jayhardwick.com

Well, I'm Almost Back

This moving stuff is hard work! 

First, we moved out of our rental house and into our new house in Columbia. It's been project central around here this week doing yard work, painting, completing punch list stuff and getting everything "just right"...whatever that means! 

Then, I decided to move my blog from Typepad to Wordpress. Wordpress genius Scott Magdalein helped me out big time, but I have a long way to go before I'm ready to fully embrace my new identity as a Wordpress blogger. 

All that to say, hopefully next week, I'll be back to normal...or at least my definition of normal! As for now, hand me a paint brush!

I'm Back

My unannounced and somewhat unplanned blog-batical is over. Gotta admit, it was good to take a break for a little while.

Heading into July, God convicted me that my head, heart, eyes, and ears were filled with too much noise. I had lost control on what was getting in and consequently, I lost a sense of the voice of God. So, I fasted from blogs and books for the whole month of July. Over 1100 unread posts piled up in my Google reader...wow! I feasted on the Word...specifically the gospel of Matthew and re-oriented my head, heart, eyes, and ears to the voice and activity of God in me and around me.

As a result of that, I guess, I backed away from even writing here on my blog. I love sharing what God is up to in "real time," but I guess what He was doing in me was meant to be between me and Him. So, I honestly just didn't have much to say. Rather than boring you with meaningless stuff, I just backed away.

In the meantime, we finally closed on our house, had a week of family vacation with LB's family, I preached a bunch, I spent some time at Leadership Network in Dallas, and we've taken significant steps forward with Awaken. It's been a busy 3-4 weeks!

I'm glad to be back, though. I missed you. Tear. :-)

There will be some changes to the blog over the next couple of days as I probably will be switching over to Wordpress when my Typepad contract expires tomorrow. But other than that, I'm back. Thanks for sticking around!

Now I Know Why

The people at Center Grove Church in the Winston-Salem, NC area are so good to our family. Our relationship began in 2005 when I did some consulting for them and preached a Sunday or two. It has grown since then and they have been unbelievably generous to and supportive of our family and and our work in Columbia. I had a great time there yesterday...and will be back again this upcoming Sunday morning.

Of all the great things they have done, a conversation yesterday topped them all.

A lady came to me after one of the services and said, "I have a very serious question to ask you." I'm thinking, "Oh, no..." and a whole list of things that I may have screwed up ran through my mind. After I gave her the go ahead, she asked, "Did your Starbucks have to close?"

Her question caught me so off guard, I asked her to repeat it to be sure I heard her right. I told her that it did not close and the biggest smile came over her face and she laughed out loud. What she said next blew my mind.

She said, "As soon as soon we heard that Starbucks would be closing stores, my small group started praying that they wouldn't close yours because we know God is using you there and we know that there is more work for you to do there. I can't wait to tell them how God answered our prayers!"

I was floored. Absolutely floored. And, now I know why "my" Starbucks didn't close. :-)

Tuesday Ten

No Friday Five last week and no post yesterday means you get the Tuesday Ten today...

1. Had what may have been the worst migraine I have ever had yesterday. You know it's bad when a Venti Red Eye, 6 glasses of water, 2 Exedrin, and a Venti Doubleshot don't knock it out!
2. Battling major writer's block these days. I have a couple of writing projects to do and lots of good ideas for here and the Awaken blog...but it's not happening like I want it to right now.  Might be because of number 3...
3. If all goes well, we close on our house a week from today. CRAZY! This has been such a God-thing...we KNOW we are supposed to live in this house, in this neighborhood, and that the time is right. But when you live off of raised support, it's a bit of a leap! Pray this through with us, please! 
4. 37 days until GAMECOCK FOOTBALL baby! Yeah!
5. Had the last three Sundays off from preaching...good break, but I'm ready to roll again. So, this Sunday, it's on the road again to Center Grove Church in Winston-Salem, NC.
6. Never posted to let you know how it went leading worship at my brother in-law's church, Generation Church, two Sundays ago. Had a blast, the people sang their guts out, and my fingers were mad at me for a few days afterwards. :-) Well worth it though... Set list = Salvation is Here, Enough, Take My Life (Passion Hymns version), and God of this City/Our God Reigns/Salvation is Here medley to close.
7. Eating lunch with Northeast Columbia area pastors today. So cool to see the number of pastors who are locking arms and sharing resources to see Columbia transformed. Honored to be a part of it...the collaboration and the chinese food lunch!
8. Re-reading Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders and it is kicking my tail for the third or fourth time. It is a MUST READ for anyone who wants to lead in a way that represents and honors the heart of God.
9. Yesterday, I drove through the neighborhood where I grew up and past our old house. The mailbox still had our name on it.  My parents moved from there 3 years ago...weird.
10. I miss golf. Maybe one day... 

