What Are You Afraid Of?

All of us have fears in our lives. For some, we deal with fear better than others. For some, fear overwhelms us and causes to shrink back. Personally, I fear many things, health issues, my wife’s health, familial loss, fire, some animals, violence, politics, failure, and more.

Some things we fear are good. We should fear being burned by the fire…it keeps us from putting our hands in it. Fear is a preserving emotion in many cases, and that is why the Lord gave us this emotion. It is protective. But for some, fear can keep us from moving forward, because we fear the “what if?” questions.

What if I fail?

What if I get hurt?

What if go broke?

What if I experience pain?

What if I hurt someone else?

What if I do something sinful?

Fear can keep us from receiving blessings planned for us. Fear can keep us from trusting in the promises of God…mainly that He has a future for us, not to harm, but to prosper, and that He is with us through all the ups and downs of life.

I am reminded of the Israelites in the Old Testament book, Numbers. Numbers 13 tells us right off the bat, “The Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.”

So, Moses sends out 12 men, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. It’s a forty-day adventure for these men. They are told to take stock of the condition of the land, the protection, and the fruits available in the land. Verse 20 pretty much says, “whatever the condition, don’t fear, just bring back some of its fruit.” (It technically says, “Be of good courage.”

These men went and watched, and even took some of the fruit of the land to being back with them. But, while there, they also noticed the men of the land were like giants, and the defenses are strong, along with all the different people living in the valleys and hill country there…all enemies of Israel. So they reported these things to Moses and the other leaders.

In short, these men returned with a warning of fear. One that told the rest of the Israelites, “The people are too big and too strong for us, so we shouldn’t go.” And in the next chapter we see where God punishes them for the faithlessness…really their rebellion…and most of them end up dying in the desert never to see the land for themselves again.

If you’re not familiar with the story, this was not too long after God had freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and they crossed the Red Sea miraculously by God’s power. He’d already protected them along the way, provided manna (bread from heaven), and lead them on their journey in a pillar of fire and smoke. They had witnessed, with no doubt, the fact that God was with them.

Canaan was the Promised Land. It was the land given to Abraham, whom the Israelites descended from, years prior. This was the goal of the journey they were on. But for fear, they did not receive it.

God had promised “I am giving you the land of Canaan,” before sending the spies. It didn’t matter what was in the land, or who was in the land. God had already said, “I am giving you this land.” The land was theirs! The blessings of the land was theirs!

But fear kept them from obtaining God’s promise. They feared for their lives. They feared harm. They feared failure. Their fear even made them cry and desire to go back to where “it was safe,”…as Egyptian slaves! They desired to trade the safety of living under God’s care, and His promises, for the life of slavery again. Fear enslaves!

What if they had believed God? How would their lives have been different? Who else would have been blessed?

Because of their disbelief, a whole generation perished in the desert, where they continued to basically walk circles for 40 more years.

How many of us are “walking circles” because we didn’t believe the Lord’s promises? I’m sure, like me, you can probably look back on life and say, “if only I had done…trusted…had courage to…” Where would our lives have been? What blessings did we give up because we feared?

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10 NIV

Here’s the thing, look back over your life. How have you seen God work time and time again? He has proved faithful right? If you’re reading this, I’m pretty sure that is proof enough of His presence with you. Remember what He has done, what He has brought you through, and then make a stand today on His promises.

One warning…don’t try to go back and do what He told you to do before. That was a folly of the Israelites too. Once He had pronounced His judgement, THEN they tried to go and take the land without His blessing. And…they were easily defeated.

Seek and listen now to what He wants you to do now. What is He promising you? When you hear it, when you see it, stop walking in the circle of fear and GO. If it is a promise from God, there are no giants big enough to stop you!

Your Facebook Live/Video Audience isn’t “All That”

Church, Business Leaders, and Communicators,

During these times we’ve all jumped on the video bandwagon on social media. Many of us have no clue what we are doing, and yet that shouldn’t hold us back either. But that’s not what this writing is all about.

