The War College 2008

My annual teaching trip to The War College in Vancouver, Canada for 2008 is now officially history. The history part is a sad thing as I am already missing the DTES with its many good friends, students, powerful ministry and cute little mice in the apartment. Well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad! Here are some thoughts about my trip:

This was a new season for me. Many things have changed since last year, including my roll in the 614 community. Oh sure, I taught a class, but I spent more time with leadership and past missioners than this year's batch of students.

I also spent quite a bit of prayer ministry time counseling as well as casting out demons. Yeah, I did do plenty casting with great results, but my prayer ministry time was regularly more than what it has been. I liked that.

The 614 community used me as a guinea pig in their latest innovation called "Community Hospitality." Basically different people fed me each meal and engaged me in hanging out! A smashing success, I'd say! I loved it!

I ended up with 2 new Battle Gear T-shirts! One is the new long sleeved "Saved to Save" design for officers. Yeah!

Computers were everywhere for me to use when I needed one. SL, JG, JS to name a few, but I offer special thanks to RB (who doesn't like to be called RB, but I'm just using initials!) who was exceptionally generous!

Here are a few of highlights from the prayer sessions:

One walked on water with Jesus! Steve Court: take note! Special Credit is due!

One had a Sword of the Spirit that was so big, it had to be handled with 2 hands! A Two-Handed Sword of the Spirit is awesome (and it does massive damage to the Enemy, trust me)!

More than a couple had false images of Jesus that were absolutely destroyed and replaced with an accurate image of The One who loves them like no other!

One had a wonderful banquet with Jesus and ate some very tasty stuff that dissolved the Enemy's influence!

One flew with Jesus over the countryside a la Peter Pan! There was powerful spiritual direction in their travel direction.

One did a deep sea dive underwater to find a sunken treasure chest. They were more valuable than any of the chest's jewels.

One took a high dive of a huge cliff with Jesus into crystal clear water!

I even got a session led by a wonderful team who were very helpful. Trust me, I needed some dusting off too!

Well, it seems my visit was all over before it started. Although the area may seem like a scary place for some, I've got to tell you, Vancouver DTES always feels like home to me. I love it- but most of all I love the people who are giving their lives in this place to help bring Jesus to the lost.

To all of you 614ites I offer my blessing for continued joy in service, successful ministry that changes lives and peace right in the middle of the Enemy's camp. Storm the forts of darkness- bring them down!

This is Who I am

We are known by a variety of "titles." These titles represent things we do. For instance, I am a Dad, spouse, musician, officer, friend, man, blogger, teacher, Rays fan, son, boss, etc.

You may know me by one of these titles, but each is only a facet of what I do, not who I am. If you ask "Who are you?" these titles by themselves actually tell you very little. They may even conjure up inaccuracies based on what you understand a particular title to mean to you.

It depends on who asks me "Who are you?" as to what my answer will be. If my child asks that question, it would be ridiculous for me to respond with "I'm a teacher" or "I'm an officer." For them to relate to me, I need to offer an answer that will mean something to them, like: "I'm a father." If I'm visiting a corps in another country, it would be more important for me to answer "I'm an officer," than to tell them "I'm a boss." Being an officer has relevance, while being a boss means little to develop a relationship connection. So if you are interested in discovering who I am, it would be better for me to tell you something personal about myself.

When I meet you for the first time, I choose to answer this question by offering more than a simple facet of what I do. I choose to offer more. I choose to offer you myself. I choose to offer you my identity; my name. My name is a very personal thing and it means all of my titles rolled into one- and more!

In knowing someone's name, you have a certain power over them. For instance, you can call their name out loud and they will turn around to answer that call. You can look them up in the phone book, get their phone number or address and find them.

In my journey of life and figuring out who I am, God once told me "Your identity is not in your uniform." He told me I am much more than that- I am "Doug" to him. So when I introduce myself, I offer the most I can to you- I tell you "I am Doug."

It means a lot to me spiritually to offer what I have discovered about myself. I choose to offer myself to you- my name. I want you to know I am not higher than you or better than you, I want to be equal with you- "I am Doug."

God chose to give us his name- his personal name, not just a title like God, Lord, Jehovah or Almighty. He gave us Yahweh so we could know him. God wanted to share himself with us. Wow!

Jesus said to his disciples "I don't want to lord it over you, I call you my friends and I want you to think of me as your friend. I want you to know me for who I am, not just what I do."

If Jesus can do this; if God can do this, I can certainly do this. In fact, I would consider myself remiss if I chose to do anything less.

Don't call me a musician, although I am one.
Don't call me an officer, although I am one.
Don't call me a blogger, although I am one . . .

Who am I? I am Doug. Please call me Doug. It's the best I can offer you and I choose to give you power over me because I want you to know me and be my friend.

Coming Soon!

My plan is to post a series on Leadership soon. With 27 years as an officer, I've had plenty of time to work through and develop a philosophy of leadership that works well. However, more than just my own ideas, I want to specifically offer some biblical direction in this area.

"Why use the Bible as a leadership resource?" you may ask. To which I would respond- "The Bible should be used as our resource for everything we do. Perhaps we should be reading the Bible more in place of all the recent flood of leadership books for businesses that are clambering for our attention. After all we are NOT a business. We are a church!"

I am tempted to start right now, but to make sure I don't climb up on my soapbox, I'll take my time. Now to whet your appetite, here are some of the aspects of leadership I may be taking on in the days ahead:

Apostle versus Administrator as Leader
TSA is a Church NOT a Business
Creating an Atmosphere of Trust
Equality or Fairness?
The Leader and Respect
Leadership by Example
Leading a Team
Who Leads TSA?

