Church planting is to sexy.

Over the past few months of my life I have been fighting the coolness of Church planting. I am very sick of seeing churches plant and start a church and it looks, smells and acts cool. Mean while people right outside its door are going to hell. Planting a church to me is not about starting a sunday morning look how cool we are service. It is about the Gospel effecting a community with a gospel community. This film has touched my heart today and I pray it will yours as well.

So here it is.

As you know I am a guy who does and will speak my mind. I am not afraid to let you know what I think about some pastors. One thing that God has been doing in me for the past few months is helping me how more grace because with out that grace I would not be saved.

So why am I saying this? What am I about to say?

I am sorry if at anytime I have made you upset by something I have said. I feel as if I have become known not so much for my love for the gospel and for Jesus Christ but more for being angry about things. As a Christian I want to be known as a man who is saved by God's amazing and unbelievable grace.

I just wanted to let you all know what God has been doing.

A plead for the family.

One thing that I have learned over the years and still to this very day and now preparing for Levi my first son to be born is how can I balance my family and ministry. I think that one of the biggest things is always and I do mean always put your family first. I could tell you a few times that my wife and I got into it because I put ministry and friends first before her and it did not go well. So if you are a young pastor or even just a lay leader in your local church this video applies to you as well.

Don't Use E-mail to Correct Others

This is so true. At my last church there was a lot of slander and rumors going around and it was all done through email. When it comes to dealing with major issues do not use email. Be very careful in your words and what you say. If you think that it will go bad for you in an email then don't send it. Give that person a call or even as James Macdonald says just breathe before writing an email and have a right heart.

Short and sweet

So the other day I was looking at my twitter and saw a post from a youth pastor that said "didn't have time to finish my sermon tonight for youth so going to let the kids cut my hear instead". WOW really dude.

When I read this I got pretty upset. When I look at some of the old dead pastors that I read and some of the pastors today that I look up to they all put a high standard on preaching. They put writing there sermons up there before anything. Paul himself tells us to let the deacons worry about the other things so that you can put your time into teaching the truth rightly.

This is one of the things that I feel is wrong with youth ministry today. So many youth leaders just get by by playing games and feeding students pizza and not teaching God's word. I feel that if you do not have time to study God's word so that you can teach it then it is not effecting your own life so why should it effect others.

Well my rant is over now. You can go back to doing whatever you are doing.

Church Planter By Darrin Patrick.

Church Planter by Darrin Patrick is a great book and I believe a must read for any pastor and/or Church planter. Most people think that when you pick up a book by this title that it is going to give yet another method on how to plant churches. Let me tell you that you are far from the truth here. Darrin does ,through out the book, give you ideas for the how's and whens of church planting but this book goes right at the type of man called to plant a church. Darrin Patrick does not waste anytime getting at you about your calling,doctrine and comes right out and asks you the question are you called to plant a church.

At first I started to run through this book but after the first few pages it caused me to sit back and do some thinking and talking with my wife and fellow pastors. If the idea of planting a church is in your head at all then I must say go now and pick this book up. But let me give you a heads up that while you are reading it you are going to be forced to ask some hard questions of your self. This book is not for people wanting to "play pastor'. This book is for men who are called by God and are ready to get there hands dirty and do the work. I highly recommend this book to any man wanting to plant a church and to pastors to challenge yourself while ready it.

Young and Dumb.

As a young pastor I am always trying to stay humble and open to things that I need to work on. Last night I got an email from a older man that carried enough about me and my ministry that he sent me this email just to say hey I am seeing and heard this just wanted to give you a heads up. When I called and talked to him he was wanting to make sure that he did not tick me off by sending it. I told him that I would be stupid to be mad about the stuff that he brought up to me. Him and I talked and after I sat back and thought a lot about some of it and I am grateful that he did this.

Why am I telling you this? As a young pastor or even just a young man we need to always have a older man to speak into our lives. I have a few guys that I have given full rights to knock me up the side of the head if need be. There are times that they do and I am so grateful for it. I feel that I am a better man today because of this. We will never learn if we can not take a few gut shots from time to time to learn.

If you do not have someone to speak into your life or even beat you up from time to time let me be the first to tell you go right now and pray that God would give you one or two. This will help you become a better man.

The Well. A New Church coming to Lebanon

Some may already know this but I wanted to let you all know what is going on.

In October of 2006 God laid on my heart a church called The Well. After much prayer and seeking Him and listening to Him He has called Kim and I to plant a church called The Well in Lebanon IL.

The Well is a church where people are restored by the cross and serve there city.

We will be starting this March meeting in Lebanon and I can not wait. God is doing so much right now that I do not have time to write it all out and tell you. If you would like to know more information please feel free to shoot me an email mhampel82@gmail.com.

There will be much more information on this coming very soon. Right now this is what I am going to ask you. PRAY for us. Please pray that God's will will be done in this new church. Also please pray about maybe seeing if God would have you be a part of this new church. Starting in January we will be sending out invites to people for some informational meeting and calling people to join us on this journey.

