I was looking over my library and found a great book that everyone in the body of Christ should read, "In Search of Timothy" by Tony Cooke.

That seems to be the quest of many Pastors and Leaders today, to find their faithful companion in ministry that is like-minded and committed to the vision set before the Leader. As I have talked with many Leaders, the conversation will always turn towards a "Where's my Timothy?" slant, as they pine away for a helper and travel companion through ministry.

Where's Timothy? Where's Timothy? Where's Timothy?

I believe before we can ask that question, we have to ask another question, "Where's Paul?"

There would be more Timothys if there were more Pauls.

Instead, ministry life seems to be filled with more Sauls (King Saul) than Pauls.

The Apostle Paul was a true mentor, a father in the faith to Timothy and their relationship was inter-dependent, which is the true place of dominion. We can only live in true dominion as God has given it, by first being dependent on God and then others.

 Timothy not only served Paul faithfully, Paul served Timothy faithfully.

I do not want to downplay the fact that Paul, in his office, was serving in a capacity that was on a higher level of responsibility, they were not equals in position, but their relationship was one of mutual benefit. Timothy helped relieve the burden of the Apostle and Paul poured his life into Timothy, enabling him to one day be the Pastor of the largest church in Asia minor during very difficult times.

Today there is competition among ministers.

Some are afraid that up and coming ministers (Timothys) may take a piece of their pie, it seems that some Leaders today are consumed with building their kingdom rather than the Kingdom of God.

I recently read a statistic that staggered me, it stated that in our state of Oklahoma only 16% of our population attend a church! Even in wake of the Mega-Church age, 86% are chosing to stay home and not be involved in a local church. My friend, we have a lot of work to do, and the only way it's going to get done is through empowerment relationships like Paul and Timothys. We need to stop being self-serving, insecure and petty and start pouring our lives into other leaders that can reach the demographics that we cannot reach. As Senior Pastors, why do we think that one Church (our church) or one ministry gift can reach the whole world? We are fools if we think that. We might say that we do not ascribe to that belief, but our actions speak louder than our words.

Our goal is disciples not just converts!

I heard a minister say one day that you should not get close to your people, because then you will not be able to correct them, I wanted him to give me chapter and verse on how he got that revelation, but he couldn't, because it's not in the Bible. Jesus never demonstrated it, Paul did not either. It is a corporate lie that has crept in the Church and has seperated Pauls from Timothys.

I don't see how collision clauses are in agreement with the Great Commission.

Jesus is into Dominion.

Paul did not hold anything back from Timothy, he gave him his wisdom, his experience and eventually his anointing. He was a true spiritual father, unlike the posers who cut the strings on their spiritual children the first sign that they feel threatened. I am sure Paul and Timothy had there "ups and downs" as any relationship, but Paul's ministry philosophy to "seek another man's wealth and to spend all and be spent for others" kept the relationship where God wanted it. We should always have one hand up, holding onto a mentor that can take us to new heights and one hand down, to help those coming up.

INTERDEPENDENCY

It is how we are supposed to function as the Body of Christ, it requires all the virtues: Faith, Hope and Love.

Until we realize we need one another, we will never accomplish the Command of Jesus.

Jesus did not state that we would be known as His disciples by the size of our Churches or Ministries, but in how we LOVE one another.

We had a great night in the Word of God last Wednesday night, God has been speaking to us in a powerful way in our study in the book of Ephesians.

At the beginning of the year, the Lord directed us to teach the Bible verse by verse, starting with the Epistle to the Ephesians. So on February 13 we ventured to obey the Lord and now, close to 25 lessons later, we are coming to the final verses of the epistle. It has been quite a journey and a growing experience for us. It has feed our faith and gave us revelation knowledge in so many areas. Last Wednesday, we began discussing the Authority structure for the home and how God's blessing flows through His prescribed structure to bring us to maturity, but it was when we entered into chapter 6 and verse 10 that we began to see why that structure is important because the Apostle Paul tells us to, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might."

The words "power" and "might" in this verse denote ruling power or endowed power. In other words, Paul is telling us that we have ruling power and endowed authority in Christ that we should be strong in and exercise.

We must learn to exercise our ruling power within ourselves, upon our circumstances and against our enemy! If we will abide in God's structure of authority we can exercise the delegated authority or ruling power that Christ has given us, we have it in Him! It is ours to walk in today!

We can speak to barren places, walled cities, mountains of adversity and the giants of discouragement, and see them fall! Satan has been stripped of his authority on the redeemed new creation and it is time for all the children of God to exercise their ruling power, liberating themselves and others from the traps of the enemy.