 There you have it...the first ever Tuesday Ten. Hope you are not dumber for having read it...:-) 

Leave it Behind

Bono says it so well at the end of the U2 tune, "Walk On"...

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme...

Gotta admit that I didn't exactly jump for joy when it became clear that God was calling us to Columbia.  I sort of wondered why God would call us back to our hometown when Jesus didn't do so well when He passed through His hometown (Matthew 13:57-58). :-)

Not long after we started the journey, the unique opportunity that God was giving us became clear. Because we grew up here, there was a bit of street credibility that we could leverage.  We've paid our dues here. We know the culture. We know the people. We know the lay of the land.  We have an inside track.

As part of leveraging this, we felt like God called us to leave behind every form of church we've ever loved, hated, wondered about, worked in, dreamed about...everything.  He called us to leave it all behind, join Him in Columbia, and spend considerable time getting to know people.  Without a big vision to sell my only option was to listen.

As we got to know people...people far from God, people very near to God, and people at all parts in between...the question became "what does church look like among these people?" Instead of me asking, "How can I get people to do what I want" the question was, "How can I join what God is already doing and do what He wants."  I'm telling you, we would have never arrived where we are without this beginning point.

We'll use the same beginning point with all of our missional community leaders and anyone else who embraces the missionary call of God on their lives.  God is already at work in every man, woman, and child drawing them to Himself in and through Jesus - He's calling us all to join Him.  But joining Him often times means we have to leave it all behind.

Hi, I'm Jay...Let's Talk About Sex

I've preached I don't know how many times in I don't know how many places and have never done what I did yesterday at The River Church.

When Bryan invited me to speak, he told me they would be in a series on marriage and that it would great if I could stick with the series.  The good news is that he is a part of a network of pastors/churches that plan their series and sermons together, so I wouldn't be on my own to come up with content.  But I'd still have to preach the message and make it personal...

So, in my first ever visit to The River Church, not only did I preach, but I preached on sex!  In the words of Gary Lamb, "Yeah...come on!"

And, since it was only 15 minutes away and they have one service, Lara Beth and the girls were able to go, too.  No, the girls were not in the service :-), but LB was on the second row smiling and laughing at me the whole time.  We had fun with it...no pun intended! ;-)

All in all, I had a blast! The people were great...they laughed at my jokes, talked back when it got good, and were gracious when it was all said and done.

So, if you need a sexologist to come in and drop some hammers, I'm your guy! I've got my opening line..."Hi, I'm Jay...let's talk about sex..." :-)

When Good Becomes Ultimate

I got hit with a double whammy over the last few days...and I'm thankful for it.

Last Thursday, I spent the day with a network of church planters from South and North Carolina that I am a part of.  Captain Dino dropped some serious hammers, but none more effective than this one:

"What would your relationship with Jesus look like if you were not in vocational ministry?"

If I couldn't preach, would I still follow Jesus?  If I wasn't planting a church, would I still follow Jesus? If no one read this blog, would I still follow Jesus? If I never met another pastor again, would I still follow Jesus?

As the question continued to roll around in my mind over the weekend, I read the chapter entitled "The Problem of Sin" in Tim Keller's masterpiece, The Reason for God.

"...according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It's seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God." - p. 162

Is preaching ultimate, or is Jesus? Is planting a successful church ultimate, or is Jesus? Is having an increasing blog audience ultimate, or is Jesus? Is being known ultimate, or is Jesus?

Keller argues that putting anything that is good in the role of ultimate and trying to draw identity, significance, happiness or purpose out of it is sin. Preach, plant, write, meet...if my identity, significance, happiness and purpose depend ultimately on those things, then I am preaching, planting, writing, and meeting in sin.

I'm diving into these questions headfirst because I know that if I am honest, I have to say that there have been and are times when those things (and others) move into the role of ultimate in my life. 

