"Religiously devoted" non-believers

An eminent apologist for the Christian religion, as well as a great mathematician and experimental scientist, Blaise Pascal, helps to provide the needed explanation (about who the book is written for).  He divided all mankind into three groups.  In his view, these comprised:

1.) Those who know God and love him

2.) Those who do not know God but seek him

3.) Those who neither know God nor seek him

Clearly, persons in the first of the three groups are not pagans; they may be either religious Christians, religious Jews, or religious Muslims.  They are persons who believe in God and participate in the worship of him.  Persons in the second and third group do not believe in the God worshipped by religious Christians, Jews, and Muslims.  By that negative criterion, they are all pagans, but with this important difference: Persons in the second of Pascal's groups, while not believing in God, are open-minded pagans- at least to the extent of their being willing to consider the question whether God exists.  Those in the third group are resolutely committed pagans, as resolutely committed as are the religious persons in the first of Pascal's group.

Mortimer Adler, How to Think about God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan, 6.

It is awesome when some light shines through and illuminates something I have been thinking about for awhile.  There is nothing better than an old book to shine light on a contemporary issue.  I could not agree with Adler more.  In today's world, 

There is a growing group of "religiously devoted" non-believers.  

What marks these folks?  They have a deep-seated belief that they are more advanced and sophisticated than people of faith.  When faith is brought up, they smile condescendingly and say how they are glad that religion works for you.  When I see this look, I know continuing the discussion is pointless.  No information, no argument, no presentation will even be considered.  They have rejected the very possibility of ultimate Truth and the existence of the God of the bible.

In its place, they have embraced a dependence upon themselves, their judgment, and their ability to find "happiness" in our fallen world.  Increasingly, they also trust in either politics or a rejection of politics and an embrace of self-sufficient anarchy to provide answers to life's most pressing questions.

This is going to sound unfair, but I wonder what would happen in our world if sincere, thinking, and articulate believers were brave enough to share how following and walking with Jesus actually answers life's most pressing questions?  Instead, most of us live like our "religiously devoted" non-believing friends.

The Empty (Political) Philosophy of Today

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, 

according to human tradition, 

according to the elemental spirits of the world, 

and not according to Christ. 

Col. 2:8

Boy is this one tough!  Why?  Because any hollow philosophy that conforms to the "elemental spirits of this world" seems so natural to us.  It is a rule of life that comes directly from "human tradition."  By and large, we like fitting into human tradition.  We desperately want to be accepted by our peer group (whoever that may be).

In other words, all of us are naturally and easy drifting toward being held captive 

by worldly philosophy and empty deceit.

Not so sure?  Check out the blogs and website of many "christian thinkers" this election season.  I have never seen more "christian" people giving up or redefine so many major orthodox beliefs of the Christian faith for politics.  One would think Jesus was a progressive democratic (This is the popular position for trendy christian writers).  One would think that Trump represents godly leadership.  

The sadness for me as I read these blogs is that these folks are well-meaning.  They are sincere.  They believe what they are saying is "biblical truth."  The problem is that they have adopted some very contemporary ideas about human nature, redemption, personality, transformation, and self-expression.  These ideas are informed by our contemporary political scene.  

What has happened?  These folks have taken a modern definition of words or ideas, and they have read back into the biblical text to get it to say what is acceptable to today's standards.  As such, they have redefined biblical truth instead of allowing biblical truth, as it was written and intended to be understood, to define our understanding of Truth.

Why would they do this?  Why would so many affirm them instead of calling them to task?

Our naturalistic, contemporary, human tradition believes that every opinion is equally valid.  We believe that texts (like the bible, the constitution, or any other text) only have the meaning that we bring to the text.  Original intent does not matter; or if it does matter, it only is one voice of meaning.

Friends, this idea will lead many into error.  It will lead many astray.  It will also put the eternal souls of many in danger.  (This sounds so harsh, doesn't it?  Our cringing at such statements only illustrates the hollow philosophy of today!)

Why?  Jesus is True God of True God.  The fulness of deity dwells within Him (Col. 2:9).  He does not leave us alone.  He had revealed Himself to us because on our own, we would not be able to figure it out.  

How did Jesus reveal himself?  The clearest expression is the Word of God.  The 66 books found within scripture.  God does not lead us in ways that contradict the Word of God.  The Spirit still is speaking and leading believers to know the will of God, but the Spirit also will not contradict the Word of God.  This means we need to know and to trust God's revealed Word!  This takes time and effort.

We also have to know and to identify the false, worldly philosophy of our day.  We have to call it false.  We need to safeguard our thoughts, our feelings, and our faith against the false teaching.  We need to repent when we are caught up in the worldly philosophy of our day.  We need to cling to Jesus and pray for ourselves, our family, our friends, and our countries.  Pray that grace and truth will again be known.  As Paul says,

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, 

just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Col. 2: 6-7

Why Politics Rarely Changes Things...

