by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
What a busy day this turned out to be. I started the day early this morning with A Train the Trainer conference and heard Dr. John Ewart. Wow what a lot of information I have a ton to digest from this conference. I learned so much from this conference and an evangelistic concept that nearly every church is missing. I will blog about this later on after I have digested some things.
Tonight I also attended a concert with Living Sacrifice it was actually a farewell concert for them and also a group called Crossway. I enjoyed the concert but Crossway performed 2 songs that really spoke to me. The first song is Titled “Took It All Away”
TOOK IT ALL AWAY
I’VE BEEN NUMB FROM THE SHOCK OF DEVESTATION LEFT SO CONFUSED THAT IT PARALIZED MY PRAYERS AN UNEXPECTED PAIN TORE MY HEART INTO PIECES AND JUST LEFT MY FAITH HANGING THERE BUT I ROSE UP FROM ASHES OF MY DESPAIR
AND WITH YOUR STRENGTH I STOOD AND I DECLARED
CHORUS THAT IF YOU TOOK IT ALL AWAY EVERY GIFT YOU EVER GAVE THE SUN THAT SHINES IN MY DAYS THE STARS THAT YOU DISPLAY AND IF YOU NEVER BLESSED AGAIN IF YOU GAVE ANOTHER TRIAL INSTEAD IF THE PRECIOUS THING THAT I HELD WAS STRIPPED OUT OF MY HAND I WOULD STAND AND PRAISE YOUR HOLY NAME
IF YOU TOOK IT ALL AWAY
GOD, I MUST BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE WITH ME AND THAT YOU STILL HAVE PURPOSE AND A PLAN AND WHEN YOU HAVE PROVED AND YOU HAVE TRIED ME I’LL SHINE LIKE GOLD IN YOUR HANDS AND I’LL RISE UP FROM THE ASHES OF MY DESPAIR
LORD, WITH YOUR STRENGTH I’LL STAND AND I’LL DECLARE
BRIDGE WHEN I FEEL I CAN’T LAST ANOTHER DAY I’LL CRY BLESSED BE YOUR NAME BLESSED BE YOUR NAME WHEN I CAN’T SEE THE HOPE THROUGH THE PAIN I’LL CRY BLESSED BE YOUR NAME
BLESSED BE YOUR NAME
This song just really spoke to my heart. I was forced to ask myself as I was holding my son. ”God what if you took it all away”. What would my response be would I be able to stand and declare the praises of God. This has been a rough time in my life. I have lost for a time one of the things that I held very dear to my heart. It came right after God and my family in my life and when you lose that it is difficult. I am thankful I have been able to praise God and know He has a far greater plan and that which has been meant for evil will in know way prevail. Because I will still praise my God.
The second song was Titled “When I Hear the Thunder”
WHEN I HEAR THE THUNDER
SOMETIMES AT NIGHT I CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP AFTER EVERYBODY ELSE HAS GONE TO BED KNOWIN’ ONCE AGAIN I’VE GOTTEN IN TOO DEEP
AND THE WATERS WILL SOON BE ABOVE MY HEAD
AND I BEG OF YOU TO CHANGE THE WORLD AROUND ME SO TOMORROW WON’T BE LOOKING QUITE SO DIM AND I AWAKE TO THE WATERS DEEP ENOUGH TO DROWN ME
BUT, THROUGH IT ALL YOU TAUGHT ME HOW TO SWIM
CHORUS: AND WHEN I HEAR THE THUNDER, AND I THINK I’M GOIN’ UNDER I REMEMBER YOU’RE THE LIFTER OF MY HEAD YOU’VE HAD A THOUSAND CHANCES TO CHANGE MY CIRCUMSTANCES
BUT, THANK YOU LORD, THANK YOU LORD FOR CHANGIN’ ME INSTEAD
THERE ARE TIMES I CAN’T HELP FEELIN’ LOST LIKE A SHIP DRIFTIN’ ON THE OPEN SEA AND THE WINDS AND WAVES LEAVE ME PITCHED AND TOSSED
AND A STORM BEGINS TO BUILD INSIDE OF ME
AND I BEG OF YOU TO CHANGE THE WORLD AROUND ME AS FEAR AND FAITH ARE FIGHTING FOR CONTROL AMID THE RAGING WATERS SWIRLIN’ ALL AROUND ME
YOU’VE BECOME THE ANCHOR FOR MY SOUL
This was just an awesome reminder for me especially with what was going on today that God is in control and I am not going to drowned. It was also a reminder that so often God will put us into our circumstances. I heard today that we could possibly be praying against God’s will when we pray for people to not go through something. Perhaps God put them in the situation for a reason. god has truly become my Anchor in the middle of this storm.
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Well after taking a long break from posting anything on my site I am here to post. Some people may have thought I was dead which I am sure would make some happy. However where I am only has a dial up connection. To try to post on dial up is near torture, I am with some family in Michigan and they have wifi so now I am posting. This may be a long one so hold on.
