A welcome to the first blog post from the Connections Team at Oak Leaf Church!

For those of you who are reading this for the first time, maybe you’ve been looking for my personal blog which has been nonexistent for the past few months. I have been busy and I’ve been waiting to start up this new blog. So I’m sorry to those who actually read my personal blog before, but if you’re looking for JodyMay.tv, here’s where you will be directed to from this point on. :)

So what I want to focus on today real quick is one of the things we’ve been doing with Connections: developing what we think our behaviors should be as a team. And basically for our purposes here behavior means, “How do we go about doing our tasks here at church and living out our personal lives?”

The first thing that came to our (the Connections Team) heads was the behavior of fierce intensity (like we say around the office,”I will cut you!” which I hear has now become a trend in my son’s vocabulary too). The way we describe fierce intensity is completing every action as if it is an all or nothing gamble.

So what does this mean for us? One of my hang ups personally is that if I’m going to do ministry and live my life, it’s got to mean something. I spent too many years before becoming a pastor just living a life that didn’t mean much. But if something is worth doing, it is worth doing with everything you have.

For instance, if I’m writing an email, I should make sure that it’s done in the right way, that it means exactly what I want it to say and that I maintain my original focus through the whole message. If I’m picking up the garbage around the House of Rock, I should make sure everything is picked up and nothing is left lying around. If I’m talking to a volunteer, I should give them my complete attention and not zone out on them thinking about the project have to do next. When having staff meetings, I like them to be like pep rallies – I want people excited and energized, not coming out going, “Oh, I’ve got another to-do list to complete.”

So how do we keep a sense of being intensely fierce? Well, I guess that means that the things that we do always have to be challenging. And if they’re not challenging what’s the sense in doing them?

So what challenges you? What deserves your most intense attention?

Til next time…peace out!

-Jody