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 Quotes for Today:                                                                       

“Hard work spotlights the character of people:  some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”    Sam Ewing

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” James N. Watkins

Today’s Scripture:

“A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit.  For each tree is know by its own fruit.  Figs aren’t gathered from thorn bushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush.  A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart.  An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.”  Luke 6:43-49 HCSB

Sermon/Teaching Illustration:

Consistency Builds Impact Over Time.

A few months ago Southwest Airlines officially retired its last Boeing 737 – model 200, which was one of the airlines early trademarks.  This single airplane with the tail letters N95 has built a significant set of statistics and went through many changes over the past 21 years.

• Flew enough miles to circle the earth 1,559 times (about 39 million miles).
• Carried 3.6 million pieces of luggage.
• Flew as many passengers as the population of Los Angles and Phoenix combined.
• Served passengers an estimated 38,514 gallons of beer and 5.2 million bags of peanuts.
• Burned 87 million gallons of fuel.
• Used 1,789 tires.
• Had 24 engine changes.
• Had over 200,000 hours of maintenance.
• Was completely disassembled to its frame and rebuilt twice.

Think about applying this same type of consistency to our spiritual life and what the impact could be. 

For example, over this same 21-year period, if we had memorized just one verse a week, we would now have 1,092 verses from the Bible memorized.  If we had averaged witnessing to just one person a month, we would have shared Jesus with 252 lost souls.  If we averaged just 10 minutes a day in prayer we would have spent almost 1,300 hours growing spiritually through prayer!

Another way to use this same information is to look at the “maintenance issues” that were required for the results.  Again the same is true in our lives.  To get the results we must maintain our physical, emotional and spiritual health to be able to serve at the maximum.

Unique Opportunity for Pastors:

Are you prepared for May 19, 2006? Dan Brown's best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code will be released as a movie on May 19, 2006. By responding wisely to The Da Vinci Code book and movie, the church can be strengthened and many nominal believers and seekers grounded in the true faith of Jesus Christ.

Josh McDowell has just released a set of resources to help us discern fact from fiction. I encourage small group leaders and parents to prepare now for the upcoming movie release. For more information, take a look at the resources Josh has available on http://www.davinciquest.org/

Notes for Pastors:

One major cause of stress for a pastor is unrealistic expectations from church members.  Most pastors are caught between what God has called him to do and what his people expect him to do.  A study of 341 clergy from 36 denominations and 43 states showed that unrealistic expectations was a major factor in burnout. (Source: Malony and Hunt, The Psychology of Clergy)

Survey on Church Conflict:

38% of pastors reported leaving a pastoral position due, at least in part, to conflict.

Top four reasons for conflict:

·      Control Issues – 85%
·      Vision/Direction – 64%
·      Leadership Changes – 43%
·      Pastor’s Style – 39%

(Source: Christianity Today.  The complete report can be purchased by visiting www.ChristianityToday.com/go/conflict )

Be looking for your next Connecting Point:

The next Connecting Point will focus on Forgiveness – A Key to Relationship Survival

Closing Thought for Today:

“Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.” 
William Arthur Ward

Our prayer for this week is that pastors everywhere will experience the feelings of accomplishment and encouragement as they truly have Kingdom Impact!

Connecting Point is a e-newsletter from PastorsLine.com designed to support pastors.

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