm all staffing and develop teams – This is super important. There is nothing worse than thinking someone is going to be a part of the event and then finding out the night before that they aren’t going to be there. You should always speak with the staff and get a commitment from them as soon as possible. I personally enjoy delegating things to the staff because it not only confirms their commitment but gives them ownership of that part of the event. It allows them to feel like the event is part of them and without them the event wouldn’t be a success. The benefit of this is that it lightens your load. For instance, for this past event we delegated our praise & worship portion of service to one of our young adults. Her responsibility was to create a team of young people that would learn the songs and dances. It worked well, she met with the young people, trained them and was there to help them both nights of the event. It was a huge success because of her commitment to training those young people. Without me delegating that to her I would have had to add that to my already heaping plate of responsibilities.

3. Meet with key staff – Communication is key for every event, especially for large events. You have to know what is going on and so does your staff. I recommend meeting with your staff weekly one to two months before the event takes place. This will allow time to discuss the design of facilities, event schedules, staffing, etc. Don’t try to cram it all in at the last minute. Meeting with your staff weekly and putting everything on the table before them eliminates staff getting frustration due to lack of communication and guards you from last minute rush jobs. It also is yet another way to pull a commitment from your staff as they now become a key player in the event.

4. Pack Smart – Pack your items up by location. For instance, when we pack for large events we organize our boxes in such a way that anyone could come in the room and set the room up for us. You never know what might happen. In children’s ministry we often are holding children’s ministry events while the adults are doing another event. For this reason I suggest putting a general “Children’s Ministry” label on every box going. That way when you get to the event location the staff unloading the trucks (or other vehicles) knows where the box needs to go. I also recommend that you organize the stuff in your boxes based on the where the items are going to be needed in the room. For instance, you may want a stage box, a sound booth box, a staff table box, a registration box, a game box, etc. It becomes a mess when you need a particular item but you don’t know which box it is in and so you end up looking through 30 boxes for the item or you end up having to put that project on hold until the item shows up. This unfortunately affects the entire setup process.

5. Confirm all services not control by you or your staff - This is huge. Before the event you should be in contact with anyone and everyone that is helping out with your event including those people that aren’t part of your staff. It’s a horrible thing to have times or dates mixed up. You don’t want your sound tech people to be showing up an hour late for service or for the convention center to not have a coat rack available for all your staff. These are important small things that always need to be checked in on.

I am going to stop at 5 tips today but I believe that there are many other things that can be done before an event to make sure the event is a huge success. Do you have tips you would like to share? I am always looking to improve my serve so please share your tips via the comment section below. You not only will be blessing me but everyone who visits this blog.

This past weekend we celebrated World Outreach & Bible Training Center’s Third Year Anniversary. It was a lot of fun! The celebration was held at the Intercontinental Milwaukee. One of the finest hotel/convention centers in the city of Milwaukee.

While the kids enjoyed “KidZone Live!” on the lower level of the hotel the adults were upstairs enjoying a variety of ministers. With special guests Pastor Jeffery Pruitt, Bishop Darrell Hines, Serita Campbell, and T-Bone. Danny Gokey, who is a up and coming American Idol Star was also in attendance.

Anyways … I am not posting about the adult services as I didn’t get to see a minute of any of them. I was enjoying KidZone Live! We had a blast. From rockin music to pouring slime on the heads of the staff. God’s message went forth and lives of children were changed forever.

Below are a few pictures from the event. I have a video on my phone that I am trying to get converted. Once I figure out how to convert it I will post it. Until then … well … these pictures will just have to do.