The Spirit's work through Church Planting

"The worst thing that every happened to this church was other church plants."

I remember hearing this sentence uttered by a staff member at a church.  I could not believe it.  How could one believe this to be true?

Well, their church had decreased in attendance and vitality.  It was not as strong as it used to be.  It was showing signs of plateau and decline.  This staff member assumed that the reason was that so many people from the church had left to plant other churches.  A little investigation proved this idea to be untrue.  It ended up that in the past ten years, only one family, from a church that had averaged over 300 in attendance, had left to help "plant a church."

The truth is that Church Planting is the best and most effective way to advance the Kingdom of God.  It renews established churches.  It reaches new people.  It unleashes a whole new group of people for leadership and ministry.

I propose that the Spirit of God is on the move.  The Spirit is propelling believers out of their personal preference, their comfort zones, and their quest for personal piety above all else.  He is calling us to die to self so that we might live for others.  

How?  

Through church planting.  These new churches breathe new life into the body of Christ.  They provide new ideas.  They also are powerfully effective at reaching new, unchurched people.  As Tim Keller states,

“Numerous new churches are the only way to really expand the number of Christians in a city. New churches reach the non-churched far more effectively than longer-existing churches. Dozens of studies confirm that the average new church gains most of its new members from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations. This means that the average new congregation will bring new people into the life of the Body of Christ at 6-8 times the rate of an older congregation of the same size. …

Planting lots of new churches is one of the best ways to renew existing churches. New churches bring new ideas to the whole Body. It is the new churches that have freedom to be innovative and they become the ‘Research and Development’ department for the whole Body in the city. …

We firmly believe that the vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for reaching a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, mega-churches, consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study of the subject, it is not even controversial.”

Tim Keller, “Being the Church in our Culture”

So, what do you think?  Is this true?  What does this mean for churches that are 10, 15, 20, 50, and 100 years old?  What does this mean for you?

The Priesthood of All Believers...

"What's your role as pastor in this?  An indispensable element, or insignificant as God works with or without you?

Stuart: You have to understand that gifting is all about the Giver, not the receptor.  And so if I am gifted, which I am, there's no reason for me to get any grandiose ideas about it; I'm simply the receptor of what God has sovereignly given me.  This says nothing about me; it says much about him.

At the same time, there are gifts of wisdom and insight scattered throughout the whole church and you need to reckon with those as well.

"In This Together: an interview with Stuart and Jill Briscoe," Leadership Spring 2001, 66.

I believe the first two question asked in the above quotation are very significant to today's church.  Somehow and someway, we have moved to such a low church understanding of the pastorate that many people believe that the role of the pastor is really not that important.  As I have traveled to many churches, this belief takes several different forms.

Some promote the idea that a plurality of Elders means that no one should given the title of "pastor" but that all elders are equal.  While there is some merit to this, it is not entirely true.

Others promote the idea that because of the priesthood of all believers, we all are equal and have equal abilities to interpret scripture, lead, and express our opinion.  Again, while there is some merit to this opinion, it is far from being entirely true.

Some claim the mantle and title of pastor without any real training, discerning of gifts, or assurance of calling.  They believe that all is needed is an internal desire to be a pastor and you are one.  Again, while this has some merit, it is far from the complete truth.

Many believe that pastors are merely employees of their church who are responsible for church growth and maintenance, but who also have to do the will of the congregation.  If these come in conflict, the pastor is fired.

I find all of these notions odd.  They are so out of step with the entirety of biblical and church history.

How did we get here?

At its heart, I think we have embraced the radical enlightenment leveling of social classes to such a point that we have denied the importance of calling, gifting, and God-given roles.  We have allowed a strange Marxist informed ideology to misshape our understanding of the Church.

We do so to our peril.

God is still in the business of calling people to Himself.  All who come to Him are His children.  We are all in grace.  We all have access to the Father through Jesus's work by the means of prayer.  We also have His Word that the Holy Spirit can and will apply to our lives.

This is the true meaning of the priesthood of all believers.  We don't need another human priest to mediate for us because we have Jesus.

Moreover, we all are important to the body.  (Please read 1 Corinthians 12 to see how Paul explains it)  Each of us make up the body of Christ and all of us are needed.  We all belong to each other, and we all are important.  This is a secondary element of the priesthood of all believers.