We had a time of prayer after the study in which we exercised our ruling power over areas in our lives that the enemy has had his hand in too long, I believe breakthroughs happened as an atmosphere of joy and excitement came over the people. I cannot wait to hear the testimonies of what God has done since that night, He is awesome!

I would encourage anyone who wants a grasp on the Bible, to come to our Wednesday Night Bible Study, we are close to wrapping up the Ephesians study, but will be breaking down another book of the Word of God after we get through. I have grown and the people in attendance have grown as the Word has went forth and I know that you will as well.

Hope to see you soon.

Your Servant,

Greg 

At lakechurch, it is our desire that you find your individual gifts and callings. Our emphasis is people, they are our priority, purpose and passion. I often say that at lakechurch, we don't have people problems; we have attitude problems, but not people problems. One of the things that I am excited about is our youth, who will be arriving back from a very productive missions trip in Mexico. Our prayer and desire for them is for them to know God and His will for their lives as early as possible, so that they can live a life filled with purpose and passion.

We have had many fantastic reports coming back and are looking forward to hearing what God has done in their lives this past week. It will be great for them to start a new school year with fresh fire and I pray that it may spread throughout their schools!

Over four days of ministry in Mexico, our teens have recorded 685 new births! Glory to God!!!!

Thanks to John and Mary Tennison, Jeremy and Tammy Meyers and Robert Martino for escorting the teens to an encounter with the Lord. It goes beyond words the way the congregation feels about ou young people, we are truly proud.

My prayer is that we will continue the momentum and see supernatural harvest in our area and that it will spread like a spiritual virus into the hearts of all people. What happened in Mexico is not over, it has only just begun.

Your Servant,

Greg

We are starting a new series this Sunday on the subject of prayer entitled, G-link. We have so many avenues of communication today, internet, texting, video conference calling etc., but we are living in a relatively isolated society. It seems that technology has given us the means to communicate anywhere and anyhow, but we are left with feelings of emptiness and loneliness, not really finding the connections and deep relationships we truly desire.

There is however one link that can bring "fulness of joy" and the depth that we need to function as true human beings, and that is the "G-link." The communication link between us and our Creator is vital to our existence, it is as one minister described, "spiritual breathing."

But let's be real, prayer is one of the most misunderstood disciplines of the believer. Often it is associated with drudgery and boredom, but it does not have to be, it can be the most joyful and highly-anticipated parts of your day.

In this series, we will look at what prayer really is and how to pray effective prayers that will bring God-ordained results. We will study the different kinds of prayer and why prayer is important.

I beleive that you will see that the "G-link" is the way to a peaceful and fullfilling life, I look forward to the study.

On another note continue to pray for our Youth this week as they will be leaving for a missions encounter in Mexico this weekend and return the following weekend. 26 of our young people will be going as well as our youth pastors and youth workers, so continue to pray for their safety and that it will be a productive time of ministry.

I am also praying that this will be a turning point in their lives and that God will speak to them about their future as the are away from their normal routines. May they never be the same again!

Look forward to seeing you this Sunday.

Your Servant,

Greg

Wednesday night was a time of intense celebration, why you ask? Because we had hours before our Wednesday service installed our new air-conditioning in the main sanctuary and it felt wonderful!

As many of you know, last summer was riddled with air-con emergencies, we just could not rely on it working all of the time, but now those days are gone forever!! Hallelujah!! We give God praise for His faithfulness!

I have heard so many good reports coming out of the destruction of the hail storm a few weeks back, people are receiving favor and actually coming out of this crisis better than before it happened. Such is our God who takes what the devil meant for evil and turns it to our good. You would not have thought that God was even around as those hail stones pounded the cars in our church parking lot, but He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who sees ahead and makes the provision! Who knew that people would be in better financial position after an incident like that, but they are. God is good!

We had an awesome time in our last believers meeting, the Spirit of God was truly moving among His people. The word of the Lord came and encouraged us to not be afraid of what was going on around us, but to look to Him for He is our sustainer. He also said that we should not let the enemy take away our Shout!! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, who have been redeemed from the hand of the enemy. We need to continually speak our position in Christ, to remind ourselves, circumstances and enemy of who we are. Man's kingdom fails, his economics, policies and philosophies change, but God's does not. So we mut put our trust in God's Kingdom, it will never fail us.

Also we got a new bus, God moved on a new family that has been attending our church to give us a wonderful bus that we can use to transport kids and youth in and around our community. We are in process of coming up with a church design so that we can paint it and begin using it. Praise the Lord!

Bob Haase is back from Cambodia and has a great report to share with us this Sunday, also remeber New Fire will be with us this Sunday at both services so bring your family and friends for this special time.

Looking forward to this weekend, I look forward to seeing you there as well, I know that it will be powerful!

Your Servant,

Greg