It was 5:50 pm as Christian, Ulisse and I left Dunkin Donuts to cross into the town or Rahway NJ.  As we approached a large parking lot fenced out with miles of rusted barbed wire, Ulisse pointed to a newer building  that was separate from the main prison.  He said, “That’s the new building for the sex offenders, It is detached from the main prison for their own protection.”.  I though…just like in the movies.

We left all of our belongings in the car and just took our IDs.  Prior to coming here, we were instructed to NOT wear any colors blue, red and never wear any khakis.  The first 2 colors may get you killed and the khakis will make you blend in with the inmates.

Soon we met the Chaplin Larry Atkins. Energetic, smart with a deep love for the work that the Lord has given him. Quickly he gave us some advice on what to expect and what the inmates are expecting from us.  He also gave us some testimony about a recent saved OG (Original Gangster) that was trying to kill him once a time and how God used this hate that turned into respect and ultimately a baptism by water and the Holy Spirit.

The first thing that I could think of is how can we document this,  how can we bottle this up and share it with the world…

There were series of doors, airport body scanners, a pat down, UV stamp etc and we were in.  We walked through a court yard into an empty sanctuary.  Ulisse told me that the men are in the mess hall and will be arriving at the appointed time.  Soon the men came in, all at once.  We greeted them at the door. I noticed that they were all smiling and praising God.  They all shook our hands and street hugged us, as they are accustomed to doing,  praising the name of God.  To me, the faces reminded me of angels.  Later, Christian told me that he saw the face of Jesus in these brothers.

The choir huddled behind me to practice and soon shuffled on to the stage.  The ushers came and greeted me and thanked me for coming to worship with them.  I was glad that there were huge guys since I was told that they were also our body guards (to the death)  least something happens during worship. One usher was formerly from the Crips and killed 6 men as they resembled the murderer of his twin sister.  He recently  found out that the murderer was in the same prison, same sanctuary worshiping with him side by side.  Though his friends begged him to kill for revenge, he denied them as Jesus forgave his sins and he forgave the murder’s sins.  The murderer was immediately transferred for his safty.  Praise God… I know that only the Holy Spirit can manage this change.

“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” X10 exclaimed the 350 pound be-speckled worship leader with the voice of an angel… off we went to paradise.  I thought, this is how we should worship.  With fervor, desperation and gladness, joy and love, these brothers, captive in a maximum security prison rocked the house.

During the fiery sermon, I asked Ulisse, how the brothers can recite so many verses like my iPad as the preacher referenced all throughout the bible?  He said all they have is time.  It was still impressive that they were able to finish verbatim  the quoted scripture that the preacher started to read, in King James nonetheless.

The Holy Spirit was active and present in our mist. From the beginning to the end we saw heaven.  Authentic and deeply significant.

When we were leaving, The Chaplin reminded us that some of these prisoners are released back into society.  He expressed that the real problem was that the church on the outside really never accepts them.  I wondered about our church.  He also said that there are not enough outside receiving programs for them to re-adjust back into society.

Brothers,  If you want to know more and want to be involved,  I guarantee you that you will be transformed.  You can contact me at nylonpunk@gmail.com

Fed up! Can’t stand up on these feet. No voice
to hear. No fire in belly, I’m beat. No choice.

Drip, drip, drip change begins small, but then when
from within; becomes big, meaningful, again and again.

You can’t deliver self esteem on a plate
But raise me up… new skills, I rise to make Africa great.

I find voice, I create choice, on fire now I read
With Zimele’s help and support; now I am freed.

By: Jess Driscoll

Whenever we hit a wall, God is probably saying “no.”  The gospel of John tells us it was the apostle Peter who drew his sword to defend Jesus by force.  He had great difficulty accept Jesus’ “No” to his plan for a life and future without a crucifixion.  In contrast, we read of Jesus’ submitting to the Father’s “No” that the cup of the cross be taken from him (Matt. 26:37-44).

Peter Scazzero writes in his book  Daily Office, that we may want to use the following prayer to help you embrace God’s “yes” and “no” in your journey with him:

• I asked God for strength that I might achieve, I was made weak that I might learn to obey.
• I asked for health that I might do great things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
• I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise.
• I asked for power when I was young that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.
• I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
• Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.  I am, among all people, most richly blessed.

What words speak to you most from the above prayer?  Why?

My sabbatical saved me!  If I hadn’t gotten away from ministry I don’t think I could have survived for the long haul.  I think it is vital for every church leader and pastor to recognize the importance of taking a sabbatical.  My recommendation is that a Lead Pastor should take three months off every three years.  I recently spent some time with Dave Gibbons, Lead Pastor of NewSong Church in Irvine, CA, and he encouraged me to take two months off every year.  Now I’m not sure if my Leadership Team will allow me to do that, but I do think taking a season of rest is important, because so much of our leading depends on how we are listening and being ministered to by God.

