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January 14, 2012 Week In Review

This has been an exciting week for The Stretched Blog! On Thursday, we moved over to our own domain (from the WordPress domain). Traffic on the old and new sites remained high this week, and I’m looking forward to the week ahead where I’ll be reviewing The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, Frank Chiapperino will be visiting the blog on Wednesday, and The Stretched Blog will be visiting The Point on Thursday.

This week was truly a blessing as we made the transition to the new platform. Monday’s post featured my first eBook review of Michael D. Perkin‘s Manifesto on Being Myself. Tuesday, I shared some of my thoughts from Matthew 6. On Wednesday, Brandon Gilliland stopped by to share his thoughts on discerning God’s will. The new platform was introduced on Thursday. And we ended the week with another fun ice breaker question about going back to the future.

Your continued contribution to the blog through comments is greatly appreciated. Your comments are what makes this Stretched Community! Please remember to take the time to Subscribe to the NEW blog, so you can have Stretched delivered daily to your e-mail inbox. Also, don’t forget to stop by the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook fan page. Become a fan to keep up with some additional Stretched stuff. I am sharing more blog highlights from other blogs that I read regularly. I think you’ll find some great stuff here. Thanks!

Here are a few of my favorites from around the blog world this week:

How about you? How was your week? If you’re a blogger what happened over your way this week? Did you read any great blog posts this week? Share with the rest of us!

Guest Post – How To Have God’s Will For Your Life

Today, I have the honor of presenting Brandon Gilliland. Brandon is a young leader with lots of passion and incredible talent. He’s training to become a surgeon. In his spare time, he plays the guitar, and he blogs about leadership, following Christ, playing the guitar, and becoming a surgeon. Brandon currently writes at two blogs. You can check them out here and here. Please jump over and become one of his regular readers.

(If you’re interested in becoming a Stretched guest blogger, let me know in the comments, and I’ll get back to you. I’m always looking for people to share their Stretching stories.)

How To Have God’s Will For Your Life

A question that encompasses many Christian’s lives is “How do I follow God’s will for my life?” I have wondered this myself many times. As a student on track to become a surgeon, I have many doubts in my mind. I commonly question myself the methods that I am going through. A few short months ago, a really questioned if this track was God’s will for my life. I sometimes still question it, but I am starting to discover that becoming a surgeon is what God desires for me to do with my life. It is a lot of work, but if it is God’s will for my life, He will give me the strength and the necessary opportunities that will ultimately allow me to become a surgeon.

Like I said earlier, there were a few moments when I was not sure what God’s will for my life entailed (on the career side of things). As Christians, we should desire to stay in God’s will for our lives. If we are truly following Christ, we should have the desire to please and serve Him.

If we are always questioning if what we are doing is God’s will, then how can we serve Him to our absolute best ability? The answer is rather simple: focus on God. This is easy to say, but it is not easy to live out on a daily basis. There are a few things that I have to remind myself of all the time to be able to be assured that I am living God’s will for my life.

Pray

First off, prayer is important. If prayer is not an important part of your life, you can be certain that you are not in God’s will. If you are not on the same wavelength as God, you are not going to make the decisions that He wants you to make.

“Pray without ceasing…”

-1 Thessalonians 5:17

Keep the Main Goal in Mind

After prayer is an important part of your life, you need to keep the main goal in mind. Obviously, this goal can not be set properly without consulting God first. When you believe that God has revealed to you a certain goal after you have prayed about it, you can begin to focus on that goal. Go can desire something else, but you can have the right thought pattern. That leads us to the next point…

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

-Colossians 3:2

Focus on the Small Things

Ultimately, it is essential to know God’s main goal, but it is not beneficial to focus entirely on it. If you focus too much on the main goal, you can begin to drift. Instead, it is important to focus on the small tasks that lead to the ultimate goal. This method insures that you can follow God’s will. If you are doing everything that God wants you to do at every moment, you can be 100% sure that you are in God’s will for your life.

That is the problem though. We do not always pray. We do not always focus on God. We are not always on God’s wavelength.

This is the reason why we can stray from God’s will. He desires so much more for us, but sometimes we give up on the blessings He has for us.

What do you need to follow God’s will on?

