Archive for Church Issues
16 Leadership Questions That Will Help Us Make It In Ministry - Part 14 June 30, 2009
14. Will I Preach Jesus?
In Matthew 10:32-33 Jesus is very clear to His disciples the purpose of preaching and leading is to proclaim His name…and that if anyone denies His name that He will deny them- pretty serious stuff.
I remember a time several years ago where I nearly lost my focus. I would find a cool video idea or a cool song idea or a sermon prop idea and try my best to revolve the sermon around a concept rather than scripture.
I actually thought I could give really great lessons in morality and not preach Jesus because His name seemed to constantly offend people—then God rocked my world, slapped my face, got my attention and helped me to understand that Jesus, and ONLY Jesus, is the game changer.
“Cool and cute” will impress people….but Christ will CHANGE them!
I could teach people get out of debt, have great sex with their spouse, get over anger issues, and become greater people; however, if I do all of that without pointing them to the Gospel and sharing Jesus with them I have rescued them from Hell on Earth and damned them to Hell in eternity.
(And do not misunderstand the paragraph above as me taking shots at teaching the practical…I am not against that at all…but when our goal is simply to be practical and avoid the controversial that the Gospel will cause…we have a problem!)
I try to be a student of growing churches…and the thing I see across the board in nearly every church that is experiencing growth is that they are preaching Jesus…that there is a dependence upon the Spirit and not just systems…
And the Spirit will ALWAYS lead us to proclaim the name of Jesus!
When our agenda in the church becomes anything except for Jesus (insert whatever you wish here—political preferences, home schooling, recycling, the list goes on and on) then we are proclaiming another Savior…which is dangerous and heretical!
I Corinthians 15:1-8 is where Paul says THIS is the most important thing we can preach…we NEVER go wrong by lifting up Christ.
Thoughts On My Birthday–Part Two June 25, 2009
#4 – I Want To Lead HIS Church As He Leads Me To Lead His Church.
I am more passionate about the church than I’ve ever been.
I have more hope…I see more potential…and I believe HIS church is on the verge of a movement that will rival any of the previous Great Awakenings. The best is YET to come!
Jesus started this church (Matthew 16:18) and will finish what He began (Philippians 1:6). HE has a plan for us…and the more I seek Him the more I believe that we haven’t even scratched the surface of all that He wants to do (Ephesians 3:20)!!!
He has surrounded me with an incredible team of people…I really do feel like David felt in I Chronicles 12:22.
AND…the church is HIS (Ephesians 1:22-23)…and I am more determined than ever before to seek HIS voice and then do exactly as He says to do.
#5 – I Want To Become Who HE Is Calling Me To Be…PERIOD.
As I said in yesterday’s post…I’ve most likely lived over half of my life already…so…
As I keep pressing on to become who He is calling me to be I will continue to surround myself with men and women who love Jesus, the church and me to speak truth into my life as they are led by the Holy Spirit.
BUT…
The critics and the naysayers who feel the obligation to “speak into my life” out of a sense of self righteousness and self preservation are going to be ignored now more than ever before!
I am sure your opinion matters to SOMEONE…just not me.
I don’t have the time, nor the energy, to do battle with you guys.
I honestly believe that a true follower of Jesus Christ will make religious people both uncomfortable and angry…and as long as those are the men and women shooting the arrows at me then I know I am walking in the right path. (John 15:18-21)
It’s not that I don’t care about you guys…it’s that I care enough to ignore you! You see, if what we are doing is wrong and sinful then the Lord will handle us…butif what we are doing here at NewSpring Church is of God…you can’t stop it (Acts 5:35-39) and are actually not opposing us…but Him. (BTW…you lose!)
I can’t be pressed into a mold from those who don’t know me, yet believe they know what is best for me. I’ve wasted too much time in the past 38 years allowing that to shape me…and it has gotten me know where.
Everyone is never going to like me…no matter what I say or do someone will always be pissed at me. That is why I am through wearing myself out in the hopes that everyone will understand and affirm me. I have ONE master…His name is Jesus…His opinion matters…and I am through tuning out His voice for fear that others may misunderstand and take shots at me.
Life is too short to seek the affirmation of everyone.
So…how about you…we are all living on borrowed time. If you knew you didn’t have much time left how would you adjust your life?
BTW…you don’t have much time left in comparison to eternity. List the changes and then make them today!
Thoughts On My Birthday–Part One June 24, 2009
I’m 38 today…and that fact alone has my mind racing…because…I’m actually FEELING it. There is gray hair invading my head, my back is constantly sore and it takes me a lot longer to recover from a long run than it did just three years ago.