During my sabbatical, I read Peter Scazzero’s book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.  This book is a must read for every Christian out there, especially pastors.  In this book, Scazzero talks about the necessity of becoming emotionally healthy in order for one to become spiritually healthy.  You cannot be spiritually healthy unless you are first emotionally healthy.  In fact, many Christians try to be more spiritual because they are trying to overcompensate for their lack of emotional healthy.   Scazzero, helps us diagnosis our emotional sickness and shares how we can heal and grow into healthy emotional adults.  I can’t recommend this book enough.  Please read this book and your church, family, and friends will thank you for it.

It has been almost three months since I’ve been back from my sabbatical and I am in a much better place.  I have learned to slow down and not take on too much.  It is so freeing to have moments in the day where you can stop and pause to reflect on God’s goodness.  It hasn’t been all good since I’ve come back.  I had to deal with some really difficult things personally, but God has been present and he is not only with me, but he is for me.  I’ve purified myself of wanting to be a good pastor, father, or even a husband.  We get so tied up in trying to build our identities on these things.  My goal in life is to be a seeker of God.  This is my identity and what a wonderful identity it is!  This is the only thing I can bring with me to heaven.  I can’t be a pastor, father, or a husband in heaven, but I can always be a seeker of God for eternity.

I had the opportunity to preach on Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.  To listen to the sermon, please click.

The question you need to ask yourself is: are you good at building teams?  You need to be honest with yourself in order for you to properly develop into a good team builder.

Over the years, I have learned a few things about building teams.  Now, I’m not an expert on this topic,  but I have learned some important principles that I think will help you to build strong and effective teams.

1. Respect

• Be Vulnerable
• How are you leading yourself? (Spiritually, physically, and emotionally).  Do you have healthy rhythms for self care?  How you take care of yourself will determine how much you respect yourself.  If you cannot respect yourself, then people will not respect you.
• Hate the status quo

2. Care for People

• Does your team feel like you care for them, or do they feel used?
• Connect immediately when you sense something is off with a team member
• Pray for your team

3. Share an inspiring Vision

• No vision no direction.  If it is unclear to you it is a fog to your people.
• Come up with a concise(one word or a short phrase) vision that is easily memorable.
• Share the vision over and over

4. Teach them where the “win” is and celebrate

• Define and clarify the win for your team.  No one likes to lose.
• If you give people clear goals they will work to get there.
• But if the goal is unclear, they’re forced to guess or, worse, decide for themselves what a win really is.

5. Listen

• Listen to your team.  How are you listening to their suggestions?
• Most people care more about being heard, rather than you implementing what they are suggesting.
• Does your team feel like you are listening to them?  Ask them this question.  If not, then you are not teachable.

6.  Create Community

• Create an environment where your team is having fun with each other.  Laughter is key!
• Create an environment where your team is caring for each other.  Prayer is key!
• Create an environment where your team is being spiritually stimulated/challenged.  Spiritual leadership is key.

7. Create openness for constant feedback

• Regularly schedule time where your team can give you feedback on: are we winning? how is the morale of the team?  what do we need to change, or improve on?  Is your team growing?
• Allow them to give you feedback and suggestions on your leadership.
• Welcoming feedback will bring your team together because they feel like they are contributing.

8.  Extinguish conflicts right away

• Conflicts are normal and a good sign of health for your team.
• Do not run away from confrontation
• As soon as a conflict arise, address it immediately.

9.  Do not play favorites

• Favoritism de-motivates a team.
• As a leader you have to fight hard the temptation to play favorites.  It is easy to show partiality to your star player, but you must resist this temptation, otherwise you will hurt and lose members of your team.
• Ask yourself who are you spending more time with on your team?  Is your time with that person justified, or do you just like the person or people more?

10. Develop new talent

• Identify people that might have potential leadership gifts and invite them to be a part of your team.
• Meet up once a month for discipleship in three areas:  spiritual, physical, and emotional.
• Make sure you care more about their development personally, rather than how they can benefit your team or ministry.

11.  Replace yourself: Learn to hand off what you do

• You have a choice to make: You can either desperately hold on to your job until someone inevitably replaces you, or you can prepare someone to do what you do and strategically replace yourself.
• Watch first then lead
  √   Allow your disciple to watch how you lead first before you ask them to lead.
  √   When they lead, make sure you give them feedback on how the led.  Start with the negatives and end with the positives.
• Teach your disciple everything you know.

12. Make good decisions

• Never make a decision in haste, wait even to the last minute when making a decision.  The general rule of thumb, the longer you wait the better the chances are that you will make the best decision.
• Don’t form an opinion about an important matter until you’ve heard all the relevant facts and arguments, or until circumstances force you to form an opinion without recourse to all the facts.  The reason for this is that when a leader forms an opinion too soon, then what happens is that he or she will become close minded to facts and arguments that may subsequently come to his or her attention later.
• Once you have decided, be bold with your decision.

Enjoy the video!

To learn more about Zimele please log on to their website at www.zimelecommunity.org.