There may be more (I have a few other thoughts still banging around between my ears), but this will certainly get us started.

Switching subjects for a moment, I'm heading to The War College in Vancouver, Canada for a week starting this Saturday (March 22-29). I'll be teaching Spiritual Warfare, Spending time in Prayer Ministry, counseling, encouraging, moving in Power Ministry, breaking down spiritual barriers and mindsets, etc. I would appreciate your prayer covering because the Enemy fights extra hard when he gets backed into a corner.

Please pray for my protection, health (especially my throat- LOTS of talking!), wisdom, authority over the Enemy. Pray that eyes will be opened, minds will expand, Holy Spirit will direct everything and be allowed to move at his will. Pray that warriors will be developed and encouraged, long-standing hindrances to ministry will be demolished- you know- the kinds of things that always take place at The War College!

I'll try to keep you posted on my exploits, although I can make no promises. Things have changed a bit since my last trip and I'm not really sure what it will all look like this time around. Except that victory will be the lowest common denominator!

Top 10 Reasons I Haven't Been Blogging

I was told the other day that it had been over a month since I last posted an entry here. Wow. I knew it had been awhile, but a whole month since blogging? I was surprised. I haven't had such a long silence since I started blogging back in 2004!

The obvious question? "Why?" The easy answer? "There is none." At least not an easy one. In fact, as I think through why I have not written here in so long, I come up with a variety of reasons. And right now I'm feeling nudged by God to work through those reasons right here, which is why I'm back again. So here goes!

10. Let's face it, the act of blogging is losing ground from it's all-time high a couple of years ago. Many who started strong have run out of steam and realized the regular effort to keep up such a project gets difficult. I've read more than a few blogs where the author is struggling with whether they want to keep doing it or not. I too, wrestle with this every now and then.

9. Along with people dropping the blogging habit, people aren't reading blogs as much either. Sometimes I feel like I put out a lot of effort for little return.

8. Many good blogs have an assortment of authors writing, to give each a bit of a break when needed. I'm on here all by my lonesome. I know- "boo hoo," but it's a factor, so I'm putting it up here!

7. It's always good to be encouraged in what you do. No one likes working hard with no "pat on the back" every now and then. I understand my blog is not necessarily one that generates a lot of discussion, so I usually get few comments. I'm not complaining- just stating that more comments would probably keep me wanting to come back and write more often. Also the longer you go without writing, the less your regulars are likely to come back and see a new post. It's like you have to start building a readership all over again.

6. After a little more than 3 years of blogging, I've gotten to the place where I often feel like I've run out of worthwhile things to say. I believe some things bear repeating or at the very least some re-hashing, so I shouldn't let this get in my way. Maybe I should "bump" some of my old posts to the top now and then!

5. Last summer, Debbie and I received a change of appointment. For some years now, we've been telling TSA in future appointments we want to work with people (youth, SFOT, counseling, etc). With this particular move, I find the majority of my work is at a desk fighting paper, policies and email. I find I have much less direct contact with people and I have no "congregation." Yes, any job has people involved and we especially love the people we interact with here in Rhode Island. But the bottom line is this is a lot of administration and it's a lot of TOUGH administration. Some of that will change as we re-organize things into our leadership style, but until it does change, the missing congregation to speak to in my writing, leaves me with a strange empty feeling.

4. Let's face it- when you're doing a good work, the Enemy digs in against you and tries his best to convince you to stop. I guess he's been getting the better of me in this area.

Now there's one GOOD reason God had me work through this in this way- I just realized the Enemy is getting over on me and I DON'T like that one bit!

3. Good blogging is hard work! I'm in a tough place now, with a lot of administrative duties to fight with. While I can and will do the work assigned to me, I am now working in areas that are not my giftings. Working outside of your giftings doesn't energize you, rather it drains you. When I come home from work, what I most need is to unwind and I've already said blogging is hard work!

2. TSA in our territory has been recently building up more than a few burdensome restrictions over blogging, speaking about TSA, and computer/Internet usage. For instance, I cannot sign into my blog from my office computer. Therefore all my blogging must take place at home during the time I need to use to unwind. I REALLY want to speak to this subject much more, but again, there is pressure to be silent. I may just break on some of this, but it leads directly into my last (maybe most important) point:

1. While Southern New England/Rhode Island is a wonderful place to be (and we love it here), there is no question about it- the work and environment is very frustrating (huge debt, lack of organization, personnel issues, unusual restrictions, basement oil spill, etc). As a person who blogs about what's going on in his life, I want to write about those frustrations, but I fear it would just come out very negatively. AND I DO NOT WANT MY BLOG TO BECOME A NEGATIVE PLACE. Most importantly, I DO NOT want to become a negative person.

- - - - - Well there you have it- my top 10 reasons I haven't been blogging.

To wrap all this up and offer the reason I don't just drop it all and keep coming back, is I feel blogging is a way I can exercise my spiritual giftings of teaching, writing, encouragement, and managing resources for others. In fact, I quite frankly feel like this is an assignment from God for me. Every time I want to just drop it for good, I get a spiritual kick in the leg under the table by Holy Spirit!

So here I sit rubbing my leg from my most recent kick. Will I use that nudge to get back on track? Will I make the time to write what God places on my heart? Will I fight the Enemy's tactics to keep me from my mission of blogging? Will Flash Gordon get out of this, his latest trap set by his arch nemesis, Ming?

All this and more will be answered in future episodes of Light Seeker! Stay tuned to this channel!