I am not sure how you approach birthdays…but this thought has hit me more than once this week, “I have most likely lived over half of my life. I seriously doubt I will make it to 74…so what adjustments will I need to make to have a strong second half and finish the game well?”
(BTW…Scripture says in Psalm 90:12 that we should number our days. For me this activity was not depressing. I refuse to ignore the obvious…that one day I will take a dirt nap and leave this place…that will happen and I cannot control it; however, I can control how I live until that point!)
#1 – I want to relentlessly pursue Jesus…and continually surrender to the fact that He is pursuing me.
I don’t want Jesus to be my hobby…or someone to help me get chills and feel emotional…
I want to be obsessed with Him! Obsessed…someone who is obsessed with Christ can’t quit talking about Him…will obey Him the first time He commands…continually understands His position in the universe as the Most High God and is willing to do WHATEVER He asks…WHENEVER He asks it.
#2 – I want to love Lucretia like Christ loves His church.
I have been thinking so much about Ephesians 5:25-33 lately. I want…
- To give myself up for her…
- To speak words to her that affirm her and leave her radiant
- Love her as I love myself
- Continually understand that we are one, we are in this together, we are a team!
- Be a man that she doesn’t have to work very hard to respect.
She is my wife…my best friend and the one God has called me to spend the rest of my life with. I don’t want her to ever have to guess whether or not I love her…I want her to know it!
#3 – To Be A Godly Father to My Little Girl.
She turns two on Saturday…TWO…where in the heck did those two years go?
I am realizing more and more that a call to parenthood is ALSO a calling to discipleship. (Deuteronomy 6:4-8.) I cannot pass off this responsibility to church or Lucretia…I MUST lead this charge.
AND…it is IMPOSSIBLE to disciple someone if I am not spending time with them.
I want her to have my very best…not my leftovers. I want to communicate to her through the way I spend my time with her that she is valued and not a burden.
I don’t want to use the lame line, “I show her I love her by providing for her.” Paychecks and purchases will not replace me tucking her into bed every night and singing “Amazing Grace” to her. (BTW…that’s her favorite song!)
She is my little girl…she always will be…and I want to love her with everything I’ve got…thus making it nearly impossible for some young punk to come along and steal her heart!
(I will let her date when she is 14; however, she cannot use toothpaste, soap or deodorant until she is 30!)
Don’t Give Up! June 15, 2009
I don’t know who I am writing to…heck…I may need to come back one day and read this myself…but I really feel like I am supposed to tell someone, “DON’T GIVE UP!!!”
Church work can be the most frustrating thing on the planet to deal with…but don’t stop now! What you are seeing as an obstacle God is using as an opportunity! Don’t give up!!! (Galatians 6:9)
People hate you just because of what you do…and if you begin to experience any aort of success they will despise you even more. Don’t give up…your calling is not to please them!!! (Galatians 1:10)
You feel like you are not successful because your church hasn’t exploded with growth. BUT…you’ve seen 10 people receive Christ in the past year! REJOICE IN THAT…THE ANGELS DID!!! Don’t give up because your church isn’t getting attention from men…it has the attention of the Almighty…and in the end THAT is all that will matter!
You feel like you aren’t a good leader…or a good speaker. You want to walk away and do something else because you just don’t feel qualified. Remember…Jesus took some very unqualified men and CHANGED THE WORLD!!! (Acts 4:13)
Someone doesn’t like something you did recently…and they are not afraid to tell you about it. Remember…they didn’t like Jesus healing on the Sabbath either…but He kept on doing it because He knew He was pleasing His Father!!!
Your past haunts you…the enemy constantly thtows it in your face. You want to walk away when you focus on who you WERE…STOP IT and see who YOU ARE in Christ! (I Corinthians 6:9-11 - REALLY focus on verse 11!) Don’t give up!
People close to you have abandoned you…and you are hearing the things they say. You feel betrayed…hurt…and wonder if it is all worth it. Demas betrayed Paul…Judas betrayed Jesus…yet they hung in there and refused to allow that type of betrayal to take their eyes off of the goal.
Don’t give up! Don’t quit! Stay in the fight!!! God called you to be a warrior…and sometimes warriors get wounded. BUT…wounds should not take the desire to fight out of us…but rather cause us to want to fight even more.
I heard about a guy who was going through a rough time once and asked Bill Hybels, “With all of this stuff I am going through…why shouldn’t I just quit right now?’
Bill replied, “because one day you and I will stand in front of One who had an assignment much tougher than ours and He didn’t quit…that’s why!”
BAM!