"I was asking hard questions: 'How do we make a just society?' 'How do we look at the immorality in our world?'  I had tried to make life better through social reform and psychological reform and educational reform and political reform," he says.  "After I got to a certain point, I began to understand that the undergirding of all of those principles has to be spiritual, not something that Freud said but something spiritual.  So that's when I went to seminary."

Gerald Durley in "Pastor and Activist," Leadership (Summer 2000), 54.

In politics, the law of unintended consequences always wins.

What does this mean?

As a group of people, we seek to solve one problem, and we cause at least two more.  We think we can easily solve these two problems, but now we have four new ones.  Before long, we make an unintended problem that is bigger than any issue we tried to solve.

Why does this happen?

We live in a fallen world while we long for a perfect world.

In other words, the primary problem in this world is a spiritual problem.

I agree with Gerald Durley, who has lived an interesting life as a civil rights activist, a political activist, and a pastor.  At its root, the problem in our country, the problem in every country, the problem with every "system" is its tendency toward decay and ruin by running away from God's ways.  

We should never be surprised when we see injustice and immorality.  It is a mark of a world turned in upon itself and away from God.  As the world system pulls further away from how God made it to be, more injustice and immorality will come to pass.  It will become codified into law.  It will be enforced by the heavy hand of the state.  

What is the answer and cure to all these problems?

Believers of every stripe have taken up the cause of politics, education, psychology and other social answers.  In particular, we have aligned ourselves with political parties, and we live and die mentally and spiritually by who wins elections.  We fight by using political means to change our culture, our educational system, and every other system thinking that the arm of the state can make things right.  Then we are disappointed when every political solution has more harmful unintended consequences than helpful results.

While we are called to pursue God's Kingdom by promoting justice and love, our embrace of politics as  "God's primary means" of changing the world is wrong-headed.

Why?

Humans as individuals and humans collectively are a fallen lot!  Our biggest problem is spiritual.  The more fallen people who get together to create a "system" the greater the possibility of corruption and evil to become the new law.  This goes for our political system, our educational system, and even our local churches.  It is a fact that should not be ignored.  If we choose to ignore it, as our culture does, we do so to our own peril.

As a culture, our system is broken.  I believe no amount of tinkering with the fringes of the system will cure the problem.  In fact, I think because the heart of the system is in rebellion against God, the entire system will only grow worse no matter what political party or powerful group tries to take control.

What is truly our greatest need as a culture?

We need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as individuals and as people involved in a cultural "system."  Instead of claiming "Bush did it" or "Obama is the problem" we need to confess that selfish pride and independence from God because of unbelief are the real problems in our culture.  

Our system is broken because the heart of the system is bad.

Our biggest problem is spiritual.  I am thankful that none of us as individuals is beyond redemption.  Take hope.

I also think that culture is constantly reinventing itself, so perhaps out of the ashes of our consumeristic Western culture will arise a new culture formed on the anvil of repentance and renewed faith.  But just as "bleeding" or "leeches" were once thought as  the best medical cure but later proved to be false, we need to look to the true cure of our individual and cultural woes.

We are sinners in need of grace.  God's ways and truth should not be ignored but recognized.  We recognize God's ways by repenting our our sin against Him and others and believing in Jesus Christ as our source of forgiveness and power for transformation.  We must live this truth as individuals and pray it through and for our country.

Family, Family Life, and the Future

Some interesting statistics about the family and family life.  These statistics are about a year old, but I don't think many of the numbers have changed for the positive in the past year.

What do these statistics mean for church life in the next year?  Ten years?  Twenty years?


Incredible stuff on an economics blog called Zero Hedge.  These folks are not coming from a "Christian Worldview" but I do not think that James Dobson could have said it better.  Amazing stats that call for real revival.  Only changed hearts can change these trends!

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

The family is one of the fundamental building blocks of society.  If you do not have strong families, you are not going to have a strong society.  Unfortunately, the state of the family in America continues to deteriorate.  The marriage rate has fallen to an all-time low, we lead the world in divorce, and about a third of all children live in a home without a father. 

Our young people have been taught that getting married and having a family is not a priority, and many of those that would like to get married and have children are not able to get the kinds of jobs that they need to support a family.  The statistics that you are about to see should absolutely shock you. 

American families have never been this weak, and this is an incredibly troubling sign for the future of our nation.  What will future generations of Americans be like if they do not have stable homes to grow up in?  Will they be even more messed up than we are right now?  That is a frightening thought.  

The following are 27 facts that prove that the family in America is in the worst shape ever...

#1 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.  Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#2 Today, an all-time low 44.2 percent of Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket are married.

#3 According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all adults in the United States are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

#4 Back in 1950, 78 percent of all households in the United States contained a married couple.  Today, that number has declined to 48 percent.

#5 100 years ago, 4.52 were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

#6 The United States has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

#7 In the United States today, more than half of all couples "move in together" before they get married.

#8 The divorce rate for couples that live together first is significantly higher than for those that do not.

#9 For women under the age of 30 in the United States, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

#10 In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old.  Now the average woman has her first child when she is25.6 years old.

