Acts 17 Leadership

• To say I’m blown away by this Easter at BridgeWay would be an understatement!
• What God did in the past 24 hours is humbling and thrilling all at once.
• To think about the hundreds of volunteer hours that went into preparing and executing this Easter’s worship experiences and outreach events puts a huge smile on my face.
• I love our volunteers!
• Not only our volunteers, but our love the ministry staff team that God has brought together at BridgeWay…Shirley, Connie, Shawn and Nate you guys are seriously the best!
• We’ve been praying as a church that we would see God reap a huge harvest at BridgeWay this Easter…to that end people have been praying and fasting for several weeks.
• Saturday and Sunday it all came together!
• We packed out our first ever Saturday night Easter worship experience.
• Thought we’d see around 200 people, but by the end of the night around 360 had joined us to celebrate the resurrection!
• Not only that, but about 40 people between our adult and children’s services stepped out to follow Christ!
• We might have to do this whole Saturday night experience thing again.
• Today was just as exciting…with a total of 1,161 people worshiping with us this Easter and around 129 making decisions for Christ!
• I loved the song selections for today…opened up with “Walk” by the Foo Fighters (always a great day when you get to play a little Foo)!
• In Christ Alone, Happy Day and Forever Reign were also in the mix.
• The band killed it and I’m seriously impress Brandon’s voice held out through 2 run-throughs and 3 worship experiences…nicely done.
• I really felt like the message this Easter was strong…which if I’m honest isn’t always the case, but it really felt good.
• I said it on twitter earlier, but I’m so humbled that I get to preach the gospel.
• I could go on and on, but I’ll simply say that this was the best Easter ever at BridgeWay, and the great thing is that I believe that the best is yet to come!
• Happy Easter!

• Great close to our “Breaking the Silence” series today…I taught on “Breaking the Silence on our Secrets”.
• Encouraged people to break the silence on their secrets because most of the people closest to them already knew what they were hiding.
• Dozens of people in both worship experiences made decisions to break the silence and confess their sin to God and to the people they had wronged.
• Had some fun with Justin Robbins and an illustration about sin, brownies and dog doo doo…you had to be there.
• Loved the combination of this video and this song….very cool elements used to set up the message.
• Amazingly proud of our Treasure Quest team at BridgeWay and a special shout out to Jesse Pierson who was teaching in our K-6th ministry today and helped to lead 7 students to make first time decisions to follow Christ!  I’m so pumped to see the team that God is putting together at BridgeWay under the leadership of our Family Life Pastor Connie Borth! Great job!
• Getting extremely excited for our three Easter worship experiences next weekend…Saturday night at 5pm, and Sunday morning at 9am and 11am.  Who you gonna bring with you?
• Be praying for our direct mail invitations that will be going out on Monday and Tuesday of this week….be sure that you help them to be effective by inviting someone yourself.
• I’m also super excited for The Easter Offering that we’ll be receiving next Sunday…our goal is to raise over $10,000 to build a playground for the Carol House of Hope and to help with some of our final build out expenses so we can get into our new building ASAP!
• You can check out the progress on our new building here!
• This week there was a ton of buzz about the huge Mega Millions Lottery….it’s estimated that the odds of winning were over 175,000,000 to 1.  Not too great if you ask me…not when the odds of God keeping his promise from Malachi 3:10 to pour out blessings on those who honor him with their finances is 1 in 1.  I’ll take those odds any day!
• Pumped for my friends at Nuevelle Church in Louisiana who will be opening their new church on Easter and who kicked it off yesterday with their own version of Operation Egg Drop…say a prayer for them if you will!
• Not to be outdone our own Matt Robinson and the team at Second Chance Church in Fishers will be launching their Saturday night campus next weekend and kicked off their promotion with a great Egg Drop of their own that actually made it stop raining and the skies clear!  You know you’re in for something miraculous when God dries up the skies for you!  Say a prayer for Matt and his team this week too!
• Well it’s been a great weekend but I believe next weekend will be one of the best in the history of our church!  Don’t miss it and bring someone with you!

