Jim Mellado took the stage to introduce Wayne Cordeiro, senior pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship, for the first session on Saturday morning. Jimmy gave a compelling intro. And, he was wearing a fancy Buckle-ish shirt. True to Willow, though, the shirt had blue stripes. I’ve always wondered, if one of the Willow guys was cut, do you think they would bleed a shade of blue? Something to ponder…

Cordeiro opened by saying “we will teach what we know, but we will reproduce what we are.”

Cordeiro shared a story about an outdoor service he had planned. He prayed for days for it not to rain. It poured the day of the service. God spoke to him that day. He realized he was more concerned about it not raining instead of praying for God to show up. We pray for troubles to leave our lives. Those won’t go away. Instead he explained we need to pray for the presence of God.

Then Cordeiro shared the story of a difficult time he faced in his life. He experienced burnout. He was dealing with anxiety attacks. He had to completely change his life.

These are some of the principles he had to implement:

  1. Know what fills and drains your tank. — Who am I with? What am I going? Where am I doing this? (Cordeiro said, “when my schedule gets busier now, I play more.”) What makes me feel the most alive and feel the fullest?
  2. Understand balance in life. — Cordeiro explained that life is not about balancing ministry and family–your family is your ministry. If your family isn’t healthy, you’re done.
  3. Lead out of rest. — Schedule in your rest points first before your schedule fills up. God intended activity to come out of rest. Rest needs to come first.
  4. Find a lightning rod. — These are a few select people in our lives that we can be completely open and honest with and trust that they won’t share the details with others. That protects us from releasing inappropriate thoughts to people who shouldn’t be in the loop with those thoughts.
  5. Be disciplined in your daily devotions. — LifeJournal.cc offers a method for starting a daily devotion.

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