#11 According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 69.3 births per 1,000 women in the 15 to 44 year old age bracket in 2007. Now the rate has fallen to 63.2 births per 1,000 women.

#12 The birth rate for American women in the 20 to 24 year old age bracket has fallen to 85.3 births per 1,000 women.  That is a new all-time record low.

#13 The United States has the highest divorce rate in the entire world.

#14 At this point, approximately one out of every three children in the United States lives in a home without a father.

#15 Without a father around, many single mothers in this country are really struggling to survive.  Sadly, approximately 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States are on food stamps.

#16 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point before they reach the age of 18.

#17 Today, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.

#18 The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the entire world.  In fact, the United States has a teen pregnancy rate that is more than twice as high as Canada, more than three times as high as France and more than seven times as high as Japan.

#19 In the United States today, approximately 47 percent of all high school students have had sex.

#20 Approximately one out of every four teen girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

#21 According to one survey, 24 percent of all U.S. teens that have at least one sexually transmitted disease say that they still have unprotected sex.

#22 Instead of being raised by parents, an increasing number of children in America are being raised by movies, television and video games.  For example, the average young American will spend 10,000 hours playing video games before the age of 21.

#23 Americans are tied with the British for the highest average number of hours spent watching television each week.

#24 There are more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States every single year.

#25 The United States actually has the highest child abuse death rate in the developed world.

#26 Approximately 20 percent of all child sexual abuse victims in the United States are under the age of 8.

#27 It is estimated that one out of every four girls will be sexually abused before they become adults.

Unfortunately, this is a problem that is not going to be fixed overnight.  Getting the "right politicians" into office will not solve our problems and neither will spending a bunch of money.

The change that we need is a change of the heart.  We need to change how we treat one another and we need to get our priorities straight.

Our families are really messed up, and this is hurting our kids the most.  There is no way that this country is going to have any hope for a bright future unless our families start getting stronger.

Or could it be possible that I am overreacting?

What do you think?

Piper on Emotional Blackmail in the Church

Not feeling loved and not being loved are not the same.  Jesus loved all people well.  And many did not like the way he loved them.  Was David's zeal for the Lord imbalanced because his wife Michal despised him for it?  Was Job's devotion to the Lord inordinate because his wife urged him to curse God and die?  Would Gomer be a reliable witness to Hosea's devotion? ...

I have seen so much emotional blackmail in my ministry I am jealous to raise a warning against it.  Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person's failure to love.  They aren't the same.  A person may love well and the beloved still feel hurt, and use the hurt to blackmail the lover into admitting guilt he or she does not have.

Emotional blackmail says, "If I feel hurt by you, you are guilty."  There is no defense.  The hurt person has become God.  His emotion has become judge and jury.  Truth does not matter.  All that matters is the sovereign suffering of the aggrieved.  It is above question.  This emotional device is a great evil.  I have seen it often in my three decades of ministry and I am eager to defend people who are being wrongly indicted by it.

John Piper, Gospel Coalition- Piper on Emotional Blackmail in the Church, March 23, 2015.

Wow.  This post from John Piper found on the Gospel Coalition website is more than profound.  It is so true.

In relationships between husbands and wives.  In relationships within families.  In work relationships.  In churches and how they deal with each other.

Our age is marked by the right to claim victim status for anything we feel is against us.  We claim malice of others against us.  At the very least, we knowingly inform people they are ignorant of how offensive they are.

What if our relationships were about coming to an understanding 

instead of moving immediately to placing blame and assuming guilt of the other?  

What if we assumed that there would be disagreements in life 

but that we should not take these disagreements personally?

It was not long ago these two traits were the mark of emotionally healthy individuals.  What if they still are the mark of emotionally healthy individuals?

Remix: Stress, Friendship, and the Gospel

As I graduated from high school, one of my friends was asked the meaning of life.  His response, "To find out who and what are true friends."

This is a great observation.  We are made for companionship.  We are made to love and to be loved.  Yet, we live such lives of quiet isolation.

My guess is the C.S. Lewis was correct in his observation that hell will be marked by isolation and complete self-regard.

Today, I repost (with corrections) my second most popular post from 2014.  May the Lord use it in your life.

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

I have been reading an interesting book on the consequences of stress on the human body.  In particular, the author was commenting on the relationship between bad stress, which raised various "flight or fight" hormones in the body, and heart disease.  He argued that feeling trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless leads to increased stress chemicals in the body, which eventually lead to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).  

To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  He also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listened to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make.

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves from others while retreating into time with only our families.  I believe we do so to our own harm.  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the "feelings" of having many friends and fellow travelers without causing real engagement with others.  I believe it is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.
We need real friends.

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard.  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?

This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship.

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.

Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease.  It lowers your chances of sudden death.  It also increases joy, freedom, and creativity.  

With that in mind, what can you do this week to nurture true friendships?

Our Life of Struggle

"Blessed by the Lord, my rock, 

who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

he is my steadfast love and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield and he in whom I take refuge,

who subdues people under me."