January 7, 2012 Week In Review…

It’s time for The Stretched Blog Week in Review – the first for 2012! The traffic to the Stretched Blog is at an all-time high this week. In fact, blog traffic on Wednesday was the highest ever on the blog (and Thursday’s traffic was right behind). Thank you!

Here’s the rundown on the posts for the week:

Monday: December 2011 Top Posts

Tuesday: Meet Irwin

Wednesday: One Word For 2012: Transformed

Thursday: The Stretched Blog Visits The Analogous Truth

Friday (this actually posted Saturday do to a visit to me by the stomach flu): Ice Breaker – My First Car

Your continued contribution to the blog through comments is greatly appreciated. Your comments are what makes this Stretched Community! Please remember to take the time to Subscribe to the blog, so you can have Stretched delivered daily to your e-mail inbox. Also, don’t forget to stop by the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook fan page. Become a fan to keep up with some additional Stretched stuff. I have started to share more blog highlights from other blogs that I read regularly. I think you’ll find some great stuff here. Thanks!

Here are a few of my favorites from around the blog world this week:

It should be a fun week upcoming. Brandon Gilliland will be guest posting on Wednesday. We’ll have another fun Ice Breaker on Friday. And there’s sure to be more Stretching the rest of the week. Please stop back so you can see what’s going on here!

How about you? How was your week? If you’re a blogger what happened over your way this week? Did you read any great blog posts this week? Share with the rest of us!

The Stretched Blog Visits The Analogous Truth

Today, I have the privilege of guest posting over at The Analogous Truth. The Analogous Truth is a blog written by my friend, Arny Sanchez. Arny creatively relates pop culture to faith. My post today (I Love You Man!) fits into Arny’s theme. Please stop over to read it and add a comment or two. Also, please consider adding The Analogous Truth to your regular blog reading routine. Thanks!

(Note on guest posting: I’d love to share a guest post on your blog sometime or to have you guest post here about your stretching story. If either of these two opportunities interest you, drop me a comment.)

December 2011 Top Posts

We’ve reached the end of another month. December was the BEST month so far at Jon Stolpe Stretched. Traffic on the blog increased slightly by over 500 page views since November and by almost 300 page views since the previous record month (September 2011)! Comments continued to roll-in. And new people joined in the conversation and community. The blog added TWELVE new subscribers, and the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook Page attracted a couple of new followers in its fourth month. Here are the top 10 posts and top 3 commentors for the month:

Top 10 Posts

1. On Fire

2. Ice Breaker – Christmas Movies (the new #1 Ice Breaker question)

3. Ice Breaker – Christmas Songs and Carols

4. Surprise!!!

5. Our Christmas Ornament Tradition

6. Ice Breaker – On The 13th Day Of Christmas What Gift Are You Hoping to Get

7. Ten Things Every Small Group Leader Should Know (originally posted on October 24, 2011)

8. Ice Breaker – Favorite Toy

9. Leaders Are Readers – Creating My Reading List For 2012

10. It’s 40!

Top 3 Commentors (We blew by the 1,500th comment mark this month!)

1. Larry Carter (for the 2nd month in a row!)

2. Brandon Gilliland

3. Bill Grandi

I now have 32 regular subscribers. If you’d like to become a subscriber, see the “Join the Stretched Community” window on your right. It’s great to see this starting to take off.

Thank you to all of you for reading and contributing to the blog and to the reader community. I continue to grow a lot through this experience. *** This month, the top commentor will receive a copy of The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. Get your comments in for an opportunity to win!!! ***

As always, I love to share your “stretching” stories on my blog, so leave me a comment if you’re interested in being a guest blogger on Jon Stolpe Stretched. As a side note, I’d love to see guest bloggers in the monthly top 10 list!

Finally, if you’re a blogger, how did your blog to this month? What was your top post? What was your favorite post?

New Year’s Eve 2011 Week In Review…

It’s been a different week here at the Stretched blog. The holidays have provided a great opportunity to catch up with family, to relax, and to regroup for 2012. The traffic to the Stretched Blog was a little lower than the past few weeks, but that was expected. On the positive, December 2011 has been the best month (by far) since the blog started! Thank you!

