All the Things I’m Learning right now (Part 3)

After an extended absence from the blogosphere, I’m now back in full force. Here’s the third installment of, “All the Things I’m Learning right now,” by Matt Keller. Thanks for reading…
9. “When” is Coming!!! A few months ago I wrote a blog titled, “It’s not
if, it’s when.” Well, guess what, “When” is coming soon. I can feel it.
God’s timing is exact, and He is exactly beginning to move and open doors
like crazy around the NLC world. December 2nd was a huge day for us.
We’re so excited about the Big Opportunities God is placing in our hands!

10. I am learning to be more secure in who I am in Christ, regardless of
the approval of man. With or without man’s approval, I’m learning to be
more secure in my calling and my responsibility to that calling than I’ve
ever been before. It’s a great place to find yourself in. However, it’s easy to let slip away too. I’m still working on that part!

11. I have a responsibility & a calling to develop young leaders around me.
I’m learning in the last few weeks that God has uniquely gifted and called
me to have a total passion for leadership development of young leaders
around me. We’re actually trying to be very strategic as we head into 2008
about how we leverage that calling and passion in my life. Stay Tuned to
hear more about that as we get closer to the New Year.
More tomorrow, but for now I submit…

Just a bloggish thought,

matt

More of what I’m learning right now (Part 2)

So on Monday, I began a new series of blogs about “All the Things I’m Learning right now…” Here’s the 2nd installment…

6. It only takes 1 idea to succeed. Never underestimate that truth that: The power of one idea plus God, can equal Breakthrough into a whole new level. Don’t be too quick to give up on an idea. Some of the best ideas ever were simply morphs of a “pretty good idea.” Make every idea a beach ball, and give permission to people near you to bat it around until it becomes great. Your job is to simply keep it from hitting the ground.

7. Risk ought to be regular. Plain & simple, if we’re not taking enough
risks, we’re not positioning ourselves for true success. When was the last
time you took a risk? What’s keeping me from taking more risks on a daily
basis? What if I developed an ability to risk in the small things everyday
so when a big risk came along it wouldn’t feel so foreign or awkward to me?
Huh.

8. The only way to win is to lose first. Can we really go up, before we
hit rock bottom? Hopefully, but more probably, no. God uses failures and
shortcomings in our lives to mold us on a heart level into what God wants /
needs us to become so we can become what He wants us to be when we finally
do succeed.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

A Few of the Things I’m Learning Right Now!!!

I realize that I’ve been a bit AWOL from the Blogosphere lately, and I
apologize. Quite honestly, I feel like the rhythm of my life has been crazy
lately and unfortunately, my blogorhythm is the first thing to suffer.

In light of my apparent neglect of reblogibility, I submit to you the follow
insights:

A few of the Things I’m learning in my life right now…

1. I’m Totally in Uncharted Territory. The deeper I go into this whole
thing called “Life & Ministry” the more I realize that I’m definitely in
over my head. The grace of God still better be sufficient or I’m sunk
pretty bad. 2 Corinthians 12:9 “…but Jesus said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’” I’m living that right now, no doubt about it! It seems the further we go, the more that Scripture becomes true in my life!

2. “Life & Ministry” is a Team Sport. It’s impossible to go where God is
leading us alone. We truly have a dream team at NLC. I can’t even begin to
tell you how they have lived that out over the past several weeks. They
truly understand what it means to “manage” Matt’s uniqueness and giftings.
They make my strengths look infinitely stronger than they actually are.

3. The Path to Success is through Teachability. I am learning that I’ve got to continue to stay amazingly teachable in my leadership. To lead where we’re going requires a completely different skill set then it does to lead where we are, or where we’ve been.

4. The Path of Teachability is through Humility. I’m learning that being & remaining
teachable bites sometimes. It means admitting when you’re wrong. Admitting
when you blow it. And that’s anything but easy, I don’t care who you are. Getting up, brushing yourself off, and getting back on the horse is essential.

5. Asking for Grace and Forgiveness from people is hard. There’s nothing
more difficult for us humans than this one. And yet, there’s nothing more
powerful and effective at positioning us for personal growth like it in the
whole world.

I’m going to continue this line of blogs all week long. I’m up to 19 things that I’m learning right now. I can’t wait to share them with you…

Thanks for reading along,

Matt

I’m so Excited about this Sunday!!!

This weekend we launch our brand new series, “Leave No One Behind,” at NLC. It’s a 3 week series themed at honoring our veterans and capturing the heart and vision of Jesus for our lives, both individually & as a church.

If you know anyone who is connected to the Military in anyway, you have to bring them on Sunday, it’s going to be a really powerful day.

Pray for me this weekend. I need God’s help to present this message in a honoring and life-changing way.

10 am. South Fort Myers High School. 9:40 am Coffee & Kids Check-in.

“Leave No One Behind” … A New Series by Next Level Church

DC Trip Successful

I just wanted to let all of you that prayed for Quigs and I know that our trip to Washington was a great success. We shot video for 5 1/2 hours & got nearly an hour of video recorded, which is incredible! We battled lighting issues all day but had plenty of sunshine for warmth & ease. (At least it wasn’t raining & cold!)

In the evening, we had dinner with David Stine, who is an ARC Church Planter in Pentagon City. His church is 8 weeks old. It was so timely to spend time with him and encourage him as he’s just getting out of the starting blocks. God really used us to speak a timely word to him.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us. We felt a God confidence all day long, that’s for sure. I am so excited about the new series that begins November 11th… “Leave No One Behind.” It’s going to be powerful, moving and hopefully very honoring to all the veterans of the USA. If you know any veterans, you’ll definitely want to get them there on the 11th!

