A Neighboring Church
One evening this week, I decided to pay a visit to one of our neighboring churches. I had never visited this particular church before but have heard great reports of what God is doing with this congregation, so I decided to attend their midweek service and to just sit in and worship with them. What follows are some thoughts that were sparked as a result of this visit.
1. Ministerial Ethics - It was a struggle for me to even decide to visit this church. You see, traditionally it is often viewed as bad ministerial ethics for one minister or pastor to visit another church without some form of official invitation from that church. In years past and in the minds of many older ministers, this is a threatening move. According to them, “this pastor may be coming to recruit our people to his church or they are coming as spies to see what we’re doing.” To me, this mentality is outdated and ridiculous. But because I know that some have this view, I struggled with the thought of whether I should visit this church or not. Ultimately, I chose to rise above such idiotic and immature thinking and I chose to not allow this mentality to rob me of the blessing and experience of visiting our neighboring church. While I admit part of the reason for my visit was to observe what other churches are doing and how they operate, I would never “recruit” someone away from their church. I refuse to be bound to “OLD SCHOOL” ways of thinking.
2. Spirit Check – As I joined in the beautiful service that was being held, I immediately saw some elements in this church that caught my attention. The church had a very contemporary and appealing look to it. There was incredible lighting, audio and visual equipment. The asthetics of the church were very impressive. The praise and worship was lively, passionate and musically appealing to the ears. As I began to observe these wonderful elements and characteristics of this church, I started to feel something happening that I did not like. I started to feel myself becoming jealous of what they had. It was as if I began to feel threatened by some of the strengths that they possess. I began to pray but instead of rebuking or binding, I began to thank God for what he was doing in this church and for what He had blessed them with. As I began to thank God and praise Him for his work in this church, I sincerly rejoiced for them. It was definitely a spirit check for me.
3. Not All Strengths – As I observed many of their strenghts, like all churches, there were some weaknesses as well. In the hour and a half or so that I was there, with the exception of the pastor who I personally know, only one person came to shake my hand, welcome me or even attempt to speak to me. This one person came, shook my hand, said God bless you, then turned and walked away. There was really no attempt to get to know me or to inquire if it was my first time visiting. I share this particular weakness, not to ridicule or speak badly of this church, but to honestly admit that I have been guilty of this weakness as well as are many churches. I left that service with a renewed committment to greet and to speak to as many people as I possibly can in our services. I pray that this experience will help me to better myself in welcoming both our regular attendees and our guests and to make them feel at home.
Well, these are just a few thoughts that were sparked as I visted this great church. I’m curious, what have you observed as you’ve visited other churches? What things, both positive and negative, did you come away with as a result of visiting a church other than your home church?
A Pleasant Surprise
Today I got a pleasant surprise. While I was out at lunch I received a phone call. It was a great friend that I’ve known since childhood but hadn’t seen in almost a year. While we’ve known each other since we were only about four or five years old and grew up together, we kind of lost touch for a while. I met up with him and we sat in my office for about 2 1/2 hours. During that time, we talked and shared about what was going on in our lives and in ministry and I realized that this was a friendship that I truely cherished. Not because of what I can gain from our friendship, but because of the great memories and because of the great ties that we have.
I was amazing that even after almost an entire year of not really seeing each other or talking to each other, we just picked up as if we had spoken every day for the past year. We were able to share openly and honestly and we were able to encourage each other. I am ashamed that I haven’t kept up with our friendship and that I haven’t made a greater effort to maintain our relationship but have decided not to allow that to happen again. Friends are too important and relationships with good people are becoming too rare these days to just let them pass and not work at them.
To my life long friend, thank you for surprising me with your presence today and I look forward to more frequent conversations and times of fellowship.
I’m curious, what do you appreciate most about your relationships and about your greatest friends?
