AnthonyMilas.net

Andy Stanley in his book "VISIONEERING" says that visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension of WHAT IS and WHAT COULD BE. Every time I think about these words I get fired up! I get fired up dreaming that God has... So much more for GRANITE So much more for New England So much more for our kids, students and families So much more for His Kingdom So many more campuses to start So many more church to plant So many more groups to start So many more souls to be saved So many more disciples to be made If we are going to live inside the tension of WHAT COULD BE, we need to get to the point of becoming DISCONTENT with WHAT IS. That doesn't mean we don't take time to celebrate WHAT IS, it means we use what God is doing as the fuel to move us beyond WHAT IS to WHAT COULD BE. God has so much more, I believe it with all my heart, but we need to move into becoming leaders who are not leading from the point of WHERE WE ARE, but leaders who ...

So now we will never find the WORLD'S GREATEST HAMBURG since the place was shut down and boarded up. In my earlier post I suggested that maybe the reason the WORLD'S GREATEST HAMBURGER joint closed is because t hey had convinced themselves that they were serving something they actually weren't . Maybe that in their minds they were serving the WORLD'S GREATEST BURGER when in reality what they were serving was the WORLD'S WORST BURGER, I don't know. What I do know is that the place was CLOSED and BOARDED UP for business. But let's give this BURGER place the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they did have the WORLD'S GREATEST BURGER and the reason they went out of business is that nobody knew about it ! Maybe all the internal hype was true, maybe the BURGERS were to die for! However there was still a problem if no one knew about the BURGERS the result was the same as the first, SHUT DOWN and OUT OF BUSINESS ! Why is that 3-5 churches everyday who are cal...

While in Pennsylvania recently I thought my long search had come to an end, only to be incredibly dissapointed. See all my life I have longed to find the WORLD'S GREATEST BURGER , and this journey of mine has led me from Fudruckers in Salem, New Hampshire to McDonald's in Jerusalem, Israel. With each visit I have yet to discover what I would call the WORLD'S GREATEST BURGER , but then the amazing took place. In Pennsylvania there it was, the one thing I had long for all my life, a restaurant that had in BIG BOLD LETTERS on the side of its building HOME OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST BURGER ! Oh the joy that flooded my soul, could it finally be that I have found the answer to the one question I had been asking all my life. Could it be true that right here across the street from where I was staying was the place that would finally quench my hunger for the perfect burger! So what did I do? I did any man would do who has spent a life time SEARCHING , I pulled right into th...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, LEADERSHIP MATTERS . As leaders we are called to meet people WHERE THEY ARE and then take them to where GOD WANTS THEM TO BE . As leaders we are not called to please everyone, but we are called to please THE ONE who gave His life. When we do ministry for an audience of one we can be confident that although not everyone will want to join the team, God will bless! It's His promise. The truth is many churches fail because of WEAK and APOLOGETIC LEADERS . God has called us to live above both those. Yes, we are called to walk humbly before the Lord, but we are also called to get out in front of people and LEAD them on God's behalf. We must guard against being full of pride but we need to walk in confidence before people. How does a leader gain that confidence? When the leader HEARS FROM GOD ! When we hear from God then we do not have to back down from leading but we do need to figure out how to take people along with u...

One of the questions I often get from other leaders is why GRANITE has grown the way she has over the years. One of the keys for us has always been teaching our church what it means t o BE THE CHURCH as opposed to simply DOING CHURCH . When a congregation is simply DOING CHURCH they do nothing more than go through the motions each and every Sunday, embracing and clinging to the same ole, same ole. Another thing that becomes "sacred" to congregations that live for DOING CHURCH is clinging to tradition, basking in the successes of the past as opposed to the DREAM JESUS has called them to in the present with eyes focused on the future. So what does it mean to BE THE CHURCH ? It's a transformation that takes place in a congregation when the people begin to understand what it means to be the VISIBLE LIVING BODY OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD . It is then when the church goes from doing " JESUS/RELIGIOUS STUFF " to " BEING/LIVING JESUS " in every area of thei...

This week two GSBCers stepped into eternity. The first man Bob 78 years old was a wonderful, faithful member of our church. The other a 36 year old man named Nick. Nick died in his sleep this week. It was just a couple of months ago that Nick walked into our church tattooed from head to toe (which by the way was very cool), and surrendered his life to Jesus as Savior. Although Nicks struggles were intense he had found Jesus and embraced Him as Savior. When Nick took his last breath on planet earth his very next breathe was in the presence of Jesus. That's WHY we do what we do, and Nick is the reason we will not bail on the DREAM of JESUS at GRANITE. We must never ever forget the WHY behind our ministry. We must remember that everyone steps into eternity, and we get the chance to help them spend it with God, by staying true to the mission of Jesus! And WHY do we stay true to the mission and God's calling in our lives? 1 Peter 4:10, “ God has given gifts to each of yo...