Here is an excerpt as part of a blog tour that Shawn will be making:

The Danger of Drivenness

Ambitious. Self-starter. Entrepreneurial. Strong work ethic. Discontent with the status quo. Big vision. Change agent. Strong leader and communicator. Get-things-done type of person. Driven. All of these describe me.

For years I have held these traits up as a badge of honor. The church has so much work to do. Our mission is monumental, and our tasks are unending. Jesus told us to go. People need to be reached. Ministries must to be launched and stewarded well. Ministry must be done with excellence. I think pastors ought to be the hardest working people in the world, because our mission has so much on the line!

However, let’s be honest: we probably have the best of intentions, but sometimes our drive overrides God’s plans. Many times we unconsciously run ahead of him in our desire to be successful in carrying out the Great Commission. I have told our church many times that the greatest temptation I face is not stealing the offerings or having an affair; it’s substituting what I do for God for what I am with God.

One of the challenges I see with the most gifted Christ followers in ministry is this: Our greatest assets, outside of His Lordship, become our greatest liabilities. Being driven is a good thing, until that drive overrides the drive of the Spirit. Compounding the challenge is the fact that we don’t even recognize what’s driving us. We don’t often understand why we do what we do. If we could really see what’s in our hearts, we might come to the conclusion that what’s driving us, is often not the Holy Spirit, but just plain old flesh. The greatest battle we face is not a battle against our ministries. It’s the battle between our flesh and His Spirit.

I believe that gut-honest answers to many of these questions would often reveal that even though we preach against it, our ministries are often being driven as much or more by our flesh, not His Spirit. Paul said, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5 ESV).

What does God really have in mind for your life? What does God really have in mind for your ministry? What if it’s different from what you always thought it would be? Are you willing to surrender your dream to His dream? Your willingness to wrestle with these questions may just determine whether you are ever really successful…in His eyes!

The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors, available today on Amazon.

 Shawn Lovejoy is the Founding and Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church, the Directional Leader of churchplanters.com and the author of the newly released book, ‘The Measure of Our Success – An Impassioned Plea to Pastors”.  God has used Mountain Lake Church and churchplanters.com to become one of the most influential church planting ministries in the world, and Shawn gives Jesus all the credit. Shawn loves his wife, his kids, the church, pastors, college football, and PlayStation3. In that order. He lives near Atlanta, Georgia.

1.  Arrogance:  ”I don’t need God”.

or

2.  Unbelief:  ”I don’t think He could”.

The way that we replace those things in our life is to pray! When we pray we admit that it is God who is in control and that we believe He can do what He said that He could do.  Just as I greatly desire to hear and meet the needs of my family so God desires to hear and meet the needs of His family.

Together, let’s bombard heaven with all kinds of prayer on all kinds of occasions.  I’ll pray for you and this is how you can pray for me…

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mysteryof the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. – Ephesians 6:18-20

The battles that you are facing are real!  You have real issues and you have a real enemy.

This weekend we are going to give you some practical ways to emerge victorious through those battles that will come your way as we continue with our series, The Inheritance.  It’s going to be a powerful day.

Bring people with you and we will see you on Sunday at either 9:45 or 11:30!

Freedom Church currently meets at Barber Middle School (right next to Acworth Elementary) in Acworth GA.  

Death is not a threat to genuine life. It is but a paper tiger that is  no longer free to terrorize us once we know the truth about the outcome of the cross. Death is but a temporary inconvenience that separates our smaller living from our greater being. (Calvin Miller)

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend!

We have an incredible day planned on Sunday.  It’s going to be a fantastic day!

Bring people with you and we will see you on Sunday at either 9:45 or 11:30!

Freedom Church currently meets at Barber Middle School (right next to Acworth Elementary) in Acworth GA.  

Gospel by Pastor JD Greear

Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian

Holiness by Grace by Bryan Chapell

Sifted by Wayne Cordeiro

Unusually Excellent by John Hamm

We kicked off our new series, The Inheritance, last Sunday.   If you had to miss it you can catch the video on our website or listen via iTunes.

This week we continue with a powerful message called Helpless but not Hopeless.  It’s going to be a fantastic week.

Bring people with you and we will see you on Sunday at either 9:45 or 11:30!

Freedom Church currently meets at Barber Middle School (right next to Acworth Elementary) in Acworth GA.  

• Had the privilege of speaking at Exponential last week in Orlando.  It was a great experience and I really enjoyed being able to learn from so many people while we were there.
• In addition to Exponential, I had the opportunity to be part of the Launch Network Board Meeting.  I love those guys and consider it an honor to spend time with them.
• Lexi turned 10 years old this past week.  I couldn’t be more proud of her.
• Freedom Church is in a great season right now.  I am grateful for what God is doing in and through the lives of people.
• I would love for you to join us as we pray for many opportunities that are staring us in the face right now. I’ll tell you more about that in the days ahead.
• We started a new series this past week called The Inheritance.  I challenged the church to be in attendance at least 4 of the next 5 weeks because this series is that important.  It’s Wednesday and I am already ecstatic about this coming week.
• See you then.

We had a ton to cover and not nearly enough time to make it through.  As a result, I leave you with some of what had to remain unsaid…

You are accepted (we talked through that one) but are also delivered.  Delivered from the slavery of sin through the power of Christ living in you.  Here’s one reason that’s so important.  Jesus dying on the cross destroyed the power of sin in our lives because if we are followers of Christ – we died with Him.  Not only that, we have been given new life just as He was given new life when He rose from the dead.

Hang with me here…

That means that we don’t base our ability to conquer sin on our past success/failure rate.  Instead, we fix our attention on Jesus and the power of His life.  He earned it (righteousness) on our behalf.  Therefore, we have power that we can appropriate in our lives for obedience through faith – not obedience based on our own effort.

We grow in our relationship with God the same way that we began in a relationship with God – by faith.