August 26th CPP Motivator - Randy Harper

Randy O. HarperDistrict Secretary

Randy O. Harper was elected in April 2005 as the Louisiana District Secretary for the United Pentecostal Church, International. He served as an assistant pastor for seven years before beginning 30 years as pastor of 3 Louisiana churches. In addition to serving in various ministerial capacities throughout his life, Reverend Harper holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. He has held numerous accounting positions with his most recent position as Sales Tax Auditor.

He and his wife, Martha, have one daughter – Heather. They reside in Tioga, Louisiana.

Prayer over CPP Leaders by Jeremy Foster

"Do not be afraid! For the battle is not yours, but God's" (2 Chron. 20:15).

Thank you God for Pastor Pavlu and this awesome church staff. Thank you lord for allowing us to be laborers together in your vineyard. Help us to understand and accept that this is not my ministry, it is yours, we must depend on your Spirit to show us what to do. The people that we lead are not our people. You sent them to us and we've helped organize their efforts, but they do not belong to us. You entrusted them to our leadership, and they agreed to follow us. These people that follow us deserve a tour guide not a travel agent. Help us not to just tell them where you want them to go but help us to lead them there.

Help us to take them into a depth of prayer, fasting, devotion, and complete consecration. God help these leaders to be saturated with the Holy Ghost and completely filled with Your Spirit, so that they may stir up the gift that is within them and be used to their fullest potential. Jesus help us to lead as we are lead by your almighty hand.

In Jesus name.

Amen

(Plan - Lead - Organize - Delagate) Motivation from Jeremy Foster

Lets begin with self evaluation; As a leader ask yourselves these questions:

• What am I doing right?
• What am I doing wrong?
• What can I do better?

You are a ministry administrator. You are leading and administrating. You are very similar to Payton Manning the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. He is in the field leading the offense down the Gridiron adjusting and adapting the plays from the lineup as the team encounters the challenges of the defense.

Let me share with you 4 tasks of administrative Leaders represented by the acronym

P-L-O-D

1. Planning and Goal achievement; A goal is no good without a plan. You Don't Fail, You only get results. 99% of our failure or success is based on how well we planned. Success is the result of proper planning and execution. Failure is a result also, of poor planning and poor execution.

Let me give you an example from my experience with political campaigns. A Politicians Goal is to win the election but in order to get that result, organizing volunteers is critical.

Some of us expect God to take up our slack in planning because of our passion for ministry. Not gonna happen. Too often we come to pastor with a goal and never set the plan in place. A goal needs a plan to make it work.

2. Leadership and Supervision of Staff: You want to know the number 1 reason why ministry staffs fail? Lack of Communication

As leaders we have Great Expectations; we expect consistency and passion for ministry. Volunteers or staff expect vision and communication. If you are not communicating with your core staff on a weekly basis shame on you.

Lets see if we can determine what kind of leader you are?

• Dependence – only upon my authority. No one else can
• Independence – you're only going to see me every now and then.
• Interdependence – I need you and you need me, let's work together.

What kind of followers are you inspiring?

Leadership does not work unless felt needs of the group are being met. If your ministry is not healthy there are probably and unmet needs that you should address.

Confrontation is a good thing. Confront the problem or issue without being confrontational. That's called communication.

3. Organization and Quality Control; Here's what our leadership is saying to our followers when we refuse to get organized:

"Well, I'm not organized, I'm just lazy"

Funny how we can be organized in every other area Life: lunch, directions, outfits surely you can organize your ministry.

Who is in charge of quality control in your department – YOU ARE.If your ministry is not running at full potential who's fault is it?

Take ownership of your success and your failure and work to make it better.

Quality Control: People don't do what you expect they do what you inspect. Inspection is a form of communication.

4. Delegation and Motivation

Are you empowering people for ministry?

Lets talk about the Energizer bunny. He's ready to go all you need to do is empower him with a Duracell. He'll bang the drum for whoever empowers him.

In the book of acts, the local church model in the Apostolic Age always functioned under a plurality of leadership or a group of leaders.

Motivate them to succeed and give them the resources to win and let them own victories. Celebrate their triumphs. Nothing motivates a team more than a leader who isn't selfish about success.