Today, I wanted to talk to you about your audience, more specifically, the audience that Facebook or Youtube tell you you have. When looking at the insights for your videos, each has their way of telling you some numbers. And come on, be honest, the bigger the number the happier we are, right? But, what good is a number if it doesn’t speak the truth to you? Zero. So, real quick I wanted to use Facebook as an example, using my own more “popular” videos I’ve posted recently on my own church page.

The bottom line here is you need to understand the metrics on your FB and YT message performance. If you don’t understand them, then you can’t truly grade how well your message is connecting. The numbers can mislead you easily.

So, these numbers below are from MY two best “performing” videos on our church FB page:

undefined — The numbers you are likely to see up front are the estimated reach numbers. However, we should pay more attention to the 3-second views and average watch time to really get the truth about our audience.

Reach – 373 and 643

3 Sec Views – 217 and 358

Ave Time Watched – 17-sec and 13-sec! 😭

The same goes for the “Ads” you paid for. I created one that ran for 7 days (Very targeted less than 2 miles and specific demographics):

Reach – 1,770

Impressions – 3,238 (means it simply showed up in the feed)

3 Sec Views – 451

Ave Time Watched – 2-secs! (of a 15 second video of still images).

In Innovate Church’s case, we have a whole 92-person page audience to begin with, so I don’t expect big numbers on anything. But, if I were to quickly glance and think nothing about the Facebook is giving me, I’d be thinking a lot more highly about our recent videos than reality leads me to…hence continuing to under perform my hopes and goals for posting.

So, while we have a captive audience at home right now, and we all have the internet, it doesn’t mean we are getting our message to them just because Facebook or YouTube give you some numbers that appease your ego. There is more to those numbers up front that you have to dig in to.

On a positive note, keep working on what you are putting out there and keep posting. The audience will build but you need to keep your eye on the real metrics to build upon. Getting started at anything is usually a slow process.

A Year of Changes

If you’ve been to this site before you may be shocked at what you’re seeing now. “Where’d the pictures go? I thought this was a photographer?” My apologies if that is you. Consider this just part of my changes.

Two years ago, I began the New Year with the plan to reconnect with my faith, communication with God, and decided I would lay my photography aside for at least the first ninety days. Ninety days has quite frankly turned into two years now. And while I still fantasize about the business dream from time to time, I simply don’t have the time due to the journey the Lord has set me on.

I would say that the Lord blessed my decision inlaying aside my photography dreams in 2018. I’d volunteered as a youth pastor for almost twenty years and then finally the paid director position opened up seemingly out of the blue at our church. In July 2018, I was hired on and immediately hit the ground running hard. This was my real dream job!

I jumped in with a Summer’s worth of activities that kept us hopping and breathed new life in the ministry at that church. We began a full renovation of the youth space, new curriculum for the year, and real communication efforts were being made. All in all, great improvements due to the passion I had for the ministry. Things were awesome!

Then another change hit, eventually coming to a head at the beginning of 2019. Various events, trainings, and a word from the Lord set me in a new, never dreamed of, direction. The Lord called me to plant a new kind of church. Our church, at the time, felt it better that I leave them in January to begin my journey, and in this I witnessed that the Lord was at work giving me the needed time off from that responsibility so that I could delve into this new journey.

In my “day job,” things also changed. My superior moved to a new position which then opened his position for me to move into. I did what was best and took the opportunity to move up as well. This too has been a blessing in many ways.

High overview

So all of this is why I’ve taken down the photos I’ve made over the past few years, and why I’ve left the photography business…for now. At the end of November we finally opened up our “basement” church in our home after spending a couple of months renovating it and making it ready for folks to come in.

I am so looking forward to the changes the Lord is going to bring in 2020 for us. What I hope to do here is provide encouragement and teachings that may help you in your journey. So, stay tuned and be praying for us if you don’t mind.

Peace and Merry Christmas to you and yours!