War on Christmas? What a Joke

So I know even now as I write this that I am going to make people made but I want to let you know some of my thoughts on this "war on Christmas".

First Jesus Christ is the main purpose for Christ but people it is not the only holiday that is being celebrated. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and many others. For us to say that this time of year is only about us (The birth of Christ) is I think kind of prideful. Jesus Christ was not born in December it was around the fall.

Now do not get me wrong here. I am not saying ," Let's coexist then". All I am saying is that can we stop this WAR ON CHRISTMAS crap and stop being prideful about Christmas and telling other people that they can not celebrate what they want to. Paul tells us to be all things to all people. So instead of yelling at people if they do not wish you a merry Christmas instead share Christ in your actions and words and be humble and ready to be used by God to reach out to the lost.

What a Day.

So today was such a cool day. Kim and I went to the doctors and heard baby Hampel's heart beat. WOW you wanna talk about being amazing by God just do that. I am really looking forward to the day that I get to hold my child in my arms. June 16th 2011 that should happen but until then all I can do is pray for my child and keep kissing it through Kim's belly. :) I like that part just don't tell her LOL.

There is one more thing that I am doing and wow it is so cool. This past February I went to the desiring God pastors retreat and they gave us a book with a bunch of blank pages in it and it says romans down the side. We are suppose to write out the book of romans for us to study but I am writing the whole book of Romans and one day give it to our first born. On days that I write and something happens, like today, I write at the top of the page the date and what happened. So I am really looking forward to leading my son or daughter to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Reaching the lost.

So today I went had coffee with a fellow pastor and I asked him a question that I am glad I asked. The question was" what are some ways he reaches out and shares the gospel with people?".

Wow we had a good talk and we came up with an idea for the next time we meet ,which is every other week, we are going to start going around to places like Denny's and so on and start sharing the gospel with people and being a part of peoples life's. We also talked about how we can do this on a regular basis.

Here are some ideas.

1) Ask your waitress right before you pray for your food how you could pray for her

2) Start working on sharing the gospel with people in 30 seconds.

3) When you go to Starbucks while you are waiting for your coffee talk to the people waiting around you about how is life for them. Don't act like you care but really care about them.

4)Bless someone with a cup of coffee and tell the person waiting on you to tell the next person in line that the coffee is free and so is God's Grace.

These are just some of the ways that I will be trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ more. Go for it and try it. It is easier then you think.

The Weight we carry .

Over the past two years I have been able to feel the full weight of what a pastor carries on a regular basis. We are called to carry this weight but we are called to rely on Christ on a daily basis. Praise God that he is our strength.

Why the ESV Bible?

I was reading a blog called why the ESV Bible and I really wanted to pass it to you. One of the main reasons that I trust the esv in my preaching and own studying is that I have found that I can trust the way it is written more then any other translation. It does not change the wording to make people happy. It does not change the wording to fit our lifes. But it helps us to understand the the bible is speaking to us. Check the blog and this video below.

ESV Trusted By Leaders from Crossway on Vimeo.

Write it down.

As some of you know I journal. I do not do it as much as I should but I do and when I do it I love it. Today I was reading a blog post on Purifying Grace and they gave some helpful tips for journaling that I would like to pass on to you..

"First before I discuss the what of journaling, let me first talk about the length of journaling. This weekend my wife and I were briefly discussing journaling, and she was encouraging me to journal as she knows how difficult it is for me. Then she mentioned that I should just journal every time I commit to no matter what I write, even if it is just, “I hate journaling and I don’t feel like journaling today.” Simply the point is to write something down on paper.Now there are six basic questions that can be answered extremely quickly or even for the over-achiever, elaborately. They are FAST VG!

1. Feelings: What feelings did I experience today and/or have right now?
2. Acting Out: What, if any, acting out did you do today?
3. Struggles: What struggles did you experience today?
4. Temptations: What temptations did you experience today?
5. Victories: What victories, no matter how small, did you experience today?
6. God: How did you see God (or your higher power) working in your life today?

These questions can be answered in a wide variety of ways. Feelings are feelings, and they are as fickle as the weather. However, it is good to have a record to begin to see patterns of behavior. Acting out can look differently every day. I personally including any ritual behaviors or preoccupational thinking here too. Struggles I often relate to life, and sometimes to my faulty thinking. Temptations are my triggers. Victories are anything from pushing a thought out of my head to turning off the laptop to walking away to calling someone etc. I typically answer #1, #2-4 altogether with each event that I discuss, #5 and then #6. #6 has been more difficult for me than I expected; however, it is getting easier.So what about you? What do you use to journal?"

I hope that this helps you and let me say go now grab a journal and start today writing. It helps me and I know that you will be blessed by it.

A Blessing

So today my wife and I went to a church that I am starting to feel God move in our hearts for. It was a blessing this morning. The church we went to today is Mosiac Church in Highland IL. A friend of mine Matt Embry planted it under a year ago and God is doing some amazing things right now there. It was truly a refreshing time for my wife and I today and look forward to seeing what happens in the future.