Here’s the rundown on the posts for the week:

Monday: Top Posts of 2011 Number 3 – Reflect More, Risk More, Leave A Legacy – Start Blogging (A Guest Post by Jason Fountain)

Tuesday: Top Posts of 2011 Number 2 – Ten Things Every Small Group Leader Should Know

Wednesday: Top Posts of 2011 Number 1 – Top 10 Things To Do At Grove City College

Thursday: Book Review: Rumors of God by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson

Friday (this actually posted Saturday do to a visit to me by the stomach flu): Ice Breaker – Resolutions

I am so thankful for your continued contribution to the blog through comments. Your comments are what makes this Stretched Community! Please remember to take the time to Subscribe to the blog, so you can have Stretched delivered daily to your e-mail inbox. Also, don’t forget to stop by the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook fan page. Become a fan to keep up with some additional Stretched stuff. I have started to share more blog highlights from other blogs that I read regularly. I think you’ll find some great stuff here. Thanks!

I’m really excited about this upcoming week as we roll into 2012! I’ll be guest posting on a blog or two, and I’ll have more stuff right here. Please stop back so you can see what’s going on here!

How about you? How was your week? If you’re a blogger what happened over your way this week? Did you read any great blog posts this week? Share with the rest of us!

Christmas Eve 2011 Week In Review…

What a great week here at the Stretched Blog. The blog traffic is up for the week, and we’re already running a higher page view total than last month. If we can keep it up this week (which could be tough over the holidays), the Stretched Blog may see its highest page views per month total ever!

Monday’s post was titled My Treasure & My Heart was an opportunity to share some of my wrestling over time and priorities. I really appreciate the empathy and encouragement expressed in the comments for this post. Tuesday brought a visit from Jonathan Pearson. Jonathan did an excellent job sharing the stretching of a young leader. Wednesday, I started to share the top 5 posts for the year. The number 5 post for the year was a great guest post by my wonderful wife. She shared about Detours that she has experienced over the past year or two. On Thursday, I shared the 4th most popular Stretched post of 2011 – Locks of Love – about my daughter’s generous donation. And finally and Friday, I shared another fun Ice Breaker about our favorite toys.

A few of my favorite posts from the rest of the blogging community this week:

I’m really excited about this upcoming week as I’ll be sharing the top 3 posts for 2011, and I’ll be preparing for the new year! Please stop back so you can see what’s going on here!

How about you? How was your week? If you’re a blogger what happened over your way this week? Did you read any great blog posts this week? Share with the rest of us!

Potential, Position, and Pain (A Guest Post by Jonathan Pearson)

Today, I have the privilege of presenting guest blogger, Jonathan Pearson.

Jonathan Pearson

Jonathan Pearson is the Communications Pastor at Cornerstone Church, Assistant Director of The Sticks, and co-creator of MillennialLeader.com. Jonathan writes, tweets, & speaks to inspire people to work together to reshape the world. Jonathan can be found online at JonathanPearson.net and on twitter as @JonathanPearson. Jonathan is married to Melissa and the two live in Orangeburg, S.C.

(I’m always looking for opportunities to share others stretching stories. Please leave me a comment if you’re interesting in guest posting at Jon Stolpe Stretched!)

We all have those things that we’re uncomfortable with…

Those things that we find ourselves insecure about.

Those things we dread because we know we’re not good in a particular situation.

Those things that when forced to, we do OK in, but we don’t want to be forced to.

And then we have those things that we’re uncomfortable with but know are a necessary inconvenience.

Those things that we know, if we do them, we’ll lead us beyond where we are.

Those things that, once we get through them, take us to another level.

Those things that stretch us.

For me, it’s being young and leading people older than me.

Everyday of my life, it stretches me to think different, remain humble, and love those I lead.

Everyday, it forces me to get uncomfortable, to seek God, and to do the very best I can.

Some days, I screw it up.

Some days, I knock it out of the park.

But if I was never in over my head,

if I was never forced to get uncomfortable,

I’d never grow.

My potential would never be reached.

It’s in those times of tough, hard nosed, in over your head times of leadership that we’re prepared for our destiny… that we’re prepared for the God sized calling in our lives.

Don’t regret or detest what stretches you.

What’s stretching you these days?

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