One of my great life struggles is the development and maintenance of a healthy routine.  Time management for me has historically been like nailing fruit-flavored gelatin snacks to a wall.  It is an area where I think the devil takes great joy in trying to mess me up.

That being said, I’m working on it again.  I’ve been trying to force myself to go to bed at a regular time, wake up at a regular time, and in doing so seeing my productivity go through the roof (it’s about time).

Then there are nights like last night.  I didn’t get a wink of sleep until about 4:30 this morning.  Not because I was dilly-dallying or catching up on work or watching a great movie — because great ideas just kept flowing into my brain.  God often tends to catch me at bedtime and send me all sorts of amazing thoughts and inspiration. 

So if you see my red eyes this afternoon, note that I wasn’t up all night drinking, but being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18

I know, I know… I’ve been gone from the blog for a while again.  I got sick all over again last Sunday morning.  This time it was a nasty stomach bug.  Wiped me out for a week.  But I’m back now.  And feeling better.

I have had a great day — spent a couple of hours this morning with my friend Bob catching up.  I ran some errands an worked on some of our advertising for Easter Sunday after lunch.  Then I had what can only be called an “uber-productive” meeting with Jeff.

We’ve been working together for about 6 months now and it’s amazing how much we’re still learning each other and working on how to be most productive together.  I think we made some great strides today towards being more efficient AND effective. 

I hate it when someone on my team has to lay the smack down on me, but Jeff was right on today.  He ripped me a new one for my stubbornness in not going to the doctor with this mess either time.  He shared with my how my illness affected everything at ICC and how my pride in not taking care of myself has now resulted in getting half our church sick and hurting the energy dynamic within the church.  It pissed me off a little bit…. because he’s right.

Thank God for honest partners in ministry.  I’m praying that I have learned my lesson.

Yesterday was an historic day for Iron City Church.  Our first two small groups met for the first time last night.  From all reports, they went very well and the groups are on track to fulfill our goal for them:

building relationships and being the church

If you’re an ICC’er (or just someone in the North Hills area) who’s interested in being a part of a small group, click here to sign up and we’ll get you plugged in: www.ironcitychurch.com/groups

I just got home after a late-arriving co-pilot and a strong headwind slowed my return from New York.  As usual, I came home with more than I left with (besides the mass quantities of gourmet popcorn). 

There is just something to being able to push away from the day to day and spending time both alone with God and in the company of other like-minded pastors.  It always leaves me both extremely encouraged AND challenged to do everything I can do to better lead Iron City Church. 

The statement that always encourages me as far as growing, changing and striving to become a better pastor is this:
GOD WANTS IRON CITY CHURCH TO GROW WAY MORE THAN I WANT IRON CITY CHURCH TO GROW!

With that in mind, it’s my job to continue to seek Him for guidance, learn all I can from others, and more than anything be disciplined, wise, and faithful to come home and put all that I’m learning into practice – knowing that God will bring the increase.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

With being sick for almost two full weeks, it makes sense that this month’s trip to New York City kind of snuck up on me.  I’m up here today and tomorrow to meet with the coaching network that I’m a part of with Nelson Searcy.

I probably post a lot about this, but I don’t think it can be overstated: growing churches are led by growing leaders.  The reason I’m in NYC tonight instead of home with my family is because I believe I need to grow as a leader to be a good steward of the people God entrusts to me and Iron City. 

So I’m praying for God to bring some amazing perspective, clarity, and insight tomorrow in the context of this learning community of Kingdom-minded guys.  Beyond that (and even more importantly), I’m praying that I can go home and be disciplined enough to put into action whatever He reveals.

Oh yeah, New York City is awesome (as usual).  So many people, so little space, so much energy.

• I hate being sick
• I hate missing out on being with the people of Iron City Church (I had to miss last Sunday’s service)
• I hate that football season is over until August
• I hate being tired from a normal day because I was sick for two weeks
• I hate the fact that my cell phone died because my charger got broken
• I hate the sheer number of voicemails and emails that I have been trying to catch up on to make up for being sick
• I hate that I don’t always know the right things to do to lead my life, my family and ICC
• I hate that I am so undisciplined in some areas of my life
• I hate that I have so much hate inside of me sometimes….

I had a great time Thursday and Friday in New York City.  I am privileged to be a part of a coaching network with about 15 other pastors from all over the country that meets once a month.  This month’s meeting was last Friday and I was able to break away Thursday and spend some time in the Big Apple. 

I got to spend some time hanging out with my friend Tony Portell and he scored and shared some tickets to the Late Show with David Letterman Thursday night (more on this in my next post).  I don’t know if it was just being out of town or what, but I had the best night’s sleep Thursday night that I have had in a long time.  The only downer of the entire trip was that my flight back home got cancelled Friday and thankfully Jeff was able to get me on another one.  Different airline, different airport, but thankfully they knew where Pittsburgh was.

The network meeting was great on Friday.  I have often said that the journey of planting a church for me has been often marked by great periods of self-discovery: learning and observing who God made me to be.  One thing I know about myself is that I am a passionate learner.  Another thing that I’m fast discovering is that I learn very well in a “learning community” like this network. 

I am a consummate brain-picker (if that’s a word) and this group is just that kind of an opportunity. There are a lot of guys who have been where we are as a church and led their churches much further down the road.  And the guy that leads the group - Nelson Searcy - may be on the list of people I am obligated to name a child after because of all the help he has been to me and ICC, but don’t hold me to that (and don’t tell Amber).

All in all, if you are a pastor or church leader I would highly recommend being involved in a coaching network.  If nothing else, find a group of people who are like-minded and all have similar aims and begin sharing information.  Why should you be willing to share the stuff that God has been teaching you?  One word: KINGDOM!

For anyone who may be interested, I’m using the 1 Year Bible reading plan from YouVersion.com this year.  Very well done, and you know the Kingdom-minded folks at LifeChurch.tv (who developed YouVersion) continue to fine tune the system.  Thanks guys!

Here’s the link: http://www.youversion.com/1yearbible.php