by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Mar 16
Posted by Josh
I am sure you have probably heard of Christopher Hitchens but have you heard of his brother Peter Hitchens. Peter Hitchens has a book coming out on May 1st entitled The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith you can pre-order the book by clicking the Title. I found this video on youtube giving a preview check it out.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
Mar 10
Posted by Josh
I have been giving some thought to wisdom lately. God’s word tells us that the wisdom of man is foolishness. I have often wondered if I have used my own wisdom (I use that term loosely) in making decisions or how often we have relied on our own wisdom instead of God’s.
Today I read this verse in 2 Corinthians 1:12
For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.
You know we have to be so careful that when we make decision that we are not acting out of fleshly wisdom. Fleshly wisdom really flies in the face of God. Think about it we are told to love our enemies is that what fleshly wisdom says to do? Or we are told to turn the other cheek however fleshly wisdom says get even. God has continued to remind me of His grave over these past weeks.
You see sometimes I want to get angry or upset about something. There are times that I want to be frustrated but I realize what is the point. When I fail to forgive I am reminded of how much I have been forgiven. You see god is calling us to look at others as he sees them. He sees the heart and so often we fail to look inward and focus on the outward. You see it does not make any sense to forgive someone that has wronged, or has talked bad about us, or even done things to harm us. Fleshly wisdom says do not forgive but when I decide to act according to how God would have me respond I remember I have been forgiven much. Because I have been forgiven mush I must forgive much.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Sep 29
Free Porn Book Porn-Again Christian
Posted by Josh
I was recently doing some online surfing and came across this free ebook on Mark Drsicoll’s site. Â This book deals with men and porn and is title Porn-Again Christian. Â All of the book is not there yet but it will be soon. Â Simply click on the link below and bookmark the site they also have an RSS feed. Â Warning this book will be very frank.
…some years ago I sat down and in one day wrote a small booklet about male sexuality that we published in-house. Since then we have gone through thousands of copies and literally cannot keep it in stock. I asked some Christian publishers if they wanted it, and they said it was too hot to handle and so they declined.So, I decided to just put it online and give it away for free. The book has had a small amount of editing and rewriting since its original version. We’ll give it away at the Resurgencea bit at a time in conjunction with the Song of Songs series I am preaching titled “The Peasant Princess.” Once the entire book has been put online, it will then be posted as a file that guys around the world can download and read on their computer, forward to their friends, or print copies of to hand out as they like.
I hope this thing goes nuts and hundreds of thousands of guys read it.
In closing, I want to say two things. One, a lot of folks will not like the content or tone of this book and I love them and wish them well. You get what you pay for and this is free. Two, a lot of young guys (and some older guys too) tell me they have been helped by this content and if God uses it to help some guys I would be overjoyed with that. So, let the critics fire away and I’ll gladly take the shots for the guys who are walking wounded in an effort to help them get their shield up and sword sharpened.
Until we see Jesus,
Pastor Mark Driscoll
Porn Again Christian e-Book
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
Sep 23
I vote for Life
Posted by Josh
This is something I recently read concerning Obama.
David Freddoso:
When Barack Obama spoke on the Illinois Senate floor in 2001 against Illinois’ born-alive protection bill, did not say that a pre-viable baby is not a “person.” He argued, rather, that even though the state should perhaps provide care for these babies, any recognition of their personhood would create unacceptable consequences. Again, his words, at length, so there’s no uncertainty about context:
There was some suggestion that we might be able to craft something that might meet constitutional muster with respect to caring for fetuses or children who were deliever in this fashion. Unfortunately, this bill goes a little bit further, and so I just want to suggest, not that I think it’ll make too much difference with respect to how we vote, that this is probably not going to survive constitutional scrutiny. Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, infact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old – child that was delievered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. (Taken from the transcript of the Illinois 92nd Assembly, Mar. 30, 2001.)
Wow. Did you catch that? Since Roe vs. Wade is threatened, then we are allowed to commit murder? You would think it would be the other way around, right? We should not be allowed to kill babies that are born alive from survived abortions and if Roe vs. Wade is threatened, then so be it. Does that logic not follow? But Obama’s stance is as follows: If we have to sacrifice some born alive infants to make sure “women have the right to choose” then that’s what we’ll have to do. How backwards is that?