• Kicked off a new series called “Breaking the Silence” today by talking about Breaking the Silence on our Gratitude.
• Love the quote from Andy Stanley that I shared today…”Unexpressed gratitude is actually ingratitude.”
• Proverbs 18:21 says that words have the power of life and death…so for followers of Jesus it’s essential that we speak words of encouragement and break the silence on our gratitude.
• This is especially true because on average we say 6 critical comments for every 1 encouraging comment we make…no wonder we have so much toxic communication in our relationships.
• The one place we get gratitude right is at funerals..there’s just one problem with that…yup you guessed it.
• So be sure to speak words of encouragement and gratitude before the person is no longer with us…or put another way…begin to break the silence on your gratitude before the relationship is dead.
• Another key verse we looked at today was Proverbs 11:25 which says that “he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”  Gratitude is not a zero sum game…I actually get something in return.
• The band did a great job leading today with a great set of worship songs…Loved closing both worship experiences with “We Won’t be Quiet” by David Crowder Band…fun stuff.
• It was also great to have Camila Pierson leading worship for the first time…be sure to let her know she did a great job.
• Looking forward to the second week of the series next week when we talk about Breaking the Silence by Speaking for Those Who Can’t Speak for Themselves.
• Looks like we’ll be able to begin putting up walls at our new building this week!
• Big travel plans this week and a bunch of missional meetings…I’d appreciate the prayers!

• Great weekend in worship!
• Today was the 7th anniversary of BridgeWay…can’t hardly believe it’s been 7 years already…so excited about what God has done and what He’s getting ready to do!
• I actually wasn’t at BridgeWay today though…instead I was preaching at my friend Jim Powell‘s church (Richwoods Christian Church).
• It’s been a joy to get to know Jim over the past year, and it was an honor to bring the message in their four weekend services this weekend.
• Great spirit in worship in all their services and what a fun crowd to teach to…especially the 11am crowd at the Knoxville campus.
• I gotta say that I’ve got a ton of respect for their East Peoria Campus crew because they’re a portable church and I’ve got mad respect for portable church people.
• Jim and Richwoods have been a big help as we’ve taken steps towards the next phase of the life of our church and the move towards our first permanent facility.
• I’m grateful for the generosity of Christian leaders who are dedicated to helping other leaders to lead better.
• Back at BridgeWay, I heard that Shawn did a great job preaching on how to deal with imperfect people, and the issue of judgmentalism.
• Also heard that Brandon did a great job leading worship…and that several other new volunteers started serving in the past few weeks…it’s because of the dedication of our volunteers that we can do what we do at BridgeWay!
• Super excited about this upcoming Sunday…Matt Robinson is going to be back in the house and I can’t wait to hear the update on what God is doing at Second Chance Church!
• And then the following Sunday my wife and I will be co-teaching a message on relationships by answering your questions on marriage, parenting, and friendship…if you’ve got questions this is your last week to submit them to me at daleschaeffer@gmail.com!

I have this pretty amazing habit of saying things that I wish I hadn’t.  Sometimes it’s as if the filter between my brain and my mouth is disconnected.  Over the past few weeks I’ve been preparing for a message series on relationships and there’s all kinds of great stuff that doesn’t make it into a message, so I thought I’d share this bit on communication here.

Three Keys for Good Listening

1. Let The Other Person Speak Without Interruption

Proverbs 18:13 A person who speaks on a matter before listening, is full of folly and shames themselves.

2. Pay Close Attention To What Is Being Said
James 1:19 My dear brothers, let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to become angry:

- I try to take notes while listening during most meetings and important conversations.

3. Be Sure You Understand What The Other Person Is Saying
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge

- I have found it is a good idea to ask some clarifying questions, to be sure that you understand what is being said. Because sometimes what the other person says is not the same as what you understand them to have said.  My point is simply this. Be sure you understand what is being said to you. Sometimes I will repeat back, in summary form, what I understand the other person is saying to me. If they agree with your summary, you can be reasonably sure you are on the same “wave length.”

Four Keys For Good Speaking

1. Think Before You Speak
Proverbs 15:28 The heart of the righteous prepares to answer: but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
Proverbs 29:11 & 20 A fool speaks all his mind: but a wise man keeps it in till afterwards. 20 Do you see a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

When you want to talk to someone, especially when you want to work on some important issue, take the time to think about what you want to say. Formulate your point clearly. Be specific not general, and then try to stick with the issue and don’t get sidetracked.

- I usually write down an agenda or talking points before we meet.

2. Choose The Proper Time To Speak
Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 7 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

- Saying the right thing at the wrong time can be as damaging as saying the wrong thing.

3. Bring the Right Attitude When You Are Speaking
Colossians 4:6 articulates the proper attitude that we are to have when we talk with others about important matters — Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.

- Grace is the seasoning that makes difficult conversations easier to swallow.

4. Be Constructive Not Destructive In What You Say
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.