Ps 144: 1-2

In many places in the world today, Christians have been sold a worthless bill of goods when it comes to understanding life.  We are often told that Jesus will make it all better.  We are affirmed to believe merely that the gospel is our second chance.  We are taught to do our best and Jesus will take care of the rest.

What if the Christian life was more about struggle than victory?  What if our experience was meant to be marked more by warfare than by peace and security?

Against what do we battle?

We battle against the world system that is turned against God.  Its goal is to make the things of God look foolish and to make that which is foolish look great.  The more complete the world's system is against God, the more difficult it is to identify the worldly pull away from truth and righteousness.  We must fight against the world.

We battle against our flesh.  Our flesh or sinful nature never leaves us.  Even in the most godly person alive there is a constant struggle against our inward pull away from God.  When the world also matches perfectly with our flesh, as it does in the affluent parts of the world today, the pull of the flesh looks and feels so natural and good.  We must fight against the flesh.

The battle against the devil.  There is personal evil in this world that seeks to destroy the work of God.  It is personified in the fallen angel named Satan, but he also has a host of demonic associates who work behind the scenes.  These forces empower the world system.  They tempt the flesh.  Then the accuse the believer for being such a hypocrite.  We must fight against the devil and his schemes.  

How do we fight?

First we must realize we are in a struggle.  We have enemies who are shooting at us and the Church.  They are seeking to eliminate truth and righteousness from every area of life.  If we do not "seek His Kingdom and His righteousness" we will be made ineffective in our struggle.  

Do not be surprised at the trials and difficulties you face.  It is part of life.  In our fallen world, we live in a state of constant struggle.  Relationships are so easily broken.  Security is shaky at best.  Trouble is a constantly unwelcome companion.

Yet, God uses them to "train our hands for war, and our fingers for battle."  All that we need to do is recognize the training program!

All of our trials, all of our struggles, all of our conflicts should point us to the only true "fortress, stronghold, and shield in which we find steadfast love, a deliverer, and a refuge."  Even the process of aging and approaching death can be used to prepare us for everlasting life with our creator.

There is more to life than just this life and our experience of our life.

We are created to know and experience God's love and mercy.  It is found in the gospel.  It is lived by repenting of our sin and self-sufficiency while we look to Christ and His righteousness as our bread of life.  Lord have mercy upon me is a prayer God never despises!  He will send His mercy and grace to us, even in the midst of trials, when we ask Him for help.

Today, may we enter the battle.  May we witness, affirm, and engage in God's training program.  He is the Lord and He loves us.  There is no other god.  Come to Jesus and ask for His grace to believe in His love and watch care as enough.

The Deadly Sin of Envy

"It has been said that Envy is the one deadly sin to which no one readily confesses.  It seems to be the nastiest, the most grim, the meanest.  Sneering, sly, vicious.  The face of Envy is never lovely.  It is never even faintly pleasant.  Its expression crosses our faces in a split second.  'Few are able to suppress in themselves a secret satisfaction at the misfortune of their friends,' said La Rochefoucauld, and few of us are able to suppress a secret envy at someone else's good fortune, or even at someone else's good joke.  If we confessed each day how often we had been envious during it, we would be on our knees longer than for any other sin.

Although all the deadly sins are morbid and self-destroying, Angus Wilson has said, most of the others provide at least some gratification in their early stages.  But there in no gratification for Envy, nothing it can ever enjoy.  Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment.  'It has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own feet in its efforts to escape.'"

Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins for Today, 61.

What is envy?  I don't think we can recognize envy like past generations and other cultures.  Why?  Envy is so ingrained in our culture that it is like the air we breathe.  It is the way we do business.  It is often the foundation of our thoughts and lives.  

So what does envy look like today?

In our culture it takes the form of rampant consumerism.  We are so marketed to that we do not know anything different.  While this marketing promotes other deadly sins such as gluttony and lust, it appeals to our base nature desire more.  Remember these slogans:

"You deserve a break today."  "Be all you can be."  "Because you are worth it."  "When you only deserve the best."

These just come off the top of my head.  How many more are out there?!  At its heart, each slogan appeals to our most base nature.  We do deserve better.  It is particularly clear we deserve better when we see others enjoying, flaunting, having that which we want.  Not so secretly, the thought crosses our minds that those who have what we want do not deserve it.

Envy now rules.

Has not our entire political discussion engaged and promoted envy?  President Obama won reelection in large part by pounding this theme.  The rich do not deserve what they have.  They only got what they have by taking it from the poor.  The subtle and unstated claim here is that they should be punished and you should be rewarded because you deserve more.  Is this not how to make a strong middle class?

Envy is our cultural marker.

Why can we not be happy with someone else's success?  Is it not possible for everyone to succeed, even though some do so to greater measure than others?  Do not those who succeed in greater measure employ those of us who need jobs?

