bread and water

What if people are not meant to find us from our “brand” and marketing strategies, our images and our catchy catchphrases, our tag lines and Google SEOs. But what if we are meant to go find the one that Jesus wants us to love on. Jesus left the 99 to find the one. The one lost sheep.   If we are to follow Him, then what does that look like in our culture? I don’t think it always looks like trying to get people’s attention and have the most followers or engagement on social media. I don’t think it looks like having the perfect brand and the perfect colors and the perfect web design so that people will click “like” or “follow” or engage with our content, but I think it’s about dying to self and considering others. I think it might be about mailing that book to someone God puts on your heart or putting that book in the hand of someone God tells you to give it to secretly. Without fanfare. Without marketing.  What if it’s not about people finding us and following us and liking us,...

  I was called to the ministry as a teenage girl. I was sitting in a van in my home churches parking lot, Briarwood Baptist Church in Watkinsville Georgia. I was reading the Bible in Jeremiah chapter 1 when the Lord called me to ministry. As I read the words on the pages of the Bible they jumped out at me and I felt God speaking it directly to me:   “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew [ a ] you,     before you were born I set you apart;     I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6  “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” 7  But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 9  Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I h...

It was easier to involve our sons in helping with the ministry when we homeschooled them.  They also traveled with us when my husband was a full time evangelist.  When we moved back to our home state of Georgia our life rhythms changed a lot because we quit homeschooling the older 3 and I started working part time outside of the home. Talk about a change!  I still homeschooled the youngest for Pre-k. Now our oldest son owns his own business, our second son is a Senior in high school at a public school and our younger two are at a private school in 10th grade and 2nd grade. Each year my husband and I reassess what kind of school our children need to be in and if they need to be homeschooled again or not. Seasons change in life and that’s okay.  I recently took a course that reminded me of the importance of including your children in the work of the ministry. Younger children naturally like to help serve.  If you have teens or young adults all you have to do is as...

Seven days, two spent flying and driving, from South Georgia’s farmland to the huge city of London England. My first sign of culture shock though was eating lunch in Atlanta with my brother and sister in law who were helping us get to and from the airport. I walked into the loud crowded restaurant and felt a bit dazed and confused. I looked around at the people noticing a stark difference from city life to country life. The kale salad with tangy dressing was good. I knew I needed a break from ministry even though it was technically my husband’s sabbatical. I needed one too, after all, I am married to the Pastor. We love the Lord and are so grateful God called us both into the ministry before we even met but it’s a 24/7 job with a heavy burden if you truly care about people. We love our church family and are grateful they allowed us this time to get away and rest and get refreshed. I was unable to sleep on the plane so when we got there we took a 4 hour nap and then got out and explored...

My husband didn’t know I was taking this picture. We stopped in right before church to look at the building our church recently purchased to turn into a youth building. When we moved to this small town in South Georgia to pastor a local church we had no intention of building anything, starting anything, or shaking things up. We were content and happy when under 100 folks voted him in as pastor after serving in West Virginia and Kentucky. We were happy to be back in our home state of Georgia where the green grass grows and the corn pops up in rows. Rows not toes autocorrect. Get it right.  But then God started moving and the church was so packed with people that we had to move the morning service to the gym (and it still meets there). People were getting saved, born again, blood washed and baptized. People were joining the church and it grew and grew. The devil got to work too and stirred a great ruckus. We persevered in face of persecution, attacks, even harassment and betrayal. No...

 As I started reading the first 2 chapters of this book (Ministry to Women) that our women’s ministry leadership team is about to study together, I had a God moment.  I love when this happens! I tell people about them all the time. My book (Walk by Faith) is full of stories like this that really happened.  Oh the joys of walking with Jesus! I wish everyone could experience it.  In the first chapter, one of her first sentences was about a book called Start with Why. This was a book I recently read with another woman in ministry as she was going through an assessment with me.  We discussed the importance of how any leader must “start with why” when they are leading a team to accomplish a goal together.  In ministry the goal is not making money or building buildings. The goal is to see lost souls saved, new christians discipled, to help people discover their spiritual gift so they can serve the body of Christ & to obey what the Lord is calling you to do. W...