A Word To RAW
Well tonight I had the priviledge of preaching at a youth rally. We had a great service and God really moved in the lives of young people. But after a night of ministering to people, I was ministered to. After the service my wife and I went out to eat with a few of the students in our youth ministry. As we ate, we just began to share thoughts, ideas, experiences and ambitions. I took the time to really listen to what these students were saying and discovered that they are incredible young people. I discovered that they are very observant and have great insight and wisdom to offer. These are young people who are entering young adulthood and who we’ve had the opportunity to minister to for a number of years. But as we spoke and as we shared, I heard passion, knowledge and love in their words. Love for God and love for people. I could sense that they truly love God and are in a quest to allow Him to reign and to rule in their lives. Oh, they may not always get it right, just as I don’t always get it right, but they truly love God and are striving to live for Him.
You know, many times in youth ministry it’s hard to see the fruit of your labor. You wonder if they’re listening when you preach. You wonder if they take you seriously or not. You even wonder sometimes if all your time, energy and efforts are even worth it. To those of you that joined us for dinner and conversation tonight, thank you for showing me that it is all worth it. As you spoke and as you shared, I was proud to be your youth pastor. My prayers for you did not go unheard. My preachings and teachings and moments of counsel did sink in. As you spoke, I heard your love for God and if I even had the smallest bit of influence in your life, I thank God for that opportunity. To all of RAW Student Ministries, I vow to always teach you and to always love you and to always let God’s light shine through me so that I may be a vessel that God uses to impact your life. I don’t know it all and I’ll make my share of mistakes, but one thing I know is that no other youth pastor loves his flock more than I love you.
The Kind of Church I Want
As many may know, I currently serve at a fantastic church as the youth pastor of a great group of teenagers and I assist our pastor in the ministry to our entire congregation. I know that God has called me in to His ministry and that my specific calling is to be a pastor. Knowing this, I understand that one day God will move me and transition me to a church where I will serve as a senior pastor. When that day will come I do not know but we stay sensitive and ready to obey at His command. In understanding my calling and in understanding both my current assignment and my future one, one of the things that I have learned to do is to pray for the people that I currently minister to but I also pray for those that God will call me to in the future. I pray for the individuals and for the families that one day I will pastor. One day, as I was praying along these lines, I sensed that God was challenging me. He was challenging me to dream and to envision what my future church would look like. He was challenging me to write down the vision so that I could begin to pray for certain charactersitics and traits that this church will have. As I took time to meditate, pray and to search the scriptures I discovered 4 major characterisitics that I want my church to have. What follows is my vision for the church that I will one day pastor.
The Kind of Church I Want
An INTERCEDING church: To plead on another’s behalf.
I John 5:14-15; Ephesians 6:12
- We are a church that seeks the face of God to know him intimately and to hear him clearly.
- We are a church that goes before the Father and pleads on behalf of the needs of our church family, our community, our nation and the world.
- We are a church that is engaged in spiritual warfare and that will experience victory because of our persistence and tenacity in prayer.
An INTERNATIONAL church: Extending across or transcending national boundaries
Matthew 28:19-20; Revelation 5:9
- We are a church that is aware of the need to evangelize the nations of the world.
- We are a church that is committed to evangelizing every nation through the giving of our finances, time and strength.
- We are a church that reaches out to and openly welcomes every race and ethnicity so that the nations of the world are represented in our church family.
An INNOVATIVE church: being or producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before; ahead of the times.
1 Corinthians 9:22; Luke 14:23
- We are a church that endeavors to find any way possible to communicate the word of God and to demonstrate the love of God to our world.
- We are a church that seeks practical and creative ways to meet the needs of people.
- We are a church that serves as a model of 21st century ministry methods while uncompromising the age old message of the gospel.
An INTEGRATED church: combining or coordinating separate elements so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole.
I Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:3-6
- We are a church of many members that come together to form one body, one army, one family.
- We are a church united in worship, in service and in fellowship.
- We are a church that genuinely cares for and encourages each other in every aspect of our lives.
I’m curious to know, what elements or characteristics would you like to see in a church?
Is It Really That Easy?
Today was a pretty cool day. In our morning church services we had a celebration service. A little over 2 months ago, the different ministries of our church were challenged to Show Some Love. Four different teams comprised of various ministries of our church teamed up and were each given $250 dollars of seed money to work with. They were to raise more funds, and to somehow come together to show some love. One of our teams completely renovated the home a very nice but needy family in our community. Another team had a special day at a local nursing home where they literally gave makeovers to some of the residents and treated them to a special day. Yet another team held a community wide school supplies giveaway at our local mall and 502 children were blessed with free school supplies. And our final team went to an area childrens Hospital and blessed the children and their families with a great day and with various gifts.