I’m looking forward to the final installment of Fuel for Life this weekend. It’s going to be a great finish!

Thanks,

Matt Keller

Prayer for Washington D.C. Trip

Hey guys, pray for me this week, Josh Quigley & I are flying to Washington D.C. to shoot 2 videos from the World War II Memorial & the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They are for the next series that we’re doing that launches on Veteran’s Day, November 11th! I’m so excited about the series. It’s called, “No One Left Behind.” I don’t want to spoil it for all of you, but I also feel strongly that I need you to pray for me. My grandfather served in World War II, & I have a feeling this is going to be pretty emotional for me.

We are also scheduled to have dinner with 2 church planters while we’re there to encourage them and help anyway we can.

I’ll let you know how it goes,

Just a bloggish prayer request… thanks,

Matt

Legos & Love!!!

So I’m playing legos with my 4 year old son, Drew, the other night. We were building a tower next to a swimming pool, that started out as a space ship or something, I don’t know. During the building process, there was a tall staircase that I was in the process of placing on the top of our spaceship turned tower. In a worried tone, Drew asks me, “Dad, what are you doing?” To which my simple reply was, “Trust me!”

What happened next, took my breath away… Without hesitation, he says back to me, “I love you, Dad.” To which I stopped and looked at him. Well, he’s giving me this “matter-of-fact, cute, simple, half smile,” (like only Drew can do) thus implying, “Duh, dad, of course I trust you… I love you.”

Trust is implicit to love. To have one is to have the other. How in the world does my 4 year old know that??? How does he know that when you love someone, you trust them implicitly?

Zoom out to us… Why is so hard for us to trust God? I mean, we love Him right? We believe He loves us right? Then why don’t we trust Him more? Not just with the big stuff (like salvation) but with the small stuff too? (like relationships, finances, our future hopes & dreams).

Where in your life is your Heavenly Father saying, “Trust me,” and hoping that our response will simply come out as:

“I love you, Dad.”

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Going Up & Going In…

Here’s what I’m learning right now… The further up you go, the more inward God wants to work in your life. It never fails that the minute God begins to bring increase in my life, (in any number of ways) that there is a requirement of God doing something greater inside of me as well. For example, if I am praying for God bump up the level of influence He wants for me to have in the lives of the people at NLC, then I know it’s going to first start in me.

It’s all about being “Trustworthy.” I pray daily that “God would find me trustworthy.” John Maxwell says it this way: “If you want to grow the organization, first grow the leader.” So… in order for NLC to grow and become the life-impacting organism that we dream it can be, it has to first start with me… the leader.

It’s been fun over the past 5 1/2 years to grow in my understanding of this concept. Because in the early days, I thought that it was about a whole bunch of other stuff. (which is important to some degree) But now, I’m realizing that it’s me. “God wants to do a work IN me more than He wants to do a work THROUGH me!” Holy smokes, that’s good! (It’sanother Maxwell quote, not an original, unfortunately.)

Let me say it again to make sure you get it:

“God wants to do a work IN you, more than He wants to do a work THROUGH you.”

What if we could carry that around in our hearts this week? It might change us in some way, huh?

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

I got my Nugget!!!

So last Wednesday night at our Connection Group, I challenged everyone there to “find a nugget” about leadership in the next week or so, and be prepared to share it the next time we got together! Well, I just couldn’t wait, I had to share the one I found. It totally goes with the topic of discussion from last Wednesday night, we were having about “Character.” It’s a John Maxwell quotefrom his book, “21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day,” that is worth repeating:

“Anyone who displays inconsistency of character will not remain a voice of influence in the lives of others.”"

He goes on from there and busts out another one like 2 paragraphs down:

“The effectiveness of any message relies more on the character of the messenger than on the content of the message.”"

Wow. When I read those, I was challenged to the core. I want my character to shine through in my life like never before! I want people to see more Jesus in me than ever before. And yet, I’m keenly aware of how fragile the character of a leader is. God help me to guard my character like never before! Find me trustworthy in the days ahead!

Anybody else got a nugget on leadership they want to share???

Just a bloggish thought,

Keller

I hate that my Battery Needs Recharged

So I’m the kind of guy who just wants the battery on my lap top to always be charged up and ready to go. It always seems like it runs out of life at just the wrong time. Just when I’m ready to take it somewhere further than 5 feet from a wall and type something profound, the battery is dead, or dying! I hate that… I guess I have unrealistic expectations for my battery life, huh? Many of you are reading this right now thinking, “Come on Keller, maybe you just need to be a bit more ‘battery responsible’ and plug it in strategically or methodically, so that when you need it, you’ve got the power you want and need!”

Great thought, and on a Monday morning, I can’t help but think how our spiritual batteries get depleated and then we find ourselves at work, or in the car with our kids, or on a phone call, and we need some “spiritual power” only to find out that our battery is dead or dying. There’s just not the power we were hoping to have in that moment! Perhaps we should take our own advice, “Maybe we need to be a bit more ‘battery responsible’ and plug in strategically and methodically, so that when we need it, we’ve got the power we want and need!”

How’s your spiritual battery? Is it charged up and ready to go for another week? Or are you running on reserves or worse, dead? Look at the next 24 hours of your life, when can you carve in some time to plug in & recharge?

Just a bloggish thought,

Keller … out (not bad for a Monday)