RE-DEFINING SUCCESS

A few years ago I wrote out my personal vision statement. It was a soul-searching process that forced me to think through what I consider "success". The definition of success I chose to pursue is very different from what most of our popular culture embraces. 

Not the praise of men, not the admiration of co-workers, not the fame of publicity, not wealth or riches, not a life of leisure or pleasure, not the mention in books or magazines, not invitations to speak at prominent events but the gaze of the Father whose eyes say loudly WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SON is my purest desire. My fleshly heart looks for man-centered ways of measuring my success and significance while my spirit looks to the Father to find divine approval.  Deep inside I know that to act outside of the will of the Father motivated by anything other than his glory is nothing but waste and loss. Men may applaud it, the young may admire it, the crowds may celebrate it and my flesh may be tempted by it, but the Spirit of Jesus quietly side steps all that does not please the heart of the Father.

At the end of my life I hope to measure my success by the standard I have set in the statement below.

Mark Jobe - Personal Vision Statement

I want to be true to my call.

Walk with integrity

Stay in love with my wife while raising a great family

Influence multitudes

Reach the end of my life loving God

above all things and others genuinely as myself

I want to know Christ deeply, be like him increasingly

and make him known where ever I go

I want to hear “Well done good and faithful son enter into

My Kingdom. You have been a man after my own heart.

If you do not define your life's goals than others will define them for you. If you do not live with the   end in mind than your life will tend to drift to the place of least resistance and greatest comfort. If you do not define what success you will pursue you might find yourself succeeding at that which doesn't really matter and failing at that which really does matter. 

When God's Power Shows Up

Several weeks ago I attended a meeting with our pastoral team and I heard the speaker Francis Chan say a phrase that God used to spark expectant faith for this season. Chan said, “the power of God is most manifest when we are on the edge of mission with God”. The obvious reason that God poured out his power at Pentecost was to enable the disciples to be witnesses to the living Christ throughout the region. The greatest manifestations of the miraculous power of God occur when we are being bold witnesses in a dark world to the resurrected Jesus.

It just so happened that our team was preparing to start preaching through the first chapters of the book of Romans that next Sunday. I was struggling with unpacking the thick theology of Romans to our congregation on Chicago's South West Side. It dawned on me that Romans was a letter all about a big gospel to a big city and that what I needed to do was proclaim the Gospel through each chapter calling people to respond to the message. The first Sunday I preached Romans 1:1-16 and called people to repent and believe. To my surprise 35 people came forward to receive Christ. Many of them were visibly shaken and moved to tears.

I began to sense a growing burden for people to come to know the Savior. The next Saturday I woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night. Immediately I knew I was to pray for those who would be at the service and did not know Jesus. I arrived at that service burdened and full of faith for people to come to the Savior. I ask our staff to prepare for baptisms even though we had not announced baptisms and did not have anyone preparing to be baptized. 

That morning I preached through the second half of Romans chapter one. I called people to repent, believe and be baptized. The congregation and I celebrated as 38 people came forward for spontaneous baptisms. All were baptized in their street cloths and went home very wet. It felt like a scene out of the book of Acts. People were coming forward moved by God getting ready for baptism and being prayed over by groups of celebrating believers. It was a little chaotic but full of joy. God was drawing people in an unusual way to himself. One couple that had never attended New Life was watching via live-stream and got in their car and drove an hour and fifteen minutes from Aurora Illinois to Chicago to give their life to Christ and be baptized. A couple of other people that had been watching the first service on live stream came to the second service with tears running down their face declaring they had come to repent and be baptized. One lady felt such a sense of urgency that she drove to the church in her pajamas, double parked her car and ran in to be baptized.

For the past few weeks I have been continuing to wake up at random hours early Sunday morning burdened to pray for people that need Jesus. Each Sunday dozens have responded to repent, believe and be baptized. The congregation has been praying and inviting family members and friends who need to hear the gospel. As of last week 162 people had responded and been baptized at our Midway campus in five weeks. Many others have been baptized at our other New Life locations as well. 

Two Sundays ago I sensed the presence of God so strongly I asked those who knew they needed to give their lives to Christ to come forward right after the worship time before the message was even given and seven people came forward moved and broken ready to give their lives to Christ.

Many times we live our lives in such a way that the power of God is not necessary.  Our expectations are low, our prayers are mundane and our witness is bland. The power of God tends to show up when we throw ourselves with abandon into God’s mission and expect his power to truly make a difference.