In Conclusion:

1. Planning and Goal achievement

2. Leadership and Supervision of Staff

3. Organization and Quality Control

4. Delegation and Motivation

Finally, I close with this; YOUTUBE: The founders were Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – all of whom met via their employment at PayPal. As far as I know, none of them are over the age of 30. May 2005 – October 9 2006 $1.65billion

They were driven by their frustration. Frustration and ministry go hand in hand.

"Channel your frustration in the right direction

and it will blow your mind what God will do in your city."

July 22nd CPP Motivator - Jeremy Foster

Jeremy Foster is an innovative speaker and trainer who is noted for his unique approach to communication. He is known for his vivid examples and humorous delivery style that appeals to people of all ages and backgrounds. His proven track record and refreshing style make him a sought after speaker across the country. He is passionate about progressive change and has a heartbeat to see people’s lives revolutionized for Christ.Jeremy has served as media relations consultant (press secretary) in numerous local, state, and federal political campaigns affording him the opportunity to work with the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and others. He frequently provides leadership, media and marketing
consultation to non-profit organizations and corporations. Jeremy is a dedicated husband to Jennifer Foster and the proud father of his daughters, Jayden and Jeselyn. His family is the number one priority in his life.

Prayer over CPP Leadership by Terry Shock

Lord you know all things and you do all things well. You have put together the leaders of this church, you picked them. You have put them in place. I pray that there vision will be clear, that there passion will be hot. I pray that if there are any character issues on the leadership team that your Spirit would convict and also that wisdom will be given to be able to fix whatever is needed. I pray against any pride issue that would be on the team and I pray that our hearts would continue to increase. I pray that as we lead the people that our love and our heart for them will just grow and that the power of your spirit will lead us and guide us. Let us reach every honest hearted person in this community. In Jesus name let it be done.

"Take care of my Treasures" - Words of Motivation from Terry Shock

The #1 leadership question that I’ve come across is this;
Am I worth following?
Many leaders work in the church as volunteers or otherwise and they get so hung up on who is following them and they never seem to be able to stop and ask themselves the question, am I even worth following? When we put our attention and focus on leading ourselves, since that is the hardest person to lead that I find is myself, people follow.

I would like to leave you with 5 more questions that will help you assess your ability to lead effectively:
1.) Is my vision clear? There is absolutely no way that we can lead people into the future if our future picture is fuzzy. Not matter what ministry in the church we are leading we have to ask ourselves the question is my vision clear.

2.) Is my passion hot? I have said to leaders in our church on many occasions that I would much rather have to pull people back a bit than to have to kick them in the rear to get them moving. I must ask myself, am I halfway pouring myself into this our am I really pouring myself into it? Impassioned people really move people and it is really important if we are going to move anything.

3.) Is my character submitted to Christ? One leader said this, “a leader doesn’t have to be the sharpest pencil in the drawer or possess the most charisma but his teammates will not follow a leader with character flaws for very long.” The fact of the matter is that every time we compromise our character we compromise our leadership.

4.) Is my pride subdued? 1 Peter 5:5 …for God resisteth the proud. When you are leading people there is going to be from time to time people that oppose you and we all need the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job to deal with them. The fact of the matter is that if we have a pride issue then God resists us. There is absolutely nothing that you can do about that accept, fix the pride issue. One leader said it this way, “if your wondering if you have a pride issue, ask somebody that will tell you the truth. Then he followed that up by saying, “If your thinking there is no way that I could ask anyone that question, I can save you the time; you have a pride issue.”

5.) Is my heart for God increasing and is my capacity for loving deepening? The longer we are in ministry the more we have to monitor this question in our life. We can definitely get so busy doing the work of God that we can get away from God. We can get so frustrated with dealing with people. The longer we are in ministry the bigger our hearts should become. I find that from time to time I have to do a real heart check and sometimes I discover, Wow, my heart is shrinking and if it is shrinking that means it is getting hard.

One leader said this, “God is saying to leaders of the Church,
"Promise me, give me your word.
Take care of my treasures.
Grow in leadership so that you can become
the greatest you can be at taking care
of my treasures.
Love them,
Nurture them,
Develop them,
Challenge them,
Mature them.
They are all that really matters to me in this world."

We all need to realize what a privilege it is and just how big of an opportunity we have been given by God to be able to work in the souls of men and women.