I completely affirm the reality, importance, and truth of the priesthood of all believers.  Yet, I deny where some, I believe because of their misplaced political philosophy, have taken this doctrine.

The priesthood of all believers does not mean that we all have the same roles and tasks.  It does not mean that we are all equal in ability, responsibility, or role.  In fact, 1 Corinthians 12 emphasizes God creative work in making us all different.  As Paul states, we are not all the mouth nor all we all the hands of Jesus (1 Cor. 12).

God calls us to different roles and to be different parts of the body.  What I find interesting is that while most affirm this truth, many within mainstream Christianity have willingly lowered the authority and importance of the calling of pastors.  I don't think there has been a time in the history of the church when pastoral leadership and authority has been at a lower ebb.

To state it positively, pastoral leadership and calling 

is part of God's plan for the health of the body.  

While it is not everything within the body, 

it is important and it should be given the respect that it deserves.

Such a distinction and respect gives honor to the gift giver, who is the Lord.  He arranged the body this way.  To deny it means to dismiss God's order.  When we do so, our churches suffer.

How have you understood the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers?  How have you seen it used improperly?  When and how have you seen it used properly?

Leading as God intended

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb,

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Ps 139: 13-14

Do you really believe that the Lord made you who you are?  Do you believe that He composed your soul and personality right alongside your body while you were in your mother's womb?

I think many sincere folks doubt that the Lord knew exactly what He was doing when He put us together.  We look at our sin tendencies and our hang-ups, and we wonder how God could use us.  We are so _____ (fill in the blank).  We might be cautious or aggressive; thoughtful or spontaneous; or quiet or outgoing.  We make so many mistakes!  How could God use us like we are?

It is so much easier to see what holds us back instead of how 

God could and will use us as He made us.  

Today I wish to focus our thoughts on leadership and how God uses our strengths to lead His people.  God did not make a mistake when He made you like you are.  He did not make a mistake with any of us.

We are all so different.  We all have different strengths, gifts, experience, and natural abilities.  I think all of us would agree to these statements.

The problem is that most of us can intellectually acknowledge these "facts" but then we look at our issues, hangups, addictions, tendencies, etc., and these cause us to shrink back from using our strengths to lead ourself and others.

What if our weaknesses were not a problem but instead an opportunity for us to work with others who have different strengths?  What if our weaknesses were God's way of working inner humility within us and outer love for others?

In other words, God puts us together as the "body of Christ."  All of us are needed.  All of us have different roles and functions.  If you or I do not use our God-given strengths, the body of Christ will be weak.  If we all work together, the body of Christ will be strong.

Our responsibility before God is to develop our strengths and confess our weakness.  Our weaknesses promote our humility and our reliance upon God and others.  Our strengths promote God's action and work in the world.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that both our strengths and our weaknesses illustrate the gospel when we bring them to the light.

This post has more questions than answers.  I ask you to reflect upon them.  I also ask that you stop listening to those voices, even those what are supposedly well-intentioned, that constantly tell you to be different so God can use you.  God did not make a mistake when He made you.  He knew exactly what He was doing.

In Christ, honestly confess your sin.  In Christ, honestly lead from your strengths.

Why non-believers smell us out as hypocrites...

"Educators often refer to a concept called the hidden curriculum.  This concept suggests that in a classroom, there is a formal curriculum that includes things like math problems, writing assignments, or science experiments.  But there's also the hidden curriculum, which involves issues like who wants to sit next to whom, and who does the teacher look at, and who does the teacher tend to call on?

The hidden curriculum teaches students who matters and who does not,
who's bright and who's left out.

If there is an inconsistency between the hidden curriculum and the formal curriculum,
research shows that students always believe the hidden curriculum."

John Ortberg, "Speaking from my Holy of Holies," Leadership (Spring 2007), 40.

Education is not the only place that struggles with a hidden curriculum.  Though it was more than a decade ago, I remember clearly a horrifying example of hidden curriculum in the church.

I was to speak at the denominational meeting different from my own about our changing culture.  My task was to share how difficult it is to reach non-churched people with the gospel, but also to offer some ideas on how to bridge the gap.