God shows up where people are depending on him.

1 Corinthians 4:20 For the Kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power

Guard Your Heart

Guard Your Heart..It Determines the Course of Your Life Many people attempt to clean up their life without getting to the root issues. You may find yourself consistently mopping up sewer water in the basement of your house until you fix the leak in your sewer pipe. Proverbs 4:23 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life (ESV). Another translation puts it this way, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life (NLT). In other words whatever is in your heart will spill out shaping your life and destiny. Contaminated Spinach In September of 2006 salad eaters became alarmed when a strain of bacteria in spinach began to sicken people. The Centers for Disease Control stated that the E.coli spinach outbreak infected 203 people in 26 states, caused 95 hospitalizations and one death. Authorities were intent on finding the source of the contamination. Ultimately the source was a farm in California where irrigation water was contaminated by wild pigs and cattle. Only when they found the source were they able to stop the contamination from spreading. I see many struggling people that have been contaminated by a serious poison called anger that has turned to bitterness. This bitterness affects their attitude, marriage, spiritual life, view of God, mental health, and even their finances. Scripture says, “...make sure that no root of bitterness shoots forth to cause troubles and many become contaminated by it” - Hebrews 12:15. Bitterness is described as a root. You cannot see a root because it is underground, but you see the effects of a root in the plant it produces above ground. Pollutant of Unresolved Anger Unresolved anger turns to slow simmering bitterness. A root of bitterness can contaminate your heart and everything that flows out of it. The writer of Proverbs warns us to “guard our heart above all else”. Guarding My Heart from Contamination How do I guard my heart from contamination? The Apostle Paul gives us a concise practical three-fold formula to keep our heart from being contaminated by poisonous anger that turns to bitterness. Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” 1. Don't let emotions turn into spiritual poison: In your anger do not sin.

Anger is an emotion - not a sin. Anger can turn from a neutral emotion to a dark sin if we let it take a negative shape. This is true when I am angry and I let my tongue spout mean spirited, critical words intended to wound. This becomes a reality when I am angry and allow my emotion to morph into vengeful actions. Instead, use the energy of anger to find a positive solution. Martin Luther the 15^th century reformer once wrote, “I find nothing that promotes work better than angry fervor. For when I wish to compose, write, pray and preach well, I must be angry. It refreshes my entire system, my mind is sharpened, and all unpleasant thoughts and depression fade away.” Luther had learned to put righteous anger to good use.

If you can’t find a good solution than walk away until you have cooled off. There is a fine line between feeling anger and sinning in our anger. 2. Don't keep unresolved issues in your life: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Practice the twenty-four-hour rule. Deal with your anger before the sun goes down. When you postpone dealing with your anger you allow it to turn into something even more devastating- bitterness and resentment. Bitterness is the result of unresolved relational anger. Bitterness is one of the deadliest spiritual poisons to affect a heart. John Ortberg writes, “Bitterness is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.” 3. Don't let emotions open the door to darkness: Do not give the devil a foothold Unresolved anger is a door opener for the enemy. When the enemy gets a foothold he will try to slip as much dark poison through that foothold as he can. Anger and lust are intimate cousins. Show me someone who struggles with unbridled anger and I will show you someone who battles with lust. Anger opens the door to lust, rebellion, depression, pride, and many other contaminating influences. What happens at the source will affect every part of the stream. What happens at the source of your heart will affect every part of your life. If my heart is clean I will flow in life giving energy. If my heart is contaminated than all that I do will be tainted with that contamination. Examine Your Heart If you have been struggling lately with your spiritual life, then it is time to take a close look at the condition of your heart. Have you allowed contamination at the core of your heart that is spilling into your life? It is time to allow the fresh clean stream of a pure heart to flow through your life.

I encourage you to find a quiet place alone with God and pray what David prayed in     Psalms 139:23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting. Like the Centers for Disease Control and the spinach we must trace the source of contamination and clean it out.

When the Holy Spirit reveals any source of contamination you must be willing to confess it before God, repent of allowing it near your heart and take steps to remove the pollutant. Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.


May you experience again the joy and energy of life that flows from a clean heart before God.

