Unstuck: Out of Your Cave Into Your Call - Softcover

Jobe, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080241222X ISBN 13: 9780802412225

Verlag: MOODY PUBL, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

One thing—more than any other—keeps us from a compelling life: we are STUCK.

Some of us are stuck for short seasons of time. But others surrender to a life of being continually trapped and frustrated. The hang-ups of our past, fear of failure, victim mindsets, broken relationships, disappointment with ourselves—together with the lack of fresh encounters with God—have left many of us struggling and unable to move into our next season. 

Unstuck is a wake-up call for all those tired of being stuck.

Organized around the most significant event of the prophet Elijah's life, his cave experience, Unstuck helps you discover what is holding you back from starting a new chapter of life. Mark Jobe will help you address your unfinished business, rediscover your boundaries, break out of isolation, and re-envision your life story to step out of your cave and into your call.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MARK JOBE is the president of Moody Bible Institute and host of Moody Radio's Bold Steps. He is the author of Unstuck: Out of Your Cave into Your Call. He is also the founding pastor of New Life Community Church, a Chicago-based ministry with 27 locations throughout Chicago. Mark has a master's degree from Moody Theological Seminary and a Doctorate in transformational leadership from Bakke Graduate University. He and his wife, Dee, have three adult children.

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One thing&;more than any other&;keeps us from a compelling life: we are STUCK.

Some of us are stuck for short seasons of time. But others surrender to a life of being continually trapped and frustrated. The hang-ups of our past, fear of failure, victim mindsets, broken relationships, disappointment with ourselves&;together with the lack of fresh encounters with God&;have left many of us struggling and unable to move into our next season. 

Unstuck is a wake-up call for all those tired of being stuck.

Organized around the most significant event of the prophet Elijah's life, his cave experience, Unstuck helps you discover what is holding you back from starting a new chapter of life. Mark Jobe will help you address your unfinished business, rediscover your boundaries, break out of isolation, and re-envision your life story to step out of your cave and into your call.

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Unstuck

Out of Your Cave into Your Call

By Mark Jobe, Brandon O'Brien

Moody Publishers

Copyright © 2014 Mark Jobe
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1222-5

Contents

Introduction, 9, 
1. Help, I'm Stuck!, 15, 
2. We All Get Stuck Sometime, 25, 
3. The Seven Sticking Points, 35, 
4. Break Out of Isolation, 47, 
5. Rethink Your Thinking, 63, 
6. Turn Up the God Volume, 77, 
7. Reenvision Your Life Story, 91, 
8. Walk Toward Your Unfinished Business, 109, 
9. Rediscover Your Boundaries, 127, 
10. Take the First Step, 139, 
11. Avoid a Relapse, 153, 
12. Breathe the Air of a New Season, 163, 
Acknowledgments, 177, 
About the Author, 181, 
Notes, 183, 

CHAPTER 1

HELP, I'M STUCK!

I was only twenty-one but already I felt stuck. I lay there on my grandmother's floral-patterned couch as waves of discouragement washed over me. Every bone in my body seemed to ache. I had tried as hard as I knew how, but was tired of spinning my wheels and going nowhere. I wasn't sure I had the energy or even the desire to continue on. There I was, only five months into my ministry, and I was already physically depleted, emotionally discouraged, and spiritually dry. I had to admit it, I was stuck.

My mind raced back.

My second week in Chicago I was awakened at two o'clock in the morning by loud banging noises outside my window. When I peered out I saw a dozen or more young men running down the middle of the street shouting with guns in hand. Another shot rang out. I remember ducking and thinking, What have I gotten myself into? It was hard going back to sleep with the adrenaline still pumping. A week later my fiancée (now wife) Dee was waiting for me in her car. As I walked toward her I could tell something was wrong. Just minutes earlier a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl was stabbed in the stomach in a gang-related incident right in front of Dee. When I opened the car door she was teary eyed and shaking uncontrollably. The puddle of blood on the sidewalk was a grim reminder of the senseless violence that plagued the neighborhood around our church.

