Payoff can take a while

Last Friday Greg and I were eating a late lunch at Cane’s when a young man approached and asked if I remembered him. His face was familiar but I didn’t remember the name. He said his name was Bobby and that I was principal when he attended Faith Academy years ago. He’d has served in the Armed Forces and was in the area living and had a 5 year old daughter that was cute as she could be. He was a big guy, very muscular and in great shape, you know, young. He said that I used to whip his butt when he was at Faith Academy. He also said, thank you for the whippings. He confessed that at the time it was unpleasant but now as he had grown older he understood what I was doing. He was very pleasant to talk with and I was so glad to see he had matured in every way and not just physically. It was great to see the payoff in the life of someone that I had the opportunity to invest in, even if it was discipline. He appreciated it and I’m glad now that I took the time to help him see that following authority is a great character trait that will help you in life. He said his parents had divorced and he doesn’t see his dad much. I invited him to MANUP, hope he come tonight. I’d like to invest some more into his life, this time as his peer, not his principal.

XG Camp 08

As is our custom, Vanessa and I traveled to Hattiesburg, MS to be a part of one night of youth camp. Man, have things changed since I was a youth. There were 6 or 7 youth groups from all over Louisiana from Shreveport to Houma. It was great to see 350 youth worship;ing the Lord and getting fired up about becoming all the Christ died for them to be. Worship was great, the drama rocked, and Wade preached a tremendous message that the Holy Spirit used to speak to every heart in the place. I’m so encouraged by the young leaders that God is raising up in HOF and I know that they are going to do great things in their generation. In fact, I’ll be speaking along those lines on Sunday as we begin the ONE PRAYER series. I’m really excited about this series that we are doing in partnership with over 1400 churches and 830,000 people world wide. God is doing something great today and we want to be right in the middle of it.

Take Someone on Your Journey

This morning as I read from Acts 15 & 16 something jumped out at me from the scripture. Acts 15:37 says, “…that Barnabas ….wanted to take John Mark along with him.” Acts 16:3 says, “Paul wanted him(Timothy) to join them on their journey.” A characteristic of people who are going somewhere directed by the Lord is that they will want to take someone with them. I know that I always try to find someone to go with me especially if I don’t know what I’m getting myself into or don’t fully know where I’m going. John Mark was a person who had previously disappointed Paul, while Timothy was an up and comer in the church at Lystra. Barnabas was looking to bring John Mark along as a second chance effort, a reclamation project if you will. Paul was envisioning Timothy as the cream of the crop. I find it amazing how God uses different people with different views of “others” to reach everyone. I want my eyes open to someone that I can take with me on my journey. You never know where they will go after that.

Father’s Day Men’s Retreat

I’m asking you all to pray for me as I’m going to be doing a men’s retreat for Mission Church in the Hammond area on Friday and Saturday. In fact it’s a very cool arrangement because my dad and I are both doing our first retreat together. I’ll be doing a service on Friday night and Dad will do a devotion on Saturday morning. My good friend Devon Pedeaux asked us to do this several month ago and I’m fired up about it. All the Bledsoe boys are going to Percy Quinn State Park where the retreat is being held and we are staying in one room. Me, Dad, and my 3 sons will get to spend some time together in the “woods” and lakes of LA. I love speaking to men about their walk with the Lord because men bring such a strength to the body of Christ. I’m going to challenge them to go to the next level as a man of God, as a dad, and as a husband. We leave Friday afternoon and return during the day Saturday. I guess Vanessa and Madison will just have to hit the mall, oh well. It’s no girls allowed, men only. No baths, just men. See you all on Father’s Day!

Fishing with the family

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the youngest 3 Bledsoe kids and I went fishing with Mom and Dad. We had a blast catching redfish and just being together away from home. Check out the videos of the kids doing their thing. Spending time with my children is some of the best use of my time because much more is happening than just fishing. We talked about all kinds of things and of course it gave me the open door to speak into their lives about different issues that come up on a trip like that. One asked about dying, I talked to another about valuing all life, I also got to talk about respecting other’s property. Life is a great big classroom and it’s our responsibility to teach our children, not school, not Club Faith, but my responsibility as a parent. School and Club Faith should reinforce what I’m already saying to them. As they follow me, I get to make something out of them. It’s one of the great joys in life to mold my children and help shape them into fully devoted followers of Christ. It’s also why I pray, because I can only do so much and then they must choose Jesus. HOF is a place where they can choose Christ, I want there to be other places around the world for “other’s” children too.