Recently I was thinking about some things that I was missing. During that time I decided to change my thoughts to what I will not miss. Trust me there are a lot of things that I will miss in PA. I am extremely thankful for the lives I had the privilege to be a part of in PA and those that God allowed me to mold. However there is much I will not miss. This is not an extensive list just some things that relate to me personally these things may not be for everyone this is based on my experience. If you have a fear this will make you mad then please do not read it. These are my open and honest opinions.
Gossip This is first thing I will not miss. In my 9 years in PA I don’t think I heard so much gossip in my life. I am sad to say it got to the point where I was not just hearing it I was participating in it. I think when you step back or step away and you begin to look at things from the outside the picture gets alot more clearer which has definitely happened to me over these past months. So many times I would confront people on gossip and I became the bad guy for doing so. Everyone needed to know everyone else’s business and why they were doing what they were doing even after people left our church people would still keep right on spreading their gossip. By the way the number one thing I would hear is “well it’s true” just because something is true does not mean it has to be said. When we say things that we know are going to hurt someone else or cause someone to look negatively on someone else that is gossip period. We cant explain it away and not matter how much we try to justify it it’s wrong.
Drama I don’t mean just drama in teens but drama everywhere. Everywhere I turned it was drama. If it wasn’t the teen being all dramatic about something it was an adult stretching something or making something way more dramatic then needed to be. I will save you the many many stories I could share where I experienced this firsthand. The need to be dramatic about everything stems from pride. We want the attention placed on us and when we don’t get it we become dramatic to get it. If you want to test this out quit paying attention to someone and see if they get dramatic to get your attention back. I will not miss this.
Elders Meetings I definitely will not miss these. Sometimes our meetings would go for hours and at then end of the meeting I felt little was accomplished many nights. When I would address this or say something about this it was merely pushed to the side. Or I really did not know what I was talking about. Never-mind I was the secretary taking the minutes. Meetings filled with stories and little accomplished are pretty close to useless. Some meetings were better than others and in some much was accomplished. I just had no idea what the point was sometimes and why we could not keep our meeting on track. I guess I don’t understand why we would need to spend literally hours talking, discussing and going back and forth on whether or not to have a drum in our church. Trust me this was not the only issue meeting filled without doing kingdom purpose is not what and Elder Board is for. But that may be another blog post.
No Vision For 9 years I fought for a vision statement. It was brought up time and time again yet when I resigned there was still no vision statement and no plan in place to make one. Ministries had no goal to work for. What was our church trying to accomplish why did we exist. Sadly If that questions was asked we would get many different answers. I know because the question was asked. Why is this? It is because we had nothing to work for. When you have different ministries pulling in many different directions how can you be successful and healthy? Why was this continually and constantly put off? It is the job of the leadership of the church to cast vision and give some direction but failure to do either seemed to be the motto.
No Accountability It is difficult to get far without accountability. One of the first things I began to push for was evaluations. There were never any evaluations and the pastoral staff is not held accountable. We did not even hold one another accountable as pastors. Without accountability it is like you have your own secret life that no one really knows about. I think this is often the case with Pastors no one really knows them and few really know their struggles. Because we typically build a wall around us and don’t let people inside. If the Pastors are not held accountable then how can they lead.
Joking one thing I have constantly struggled with is my joking. I tend to turn just about everything into a joke and there are times that my joking has hurt others or that I have taken it to far. After leaving I have realized also how often sometimes we would sit around as pastors and take pot shots at people or say things that we thought were funny about someone else. Whether it was making fun of the way someone acted or just how they said something it was not right. Or even at times in elders meeting where we would say something funny about someone and everyone would laugh. There are times that the things we said we know we would not say if that person was sitting their in front of us yet we said them anyway. I have looked back on this and realized how wrong this was. I am ashamed that I participated in this and that I was a part of it. I don’t think Jesus would make fun of other peoples deficiencies or light of their problems and then laugh them off. Yet we did it more than once.
Lack of Follow-up Many people had left our church and in essence nothing was done to follow up on them. We did not see why they left though we knew the reason or at many time we thought we did many told me why they left but nothing was ever done to adjust ourselves. I don’t think we need to run to people and beg them to stay but shouldn’t we at least figure out why they have left and do something about it. Many times we would just blame it on the person that left and say it was their fault for leaving and never really address the fact that maybe just maybe we were doing something wrong. Sometimes maybe we were just afraid to hear the truth and to do something about it. When people are leaving there is a reason.
