Archive for March, 2010
Ten Questions That Unchurched People ARE NOT Asking! March 31, 2010
#1 – “What do you do to disciple people?” (This question is usually asked by people who want to ‘microwave” spiritually, not understand that they themselves actually became mature in the “crock pot.”)
#2 – “Who is speaking this weekend?” (They usually don’t care about the WHO…it’s the WHAT that matters to them.)
#3 – “Are you reformed in your theology?” (Most of them have no idea what in the heck this means!)
#4 – “Is your church spirit filled?”
#5 – “What version of the Bible do you use?” (Many unchurched people don’t even really know there are different versions!)
#6 – “What denomination are you affiliated with?”
#7 – “How many different activities can I sign my family up for in order to add to the insane schedule that we already have?”
#8 – “Does your pastor teach exegetically through the Scriptures?”
#9 – “Are there lots of crosses and pictures of Jesus in your church?”
#10 – “Are you guys pre trib, mid trib, post trib or partial trib?”
My Thoughts On Health Care Reform… March 30, 2010
The short version – it doesn’t matter!!!
Now for the long version…
It amazes me that “Christians” who say they believe in an all powerful, completely Sovereign God are freaking out about a policy that our federal government has passed. (BUT…it IS funny that many of the leaders who passed it are exempt from actually submitting to it…another post for another time!)
“Christians” will scream that God is “Jehovah Rafa,” (the God who heals) in our services…but then rely on our government for healing more than Him!
I stand by my original statement…it doesn’t matter…WHEN we compare it to the grand scheme of eternity!
It’s policy…it’s legislation…it’s something that our news media is obsessed with…AND IN 200 YEARS IT WILL NOT MATTER!!!
(I can see the emails coming now as to how it is going to impact our kids and such…if God is Sovereign then He’s already handled that…and I won’t be emailing you back because IT DOESN’T MATTER!)
Thousands of years ago Roman politicians paraded around in all their glory and passed legislation that governed thousands of miles of territory…and today it doesn’t matter!!!
BUT…church leaders…what WE ARE DOING WILL MATTER IN 200 YEARS!!!
The lives that are being impacted in our churches today WILL impact lives that impact lives that impact lives that…well…you get the point.
Church leaders all too often get way too obsessed with political struggles that we should pay attention to and vote on…but NOT be obsessed over, and NOT allow some crazy political agenda to hijack what Jesus called us to do…take the Gospel to the world.
Paul never staged a political protest (even though Christians were being set on fire!) Jesus never organized a political rally (even through the Roman army had invaded Israel and were forcing their rule over them.) Jesus was not a Republican…or a Democrat!!!
SO…church world…STOP IT!
We are commanded in the Scripture to pray for our leaders…we should take part in the political process and vote…but we are NOT supposed to FREAK OUT when things don’t seem to be going our way!
This weekend we are doing church…it’s Easter weekend, the “Super Bowl” if you will…don’t you DARE take this weekend to get political when God has given us the message of reconciliation!!! People need JESUS…not more policies and proceedures.
What those Roman politicians were doing doesn’t matter in today’s world…but what the CHURCH was doing 2,000 years ago STILL MATTERS TODAY! When it comes to issues that seize my attention…I am going to choose to focus on the things that matter…
His church matters…
Eternity matters…
Jesus is ALIVE…there is NO GREATER MESSAGE…BRING IT THIS WEEKEND!
This Week… March 29, 2010
As I mentioned yesterday NewSpring Church is going to be laser focused this week by…
#1 – Doing all that we can to invite people to church this weekend.
#2 – BEGGING God to do something amazing this weekend.
He has a great track record of doing some pretty incredible things on Easter…dating back about 2,000 years! :-)
I also mentioned yesterday that each campus will be gathering together beginning today and going through Thursday from 12:00 to 1:00 every day to pray for our services this weekend…specifically to pray for people that do not know Christ to meet Him!!! (You can go to the NewSpring Church website to either enter a name of a person to pray for…or if you can’t make it to one of the lunch time prayer meetings you can log on and lift up people by name.)
Also…I have asked our entire church to fast this week. (You can check out Clayton’s message that he did on fasting at our church if you want to know more about the subject–here is the link.)
- You can fast for a day or two…or all week, whatever the Lord puts on your heart.
- You can fast for a specific time period (like from 5:00 pm one day until 5:00 pm the next day.)