My highest calling is to remain, or abide in Jesus (John 15). That means all of life has Him as my center point and His glory as my motivation for living. The cool thing is that when I am in that place, He produces more fruit than I could ever hope for or imagine.

What good thing battles for the place of ultimate in your life? For those of you in professional ministry, what would your relationship with Jesus look like if ministry was taken away? Challenging questions, but ones we need to ask of ourselves often.

From Riches to Rags to Riches

That title sums up my day.

Started at Starbucks in 5 Points with Ros, a former student of mine who just graduated from USC. I guess you could say I am discipling Ros, but I'm probably learning more from him than he is from me. We talked about cutting through the noise to hear and follow Jesus everyday. Thanks, Ros, for challenging me to rest.

As we walked out, I met Eddie. Eddie asked for change so he could buy a cup of coffee.  I had some money left on a gift card, so I bought Eddie a cup of coffee and we shared an apple fritter. We sat on the steps for a few minutes and talked about his story, my story, Jesus, religion, and life. After I prayed for Eddie, he thanked me for praying in Jesus' name because he said "that's the name with all the power...the name above all names." Thanks for the reminder, Eddie.

Then I met up with Lara Beth, the girls, and Sam and we helped our good friend Christy and 4 summer missionaries put on a VBS-type thing in a trailer park 10 minutes from my house that looks more like a third world country. Most all of the families are hispanic and very transient. I spent most of the day with "Johnny Bravo" (that's not his real name, but it's what his friends call him and he likes it :-)). Johnny just finished 7th grade and goes to the same middle school I attended. When I was in 7th grade, I had no idea kids like Johnny existed...I figured everyone lived in a brick house with a mom and a dad, two cars, stable jobs, and stable income. But you know what...Johnny and I had a blast throwing a rotted Nerf football around and talking about soccer...he doesn't know what he doesn't have and he doesn't care. Thanks, Johnny, for your joy. See you tomorrow!

And finally, LB and I met with what will likely be our realtor to help us figure out where God wants us to live permanently. It's exciting to feel like we're at the point where we're ready to go to the next level in our search. But I'll admit, it felt sort of weird driving from the trailer park to a real estate office. Asking God to give us healthy and proper perspective on all this.

So that was my day today...gotta admit, I loved it! Wonder what will happen tomorrow...

It's Official

I'm 30. Yikes!

Thank you, Jesus for making me and saving me. I'm speechless.
Thank you, Mom & Dad for unconditionally loving, supporting, and encouraging me.

Thank you, Lara Beth for loving me for who I am (in spite of my age :-)) at the same time that you encourage and push me towards holiness, courage, and obedience to Jesus.
Thank you, Molly & Ellie for making me laugh and making me pray harder and more than I ever have! I'm honored to be your daddy!

I'm blessed.
Like Tim McGraw, I'm dreaming about and eager for "my next 30 years."

Not Before 2058

I had a first time experience this past weekend that had way more impact on me than I ever thought it would. I guess every pastor with daughters experiences it at some point, but even knowing it's coming eventually doesn't lighten the blow.

One of our former students from our ministry in Kentucky got married on Hilton Head Island and invited me to officiate the wedding. It was beautiful...a great couple, on the beach, at sunset, on Hilton Head, with family and close friends pretty much defines beautiful. I even wore a seersucker suit. :-)

As the wedding began, I looked over the groom's shoulder and there sat our 4 year old, Molly. She and Ellie, our almost 2 year old, both wore these cute, white summer dresses. They were gorgeous! Lara Beth, who was gorgeous too, was walking around with Ellie to keep her calm, so that left Molly sitting next to my best friend Lee on the back row.

When I looked at her, I caught her eye and she caught mine. Time stopped.

And then she gave me her classic, blushing, radiant smile and my heart melted. It was all I could do to stay focused on getting Anna and Chris married.

After the ceremony, she ran up to me, threw her arms around me, and said, "Daddy, you did a great job on Ms. Anna's wedding. I want you to do my wedding, too."

No way I was holding back the tears at that point. And then the weight of what she said hit me...and I told her..."Uhh...of course I will, but not before 2058, babe!"

It blows me away how fast these girls are growing up. One day, I will give her hand to a young man who has been called by God to love and lead her. Between now and then, my highest calling is to lead her to love, follow, and serve Jesus. Everyday counts.

What a moment!