Pastor Mark Jobe

Fresh God Encounters

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday commonly referred to as “Easter”. Millions of people around Chicago-land will do something religious this weekend only to go back to life as usual on Monday. Some, however, will have a God encounter that will shake their world and alter their destiny permanently. Their faith will be ignited by hearing Gospel message and stirred by the supernatural life giving work of the Holy Spirit. They will have an encounter with the God "who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were" Romans 4:17. This will be the awakening moment and the beginning of many God encounters to come. 

Romans 4:20-21 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Abraham was "strengthened in his faith". We can never underestimate the currency of faith in God’s economy. Faith is the heavenly transportation system that connects heaven and earth. All good things come via the bridge of faith. Many of us become frail and stumble in the waiting periods between the promise and the manifestation of the promise on earth. Abraham "was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.” The "waiting" season is where most of us grow weary and fail. How did Abraham strengthen himself and give glory to God when he had to wait decades for the promise? Periodic powerful encounters with God reassured him of what was to come. Only with these encounters can our frail souls endure the battering of doubt, assaults of cynical reason and deception of the enemy that attacks our clinging faith. 

May you experience a fresh encounter with God this season that fills you anew with resurrection power as you wait for the promise of the coming Son. 

He has risen and He is coming again!

Congratulations...it's a Baby Church

I know three couples that in the past two weeks that have had a baby.  For a few months I have been asking them how the pregnancy is progressing. The birth is always intense with a mixture of excitement, anxiety, exhaustion and celebration.  Friends and family want to know “Boy or girl? Who the baby looks like? How much did he weigh? How many inches long was she?”

This past Sunday we officially celebrated the grand opening of New Life Rogers Park on the North East side of Chicago. I realized how much it felt like one of my friends was having a baby.  I was excited to hear how the spiritual birth went. I wanted to see pictures to see what the baby looked like. I received a text with a picture as soon as the baby congregation was born.

As a parent I also know that no matter how intense the work leading up to the birth is…the work will become even more intense after the baby is born. I feel like a proud grandparent.  Several years ago we helped launch New Life Portage Park. This week New Life Rogers Park was birthed out of Portage Park.

Dwayne Eslick sent an email to our entire pastoral team the morning of their first service. Here is an excerpt;

After years of dreams, months of prayer, weeks of preparation, days and days of

Overtime labor, we are only three hours away from the first service of the 15th

location of New Life.

1) Thank you for your giving.  We have some nice new tools for the kingdom and

‘The hospital bill’ for the baby (church) location has been covered thanks to each offering at New Life where 5% is given to home missions.  Thanks Pastor Mark for your wisdom in dividing up the missions budget to 50% home and 50% foreign missions!

2) Thank you for praying.  I feel the prayers of the saints across the city. 

Please lead your congregation in doing the same.  It is our "not-so-secret" key to success in church planting!  Imagine even the children's ministry across the city praying for the new children on the far North East corner of the city!

3) Thanks for just being a team… I am better person, better leader, and better soldier for the Lord because of your influence!

4) Thanks for (New Life) Portage for being the mother location and being willing to take in a wandering ex-youth pastor a couple of years ago.  We will be a nice mixed cultural baby thanks to you (and also Lakeview and a couple of other locations.)

5) Thanks to Central Service as Fellowship One has been a great tool for this

launch.  Thank You.

6) I could keep going and going... but I am thankful this morning to be a New

Lifer since May of 1995.  I am excited to be part of a church planting movement. 

I am excited that God has put me in Chicago's greatest mission field... what I

believe to be the least ‘churched’ part of the city.  I thank God for a wife and

family who has shown me more grace and forgiveness than I have ever thought

possible.  I’m thankful for the youth of the southwest side who broke my heart for people over and over and over through countless funerals, hardships, and just allowing me to be part of their families.

7) I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because he chose the

foolish things of the world and made them tools in his hands.  I am thankful

that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life.  Everything else is sweet

icing on the cake :)

As you pray today at your location ... you can now officially say we have 15

locations ….Love you all... will send pictures later.

Walking by faith one step at a time.

decrease Dwayne

I am happy to report that the baby was healthy.  It’s name New Life Rogers Park. It looks like its relatives…very multi-cultural.  It weighed 247 people at birth.  It’s lungs sounded great in worship. It will need a lot of attention over the next few month, but I am believing it will grow up to look like Jesus, have great influence and one day birth children of its own.

Congratulations New Life Roger’s Park.