- You can fast from a particular meal.
- You can fast from a particular type of food.
- You can fast from something other than food (like maybe facebook or twitter!)
BUT whatever we fast from it should remind us of our desperation for God…that HE is enough…that without HIM moving this weekend NOTHING significant will happen!
My prayer is that extreme desperation will lead to undeniable revelation…that people will show up this weekend and not be able to deny that Jesus is real!!! I can’t WAIT to see what happens!
Let’s INVITE…PRAY…and then show up anticipating great things!!!
Sunday Night Reflections… March 28, 2010
A few thoughts on a GREAT DAY at NewSpring…
- We have not had a Sunday THIS YEAR (including today) that we haven’t seen someone step across the line of faith and confess Jesus as Lord…and, you guessed it…THAT never gets old!
- The pumpkin cheesecake today was provided by Sullivans (in downtown Anderson!) It was amazing…and was one of the most practical examples of evangelism we’ve ever done.
- Evangelism is NOT an option for the church…it is a command! (See Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:48, John 20:21, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:14, Romans 10:17 and II Corinthians 5:17-21 for starters!)
- John pointed to Jesus…the church should as well! (See John 1:35-36!)
- Yes, I did say the main difference between a Baptist and a Presbyterian is that a Baptist won’t wave at you in the liquor store!
- “When did you meet Jesus” is THE most important question we need to answer in this life!
- People that meet Christ have a desire for others to meet Christ! (See Matthew 9:9-13!)
- There is not ONE example in the NT of a church that meets on Sunday to talk about themselves, try to impress each other and see ZERO life change and repentance!
- Church should not be done to impress the religious…but rather environments should be made where ANYONE can attend, be introduced to Jesus and let HIM change their lives! (Once again, see Matthew 9:9-13)
- Religious people always get upset when environments where non-religious people can gather together and meet Jesus!
- When a church begins to do church for the “already convinced”–evangelism will always take a back seat!
- Our job is not to legislate the morality of people who don’t know Christ…but rather to introduce them to Him!
- The world will NOT BE CHANGED by what we believe but rather how we behave!!!
- I am NOT praying for merely an amazing church service next week…but rather an AWAKENING that forever changes the communities we are in!
- 53% of Anderson County is unchurched (that’s 88,000 people!)
- 61% of Greenville County is unchurched (that’s 233,000 people!)
- 75% of Florence County is unchurched (that’s 93,000 people!)
- 81% of Columbia is unchurched (that’s 258,000 people)
- (BTW…84% of Charleston is unchurched!)
- That’s a TOTAL of 672,000 people who are NOT in church, who NEED Jesus!
- Take a look @ that line above again…EVERY SINGLE one of those people have a SOUL…THEY MATTER TO GOD and therefore SHOULD matter to us!
- BTW…the GOAL for our church is reducing that number in each community to ZERO PERCENT…and until THAT happens we CANNOT fall into the lie that we have somehow arrived!
- I have a passion that I want it to be IMPOSSIBLE for a person in the communities we are planted in for a person to go to hell!!!
- JESUS changes people…we do not! It is not our job to change someone…but rather to get them to a place where they can meet Jesus and HE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!
- I can’t WAIT to see what happens on our campuses NEXT WEEKEND…I can’t WAIT to see what happens at our campuses this weekend as we fast and pray!
- Personally, I think it will be more of a challenge for some people in our church to fast from Facebook for 24 hours rather than food!
- HERE is the website where you can enter the name of a friend/family member who needs Christ…AND you can also view names to pray for all week long!
- Church…let’s PRAY like crazy and work as hard as we can to make sure we do all we can to get people to church next weekend that need Christ…and let’s trust HIM to be the difference maker!!!
I will blog more about fasting/praying tomorrow…this post is long…I hope you all have an amazing week!! I can’t WAIT to see what Jesus does at NewSpring Church next weekend!
Ten Signs A Leader Is “Losing It!” March 25, 2010
I’ve been reading through the OT lately and have been challenged by the downward leadership spiral that Saul went on…here are TEN signs from his life that point to a leader “losing it.”
#1 – The ministry he leads moves from being about the name of God to the name of the leader. (Compare I Samuel 14:35 with I Samuel 15:12!)
