Chapter 17—Only God
This chapter does a great job of emphasizing our understanding that no matter how talented we think we are, how hard we think we are working, how smart we think we are, and how effectively our ideas are reaching our community, it is only God who makes it happen. What we do is important, and doing it in excellence is important. Doing it with a sold-out attitude of servanthood is important. But the most important fact to remember is that unless our God comes alongside us with His blessing, everything we do is in vain.

As long as we remember that without Him we can do nothing we will avoid the “rock-star” mentality of self-promotion that seems to be prevalent in our culture, even among Christians. Only God can save, heal, and deliver. Only God can take our music, our teaching, and our serving and use it to transform lives. There will always be people more talented than we are, smarter than we are, better speakers and musicians than we are—but when we give our best to our God for His purposes He will always amaze us with the results.
An “Only God” lifestyle will make sure you are always able to be blown away by our amazing God.

Chapter 18—Plus-side and Minus-side
Watch your reaction when you read this chapter. Don’t get defensive and reactionary. It is a challenging look at some practical issues that will help us not only in our church, but with our businesses and our households. Too often we fall into the trap of “doing our job” instead of “adding value.” We can do both—in fact, if we keep adding value at the forefront of our minds while doing our jobs, then our jobs will never become mundane or unfulfilling. Every task becomes an opportunity to be intentional, strategic, others-focused and Kingdom-minded (ISOK). So instead of an administrative task being something that just has to be done, we start to think like God thinks. Nothing He does is ordinary—no just get it done stuff. Everything means something and has a greater purpose.

Additionally, this chapter underscores the need to make sure, especially church staff members, that we are intentionally doing things to grow our church each day. We must build it into our daily calendar. One reason we do not have formal offices at CAML is we want staff members out in the community instead of sequestered in an office somewhere. Make it a habit to interact with your community every day. All of us--whether we are church staff, business owners, employees, or homemakers—are first and foremost ambassadors of Christ and His Kingdom. Keeping that mindset will make sure we are always Plus-side.

Axiom Chapter 16

Axiom—6 x 6

We’re going to do more blogging on this chapter in a few weeks because we are trying this as a staff right now. The concept is great—giving yourself “permission” to focus on some important projects for a concentrated amount of time. If we made this a regular habit we would become more effective and feel better about ourselves. Sometimes we get caught in “work” mode—working hard but not feeling like we have accomplished much. This axiom, if incorporated into our habits, assures that we regularly feel like we have accomplished or finished something.

One thing we are noticing in our experiment with this, is the constant encroachment of the “daily routine” seeking to divert our promised attention from the 6 to the daily. Once again, letting the urgent set our calendars for us. Staying focused may be the biggest challenge we face.