Grand Opening New Life Rogers Park

Two Shot but Hope is Still Alive

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Daughters Learn From Fathers How Men Should Treat Them

Daughters Learn From Fathers How Men Should Treat Them

This weekend I spoke at our Women's Encounter Retreat with 250 women from New Life. I came away exhausted, elated and with a renewed empathy for women and the challenges they face. Invariably there are two themes that hit a deep emotional chord; The Father-Daughter Wound and Releasing and Forgiving from Abuse.

As both the father of a 19 year old daughter and a pastor of many women I have come to realize the vital role fathers play in the formation of daughters and the way they relate to their world.

In her  book, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know , Dr. Meg  Meeker explores the vital role fathers play in the lives of their daughters.

She explains that "Fathers are their daughters’ first experience of male love, compassion, kindness, anger, and cruelty. These early experiences are imprinted on a girl’s brain and heart. For the rest of her life, every experience she has with a male is filtered through her experiences with her father. So if she trusts her father at an early age, she is more likely to trust men. If she has been hurt by her father, she will shy away from men and/or make poor choices about who she allows into her life."

She notes that "Girls gravitate toward what they know, not necessarily what they want. The familiar is powerful and often subconsciously causes girls to do all sorts of things they’d rather not. Many women swear that they will not marry abusive men if their fathers were abusive to them or to their mothers. But they marry them in spite of their best intentions, because they know what life with abuse feels like — and in a way it’s less frightening than the unknown life of happiness."

I am convinced along with Dr. Meeker that Fathers teach their daughters to know how a man should treat them. The way a father treats his daughter conditions her for her future relationships with men. I am aghast at the number of women who suffer from absent, emotionally distant, disengaged or even abusive fathers. 

Women unable to experience the  Love of the Father  tend to struggle with:

• A lack of inner joy.
• Insecurity in their relationships.
• The tendency to feel  inadequate .
• Inability to express love to others freely.
• Unexplained feelings of  rejection .

The final hour of the retreat I heard testimony after testimony of brave, bold and courageous women declaring their new found destiny in God. One of these women declared with tear stained cheeks how she always wanted a father that would love her as a daughter. With trembling voice she said "Today I realized I have always had a great Father that deeply loved me. My heavenly Father." 

On the drive back home I kept thinking about my daughter Marissa currently in college. My deep desire and greatest joy is that she would be secure in my love and in the unfailing love of her heavenly Father. 

                          (Painted by Juan Baez at New Life Women's Encounter Retreat 2012)

Romans 8:14-16 Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons (daughters) of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but received the Spirit of sonship (daughtership). And by him we cry “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Thoughts from 30,000 Feet in the Air

Quito Trip

Last week I was about 30,000 feet in the air flying over South America on my way to Quito, Ecuador. It was  was probably the lack of oxygen, but I thought to myself "I need to start a blog". So this is my first blog entry. The following paragraph are some thoughts I wrote down in that crowded Continental airplane.

What a great feeling. I'm several thousand feet in the air somewhere over South America. My 18 year old son Josiah is sitting next to me happy to be out of school. Ozzie 19, who I'm mentoring, is sitting two seats over. Eduardo, fellow New Life Pastor is sitting across the aisle. We are on our way to minister at a High School-Alliance Academy in Quito, Ecuador. Josiah and Ozzie will both be helping me do the teaching to about 300 students. What a great opportunity to share ministry and experience time with these two young men that I am pouring into to be next generation leaders. We are expecting some divine appointments. We are hoping to leave some divine impartations and expecting to receive some divine deposits. We will also be scouting out Quito in our quest to find 10 cities to plant movements churches in. We are asking God to go before us.

The Lord's favor did go before us. We sensed that God had prepared the students at Alliance for our time together. The students opened their hearts quickly to us. At the first chapel teens came forward for prayer with many tears and sincere hearts wanting more of God. Throughout the week we had dozens of conversations with kids that were struggling with their past, wrestling with spiritual issues and wanting to move forward with God. Several students and faculty told us they had never seen this kind of spiritual openness before among the students. The final day a good number of students made public commitments to follow Jesus .  We carried back to Chicago a burden for our new young friends at AAI fighting to live for God in a difficult culture. 

(The picture below was taken in front of an active volcano known as Pichincha 15, 696 ft high. In October of 1999 this volcano erupted and covered Quito with several inches of volcanic ash.)