One of the things that I really liked today is that even though they teach the bible and are reformed they also have a seeker feeling. What I mean by this is that they make you feel very welcomed and comfortable but not afraid to say things like sins, hell, Jesus,the cross and etc.

This is one thing that I am not seeing right now in Church plants. They are either or not mixing. So it was truly great to be apart of the service today.

Reflect

So I woke up today feeling very sleepy and ready to go back to bed and I think it is so easy for pastors to say let's take a day off and rest. But then I started to think about some of the things that are happening in my ministry and I ,even though still sleepy, get pumped.

Last night two students came up to me and they both want to get baptized in the next two weeks. Also after talking with a bunch of the students I could tell that there is about to be a mini revival at the two schools that I serve. There are these two students that are ready to see everyone at there school to get saved. They are so focused on this that you can tell that it is driving them.

Also this Sunday I will be meeting with some people that are ready to see the future and pray for God to use us in a way that will give Him glory and that will change us and others. Even now as I sit in my office and think about this my legs are shacking because I get pumped when I think about what God is up to.

As a pastor I think it is easy for us to sit back and say this is all because of me and what I am doing. I was fighting that a little last night. It's called pride and for pastors it is a fight every day. But then I remember that I am only doing what I am because God has called me and so then all the glory goes back to him. So I just thought that I would let you know.

Kick in the face I think.

I am going to let Spurgeon speak for himself and you will know that I agree with him.


I. First, then, WHAT ARE THE POINTS WHICH CONSTITUTE THE HEALTHINESS OF THE CHURCH AT HOME?
To begin with the most important—the true piety of an her members. A Church can never be in a sound and satisfactory state for labor, she never can be in such a. condition that God can smile upon her complacently, if she be mixed up with the world, if her sons and daughters be not sufficiently distinguished from the world to be manifestly God's people. if we take into our churches those who are not converted, we swell our numbers, but we diminish our real strength. We might need to purchase a larger church-book, we might, perhaps, be able to parade our numbers before the world, and we might even flatter ourselves with our apparent prosperity till we intoxicated our own brain, but we should be going backward when we think we are going forward. We have not conquered the world; we have only yielded to it. We have not brought the world up to us, we have only brought ourselves down to it. We have not Christianized an ungodly generation, but we have adulterated Christianity. We have brought the chaste spouse of Christ to commit fornication among the people. We cannot possibly be too strict in the examination of those who are proposed for church fellowship. I will grant you, there are methods by which bigotry may exclude a large proportion of those whom God has called, putting such an extent of knowledge as the test of Christian experience, that many of the lambs of the flock stand bleating without the fold, and are never enabled to come and partake of its pasturage. This evil, doubtless, is to be avoided. But on the other hand, it is quite possible that the fullest charity with which the mildness of our Savior's mind and the love of the Spirit can imbue us, may be blended with the sternest firmness in executing a sacred trust, and with the most prudent discretion in maintaining the purity of discipleship, when we are engaged in the acceptance or rejection of candidates for the fellowship of the visible Church. If we could to-morrow bring into the Church a sufficient number of ungodly but moral men to double our numbers, to double our subscriptions, to double our places of worship, to enable us to double the number of our missionaries, we should by succumbing to the temptation procure a curse instead of a blessing. In our purity, and in our purity alone we stand. Let us once lose our distinctive principles, let us once come back and attempt to nationalize the Church, and bring ourselves from the distinction we have sought to maintain between the Church and the world, and God's blessing will be withdrawn from us; we shall cease to be strong within, and mighty without. Oh I that God might grant to each of us, who are the pastors of the Church, that unceasing vigilance and constant watchfulness whereby we shall be able to detect the wolves in sheep's clothing, and whereby we shall be able to say calmly, sternly, yet lovingly, to those who come before us seeking communion, without satisfactory evident that they belong to the living family of God, "You must go your way until the Spirit of God hath touched your heart, for until you have received the living faith in Jesus, we cannot receive you into the number of his faithful ones."

So far all of those mega churches that just because they have a football field for a church. Numbers do not mean you have it right. I'm just saying.

Pick a church Any Church.

So the other day I was driving in a town and saw a sign that said "pick a church any church".

What ever happened to pick a church because of there theology or doctrine? It seems that the church is far worst then I thought. I have heard over the last few days because of other peoples sin in a church that they feel like they might loose there salvation. People are wanting just fluff in there sermons from a pastor rather then theology or doctrine. I have been praying today and I get the feeling that the church of Christ is more religious then I thought.

My Heart is broken and then I read 2 Corinthians 12:19-21. This is nothing new. Paul was having the same problems but I think that the difference in his day is that Paul and timothy did something about it. They did not just sit back and take it because they want to please the people. Church leaders you are not here to please the people but God Himself. Get that through your thick heads. We don't need a bunch of Barney like church leaders. We need MEN who will be men and do what they are called to.

Just my thoughts.

Some thoughts on Video.