So today in our morning services we celebrated what these teams were able to accomplish. Each presented the videos of their events and a few people gave testimonies of what they experienced as they served and reached out to others in need. Just before we were about to dismiss, I went up and just shared an experience that I had recently had and what God showed me about that experience. As a matter of fact, I shared the story that I posted previously on this blog entitled “A Captured Heart”. I just spoke for about 5 minutes, but then I just felt the need to give somebody an opportunity to give their heart to Jesus. I even struggled with it from the pulpit because I thought to myself, “I didn’t even preach. I just spoke some words to encourage them.” But I just sensed the urge to give the invitation for someone to meet Christ. As I gave the call and invitation for someone to come and surrender their heart to Jesus, to my amazement about 10 people responded. As I saw them walking down the isles to the altar, I couldn’t help but think, “Is it really that easy?” I mean, I hadn’t preached, I hadn’t really tried to convince them, I didn’t even tell a joke or scream and yell or anything. I had just encouraged them and then just gave them an opportunity. That was it.
But it really was that easy! The next time you are hanging out with a friend or speaking with a co-woker, don’t feel like you need to preach, argue, convince or pursuade. Just encourage them, love them and give them an opportunity to meet Christ. It really is that easy!
Yasmin’s Song
My precious daughter just came up to me and asked if I’d like to hear the song she wrote earlier today. Of course I couldn’t resist hearing it so she gave me a sheet of paper that she had written on and this is what it said:
“Sometimes I am scared. You help me through that. Sometimes I lie. You forgive me. I will lie and I will be scared sometimes even though you are with me. So now I tell you thank you. So now I shout thank you. I know I should not lie. I know I should not be scared. I know. I know I should not lie. I know I should not be scared. Sometimes I am scared. You help me through that. Sometimes I lie. You forgive me. I will lie and I will be scared sometimes even though you are with me. So now I tell you thank you. So now I shout thank you. I know I should not lie. I know I should not be scared. Sometimes I am scared. You help me through that. Sometimes I hurt people and I am sorry. You do forgive me. I know.”
I am amazed that these words, this prayer, this song came from my daughter’s heart. I am so proud of her, but I am so pleased that she knows and understands that God loves her and that he forgives her. What an amazing thing to know.
A Question I’ve Had On My Mind For Weeks:
A few weeks ago, I had a question pop into my mind. Ever since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I even mentioned it in a talk that I was giving to my young people last week but just a few minutes ago it popped into my head again. It’s a question that at first may seem like it has an obvious answer, but the more I think about it, the more unsure I am. What is the question? I’m glad you asked. The question that has gripped me for weeks now is this: Did Adam and Eve have a belly button?
When God Uses Your Kids To Show You Something About Yourself!
So today I needed to do some work from the house. There are certain programs that I have on my home computer that I needed to use, so I worked part of the day from my home office (better known as my pantry). Some time back my son was given a very nice gift. It is a gift that he enjoys playing with very much, but it is a gift that has made me very nervouse for some time. You see, my son basically destroys almost anything that we give him. I cannot begin to count the number of toys that we have bought him and become broken in the first 2-3 days that he has them. So when he was given this somewhat pricey toy, I had a feeling it wouldn’t last very long. So we repeatedly tell him to be careful. To watch how he plays with it. To take care of it.
But today, as I was working, my daughter walked into the room where I was with this particular toy broken in two. She proceeded to explain how her brother had just broken it and had now locked himself in the restroom to hide from me. I became extremely upset with him for not caring for the gift that was given to him. You see, I knew that it wasn’t just any gift. It wasn’t from the dollar store or from the flea market. Someone thought enough of my son to pay good money for this gift. I was so irritated that I actually went for a drive, but while I drove I began to think.
Why was I so irritated? It’s not like this was the first time he’d done something like this. And then this thought ran across my mind. I am so upset because I desire to give my son good gifts, but I feel like I can’t give him what I would really like to because he won’t properly care for it. I was literally frustrated because I can’t give him what I’d like to give him. If I give him something costly and something good, it won’t last and it will be destroyed. And then, it happened. Again. God spoke.