#2 – He gets impatient with the process that God is taking him through and thereby tries to “make something happen” rather than waiting on God’s timing. (I Samuel 15:5-10)
#3 – He makes self centered leadership decisions that slow down the people he works with rather than empowering them. (I Samuel 15:24–notice the references to himself in this verse.)
#4 – He refuses to completely obey God because it places him in uncomfortable situation. (I Samuel 15:1-9)
#5 – He allows fear of man to trump his fear of God. (I Samuel 15:24)
#6 – He refuses to take action and deal with the obvious issue in front of him…and if anyone attempts to do so he is quick to tell them they cannot! (I Samuel 17:32-33)
#7 – He cannot celebrate the success of others. (I Samuel 18:8-9)
#8 – He tries to discredit/destroy anyone or anything that looks like it is successful apart from him–Saul actually became more obsessed with destroying David than he did leading the kingdom! (I Samuel 18:10-11)
#9 – He resorts to trying to see the spectacular apart from the presence of God. (I Samuel 28)
#10 – He refuses to deal with the fact that his jealousy, insecurity, disobedience and self reliance is not only going to cost him…but cost others as well! (I Samuel 31:1-3)
I Used To Know It All March 24, 2010
I knew everything there was to know about marriage…I was the expert, had philosophies and ideas that I knew would make marriage unbelievable. THEN I got married and discovered that it took more than philosophy to make marriage successful…it took work and change and adjustments and a willingness to unlearn everything I thought I knew!
I knew everything there was to know about raising children…I was the expert. I was NEVER going to be THAT parent that had a kid freak out in the middle of a restaurant…I was NEVER going to say ridiculous things such as, “do you want a spanking?” THEN Lucretia and I had Charisse and I understood that it took more than philosophies and book knowledge to raise a child…it took work and change and adjustments and a willingness the unlearn everything I thought I knew.
I knew everything there was to know about leading a church…I was the expert. After all, I had taken some seminary classes, had experiences working in a couple of churches and had read some books by some people who had done quite well in regards to leading great churches. THEN I became a senior pastor and quickly discovered that it took more than philosophies and some inspirational one-liners from my favorite conference speaker to really lead a church…it took work and change and adjustments and a willingness to unlearn everything I thought I knew.
I’ve been a senior pastor now for about 10 years…and the longer I do this the more I realize that I really don’t know what I’m doing, which is awesome for because realizing this will keep me desperate for God’s voice; after all, it IS His church.
I will NEVER have church leadership figured out! The more I am around amazing leaders the more I realize I have so much to learn. The thing that I have learned though is that in order to be an effective church leader we MUST be willing to throw out philosophies, ideas and “book knowledge” that doesn’t fall in line with what the Scriptures and the Spirit is saying…
The beginning of Jesus bringing serious change in His church is when He begins to bring that type of serious change in the leadership of that church! If we are willing to embrace all He has for us…we will see things that absolutely blow our minds…and that’s my prayer. I don’t want to know it all…I want to know HIM who controls it all…and trust Him to lead me step by step!
“New And Improved” MIGHT Not Always Be The Best Answer! March 23, 2010
A few thoughts hit me the other day after reading I Samuel 17:38-40…
#1 – Saul wanted David to embrace this new and improved way of doing battle.
#2 – David gave it a shot and realized that it wasn’t going to work for him.
#3 – Saul (and everyone else) probably thought David was insane to not receive the latest “technological invention” that was being offered to him.
#4 – David probably thought, “If these guys have so many technological advances then why are they crapping their pants every time Goliath comes out to fight them?
#5 – David went with what he knew…a sling and five smooth stones. He went “old school” if you will…and we all know the rest of the story.
Now please hear me…I’m NOT against technology; in fact, I think it is a gift from God that should be fully leveraged an used to advance the Gospel…but…
#1 – Technology should be used to support the sermon, not drive it.
#2 – A church can begin to depend way too much on their technology and not enough with their connection to their Creator…which leads to fruitless ministry.
#3 – Often times if a church is not careful a dependence upon technology can lead to laziness and an unwillingness to actually get in the fight!
#4 – Sometimes a church has got to go with what they know…David KNEW what he had planned would work, it had worked before…and MAYBE people called him boring, predictable and unwilling to change…UNTIL he actually brought the giant down that had held an entire army captive!
#5 – David set himself up for battle by embracing the particular gifts and skill sets that God had designed him with…he rejected the pressure to be someone he was not…and THAT decision COULD have saved his life!