Gifts for Others

I thought that you might like to know that 42 people showed up Sunday night to discover their gifting. I want to thank Greg and Wade for helping them find out their gifting. It’s good to see people apply the word they are hearing. “Anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise..” Matt. 7:24. It’s exciting to be a part of a church where people will follow in addition to listening. The implications of that kind of obedience are full of promise and I know that the best is yet to come. My heart is to lead HOF to being a place where the lonely can be planted, where the bound can be set free, and where the free can live out God’s purpose for their lives. It’s going to be a great ride and I’m all in for the fun. For those of you who stayed home to watch the LSU game, Geaux Tigers and we’ll see you at the next Discovery Seminar.

Someone’s gift encouraged me

I think it was Mother’s Day after church that someone I know well came up to me and told me that they had something from God to tell me. I haven’t always had the best experiences with this sort of thing, but I knew this person well and knew they loved God and loved Vanessa and I. The woman proceeded to tell me that she saw a storm coming, uh-oh, but that it would be alright. In fact, she said it was going to be good, better than alright. Well, I’ve remembered that word as I’ve dealt with different things, some personal, some church related. My point is that God thought enough about me to speak to someone who would speak into my life. It reminds me that God loves me and knows where I am in life. It also gives me hope that God is moving and all things are working for my good in Christ. I Cor. 12:7 says, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” As we step deeper into this series on “Others” my desire is that the Holy Spirit will move in our lives in a new way so that we can help each other.

When It’s Fair To Compare

One of the biggest challenges that I face as a Christian, father, and pastor is in the area of comparing myself to others. It’s always been easy to look across at another person and see how I’m doing according to them. The trouble with that is that we either end up prideful or jealous. Think you’re doing better and you could be prideful. Think someone is doing better than you and jealousy and envy rear their ugly heads. That’s why Paul cautioned us in 2 Cor. 10:12, “But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!”
Instead, the Psalms encourages us in this comparison; “Psalm 119:6 (NLT) Then I will not be ashamedwhen I compare my life with your commands.” We ought to compare ourselves to God’s commands. It’s like a mirror that we can look into to see how we are doing. Everyone wants to know how he or she is doing, that’s natural. Measuring ourselves by the wrong standard is dangerous, but comparing ourselves to God’s commands will help us to grow and develop without the damaging attitudes that go along with comparing ourselves to others.

The Pastor living on a dirt floor

On the Friday night after we had gotten into the Dom. Rep. we were scheduled to minister at this little church. It was a Friday night, not a normal church night yet the church was packed. It was in a typical neighborhood with a little bar down the street. The first year interns did a good job of sharing their faith and we got to minister to people which is always a thrill. My heart was touched by this pastor pictured with his wife. He and his wife live in a small room behind the church. You can see that church is just a stick structure with corrugated tin around the outside and nothing inside. In fact, a recent missions group tore down the structure and built this tin building. This pastor has a job working on a road construction crew, and pastors after work and on weekends. He and his wife also take in abandoned children and raise them in their home. The real shocker came when we were invited back to the pastor’s quarters and saw that he and his wife lived on a dirt floor with a portion of the room partitioned by a sheet for their bathroom. You will be happy to know that HOF is concreting their floor and building them a new bathroom. That is the best $500 we have ever spent.

Elvis, Tony, and Niko

While in the Dominican Republic we met three incredible men. Bishop Elvis is the overseer of the Church of God churches in all of the Dominican Rep. Tony is an evangelist who has a children’s ministry to the poorest parts of his city and also helps out people like us on mission’s trips. Niko is a Haitian who oversees the Haitian Churches of God. He started with 8 churches but it has grown to 43 and we are working with him to build a couple of churches this year. All these men co-labor with Charles Lambert who does all this as a labor of love for Central and South America. We were privileged to get to spend some time with these men and hear their hearts for God.

