Jason Bedell Online

Lab #3: "From Ideas to Action" with Mike Foster

If you've heard of the "Midas Touch," many people say Mike Foster has it. The guy is the brain/founder of things like XXXChurch.com, Plain Joe Studios, Ethur, and Junky Car Club. Now, don't get me wrong- all these people at conferences like these are just people.

You cut them, they bleed.
You look at their life, they sin.
You analyze their ministries, they didn't make it amazing.
God did.

They are just men/women who are trying to follow God like you and I. Mike shared a good amount of information that moved me to fill three pages, but he told a pretty simple story that just got to me...

In CA, he used to go to a park on a regular basis. The park overlooked the water and he loved watching the boats as they go by. He told himself quite often he would one day sail, but years later- still no movement. One day he signed up for a class and began to learn the very thing he watched from the park bench for so long.

Towards the end of his class he was able to sail by the very same park he sat and watched boats from. This overwhelming feeling came over him. He knew what it was. It was moving from ideas to action. And life for Mike Foster was never the same after that. He wanted to be the kind of guy who moved in what God called him to do instead of sitting on the side lines watching and criticizing others. A pretty valuable lesson for each of us as followers of Jesus.

Here are some other notes I jotted down during His session:

• If God has a wonderful plan for my life, why doesn’t He just tell me?
• Why isn’t He just clear and tell us?
• You just keep shaking the eight ball until we get the answer to our question or the answer we WANT to our question of God
• It doesn’t come through yes or no answers, sometimes it’s through His word and His wisdom imparted to us
• Our actions and plan in life is not a bullseye.
• There is a little thing called faith that is a little more fluid than we might imagine. We sometimes wait on His blessing and getting it right, but He blesses action. Just do it.
• God will be excited with us when we act, even if we foul it up. He desires us to move and act in Him, not just listening to a direct voice form God.
• Church leaders are in a laboratory of ideas. Maybe you’ve hit a place that it isn’t working, it’s tough, you feel stuck and like a failure.
• Four things that can help you get perspective
• Number One, “What is right?” find it and optimize it
• Number Two, “What is wrong?” find it and change it
• Number Three, “What is confused?” find it and clarify it
• Number Four, “What is missing?” find it and inject it
• Keys to Initiate all of this Action
• A- Overcome Your Fear of Failure
• The Bible talks a lot about failure from different people in the Bible, we need to create a place and culture where people are allowed to fail
• We are all people of the second chance
• Love this saying- “God will not make His work made manifest through cowards”
• Courage, boldness, we all need a dose of this
• The idea of community is so incredible, especially when it comes to this idea of fears
• B- What We Do Needs To Flow From Our Story
• Everything Mike has done has been about Mike. It birthed from my passion for God and what He did in me. What you're passionate about personally will move better than things you don't feel passionate about.
  
• When we do things that spur from our story it motivates us to move forward
• There are two reasons to do thing, the good reason and the real reason
• Warren Buffet, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”
• C- Character Is The Foundation For Everything
• Too many leaders are leading people to something that they themselves don't have the faith to live and character to maintain
  
• We need to have the character that stands above reproach