May 27th CPP Motivator - Terry Shock

Terry Shock who previously served as The Pentecostals of Alexandria's Youth Pastor and then as Assistant Pastor, was elected Associate Pastor in 2001, and along with the Manguns and the rest of the pastoral team, continue to lead the congregation in the same purpose; the same love for souls; the same commitment to prayer, fasting, Bible reading, and evangelism; and with the same anointing that have been a part of the church since its beginning. With plans on the drawing board for expanding facilities and new programs, and with weekly attendance moving toward the 3000 mark, The POA continues to carry out its mission to provide connection for all people to Jesus Christ through worship, evangelism, discipleship, and fellowship.

March 25th Jared Howell Speaking on Leadership to CPP Leaders

The times that we are living in have created a difficult dominant characteristic in the generations we are trying to work with in American society and that is the lack of lead ability. Lead ability is so very important; it is our ability to lead and our ability to be lead. My children are still too young for me to ask this question but it was asked of me and I am sure you have heard it as well; “if your friend jumped off a cliff, would you jump also?” While this is a valuable saying and is meant to protect us from bad influences, it also makes us leery of following good leadership; creating in us a lack of lead ability.

George Barnum after 15 years of closely reviewing the world around him offered the following….

The church in America is dieing due to a lack of strong leadership. At this time of plentiful resources and many opportunities, the church is actually losing influence. The Primary reason is the lack of leadership. Nothing is more important than leadership.

There are many sources to learn from on the subject of leadership in the world around us. Educators, professional sports, corporate execs, management companies, consulting companies, government but the greatest source of leadership guidance is the Word of God. In it we find the truths of leadership principles established by God. In it lays the potential to change our lives and the lives around us.

Bishop T.F. Tenny, one of the greatest leaders of our movement, said this to me on the subject of leaders on many occasions…

”As leaders, we are not hitch-hikers but we are trail-blazers.”

We are blazing a trail down a pathway that no other leader has ever been down before.

We embark upon the adventure of leadership, we blaze the trail and as we do we discover that we are not alone but we are walking with Jesus.

March 25th CPP Motivator - Jared Howell

Jared was elected as the Youth President of the Louisiana District of the United Pentecostal Church at the District Conference in March, 2007. He was raised as a missionary child in El Salvador and has experienced living on the mission field. He is bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish.
He and his wife, Loida, have daughter Zoe and new-born baby Isabella Grace. He is an assistant to Reverend Danny Chance at the Christian Life Church in Monroe, LA.
He is the son of Reverend Bruce Howell, Foreign Missions Director of the United Pentecostal Church, International.

February 25th Bro. Albritton Talking to CPP Leaders

Comments by Bro. Albritton:
What CPP Leadership is doing is "extremely" cool because of all your cutting edge ideas. I want to talk to you about Synergy. Energy is a usable power. Synergy is "beyond" energy. Let me define synergy according to Webster; The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects. Now let me give you an example according to Albritton: If Horse #1 can pull 1000 lbs & Horse #2 can pull 1000 lbs, but together they can pull 2500 lbs. Where did the other 500 lbs come from? That question has always bugged me, Synergy produced another 500 lbs. A unified combination of efforts is so often stronger than individual efforts.

We did a drama for Easter years ago when I was a Youth Pastor. The props and wardrobes were old and very used. But the volunteers made due with what they could. The synergy was strong: Ladies were repairing and making brand new costumes, Musicians/Singers were practicing 2-3 nights per week, Drama team spent a lot of time practicing, etc. etc. I noticed all the different parts that were going on, and how the small things (the costume making, the practicing) all came together for the powerful drama production.

As Youth President my favorite part about doing youth camps was how it brings different people together to produce a few great weeks for the kids. All of us have leadership and ministry abilities, but we focus on our small little part. When we realize how we can bring every one's small parts together (with the Holy Ghost), incredible results are brought about.

One of my favorite scriptural examples of this is found in Nehemiah Chapter 3:
"And next to them...." is the theme that is repeated. Different people are doing there part to rebuild the wall. Synergy and Holy Ghost inspiration produced a rebuilt wall in record time.

