Love Without Agenda » church

A Disney-ABC executive’s Love without agenda

Lisa O'Brien-Wentzel — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:03:35 +0000

It was hot, loud and crowded at Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. Young artists lined the streets to play loud but purposeful and passionate music, hardcore stuff. A lot of black clothing, a lot of tatoos and piercings, a lot of life wanting to burst forth. I love young people. The LWA kids were painting on second run t-shirts the word “Stop Consuming..”, when we met “Mama Dawn” A rocker herself, she was in a band called Crumbacher as a young adult. Now a single mom of teens and a Senior Management executive at Disney-ABC in California using her musical talents. The kids that hover around her call her Mama Dawn, she appears to have 20 or so kids. In listening to her amazing story, we found that she got her name Mama Dawn by sharing her “free Read more...

“Playing Church” article from Neue Magazine

Jimmy Spencer Jr. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:11:17 +0000

I was very happy to see the folks over at Neue Magazine (www.neuemagazine.com) reposted an article I did for them last year about “Playing Church.” It’s an article about my journey of faith, and me realizing that building a church wasn’t he only way for me to discover my purpose. I hope you all like it. Check the article out on Neue’s very cool book viewer on their site and post what you think.

Read more...

Church Leadership Questions

Jimmy Spencer Jr. — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:51:21 +0000

My Church Leadership Questions: 1. What is the one thing I need to know about leadership? Leaders are people who can actually take the words of Jesus and apply it to real life situations. This guides their process of a million different things like conflict resolution, making financial decisions, and how to craft vision. The better a person accomplishes patterning their life after Jesus to guide them in everyday matters…the better leader they will become. 2. What do I need to watch for? ego. the world will tell you that “your great”…you may be great, but remember who’s playbook your reading out of. Dont buy into your own hype machine—if you do you will diminish as a leader 3. If there is one verse or quote you would tell every leader to hold to their heart what would it be? The Shema—Duet 6:4 and Mark 12: 29-31 4. What has been the hardest thing in your leadership journey? Learning to undo most of the “muscle memory ” i have been taught by Read more...

Did I help you pack for Sunday?

Lisa O'Brien-Wentzel — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:43:52 +0000

first i packed a hospital bag; ready for that day i would touch you.
then i packed your diaper bag; ready for anything a day would bring.
even placed in there things to help you grow; toys and books that sing.
then i packed your lunch bag with preschool treats and little notes to get you through the change.
later i packed your backpack, making sure you’d be okay while away for an entire day. quarters for emergencies that need a cookie or some milk.
then we packed your sports gear, so that you wont get hurt. everything as the coach said, not less, not more.
we packed for vacations: some five star hotels, some tents in the woods.
i showed you to pack for the “unforseen” happenings, useful items like duct tape and safety pins, hold things together in a pinch. jumper cables in the car and emergency phone numbers in your cell.

we learned to pack our insides, too. our emotions and character needed to grow ready too.
we learned to pack for a big big life, where we have a part to give to. we learned that its Read more...