From left: John Cho, Terrell Fletcher, Peter Ahn, Alex Gee, and Wayne Ogimachi

I had high expectations going into this year’s trip.  At a gut level, I felt that God was going to do something very special with this year’s group.  And indeed he did.  The pastors who joined me were: Pastor Wayne Ogimachi from Lighthouse Church in Bellevue, Washington; Pastor Terrell Fletcher from City of Hope Church in San Diego, CA; Pastor Alex Gee from Fountain of Life Church in Madison, WI; and Pastor John Cho from Onnuri Church in Toronto, Canada.

The difference between this year’s group vs. last year’s group was the experiential factor.  Last year, the group did a lot of observation, which was good, but what it lacked was an experience of the pain and destruction in Kwazulu Natal.  I wanted this year’s group to have this experience.

Rosetta Stander, the founder and Executive Director of Zimele, asked the pastors to lead a devotional each morning for the Zulu women.  So we all took turns and led a reflection from the Bible.  They were all powerful moments.  My fondest memory was when Pastor Alex Gee shared a simple yet profound message of Jesus telling the disciples to bring the kids to him.

Pastor Alex Gee leads devotional for mothers and grandmothers along with children

Pastor Alex told the ladies, “when you are taking care of the children, you are doing the work of Jesus.”  Although this may be a simple truth to many, it rocked these women’s heart.  We had grandmothers and mothers weeping.  They were weeping because they had never heard this teaching before.  In the valleys of Kwazulu Natal, many of the women, especially the grandmothers are left to care for their grandchildren and orphans.  Some grandmother’s have the burden of caring for over 10-15 children.  Because the numbers of orphans are so high, the women are often left with no choice but to care for these children.  As a result, orphans are considered to be a burden – a burden financially, emotionally, and physically.  But when Pastor Alex Gee shared this simple, yet profound truth that “when you care for the children, you are doing the work of Jesus,” it was a teaching that these women had never heard before.  For the first time, they had seen their burden become a blessing!  And this is why they were weeping.  We laid hands on them and prayed.  The Holy Spirit moved powerfully!

We also had the amazing privilege of bathing a man who had HIV and was paralyzed from the waist down.  When we first arrived at his house, he was grinding his teeth so hard we could hear the disturbing noise.  He couldn’t really talk because he was very sick, but he did muster up enough energy to shout at his mother.  We are not sure why he shouted at her, but we suspect it is because we were there.  I would probably be upset too if a bunch of strangers from the US had come to see me at my weakest and most vulnerable state.  This man had no idea that we were going to bathe him.  When the time finally came, I told the group that they did not have to do this if it was too uncomfortable for them.  I did not want to force the pastors to do something that they were not comfortable doing.  However, I was hoping that they would embrace the discomfort.  As I put on my mask and gloves, I looked back and saw the guys putting on their mask and gloves.  It was a beautiful sight.  We bathed every area of this sick man’s body, and yes, even the genital area.  Then we clothed him and carried him to a bed that was across his bed, so that we can clean and put new bed sheets on his bed.

When we left, this man that was hostile to us in the beginning, gave us a big thumbs up.  I believe that his spirit was uplifted, because five pastors were willing to humble themselves and bathe him.  This is what ministry is all about.  Being a pastor is about rolling up our sleeves and bathing sick people.  This is what Jesus did, and I want to strongly warn pastors who get caught up in the limelight.  Let’s be more concerned about how we can serve the poor and oppressed, rather than what conference we were invited to speak at.  Let our ministry be defined not by how big our church’s are, how many books we write, or who we have met, but let it be defined as we serve the “least of these.”

The other unforgettable experience was not only did we serve the people, but we actually slept in the home of a Zulu family for one night.  I’m going to be really honest, this was the most challenging part of the trip.  The place where we stayed had no electricity, running water, or beds.  We slept on the floor of a tiny one-room hut.  And yes, there were cockroaches on the floor.  I didn’t sleep much that night and the other pastors didn’t as well, but we were grateful to experience poverty at its deepest level.  I still cannot believe that there are people who live like this.  Again, our hearts broke for these people, and our passion for what Zimele is doing only grew stronger.

Each pastor experienced first hand the crisis of poverty and HIV in Kwalzulu Natal.  Every day, 300 people die of the HIV virus.  It is one of the poorest regions in all of Africa.  In the midst of all this destruction, each pastor has seen the great work that Zimele is doing.  Zimele is doing wonderful work in South Africa.  Through their efforts, thousands of people are able to support themselves economically without outside aid.  Their success stories have reached the ears of the South African government.  The South African government is requesting that Zimele teach them how to implement a savings programming.  In addition, Zimele is helping the local farmers to sell their produce to supermarkets through the help of Unilever.  This is just a few of the success stories that are happening in Zimele.

Each pastor has committed their church to support Zimele financially.  They have also agreed to share their experience and the vision of Zimele with their pastor friends back home.  My hope and prayer is that many more churches around the US and Canada will be able to support the great work of Zimele.

To learn more about Zimele please log on to their website.

One of my greatest joys in life is to lead vision trips like this.  If you are ever interested in attending a pastor’s trip, please feel free to contact me.