The Dominican Cont’d

On Sunday morning we attended a Haitian Church that spoke Creole French. Several of the interns spoke that morning, sharing how God has changed their lives. The worship was great even though I couldn’t understand any songs and I sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit there. They were such joyful and passionate people as they worshipped. The building as you can see was little more than a shack by American standards but you could tell that they had a spirit of excellence, which is the Holy Spirit, in everything that they did. I was amazed at how well behaved the children were and how nice the building was kept, everything painted and in place. I felt impressed that we, HOF, should invest in that church and so we have sent them money to buy land and build a building. It brings so much joy when we can be a blessing to others, and can’t wait to hear of them dedicating a new place to the Lord. We are so blessed here in the USA and I feel compelled to be a blessing to other people. I don’t believe there is a better way to invest money than in building churches that will impact their community. I want to bring back one of you Cajuns and have you talk French to that church some day.

We Are Back

Many of you know that I’ve been in the Domincan Republic with our first year interns on their mission trip/church dedication. The 1st year interns last year preached at a church and they came back so fired up that we decided to build them a new church as the place they were meeting needed an update. I’ll be blogging about our trip for the next several days and showing you some of the pics we took. I’ll include some funny ones of the interns as well as some of the ministry ones. I’ll also be talking about what God talked to me about. It’s awesome to get outside of your normal box and see that God is a big God. I love to see other parts of the world, a desire given by my father’s love of missions. He set a great example traveling behind the Iron Curtain and always having a heart for peoples in other cultures having the opportunity to know Christ. Jesus was into missions, He left Heaven to come to earth so we could know. Think about it.

Significant Church

Sunday afternoon Bud Plake and I drove to Houston to be with Jim Graff and discuss what it means to be a significant church. Jim is Joel Osteen’s brother-in-law and I believe it’s true that God works in families. Jim leads a great church in Victoria, TX and along with Joel they are some of the most genuine people in the world. They both speak so highly of John Osteen, founder of Lakewood and several years deceased. One of the great things I noticed in my short visit to Lakewood was the love that there was in that house for God and for others. We were treated with such kindness and love that made it tangible. My father baptized in the spirit at Lakewood Church under John Osteen 35+ years ago, so we have some history with that church. We got a tour of the new facility and truly it’s amazing what God is doing in Houston and around the world. It’s encouraging to see the next generation step to the front and take their place in serving their communities and the world. I am planning to host a Significant Church conference at HOF sometime in the future. I really have a heart to serve pastors in this day and time.

The President

Many of you will recognize Kevin Mawae, All Pro Center, of the Tennessee Titans. I’ve gotten to know Kevin over the last few years through a mutual pastor friend. I’ve gotten to spend some time with him and see what God is doing in his life. He is the president of the NFL Players Union and is a real leader among his peers in the NFL. You can tell from the picture how different an NFL body is from a pastor’s body. He has a real servant’s heart and apart from serving the NFL players, he is committed to his local church. The fact that such a great man is a former Tiger is just icing on the cake. It is just amazing to me to see up close someone who is employed in the NFL. His forte is his technique, quickness, and a great mind. His heart for God is just as impressive, and he will continue to make an impact on and off the field. Who knows, but one day he might be Pastor Kevin.

Thanking God

I’m sure most of you recognize Coach Miles as the coach from your own LSU Tiger National Champs. I am honored to be a part of Miles Men, a group of men who have committed to pray for Coach Miles. This all came about because Coach Miles is a protégé of Coach Bill McCartney. Coach McCartney is the founder of Promise Keepers and was in town doing a men’s event. He met with us 3 years ago when Coach Miles was hired to ask us to pray for Coach Miles as he would be in a very visible, stressful, and influential position in the state. We met this past Saturday to give God thanks for His grace and mercy to Coach Miles who has had the best record in college football of something like 33-5 plus SEC and National Champion-ships. It was a great time to hear Coach Miles humble, gentle and authentic spirit. I most admire that he’s family first in a job that often pushes family to the side. He was leaving our meeting to be at the ball fields with his kids the rest of the morning. We recommitted to pray for Coach Miles and his family, that he would be an influence in the lives of the young men he coaches and the thousands who cheer on from the sidelines. I am believing for many more crystal balls for LSU.

