MarkDeYmaz.com

The Danger of "Drivenness" by Shawn Lovejoy

 In this guest post, my good friend, Shawn Lovejoy, Founding and Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church and Directional Leader of churchplanters.com asks pastors if we're willing to surrender our own dreams to embrace the dream of God for our lives and ministries. Perhaps the place to start, he suggests, is to examine our own drive ... and more specifically, the motivations behind it. Shawn's newly released book, The Measure of Our Success – An Impassioned Plea to Pastors is worth a read and now available on Amazon.

Shawn's post begins here ...

Ambitious. Self-starter. Entrepreneurial. Strong work ethic. Discontent with the status quo. Big vision. Change agent. Strong leader and communicator. Get-things-done type of person. Driven. All of these describe me.

For years I have held these traits up as a badge of honor. The church has so much work to do. Our mission is monumental, and our tasks are unending. Jesus told us to go. People need to be reached. Ministries must to be launched and stewarded well. Ministry must be done with excellence. I think pastors ought to be the hardest working people in the world, because our mission has so much on the line!

However, let’s be honest: we probably have the best of intentions, but sometimes our drive overrides God’s plans. Many times we unconsciously run ahead of him in our desire to be successful in carrying out the Great Commission. I have told our church many times that the greatest temptation I face is not stealing the offerings or having an affair; it’s substituting what I do for God for what I am with God.

One of the challenges I see with the most gifted Christ followers in ministry is this: Our greatest assets, outside of His Lordship, become our greatest liabilities. Being driven is a good thing, until that drive overrides the drive of the Spirit. Compounding the challenge is the fact that we don’t even recognize what’s driving us. We don’t often understand why we do what we do. If we could really see what’s in our hearts, we might come to the conclusion that what’s driving us, is often not the Holy Spirit, but just plain old flesh. The greatest battle we face is not a battle against our ministries. It’s the battle between our flesh and His Spirit.

I believe that gut-honest answers to many of these questions would often reveal that even though we preach against it, our ministries are often being driven as much or more by our flesh, not His Spirit. Paul said, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5 ESV).

What does God really have in mind for your life? What does God really have in mind for your ministry? What if it’s different from what you always thought it would be? Are you willing to surrender your dream to His dream? Your willingness to wrestle with these questions may just determine whether you are ever really successful…in His eyes!

Food Truck Court Expands on South University

This article was written by Michael Roberts (Arkasas Foodies Blog) and published at Eat Arkansas (the food blog of the Arkansas Times) on Friday, May 4, 2012.

For Pastor Mark DeYmaz and the Mosaic Church, the food truck court on the corner of South University Avenue and Colonel Glenn Road was always more than just a gathering place for food vendors; it was always meant as a gathering place for a community. In the short time that the University Market at 4Corners has been open, developing that sense of community has been slow but steady with the addition of new trucks, the development of a loyal following on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and by good old-fashioned word of mouth from the people who work and go to school in the University District.

On May 1, the University Market took a large step in realizing the dream of becoming a place where people from the neighborhood could gather together to eat and fellowship when the city granted permission to install tables and chairs in the former K-Mart parking lot that has become home to many of Little Rock's food trucks. With this new development, the Market can transition from being a place where people merely pass through to get their food and leave for elsewhere to a place where people can enjoy a meal in the open air, fostering a sense of community through one of our oldest activities: sharing a meal. As sign of bigger and better things to come, the first banners advertising the Market were put up just this week, a symbolic gesture that signals Mosaic's commitment to urban renewal in South Little Rock.

Future plans for the University Market area include access to electricity for the trucks so that noise from the generators now being used for power can be eliminated, the creation of more green space in what is now a seemingly endless expanse of asphalt and a continued effort to turn the former K-Mart building into a home for both the Mosaic Church and office space for non-profit organizations. I've been inspired by the dedication and resilience of the folks behind the University Market, and if the grassroots urban renewal along South Main Street has taught us anything, it's that sometimes, all it takes is the dedication of people who live and work in a neighborhood to make a difference — and in the case of the Market, to get something good to eat while you're at it.