Read this again: “Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, infact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old – child that was delievered to term…”Â
You would think that if you read this paragraph in isolation that what would come next is, “so we need to do exactly that. Protect these persons.” But sadly, it’s not. For Obama, our personhood is not defined by anything specific other than the need to uphold Roe vs. Wade. I think the basis of our personhood should be rooted in ground that is much more solid than the pragmatic need to see the Democratic ticket upheld. Would you not agree? Does this not follow for you Obama voter?
Friends, this man has morally disqualified himself on this issue alone. Don’t drink the Obamalaide.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
Sep 19
How do You Change a Church?
Posted by Josh
I snagged this post from over at church relevance I enjoyed it and wanted to put it up here on my site.
Scott Hodge of The Orchard (Aurora, IL) opened up day 2 of MinistryCOM with a keynote on change. Scott is not only the lead pastor but the communications director as well. Here are some “tweaked” highlights from his talk:
How do you change a church that has been doing things the same way for too long?
The biggest challenge is changing the way that people think about church. People want to reach people for God, but they like to reach them on their terms.
God can birth a new culture for your church.
A communication director’s job is not to decide or dictate the vision of the church. A communication director’s job to to translate and clrify the vision so that people can get it.
Sometimes whole visions live or die on the basis of the words the leader chooses for articulating the vision.
-Bill Hybels ::Â Axiom
When you have a clear and compelling mission, you have the opportunity to create alignment.
Vision is not sticky. you have to recast it and recast it and recast it.
-Andy Stanley
Ask Yourself Three Questions
- Who is God calling us to reach?
Who has God positioned us or uniquely equipped us with the ability to reach effectively?
- What is it going to take to reach them?
What is it that we need to stop doing in order to effectively reach the people that we are called to reach? Sometimes your clearest vision starts simply by knowing what you do not want to be and stopping those things that feed it. What do we need to start doing?
- Are we willing to pay the price?
When you start trying to reach the people God has called you to reach, some people will not like it. You will lose something (reputation, appeal, etc).
You have the opportunity to create culture. That culture is created by everything, including what you choose to celebrate as well as who and what you allow to have influence in your church.
Communicate the why behind the what. Do not just tell people what is happening. Explain why you are doing it.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
Sep 17
What are we waiting for?
Posted by Josh
In my reading of “Confessions of a reformission rev.” I came across this.
I am still not sure if most pastors are aware that their churches are comprised of people they don’t yet know. Â Those people will never come to the churches so the Pastor must go to them.
This is definitely not the norm.  Rarely do we see pastors taking this to heart.  This is once again a difference between a missional church and other churches.  The missional church believes in the fact and clearly teaches that everyone is a missionary what more the missional church teaches how every member can be a missionary.  To often the pastor pawns it off on the people and the people pawn it off on the the Pastor.  However the Pastor and the people must work in concert with one another.  Both must be out meeting knew people.  People are not just going to show up at our churches anymore we have to go get them.
Here is a second quote I found
It was at this time that I realized that our church would never have a sign out front that said “everyone welcome,” because I did not want everyone.
Now perhaps we would say that Driscoll is wrong for this. Â But is he really? Â How many churches have this idea that everyone is welcome and sure they say that but in reality they do not mean it. Â In fact certain people show up and they quickly realize they are not welcome. Â What about the person that comes in and causes division in the church are they welcome? Â We can think of many circumstance where people may not be welcome cant we? Â Something to chew on.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
Sep 16
I Shouldn’t be Alive
Posted by Josh
Last-night on “Hannity and Colmes” Gianna Jessen shared some of her story.  If Obama was president at her birth she would be dead.  She handles herself well.  Check out the video.  This issue is going to heat up in this election especially with the fact that Sarah Palin’s baby Trig being born with Down Syndrome.  It is estimated that between 80 and 90 percent of all pregnancies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are murdered.  Watch the video below.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
keep looking »
by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
It has been a week since I have had a post so I thought I would get in gear. I have been watching some basketball games of the local High School here. The girls team is ranked numbers in the state for 3a ball and they are undefeated they have a good club I hope they do well. Well anyways I am not going write about basketball but continue my series from the book Why Guys Need God by Mike Erre. Today I want to share a couple of quotes from chapter 10 and talk about them a little bit.
When we come out of hiding in front of each other, relationship will take hard work and lots of grace. The church gets lots of criticism because of its imperfections.