Back from the ARC

Vanessa and I ,as well as 9 second year interns, Wade and Cynthia spent Sunday through Wednesday in Birmingham at the ARC conference. It was a rich atmosphere of leaders in the Church of the Highlands sanctuary. Brian Houston, lead pastor of Hillsongs, was the featured speaker for the conference. His passion for the local church and gift of leading really spoke to my heart. I was challenged and dare I say changed during my time there. The second year interns served selflessly and were great. We all enjoyed a meal at one of my favorite places, PF Changs. I attended this conference differently than others in the past. This time I wasn’t desperate for “stuff” I could tell our church, but was more interested in catching the spirit of those God is using in an effective way today. I’m so consumed with living out the vision that God has for HOF and I know that immersing myself in environments like that only feed that passion that I feel for God and encourage my faith to believe for more. We ran into many old and new friends. It was great to visit with Van and Jan Ducote again. They are doing great in Gulfport and such a blessing to be around. 10 sermons in 2 and ½ days and it felt like a blur. See you Sunday.

If We Can Agree

The other day I picked up 2 of my children for a baseball game and offered to buy them a snack from somewhere, they only had to agree as we didn’t have time to make 2 stops. I listened quietly to them try to come to some kind of agreement. What one wanted, the other absolutely refused. When the other made a suggestion, then the first wouldn’t hear of it. I know they were hungry because they always are after school, yet because they couldn’t agree they went to the game hungry and irritated. I thought of the scripture where Jesus tells us, “If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.” Matthew 18:19 I wonder how many times we don’t get what we desperately desire because we can’t agree. Unity in a relationship, a business or a church is an incredibly valuable commodity. In fact, so much that Jesus spends the entire 17th chapter of John’s gospel praying for unity. What is possible when we have one heart, one vision, one love: the cause of Christ? Anything we ask. I’m in, are you?

We Passed

The Accreditation Site Team from ICAA and SACS just presented the staff of Faith Academy and the ELC with the news that we passed with flying colors. I’m so proud of the staff of both as I heard the site team confirm what I had suspected for some time now and that is we have a kicking school and ELC. The team was made up of principals and administrators from other Christian schools and was headed up by Phil Brown of East Texas. Each had a prescribed area of the school to evaluate and give commendations and recommendations. It is so helpful to have an outside, independent set of eyes look at what you are doing and they gave us some valuable feedback on ways to improve what we are doing. It all began on Saturday evening and required the teachers attending on Sunday followed by two hectic days of on site evaluation. It’s worth it as we invest in the most valuable resource we have: our children. If you haven’t checked out Faith Academy or the Early Learning Center then you owe it to your children to check out the finest Christian learning environment available. A big kudos to Kirby Veron and Leigh Braud who lead FA and the ELC.

Sometimes you need a little help

The boys and I went 4-wheeler riding over the Easter break at a place in St. Martin parish. It was 44 acres of mud trails and woods. Several times one of us would get stuck. I was reminded of the series we did on Breaking Free where we talked about people getting stuck and not be able to go forward in life. It doesn’t really matter why we got stuck just to know that someone is around to help us get unstuck. With the 4-wheeler we had to do several things: 1) Get close enough to help, 2) send over a tow rope 3) the stuck person needed to latch on and then just pull to solid ground. I’m so thankful that Jesus is there when we are stuck and offers His help and helps us to solid ground. God has used so many different people to pull me out of my stuck places and I’m thankful for relationships. I always want to stay close to those who are willing and able to pull me out of the mud. Let’s stay close church and help each other out.

No One Man Show

This weekend I got to take some of the boys out to a couple of LSU sporting events. We attended the LSU baseball game versus Arkansas courtesy of Tim’s generosity and then we caught the LSU Lady Tigers Tournament game against Marist for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen. In both contests I was reminded again how it takes every person on a team to ‘win’. The baseball team had a 9-0 lead over Arkansas and had hit 3 homers when the wheels fell off. It was a combination of things like bad pitching, errors fielding, and not hitting in the later stages of the game that did the Tigers in. In the Lady Tigers game, Marist played a funky triangle and two defense to stop Big Syl down low, our most potent player. It didn’t work as the rest of the team picked up the pace and of course Big Syl did her part and we got the “W”. Church is a lot like sports in that it takes all of us to really win our city to Christ. I’m more passionate than ever about helping people realize the dream that God has placed in them. I’m convinced that when we get people doing what God has made them to do, then we’ll be much more effective in touching our city for Christ. I know that all of you reading this blog has a God-given dream and my prayer for you today is that you would live out His dream and find that He’ll be faithful to fulfill your dreams as well.