The congregation was small, young, and chaotic—to say the least. Our Sunday services were unpredictable, as well. Like the Sunday we had a blind guest speaker and Charlie, the 275-pound neighbor, showed up to our evening worship service a little drunk. That day our ushers must have been distracted, because Charlie made it from the doorway entrance all the way up the aisle and face-to-face with our unsuspecting—and blind—guest speaker. Charlie tried to confiscate the microphone from him, but our ex-convict ushers caught on and quickly subdued Charlie. They promptly escorted him out of the building. Charlie shouted slurred obscenities all the way back down the center aisle and out the door.

GUNS AND GANGBANGERS

One Sunday morning after the service I noticed that people had bottlenecked at our exit doors. Someone came running up to me and said, "Hey, Pastor, we got a situation." "A situation" around our church was always code for crisis. A man was waving a gun on the street in front of the church entrance. By the time I made it outside, the man had the gun pointed at the head of another terrified man, whom he had pushed up against a parked car. Without thinking I rushed to intervene. I found myself standing in front of an angry gunman with my little congregation huddled in the entrance of our church building in disbelief at their impulsive young pastor. At that moment the thought crossed my mind that I could have called the police and let them handle it. It was too late for that.

I felt a little like Peter after he jumped out of the boat to walk on the water and realized he needed a life jacket. I mustered up the most pastoral tone my twenty-one-year-old vocal cords could manage and said, "Hey you. I'm the pastor of this church. You're scaring my people. So put down your gun and let that guy go."

He looked up at me a little startled. I wasn't sure if he was about to turn the gun on me or follow my instructions. I could tell he wasn't sure if he believed me, but after glancing up at the heads poking out of the church entrance he slowly put down his revolver. He tried to convince me that he was on my side, that we were "community partners" and he was just performing a type of community service, getting rid of scum like the guy he was still holding down. I assured him that there were better ways of cleaning up the neighborhood and persuaded him to put away his revolver so our people could get to their cars.

To say that we were attracting "unchurched" people was a bit of an understatement.

One young man who started showing up at our services was a gangbanger from the neighborhood who, because he had been shot in the head, was partially paralyzed. He walked with difficulty and he talked with a slight slur, but his ganbanging attitude was healthy and intact. We started getting complaints from young women in the church that he was sitting next to them and whispering obscene comments to them during the service. I approached him one morning to let him know that he was welcome to worship with us, but the next time he started talking dirty to one of our sisters he would be out the door. I alerted our ex-convict ushers to keep an eye on him.

Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, in the middle of our worship time, I saw him lean over toward a young woman, a Bible-college student. Her face turned red and her jaw dropped. From the front I motioned to our two ushers to deal with him. One of them, a big ex-drug dealer named Jose, made his way down the aisle, leaned over, and had a talk with the young man. The conversation was tense. Our gangbanger friend wrapped his legs around his chair and grabbed on to his seat with a look of defiance. The next thing I saw was two big ushers carrying our dirty-talking gangbanger and his chair down the long aisle toward the exit doors. They plopped him on the church stairway outside our main entrance. After that, there was a new respect for our no-nonsense usher team.

With nonstop crises at my door, little sleep, poor eating habits, and a full schedule, I started to wear down. The needs of the community began to overwhelm me. Our resources were scarce. Demands were increasing and my once bright vision was quickly fading. I believed God had led me here. But now I was wearing down. I was starting to feel like God had left me to fend for my self.

BURNED OUT IN FOUR MONTHS

Only a few months earlier I had walked slowly up the concrete stairs of the former Russian Orthodox church. It was my first day on the job and there was nobody else in the building. I strolled down the middle aisle to the small, makeshift office behind the stage and sat on an old wooden chair. My thoughts were interrupted by the scurrying of squirrel feet on the old tin ceiling. Apparently they liked my preaching and decided to make this their home church.

This small church on the southwest side of Chicago had about eighteen people and could afford to pay me only a minimal part-time salary. They had been looking for a pastor for about two years but were having a difficult time finding anyone willing to accept the salary and live in the neighborhood. In fact, at least one seminary candidate had driven by the building and rolled down his window but refused to get out of his car. Instead he locked his doors and sped away. Sunday morning we had a piano player to lead the singing, but Sunday night and Wednesdays the group...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: MOODY PUBL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 080241222X
• ISBN 13: 9780802412225
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 184
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar