Taking a "Sip" From a Fire Hydrant

One of my passions is helping people discover how God has shaped them for ministry, to discover how to use the things that come "naturally" to them to serve others and love God.

One of the things I've discovered while observing and reading about different personality types, motivational gifts, etc is that every personality type strength has a negative corollary. Right now, I am PAINFULLY aware of this truth in my own life. Here's why:

I am looking for a church-wide campaign to present at our staff meeting next month...something like the 40 Days of Purpose our church did several years ago. The subject matter (What's my purpose in life?) drew a lot of unsaved people, the structure helped us disciple them and church-wide nature of it (kids, youth, Life Groups, personal reading and Sunday's message) helped bring unity to the church. So I found this book entitled In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. Pastor and author of the book, Mark Batterson, created a series to go along with the book and has made materials available so that other churches can use it. 70% of their congregation (National Community Church) is made up of people who either have not attended church ever or have been away for a long time. That's the target audience the Lord has laid on my heart, so I thought this book/series might be worth looking into. The seven main sections of the series are: Defying odds, Facing fears, Overcoming adversity, Embracing uncertainty, Taking risks, Seizing opportunities and Looking foolish. I thought this series had a lot of potential, so I download the free preview first chapter of the book and read Mark's blog overview of each of his seven messages.

Having done all of that, I feel the series has potential for what the Lord has laid on my heart. But here's the interesting thing...I've been given no "green light" to pursue or plan this...I was just researching so I could present the idea. I don't know where the campaign idea will go, but it seems God wanted to challenge me personally through this book/series. The whole idea is to be a "lion chaser"...pretty much the exact opposite of me. As a matter of fact, part of the bio I put on our church staff page was "I have a low need for adventure." It's part of my personality...part of who I am.

I changed that part of my bio a few months ago because I did not like the context in which I used it. But point being, it is part of who I am. Here's the positive/negative aspect. On the positive side, I am a very faithful person. If I tell you I will do something for you, you can count on me. And I will not be someplace else next week...I will still be here, doing what I said. On the negative side, if God wants me to do something, He has to make me very uncomfortable to get me to move. In light of the book/series I've been researching, I'm the exact OPPOSITE of a lion chaser!

So I'm pretty uncomfortable right now. I don't know in what areas yet, but God is definitely trying to say something to me about being a lion chaser...something along the lines of Defying odds, Facing fears, Overcoming adversity, Embracing uncertainty, Taking risks, Seizing opportunities or Looking foolish. And because that is so much opposite of who I am, God is not using that "still small voice" they taught us about in Bible college. He is speaking through this book, written by a guy who is definitely a lion chaser. It's like trying to take a "sip" from a fire hydrant...it can't really be done.

So you can pray for me that I won't retreat into my comfort zone and that I won't be so overwhelmed that I do nothing. I know God is doing this for my own good, but I sometimes think He laughs when He does stuff like this to/for me!