When envy rules, these questions do not matter.  All that matters is a growing dislike of those with what we want and "deserve" and a gnawing desire for something that will satisfy our soul.  This path will not breed a happy and strong lower class, middle class, or upper class.  It breeds anger, resentment, and ever deepening sin.

These observations have obvious implications for the Christian life.  We must recognize our envy so we can repent and find our rest in relationship with God!  Yet, the fingers of sin go deeper than mere individual sin.

Our churches are often marked by an incredible spirit of envy.  We want the gifts and talents of others.  We want to be recognized like they are.  We are just as smart, just as spiritual, just as talented as others. Why do people not recognize us?

How do we deal with this?  It depends if we are an aggressive person or a passive person.

If we are aggressive, we try to move and manipulate within the church so people recognize us.  We tear down those we envy.  It might not be a direct attack, but we withhold encouragement and affirmation.  We master being a fault-finder instead of being an encourager.

If we are passive, we give up trying.  We know we do not have the talent of others, though we wish we did, so we refuse to use the gifts we do have to the full measure possible.  As a result, we do not grow.  Like a stunted plant, we lack health and vitality because the Spirit does not flow through the gifts we do have and we should use to benefit others.  (See the passage in 1 Corinthians 12 for how Paul describes this condition)

Just like our culture at large, envy rules.  "Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment."

The only way off this carousel of sin is repentance and faith.  We were created to have our satisfaction and joy from our relationship with Jesus.  Ask the Spirit to point out where envy rules in your life and in the church.  Ask for grace to repent and find satisfaction in Jesus' love for you.  Meet with other gospel-centered believers for encouragement as you seek to lessen the rule of envy in your life.  Most importantly, when the Spirit points out your envy for things, power, or gifts, repent and believe the gospel!

Cultural Intelligence in Ministry and Life

It has been a busy and distracting past week or so.  Nothing major, but I feel like I am working harder and getting less done.  Unfortunately, this means less writing on this blog and my other writing.  I hate when this happens.  

Last week I wrote about the importance of emotional intelligence.  Successful ministry leaders are marked by strong emotional intelligence.  There is no way around it.

Today, I wish to move to a mark of successful ministry that will determine whether one oversees a growing ministry marked by evangelistic growth.  We all know that it is possible to grow a ministry without doing real evangelism.  All that occurs is that Christians move from one church to another.  While this feels good to the growing church, it is not real kingdom growth!

How do we grow a ministry marked by increasing depth for believers and solid growth through evangelism to not-yet believers?  We must have a solid cultural intelligence.

So what is cultural intelligence?

Cultural intelligence is "the ability to understand, acknowledge, and appreciate current contextual forces as well as the cultural background of oneself and others." (Covenant, Spring/Summer 2012, 24)  What does this mean?  I like how one Pastors Summit participant put it, "It is vital in ministry to understand cultural norms and nuances in order to discern between what we accept as correct in culture and what is truth as defined in Scripture." (24)

I could not agree more!  Study after study, as well as my experience, illustrate that biblically strong and faithful churches have a chance to grow, but churches that neglect scripture as their norm are by and large shrinking.  Why?  Churches that ignore scripture have "A form of godliness, but they deny its power."  2 Timothy 3:5  I do not believe these churches are attractive to the true spiritual seeker.

The problem is that many church that profess fidelity to scripture are more wed to their cultural understanding of the gospel and its application than they are to the true gospel and its application!

What do I mean?  Most of us are shaped by our childhood.  From that childhood, we assume that our experience is just the way things should be.  As believers in Christ, we do the same thing.  Our early experiences in Christian community often dictate "just how things should be."  

What happens when our church experience declares cultural assumptions as biblical assumptions?  We short-circuit the power of the Spirit and replace it with a cheap cultural substitute.

Let's give an example.  Children should be taught to sit through church at an early age.  Why?  They need to learn the bible and how to worship.  This is best done in our worship experience.

Is this a bad idea?  Obviously no!  It is a great ideal.  It is particularly a good ideal if the children come from homes where the bible is taught in family devotions and where church is a regular part of life.  I know entire churches where this is the accepted practice.

Yet, is this ideal both biblical and culturally aware?  I think we could argue that this is a biblical ideal.  We are to train our children in how to walk with God.  Yet, is having them sit through a worship service the best way to do this?  Maybe yes, but maybe no!

What happens when someone who the Lord is seeking comes to worship at your church?  Immediately they feel and know that their children are different.  They are not well-behaved and not able to sit still through an hour or more of worship.  In fact, they are not learning about the Lord in worship, but they also are distracting mom and dad from learning about God (notice the other cultural assumption!  Mom and Dad?  Most likely the person walking in the door with children is a single parent).  

What about our biblical ideal?  We have replaced a biblical ideal with a cultural assumption.  Culturally, many folks in leadership were brought up in homes where the bible was honored, devotions were insisted upon, and worship was a regular part of life.  These cultural assumptions no longer hold.  In fact, they are impediments to those coming to faith and to those who are in the process of becoming part of our churches!