So many times we hide who we really are. Sometimes it is like we have to put on some sort of facade so people do not see the real us. I am not sure what drives this perhaps it is fear of people seeing the real us or fear that we are not good enough. Rarely do we tell people our real struggles or the things that are keeping us from being all we want to be in Christ or all we can be in Christ. The truth is if we really do be ourselves then in fact it will take alot of hard work and lots of grace. Grace to forgive others even when we really do not want to and grace to ask for forgiveness even when we do not want to. But if we continue to pretend to be someone we are not then the church is just a place where we go to be fake. The church definitley is not perfect and we are indeed a bunch of reformed sinners going thorug the process of sanctification yet many times we act like we have already been fully sanctified and that we have no problems whatsoever.
I often wonder what would church be like if people were real. What if a man walked into Sunday school and said I am struggling with pornography and I need help, or what if a woman walked in and said I struggle with gossiping I need help, or how about I have bitterness in my heart I need help. The church is supposed to be a community loving each other and holding each other accountable but I am afraid we have become a community where everything is based on only what we want people to perceive us to be and not who we really are. We don’t want people to know our secret sins what will is take for us to stop being superficial and just be honest. It is so hard. Here us the second quote.
Most churches teach men how to pretend behind religious fig leaves. We learn to act in the right religious ways, look the right religious ways, sing the right religious ways, and so on. We usually are not encouraged to actually share how things really are. So even though we need to connect with other guys at a really deep level, the church actually often hinders this process.
Prayer isn’t a place to be good; it is a place to be honest.
I already spoke about this above. I do not think this is a problem for just men either. I think often we go to church to pretend. Pretend to be someone we are not and we rarely go just to be honest and admit our struggles.
by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Jul 22
Posted by Josh
It has been a long time since I have posted. The primary reason for this has been related to my lack of funds. You see my hosting renewal came up and I did not have the money to renew my hosting. I pulled the trigger a few hours ago and purchased my hosting.
Not much new here in northwest Missouri. The job hunt still continues. I have updated my resume I can’t tell you how many times but I know the best way for your resume to be noticed is for someone else to deliver it. However I still keep plugging away. Some people have asked if I want to be a youth pastor or a senior pastor and right now I am kind of in the either one camp. I have 15 years of experience as a youth pastor and that is something I enjoy doing. So in the right circumstance I would take a youth pastor postion. However most of the churches I have submitted to have been senior pastor postions. All of this to say the search continues. It has been 2 years since I have ministered in a full time capacity and trust me I am ready. But it is God’s timing so i will continue to wait upon the Lord.
Life, My Thoughts
by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
I am currently and interim Children’s Pastor. Which in the words of my former pastor mean I am 2 seconds away from being fired. I always loved joking around with him about stuff as far as I know he was never serious about that statement. Anyway I have been a youth pastor for 15 years and there is a part of me that gets somewhat disappointed when others seem to destine our teens to a life of mediocrity.
It seems we have somehow got it in our heads that that teens can’t make a difference, or they are just a bunch of good off’s. We tell ourselves if only the teens in our churches could survive their teenage years just perhaps something good could happen. Since when did the teen years become about survival. Why do we sell them so short. Perhaps my favorite quote is this one “the teens are the church of the future” well the teens are more then the church of the future they are the church of today.
I recently heard one pastor who seemed rather upset because his church was looking for a youth pastor to hire part time. His response was that teens will never change the church. I really dont think I will address that here but why is that our mentality in the first place. Why do 70 percent of teens abandon their faith when they leave home for college or a career. Has the church failed them? In many respects we have. We have created this sub class of people we call teens and we have lowered the bar for them and have expected far less from them then we ever should have. In essence we have made them destined for mediocrity.
When Paul wrote to Timothy he did not say “well Timothy I sure hope you can make it” No way he challenged Timothy. He told him to be loyal to the faith, to be strong in Grace, he told him about being an approved workman, He talked to him about following doctrine and preaching the word. Paul did not tell him to be lazy he told him to fight the good fight, to beware of Apostates, to be a servant of Jesus Christ. Will every teen grow up to be a sold out Christ follower? Absolutely not but why do we continue to sell our selves short.
Parents, pastors, teachers it is time we stop lowering the bar and settling for mediocrity and start raising the bar and challenging our teens to be more then we are willing to settle for.