February 25th, 2007 Motivator - Brother Greg Albritton

At the tender age of nine years old, Greg received the Holy Ghost at a Louisiana Youth Camp. He began his pulpit ministry at the age of twenty, with many years spent evangelizing. From 1992-1994 he was Youth Pastor for Mike Hudspeth at King’s Temple in Shreveport, LA. He served as Assistant Pastor to Rick Maricelli in Covington, LA from 1997-1999 where he also led a successful Campus Ministry. He served as Louisiana District Youth President from 1999-2003. During those years he led the Louisiana Youth Department to record Sheaves For Christ Offerings, incredible Youth Camps and consecutive Statewide Youth Rallies totaling well over one hundred youth receiving the Holy Ghost.

Greg and his wife, Jamie, have two daughters; Emrie and Edyn. Currently, he is a full time evangelist, basing out of Alexandria, Louisiana.

Bro. John Burns Words for CPP Director’s Meeting on 1-28-07

First of all, you have to all understand that you are important to God and His church. God even regards you as greater than John the Baptist. Let me prove it to you. In Matthew 11:11 Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” We understand that Jesus was talking about the New Covenant being Superior to the Old Covenant. John the Baptist lived under the old covenant, praise God, we are living under the new covenant.

Under the old covenant, everyone could not be a high priest. There were a lot of men in the Levitical priesthood, but there was only one high priest. They were all Levites, but not all priests or preachers. Only one of them could take the blood and sprinkle it on and around the altar for atonement when it was time. However, there was one priest who started the ceremonies by simply lighting the fire on the altar. His work was just as important as the High Priest was. Without the fire on the altar being lit, nothing else could have happened. The fire being lit on the altar was necessary.

The Word of God compares our functions in the church to that of a body. Imagine living without a liver. The liver is not seen, but you couldn’t really function without one. Imagine living without a brain. Many people seem to try it (laughing), but it’s not really recommended. The brain is not seen, but you can’t make it without it. The colon is not seen, but it is very vital to the health of the body. Just because these things are not seen does not mean that they are not very important.

There is a common belief among people in the church, especially those young or new to the church, that if I cannot sing, play an instrument, or preach, my work is not important. There is an important group of verses that has always stood out to me. I Corinthians chapter 12 discusses the various Gifts of the Spirit. One type of gift has always stood out from this chapter. That is the “helps” gifts. The tribe of Levi had many more helpers than preachers or priests. Helps is listed before governments and gifts of tongues.

If a church is to be a strong, vibrant, healthy, church; it must have strong, vibrant, healthy, committed workers. We are to come to church to praise Jesus and leave the church to work for Jesus.

In Matthew 10:42, Jesus said, “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” Jesus said that we would be blessed for even giving a cup of water. The “little” works are just as important as the “big” works.

We should all have the attitude, “Whatever needs to be done, I’ll do it.” Like in snowflakes, we are all different than each other. We need to enjoy that diversity and let it strengthen us to do great things for God’s Kingdom.

Motivator January 28th

Co-Pastor John and Kitty Burns
Pastor John C. Burns was born in Leesville and has lived there all his life with the exception of four years in college and two years in the U. S. Army.
He started attending the Pentecostal Church in Leesville when he was a small boy around five years old. His grandmother and aunt, both of whom were members, took him to Sunday School.

At the age of fourteen he received the gift of the Holy Ghost and was baptized in Jesus' name. After high school, he enrolled in Northwestern State university at Natchitoches, Louisiana and pursued a degree in Business Education. After graduation in May of 1956, he married a beautiful girl from Natchitoches who was a member of the Natchitoches Pentecostal Church. Fourteen days later, he was drafted in the U. S. Army and sent to El Paso, Texas for basic training. Brother Burns was discharged from the Army in 1958 and came back to Leesville and began teaching commerce at Leesville High School.

He worked thirty years in the Vernon Parish School System and retired as Superintendent of Schools in 1988. At the recommendation of Pastor M. C. Green, the First Pentecostal Church of Leesville elected him as Co-Pastor. Pastor Burns and his wife, Shirley "Kitty" Burns have two children and four grand-children. Sister Burns is a retired school teacher and is presently a manager with Home Interiors and Gifts.

The Motivators of The Church Point Pentecostals

Jesus is the source of our strength. Lord bless us with your anointed strength. Those wonderful people that you have called to be our motivation and a constant source of encouragement to us. These are the gifted people that God has anointed to encourage and motivate the leadership of The Church Point Pentecostals. We want to thank them and dedicate this site as a place for them to speak words of encouragement to us and our friends.

CPP Leadership Team