Who's Waiting On The Other Side of YOUR Obedience?? #DreamsToReality

This is Abbie. After my first stop of the Dreams to Reality Tour, she came up to me all excited and nervous. Then she gave me a quick testimony. She told me that she first heard my music in Oklahoma (which was weird because I never knew that my music traveled that far) lol! She began to tell me that my music really helped her out during a dark time in her life. I was so happy to hear her testimony! It was truly a humbling experience to know that God would use something that I love to do in order to effect a real person! A lot of times, music goes into cyberspace and you never really know who it's impacting. I encouraged Abbie to keep living for God, prayed with her, gave her a big hug, we followed each other on Instagram and that was it. What an experience!

Me being so overjoyed and invading Abbie's space lol!

This is Madi. I also met her after one of my tour concerts in December. That particular night was incredible! The concert was awesome. The atmosphere was great. The youth leaders were on point. The ministry time after the concert was definitely on point! The Holy Spirit was truly changing hearts. I specifically remembered Madi because she was just so happy that day. She bought the same beanie that I had on and asked if we could take a picture together. So we did. I encouraged her, gave her a big hug, we followed each other on Instagram and that was it. A few months later, I found out that she took her own life. I was heartbroken. My heart went out to her family...especially her youth pastors and church friends. And you know that the enemy tried to mess with my head too. Thoughts like, "You're trying to reach a generation with hope in Jesus, but it's not good enough to stop someone from killing themselves." I was really discouraged until the Holy Spirit reminded me that Jesus was in the same situation and could have felt the same way. I'm glad that He didn't buy that lie.

Me and Madi being awesome!

Here's the truth:

I was privileged to be a part of God's overall narrative in the life of these two young ladies. God used my life to have a positive impact on their lives. At the end of the day, all that I'm called to do is to love Jesus and to obey. God, in His sovereignty, takes those acts of obedience and does what He wants to do with them. Those acts of obedience could help pull someone out of a dark situation. Those acts of obedience could be one of the last signs of hope to someone who is desperately trying to make sense of life. These two young ladies were positively impacted by my decision to step out and dream, conquer my fears, focus, and obey God. What if I didn't? What if my music never came out because I was too scared to pursue what God told me to pursue? Who ELSE is waiting on the other side of my obedience?

Who's waiting on the other side of YOUR obedience?? #GO!

To purchase my new CD "Between Dreams and Reality", please CLICK HERE

Thank you for reading!

Jarrell

On Passively Leading...

As I'm going through my leadership journey, I've begun to notice a few things about myself. One of the things I've noticed is how my leadership style has changed. As I stated in my last blog, there were some ideas that I had about leadership that were just off. I was young. I didn't know how to treat people right. It was kind of rough for those people who served in any ministry that I oversaw. But not all of my leadership qualities were bad. There's one in particular that I would like to regain. That risky, edgy, raw side of leadership.

The thing about me is...I am sort of an extreme personally. "Be ye hot or be ye cold!" Or something like that. I gravitate towards extreme characters in the bible like John the Baptist and Elijah. Dudes were just raw! I could relate. I had no problem confronting people or situations that needed confronting. And I had little to no fear of consequences. For example: in my early youth leader days, I shut down the entire youth band. I felt like they were up there for show & their personal lives didn't reflect holiness at the time. So we did what no thriving youth ministry wants to do. We went to CDs instead of a live band. And it was awkward. And in my zealousness, I did make poor decisions on the particulars of how it was handled. And kids and parents got hurt. And God had grace on me because He saw my heart. It was a radical decision but it was made for Him. And despite of my mistakes, his presence showed up and we had kids giving their lives to God, powerful altar ministry, kids prophesying and seeing visions. Our youth ministry began to grow...not because we had parties. God knows it wasn't because of parties. My mindset back then was, "Who needs fellowship to have fun? The altar is fun!" Wow! Man those days!

As I grew, something happened. I began to notice how I could grow in leadership. I realized the culture in which I was serving. Most everybody around me was so chill. Some were radical in their personalities but not when it came to interaction with others. And the ones who were radical with others were also immature in the way they handled things. The insecurities and the flat out wrong was so apparent that I began to despise the confrontational side of myself. I was like, "Look at the people I've hurt. Look at the people these radical people are hurting. I don't want to be that anymore." I was also grappling with some theological issues of grace and works at the time. "Does God do it or do we do it?" I decided that it was much easier if God changed people's hearts. But in extreme fashion, I leaned all the way to the "God does it" side. And that resulted in passive leadership. I became the nice guy. I sought to "understand rather than be understood", include everyone in every decision, and wait for the "right time" or for "God to move on their hearts" in order to make crucial decisions. And I must admit, it's easy and stressful at the same time. But things don't really get done that way. At least not in a timely manner.

I'm now beginning to walk in the balance. I needed both of these leadership experiences. I need to understand that collaboration is very important. I also need to understand that as a leader, it's my job to pull the trigger and make the tough decisions. I feel my edginess coming back. This time it's tempered with more love and compassion than I've ever had in my life. And about that grace/works thing...that may have to be a totally separate post entirely.

I'm still learning and still growing. Just keep me in prayer! And thank you for reading!

Jarrell