Today, a church and leadership with solid cultural awareness and intelligence has an intentional, detailed, and culturally sensitive plan for dealing with children.  They fulfill the biblical ideal and goal of training up children in the fear and admonition of the Lord in a different way.  Maybe fifty years from now a great revival will change everything and everyone will go to church again.  At that time, we will train our children differently!

In other words, a cultural intelligent person and church will be aware of their cultural assumptions, the cultural assumptions of their surrounding area, and the unchanging principles of Scripture.  A culturally intelligent person will learn and know how to apply the principles of Scripture to their own life and to the life of the church.

So, are you culturally intelligent?  Is your church culturally intelligent?  What keeps you and your church from growing in this area?  How can you help sharpen your ability and the church's ability to reach out to those the Lord is seeking?

Emotional Intelligence in Life and Ministry

Without (emotional intelligence), a person can have first-class training,
an incisive mind, and an endless supply of good ideas,
but he still won't be effective.

Quoted in Covenant (Spring-Summer 2012), 24.

Without strong emotional intelligence, long-term ministry is impossible.

What is emotional intelligence?

It is the ability to process, understand, and balance our emotions with our actions.  It is having proper emotional self-control that allows one to deal with people and situations without emotional outbursts.  It is an understanding that people, including ourselves, often behave emotionally instead of rationally.  Thus, it is the ability to step back from emotional responses to allow grace and truth to prevail.

Wow, this is tough to define.  How to best define it?  Perhaps a negative but common example is the best  place to start.

In life and ministry I often run into people who display an almost negative emotional intelligence.  These folks do not know how to manage their emotions, and they project the intensity of their emotional instability upon those in the Church, the Church staff, and ultimately God.  Most of the time, the cause of their emotional upheaval has nothing to do with the situation in which they find themselves so angry.  Yet, instead of dealing with their emotions concerning the real issue, they strike out at a "safe" target like those in the Church.

Why do folks do this?  We live in a fallen world, and I bet that all of us have shown low emotional intelligence at times.  I know when my dad died unexpectedly I found myself angry at even small inconveniences much of the time.  I could not understand it.  Ultimately I needed grace from others as  well as the Lord to deal with my ailing and bruised heart!  I also needed better friends and mature believers who could help me deal with my emotions by helping me identify my hurt and reminding me of the Lord's love.  In my experience the Lord was much more faithful than my friends and fellow believers.

In ministry, we must learn how to manage our emotions.  All the rest of the of keys to successful ministry are merely aids to help us keep our emotions in check.  If our emotions flow from the heart, which I believe is most likely, then a heart transformed by God's grace and mercy will help keep the emotions in check.  The gospel will also allow us to ask folks for forgiveness when we respond inappropriately to their attacks and our own emotional meltdowns.  

Yet, I warn each of us, if you have too many emotional meltdowns as a ministry leader, you will quickly find yourself as a "former ministry leader!"  If you have constant meltdowns, people will avoid you out of fear because they will not know how you will respond to criticism, helpful advice, or their needs.  You cannot be effective in ministry if you are emotionally unstable.  

Furthermore, if you do not know how to deal with the emotional upheaval and outbursts of others, you also will not last long in ministry.  One of the biggest surprises of my life was learning that much of the time people do not respond logically to a situation.  Instead, people respond emotionally.

What does this look like?

Are you proposing changes to the worship service?  You can lay out all the reasons for making these changes.  Yet, some people will respond with anger and hurt.  The real key is to not be surprised!  Acknowledge that these emotions are real and help people to process their emotions.  Yet, they must process!  While they process, we should affirm that love them, we will pray for them, and we should look for chances to help them grow in their emotional intelligence.

The best way to help these folks grow in emotional intelligence is not to allow their emotional outburst to stop the proposed changes!  If you cave long-term to an emotional outburst, you encourage and promote low emotional intelligence.

Furthermore, I say again, a ministry leader must be emotionally mature.  You cannot change how others behave, but you can deal with your own emotions.  Be above the fray with your emotions even as you are present dealing with the emotions of others.  Is this not what Jesus did time and time again?  Such maturity is also needed in His under-shepherds.

As a pastor known for helping turn churches around, here is where careful discernment is needed.  If the leadership team always reacts emotionally and lacks emotional intelligence, it will take a miracle of biblical proportions to change the church culture.  There will be no will to maturely deal with emotional outbursts and the "squeaking wheel will get all the grease."  Do the best you can to identify a high emotional intelligence level on your leadership team.  Most importantly, lead by being emotionally intelligent yourself!

The Law of Unintended Consequences

"I was asking hard questions: 'How do we make a just society?' 'How do we look at the immorality in our world?'  I had tried to make life better through social reform and psychological reform and educational reform and political reform," he says.  "After I got to a certain point, I began to understand that the undergirding of all of those principles has to be spiritual, not something that Freud said but something spiritual.  So that's when I went to seminary."

Gerald Durley in "Pastor and Activist," Leadership (Summer 2000), 54.

In politics, the law of unintended consequences always wins.