Backstabbing or being thrown under a bus I will close with this one. I recently heard a message about the disciples being thrown under a bus because they could not heal this guys son. So the guy openly accused them but Jesus did not side with the guy. I cant tell you how many times I have felt stabbed in the back or thrown under a bus. Not just from friends but from others as well. I found people to be generally rude where I was at in PA and for the most part self seeking. If they did not like how you did something they gathered others to side with them and would make attempts to take you down. This happened time and time again over my 9 years in PA. People would say one thing to your face but the minute your back was turned look out. I put a great deal of trust in people and that trust was definitely decimated and destroyed. I know what it is like to be thrown under that bus and to take it on the chin. To have half truths be shared about you, and downright lies. From here you just go on.
Well that is a list of some of thing I will not miss. I could have wrote alot more. I am sure this is me somehow shifting blame or something like that. However this is me sharing what I have gone through and what has been revealed to me.
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Aug 30
Posted by Josh
Recently I attended a Train the Trainer event and it was packed with useful in formation. This seminar was put on my Dr. John Ewart and I thought I would take the next few days and talk about some things that I had learned.
Today I want to start with What Is A Missional Church
we were given this quote which I loved
“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”
A Missional Church is – A reproducing body of Authentic disciples being equipped as missionaries sent by God to live and proclaim His kingdom in the world.
I know there are a lot of churches that think they are Missional but the truth of the matter is the majority of churches in the U.S. are not growing I will share more about that tomorrow. On of my friends Chris Baker once told me about a conference he had listened too where the question was posed “If your church was removed from your community who would protest?” We have to ask ourselves are we reaching our community? Eventually in the next few days I will get to a way that we learned how to reach our communities that just totally blew me away. Well let me finish up with what we learned about Missional.
Motivated to declare the gospel
Invests in Biblical Training
Strategically focuses on the unreached
Sacrificially supports ministry partners
Intentionally plants new churches
Offer “missional” opportunities
Negotiates strategic partnerships
Always focussing glocally (global and local)
Leadership is on the front lines
Is your church Missional? Tomorrow I will post some stats that will just blow you away.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Aug 28
Posted by Josh
For those of you who may have been keeping track of my posts and may have wanted to read the post today about intentional praying and open small groups I apologize. A friend asked me if I would go to Morris Minnesota with him and being the spontaneous guy I am I said sure. So here it is 2 am and I did not get the post done I will try to do it tomorrow evening.
Life, My Thoughts
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
I decided today I wanted to right about some scripture specifically a few verses that show us the eternality of Jesus Christ. These verses are found in the gospel of John 1:1-2.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
In these verses 3 very important facts are stated. They are Christ is Preexistent, He is Coexistent, and Self-existent.
When we say that Christ was preexistent we me was there before creation. There is no question of His existent He has always existed.
Some people might say well the verse says in the beginning. In the beginning does not mean from the beginning. Jesus christ was already there. He did not become, he was not created, He has never had a beginning. He “was in the beginning with God”.
We also must take notice that the word “was” is used. It is in the Greek imperfect tense and is so often used for deity. The word mean “to be” or “I am”. To be mean continuos existence, without a beginning or an origin.
What John is saying is that Jesus Christ was the Word, the who had always existed, the Son of the Living God.
Secondly Christ is Coexistent. He was and is face to face with God forever. The word “with” carries the idea of both being with and acting toward. Jesus Christ was not only with God but was acting with God as well. He was “with God” by God’s side acting living, and moving in the closest of relationships with the Heavenly Father. Christ had the ideal and perfect relationship with God the Father. Jesus Christ and God had the perfect eternal bond. John is stating that Jesus Christ is the Word and has always coexisted with God, he is the Son of the living God.
Finally Jesus is Self-existent. Notice John does not say “the Word” was the God or a God. He specifically says “the Word” was God. John was saying that “the Word” Jesus Christ is of the ver naturea and charater f God the father, he is a distinct person from God the father, but He is of the very being and essence of God the Father.
When a someone sees Christ, they see a distinct person, but they see a person who is of the very substance and character of God in all of His perfect being. John is making it clear that Jesus Christ is the Word, self-existent and eternal, the Supreme Majesty of the universe who owes His existence to no one. Jesus Christ is the son of the living God.
Jesus Christ is eternal this remind of something I used to tell my Youth group all of the time. If you want to know about god you merely look at Jesus Christ.
Christ reveals the most important person in all of the universe: God. Jesus Christ reveals all that God is and wast to say to humanity. That is why we must study the person of Jesus Christ, and all that He is and we must model our lives after His and obey all He commands.
Christ also reveals God perfectly. Jesus is just like God, in fact identical to God that is why we can look at Jesus and see God.
Christ finally reveals that God is the most wonderful person. God is far beyond anyone we could ever imagine or even dream of. he is loving and caring, full of goodness and truth; and He will not tolerate injustices: murder and stealing, lying and cheating of husband, wife, child, neighbor, brother, sister, or even strangers.
Jesus Christ is eternal he always was, is, and will be and we are called to model our lives after His.