Just some thought from a former Youth Pastor who might be one again someday who knows?
by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Aug 28
How To Write An Effective Resume or What is my Resume Objective
Posted by Josh
Ok I will admit it this is a shameless plug for my e-book I have completed. Yes it is for sale. I noticed that in one months time I have had well over 100 people come and download my resume and this tells me something. It says that there are plenty of pastors and youth pastors out there that are looking for a way to write a resume and to write on that will stand out from the crowd.
Because of this I decided to put together a book that will help you. Why is it for sale? Well I have it for sale to earn some money hopefully to be able to pay for hosting an some other things. You could go to one of these other site and pay up to 100 bucks to have your resume done or you could pay 10 and do it yourself. This is ebook will give you everything you need to know. This is not just for pastors and youth pastors either. This information is good for any job and will help you out no matter what you are writig your resume for. So if you are interested then check it out.
How To Write An Effective Resume
Life, Uncategorized
Aug 22
Tweet For Cash Scam
Posted by Josh
This may seem like a strange post initially because it is not my usual type of post. However I do not like to see scams and I found one called Tweet For Cash. This blog is about life amongst many other things and I like to give out information. Some of you may have no idea what Twitter is so if that is you just disregard this post or you can go to twitter.com and find out more. If you want to know more about twitter let me know I can help.
Anyway if you are thinking about doing Tweet for Cash and think you will make money please stop now because it is a scam. I was scammed in a very similar way earlier this year and long a few hundred buck looking for a way to work from home. It was by google profits. Any I want to make you aware of this Tweet For Cash thing so I went to the website and guess what as usual this company has there page load in such a way that the terms and condition are hidden here is a screenshot of how it loads.
Real convenient. now when you scroll down on the page you can see the actual Terms an Conditions. So I click on them now this what you have to check out this is the scam part and why Tweet for Cash is a Scam. Here they are well not all of them but the most important one
I hope you caught that. It is a 7 day trial and then they will charge you 89.90 a month. What? What a bait and switch. They suck you in by saying you get all of this for 2.97 and then you must scroll down and click a link and read the Terms and Condition to see that really it will be 89.90 a month. Guess what it will take them 7 days just to get the product to you so they nail you. What is worse when you call the number you will not get your money back. So just stay away from this Tweet For Cash. Tell anyone you know that this is a scam.
If you are really looking for a great way to use twitter you can check this out http://bit.ly/D96Jf it has been working nice for me. I can also give you a site that will help you add more twitter followers that is not in the above guide just let me know.
Life
Aug 10
Wow My Guest Post Was Accepted
Posted by Josh
A few days ago my wife sent me an email that said you should try this. When I looked at the email it was about Joshua Griffin’s website and how he was looking for guest posts. Joshua Griffin is the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. Anyways I really did not think I would be able to write and article that was good enough to be accepted nor did I think I had much to share that people would want to read. I can imagine he has alot more readers than I do. Albeit I have had alot of people coming to my site to download my resume lately primarily because they want a sample. Anyway I thought about it and decided to at least give it a shot.
I sat at my computer and to be honest I just kept drawing blanks. I had no idea what I was going to right about and my mind just kept going back to my experiences over the last year. Finally it came to me. I thought about alot of people coming to my site to see a sample resume which in turn made me realize their are alot of people looking for positions right now. If these people are anything like me they may have been looking for awhile or they may end up looking for awhile. So that is what I decided to right about. My post goes live august 17th if you want to read it you can check it out here when it goes live.
Uncategorized
Aug 03
Missions Trip To Chalchuapa El Salvador
Posted by Josh
I just recently returned from a World changer Missions trip that took place down in Daytona Beach Florida. We had a great time serving dow there. Some of our people painted houses while others worked on roofing projects throughout the city. We had a great time and I personally feel that our group bonded well and it was a nice chance for me to hang out with some teens. I love going on Missions trips and seeing how God works through the lives of those who attend.
Well next month I will have the opportunity to serve on another Missions Trip however this one is a little further away. You see we will be going to Chalchuapa El Salvador and we will be serving the Lord there. This is not my first foreign missions trip however it is my first on with First Baptist Church Macon. I am looking forward to what God is going to do on this trip and I am also looking forward to meeting the people in Chalchuapa. In addition to this I am excited to build deeper and stronger relationships with those in our church. However we all know that in order to serve on a missions trip it takes support. If you would like to support me I have included a donation button below. However if you would like to read my letter on how you can make a tax deductible contribution you can do so here.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application, Uncategorized