What does this mean?

As a group of people, we seek to solve one problem, and we cause at least two more.  We think we can easily solve these two problems, but now we have four new ones.  Before long, we make an unintended problem that is bigger than any issue we tried to solve!

Why does this happen?

We live in a fallen world while we long for a perfect world.

In other words, the primary problem in this world is a spiritual problem.  I agree with Gerald Durley, who has lived an interesting life as a civil rights activist, a political activist, and a pastor.  At its root, the problem in our country, the problem in every country, the problem with every "system" is its tendency toward decay and ruin by running away from God's ways.  

We should never be surprised when we see injustice and immorality.  It is a mark of a world turned in upon itself and away from God.  As the world system pulls further away from how God made it to be, more injustice and immorality will come to pass.  It will become codified into law.  It will be enforced by the heavy hand of the state.  

What is the answer and cure to all these problems?  Believers of every stripe have taken up the cause of politics, education, psychology and other social answers.  In particular, we have aligned ourselves with political parties, and we live and die mentally and spiritually by who wins elections.  We fight using political means to change our culture, our educational system, and every other system thinking that the arm of the state can make things right.  Then we are disappointed when every political solution has more harmful unintended consequences than helpful results!

While we are called to pursue God's Kingdom by promoting justice and love, our embrace of politics as  "God's primary means" of changing the world is wrong-headed.

Why?

Humans as individuals and humans collectively are a fallen lot!  Our biggest problem is spiritual.  The more fallen people who get together to create a "system" the greater the possibility of corruption and evil to become the new law.  This goes for our political system, our educational system, and even our local churches!  It is a fact that should not be ignored.  If we choose to ignore it, as our culture does, we do so to our own peril.

As a culture, our system is broken.  I believe no amount of tinkering with the fringes of the system will cure the problem.  In fact, I think because the heart of the system is in rebellion against God, the entire system will only grow worse no matter what political party or powerful group tries to take control.

What is really our greatest need as a culture?

We need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as individuals and as people involved in a cultural "system."  Instead of claiming "Bush did it" or "Obama is the problem" we need to confess that selfish pride and independence from God because of unbelief are the real problems in our culture.  

Our system is broken because the heart of the system is bad!

Our biggest problem is spiritual.  I am thankful that none of us as individuals is beyond redemption.  Take hope!

I also think that culture is constantly reinventing itself, so perhaps out of the ashes of our consumeristic Western culture will arise a new culture formed on the anvil of repentance and renewed faith.  But just as "bleeding" or "leeches" were once thought as  the best medical cure but later proved to be false, we need to look to the true cure of our individual and cultural woes.

We are sinners in need of grace.  God's ways and truth should not be ignored but recognized.  We recognize God's ways by repenting our our sin against Him and others and believing in Jesus Christ as our source of forgiveness and power for transformation.  We must live this truth as individuals and pray it through and for our country.