“Don’t you think I feel the same way about you? There are things that I would love to give you. I even have them stored for you. But I can’t. You don’t know how to care for them yet. If I give them to you now, you’ll destroy them.” WOW! Do I frustrate God in that same way? Are there really great gifts that he desires to give me but can’t? I pray for maturity. That I may become fully mature in Christ. I know that when that truly happens, his blessings and gifts can flow freely into my life. Why? Because when I am mature he can trust that I will properly care for what he gives me.
What are your thoughts?
A Captured Heart
My son Isaiah is celebrating his 5th birthday today. This kid is so amazingly spunky. Needless to say, he has truly captured my heart (as has his sister and his mommy). Weeks back as my wife and I were discussing what to do for his birthday, I had this great idea, so I thought. We would throw him a Texas Longhorns birthday party. He and I are huge horns fans. I was so excited that I began to immediately work on party invitations and we soon passed them out. 
As we began to prepare for this Longhorns birthday party it became extremely difficult to find any type of Longhorns party decorations. I thought about just getting some white and orange decorations (as close an orange as we could find to the UT burnt orange) but I didn’t want to settle for that. My wife and I spent hours online trying to find some place to buy UT party supplies, but couldn’t find anything here in San Antonio.
So Monday morning we woke up, got dressed, got the kids ready and headed out for Austin, TX. We drove about an hour and a half to get to Austin and then drove around the entire city hitting up numerous Party Cities, HEB’s and Wal Marts. We finally ended up at the official UT store on campus and found anything we could possibly imagine. Well, we ended up spending a good amount of money, a lot of time and drained ourselves of energy to get the best decorations that we could possibly get for my sons birthday party.
Then, it occurred to me. I had just gone completely out of my way, totally altered my schedule and dished out way more money than I probably should have. And the reason? All because my son has captured my heart. You see, you don’t mind giving to someone who has captured your heart. As a matter of fact, you desire to give your absolute best to the one who has captured your heart. You will go to great lengths to please whoever that person may be. I couldn’t help but to ask myself if I am giving God my very best. I wonder if there are things that I am not willing to give God. Has He truly captured my heart? Would I completely go out of my way and alter my schedule and even give of my finances just to bring pleasure to Him?
I could never give enough to the one that has captured my heart. What do you think?
Hello world!
Okay, so I’ve enjoyed reading blogs that various people post. I find it fascinating to look into people’s lives and see what happens behind the scenes. I’ve learned that many people are able to express themselves so much better by writing their thoughts and experiences than by orally communicating them. Because of this, people really disclose so much of their true selves through blogging. I think maybe even more so than they might in a face to face encounter. After having spent some time reading through other people’s experiences and thoughts, I have decided to try it for myself. So here it goes!
Who Am I?
My name is Robert Flores. I am a son, a father, a husband, a committed Christian, a pastor and a friend. I try to priortize my life in the following manner: 1. God 2. Family 3. Ministry I don’t always get it right, but I am committed to tyring my hardest to follow this pattern. I am married to my high school sweetheart and my best friend. We have two beautiful children, Isaiah (almost 5) and Yasmin (7), who teach me new things every day. My wife and I have served at a church in San Antonio, TX for 8 years as Youth Pastors/Associate Pastors. We are completely in love with our church and with the people of our community. Together with my wife, we are on this journey of knowing God a little more every day, leading our children as they grow and maturing in our calling and ministry. This is who I am in a nutshell.
Why Blog?
I have decided to blog because I can honestly say that I’ve been encouraged by reading other’s blogs. I find it inspiring to read about the challenges people face and how they choose to confront those challenges. I want this blogging experience to be informative and inspiring. I think most of all, I want whoever reads my blogs to see a real person and a real God. I want to display God for all to see. I want to show the world how God loves us so much that He is concerned and desires to be involved in every aspect of our lives. If God is conerned for an ordinary guy like me, surely He’s concerned for all who may read these posts.
So today, I enter into the fascinating world of blogging where I will share my experiences, thoughts, frustrations, failures and triumphs. I hope you enjoy Rob’s Journey.