Don’t quit…don’t give up…fight the good fight! (Galatians 6:9) Pray, fast, preach, witness, memorize Scripture…and give satan a swift kick in the cookies as often as possible!!
But whatever you do…don’t give up! He called you–He gifted you–He empowered you and He will sustain you! (II Corinthians 4) - the WHOLE THING!
Don’t give up!
16 Questions That Will Help Us Make It In Ministry - Part 13 June 12, 2009
13. Will Be Controlled by Fear or Will I be Faithful?
Fear is a reality. The man that says “I fear nothing” is a liar. We all are scared of something. Personally I am scared of spiders. I hate them. I hate them more than I hate cats. I think all spiders and cats go to Hell when they die. There have been times in my life when I have seen a spider and literally been paralyzed with fear and could not move because something that I feared held me captive.
Now if you think about it it’s a pretty ridiculous scenario. I’m 6’6” and weigh 225 lbs. and I wear a size 14 shoe. I can crush a spider at any time that I wish. But my perception of the problem is that the spider can somehow rise up and kill and eat me and I will exist no more. We laugh, it is ridiculous, but many of us as leaders let very small problems to hold us captive in fear.
One of the things that we constantly need to remind ourselves of is that the same power that conquered the grave lives in us. God is sovereign, He’s supreme, He reigns and if we’re operating under His authority and following His instructions have nothing to fear. Fear many times should drive us to desperation for Him so we can see how awesome He is.
What are you letting control you? If the answer isn’t “Jesus” then something has got to change!
16 Questions That Will Help Us Make It In Ministry - Part 12 June 11, 2009
12. Will Be More Like Jesus No Matter What?
I heard Rick Warren say at a conference recently, “When we do ministry just do it like Jesus”. I believe that is an excellent philosophy. It’s something that I personally strive for, however; it’s really hard when overwhelming situations seem to come our way.
In the text that I mentioned in this question, Jesus said and scriptures indicate that people actually accused Him of being demon-possessed and actually doing the work of the devil just because He wasn’t willing to cave in to the traditions of man. The same is true for us, when you and I strive to be more like Jesus as a leader, we will be misquoted, misrepresented, and misunderstood.
JESUS was accused of being demon-possessed (think about how CRAZY that is–people who criticize and tear down often cannot see their own foolishness…so it does not do any good to point it out to them) and if it’s true of Him its true of us.
People will question our motives and our ministry. But our goal in all of this should not be to try to explain ourselves but to simply keep our eyes on the Lord and strive to become more like Him. If we spend too much time explaining ourselves we won’t have time to actually do what it is God has commanded of us in the first place!
16 Questions That Will Help Us Make It In Ministry - Part Eleven June 5, 2009
11. Do I Understand That I will Experience Pain?
In Matthew 10:21-23 Jesus outlines very painful situations that a minister of the Gospel or a leader of a church will have to endure, the family issues, hatred issues, persecutions issues, are all associated with the calling on our life. Ministry is painful and if we stay in long enough the pain does not decrease it will increase. The thing we are to do in this situation is keep our eyes on Jesus because endured more pain then we every will and he never quit.
What are our common responses to pain?
We can run from it…which is NOT following the example of Jesus. After all, He did take an intense amount of pain for us!
We can deny it…after all, we are leaders, right? We aren’t supposed to hurt–heck–we’re superhuman! BUT…denying pain will only bring about physical, emotional and spiritual issues that we should not have to deal with. If a leader is going to lead well then he MUST be honest about the pain he goes through.
We can inflict it…because hurting people hurt people, right? Many times our response when we hurt is to hurt others…not the Christlike thing to do!
We can play through it! Jesus did not promise us a life free from pain. If He did then He didn’t live the life that He promised because He dealt with pain–people doubted Him, one of his closest friends betrayed Him, He was murdered and mocked while that was being done. YET…He played through the pain and the result was something the world has never seen!!! Some of the most amazing leaders on the planet are NOT the ones who have never dealt with pain…but rather the ones that have been willing to play through it!
We can learn from it. Whenever I experience pain I try my best to learn from it so that I won’t have to go through that lesson again…some lessons I have learned lately associated with pain are…
- HE IS THE MOST HIGH GOD!!! (It’s amazing how often I forget this!)
- He will handle those who oppose His work…my responsibility is to focus on His work!
- He is faithful!
- Giving thanks on a more frequent basis is the best medication for my worry and stress.
- Laziness and apathy are two things that God has never used to bring about positive change!
One more thing…I did a blog post quite a while back entitled, “The Pastors Pain.” If you haven’t read it…and you are a pastor (or you care about one) I would highly suggest you take a look at it.