Church Revolution Needed

I have been thinking about this unsolicited advertisement since I read it.  The ad was for a book called Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore by Thom and Joani Schultz.  I am re-posting their post because I could not have said it better myself.  Love to know what you think. Premise: If the church does not change the way it does things, it will become the next Kodak company. Proof: Read on The Church’s Frightful Kodak Moment From author Thom Schultz We walked through the nearly empty, formerly flourishing space of the Kodak manufacturing plant near our home. The plant manager, a friend from church, sadly described how Kodak plants had been downsizing and closing ever since the advent of digital photography. “We have a wish here,” he said. “We just want to be the last one standing.” Kodak since abandoned most of its space on this campus. This week, the company announced the latest job eliminations. My friend from church is gone. And I wonder...Is the church the next to go the way of Kodak? I see some chilling parallels. Kodak dominated the photographic scene for more than 100 years. It commanded an 89 percent market share of photographic film sales in the United States. Almost everyone used the brand. And the company’s advertising language of a “Kodak moment” became part of the common lexicon. What happened since then has become a colossal story of failure and missed opportunities. A gigantic casualty in the wake of digital photography–a technology that Kodak invented. That’s right. Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera in 1975. He later said, “But it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was, ‘That’s cute, but don’t tell anyone about it.’” And the company entered into decades of agonizing decline, unable to perceive and respond to the advancing digital revolution. In 2012, this American icon filed for bankruptcy. How could this happen? Where did the leaders of this once-proud organization go wrong? And how might the American church, which has also entered a time of decline, resemble this story?   Signs of Demise 1. A misunderstanding of mission. Kodak’s leaders thought they were in the film business–instead of the imaging business. Their clutching of the traditional methodology clouded their ability to think about the real objective and outcome of their work. The same is happening in churches that confuse their methodologies and legacies with the real mission. Many church leaders believe they’re in the traditional preaching business, the teaching business, the Sunday morning formula business. Clinging to the ways these things have been done diverts the focus from the real mission of helping people today develop an authentic and growing relationship with the real Jesus. 2. Failure to read the times. Kodak’s leaders didn’t recognize the pace and character of change in the culture. They thought people would never part with hard prints. They derided the new technology. They assumed that people, even if they wandered off to try digital photography, would return to film-based photos for the perceived higher quality. People did not return. Similarly, church leaders who assume that the current church decline is just a cyclical blip will be left to sweep out the empty factories of 20th century religion. 3. Fear of loss. A central reason Kodak chose not to pursue digital photography in 1992 was the fear of cannibalizing their lucrative sales of film. Kodak had become a hostage of its own success, clinging to what worked in the past at the expense of embracing the future. The same tendency befalls churches. A pastor in our upcoming documentary, When God Left the Building, said his church will not make any changes to become more effective because someone will inevitably object and get upset. “We abdicate every time,” he said. “We just can’t lose any more members.” That congregation is already dead. They just don’t know it. Turning Around The Kodak story didn’t need to take such a dismal turn. And neither does the story of the American church. The times call for proactive steps for a brighter future if we’re willing to learn from others’ mistakes. Some thoughts to consider: 1. Accept and understand reality. Even though some of the decline is slow, it’s real. The American church is fading. (See the cold facts in our new book Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore.) Work through the data and the realities with your staff and lay leaders. Do not be misled by anecdotal glimmers of numerical growth in isolated examples. Examine the overall trends in the country. And look past the easy measures of butts in seats, and ask deeper questions about true spiritual vitality. And resist the temptation to defend the status quo. 2. Don’t just tweak. Revolutionize. Once digital photography began to take off, Kodak tried tweaking their old models. It was a case of too little too late. Many churches today are tweaking with cosmetic changes–in music, church names, and pastoral facial hair. A church leader in our documentary said if his traditional church would just install screens, the people will come. They won’t. It’s too late for tweaking. It’s time to re-examine everything we’re doing and re-evaluate. Ask big questions. Is the old Sunday morning formula of half sing-along and half lecture what works anymore? Is that performance on Sunday morning really how we want to define the sum total of the church anyway? 3. Take some risks. Experiment. Act now. At Group Publishing and Lifetree Cafe, we talk with hundreds of pastors and church leaders every week, many of whom are discouraged. As we brainstorm with them about changes they might try to enhance their ministries, some sink into paralysis. “People may not like the change,” they say. “What if it doesn’t work?” And we ask, “What are you afraid of?” It’s time to have some faith–faith that God will walk with the faithful who are willing to step out and risk a little love on his behalf. Try something. Experiment. Let your people experiment. Be bold. Don’t delay. Kodak failed and squandered tremendous opportunities because its leaders chose to defend the status quo. We can learn from their mistakes. And we have an additional resource on our side–God. He’s not giving up on his church. He’s already moving into the future. We need to muster the courage to move with him.

Alignment According to Mission

"Can you even imagine a quarterback fumbling and a lineman not jumping on the ball and instead saying something stupid like, "That isn't my job"?  Companies all over America are failing because they have allowed a culture of leaders and teams who don't care about the goal, but just about themselves.  When the team care only about themselves, they are by definition no longer a team, they are just employees.  As soon as that happens, the germ of failure has entered the organization.  When failure occurs like that it is leadership and the team's fault.  There was no clearly communicated shared goal that created buy-in from all parties."

Dave Ramsey, EntreLeadership, 41.

I love reading leadership books.  This past Christmas, a new attendee at First gave me Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership.  I have known of Dave's financial teaching since our time in Nashville, which is the Ramsey empire's home base.  I had heard of this book, but I had never read it.

Let me say, I think it is fantastic!  I would recommend it for anyone who is looking for either the foundations and vision for a successful business or for some tips and techniques that can make leadership easier.  It is in my top five of leadership books.

The above quote comes from a section on leadership of a business.  Of course, I also work to apply this to the leadership of a church.  While the Church is the bride of Christ and She is beautiful in spiritual power, the local church and denominations are systems functioning in a fallen world.

In other words, the local church system is in need of advice and improvement because every major issue that can happen in business can happen in the church.  In fact, it is often much more difficult because "the employees" are mostly volunteers.  Without volunteers, no church can survive.  We love our volunteers!

Yet, what happens when a volunteer or a group of volunteers care only/primarily about themselves?

At that time, as Dave says, "The germ of failure has entered the organization."

In other words, just like a business, a church has to be constantly reminded and realigned according to its mission.  What holds the volunteers together and fosters proper discussion and debate about the day-to-day is a commitment to a common vision/mission.

Aw!  Here is the rub!

Jesus gave us the Great Commission.  He gave us the greatest commandments.  He modeled and told us that the call of the Church is for the World, not for itself.

Yet, often we fall into the same traps that every business struggles against.  How do we play like a team?  How do we get volunteers to buy into the team concept?  What happens to those who choose not to play on the team, but instead follow their own rules and play their own game?

These questions are the joy of leadership!  Answering them biblically and decisively are the essence of what it means to be leader in the Church.  May the Lord raise up more leaders who are willing to accept this difficult but rewarding task.