I was sitting up front and as I was being introduced, the leader of meeting shared that they had invited some youth age members of their churches to join us to hear what I had to say.  These kids looked like kids everywhere: somewhat ragged, wearing shorts, tee shirts and one boy had on a hat.  They looked strangely out of place in a "grown up meeting."

Then, before I could even take the floor, a scowling older woman got up from the middle of the room.  She walked behind the kids with stiff, staccato steps.  Then she quite rudely, without a word, knocked the hat off that kid's head.

I remember being so taken aback, that I did not know what to say.  Was that hat really that important?  Should I say something?

As I write today, I wonder if that kid- now in his twenties- even graces the doorstep of any church.  I wonder if that day was a turning point where he decided that he would rather do anything else than be embarrassed by a so-called adult.

What is the application?  There are many.  What I would like to focus our thought upon is a simple statement.  

Much of what passes for "ministry" is marked by a hidden curriculum/agenda.

We might say we want to reach out to new people, but our hidden curriculum says we are a closed system that really does not want new people or ideas.  We might say we love families, but our hidden agenda says that we really love a certain type of family (intact, white, smart, having it all together, who knows what else?).  We might claim we wish our church or ministry to grow, but our hidden curriculum screams, "We only want you if you agree with us!"

New people who come into our ministry will pick up upon and believe the hidden curriculum more than the "official" statement of belief and intent.

What is the hidden curriculum/thought that dominates your life?  Your ministry?  Your church?  As I stated, we often cannot see it.  How can we discover what is hidden?

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you have eyes to see.  Humbly confess that you have blind spots that you need the Spirit to reveal.  Then ask for outside eyes to see what is really happening.  Pray.  Trust what the Spirit reveals.  Repent.  Ask for grace to change the hidden curriculum.  

Psalm 139: 23-24 is a great place to start the journey of identifying our hidden curriculum.  Why not join me in praying,

Search me, of God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

See if here be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Gifting and Power for Ministry

"For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power."

1 Corinthians 4:20

Have you ever felt this way?  Have you ever asked these questions?

Why am I not as gifted as ....?  Why can't I do .... when others can?  Why does God not give me the right gifts to do ministry?

Even as I write these sentences, I find them sad and short-sighted.  Yet, I know I often feel them and I often hear them expressed by others in life and ministry.

Why does God gift each of us in different ways?   I have no idea.  I do know that He calls us all to be the body of Christ.  A body without different parts just will not work right.  Instead, health means that all the parts of the body are present and working to help the rest of the body.

What does this mean for the ministry?

Having walked with believers and ministry workers for decades, I believe that most of us secretly wish we had different gifts.  We wish we could be like someone we look up to in ministry.  We are painfully aware of our shortcomings.  Deep within we believe that life and ministry would be different if we were just different.

In answer to this natural, fallen human tendency, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 that we should not wish we had other gifts than the ones we do (gift envy), and he instructs us not to look down on those with different gifts (gift projection).

As I grow older, I am more and more convinced that there is a place for every type of person in the Kingdom of God.  In fact, I believe there is a place and ministry for every type of person.  The key to success is matching our gifts, calling, experience, and talents with the ministry to which we are called.

To put this positively, when God gives the call to a specific ministry, He also gifts us for the task.

What does this mean for us?  When we are looking at a ministry opportunity, we must know who we are in Christ and we need to understand what the ministry needs to succeed.  This requires wisdom and a bit of knowledge.  Today I want to offer some of Paul's wisdom regarding how God gives to His church spiritually gifted people just like you!

As Paul describes,

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1 Cor. 12: 4-7

Notice the phrase in the middle of these verses, "There are varieties of service and activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all."  In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul writes to a church where jealousy, envy, and ignorance have brought about division within the body.  It appears that this church has a variety of gifted folks.  In fact, Paul describes more and different types of gifts in writing the Corinthian church than he mentions in writing to any other church in the NT.

The problem is that this church wants to see some gifts and callings as greater than others.  From the context, we can see Paul argues such thinking is ridiculous!  Everyone and every gifting/skill set is needed!  All the different types of gifts are needed in ministry, and in the varieties of service in which we find ourselves.  The key is to serve where we are gifted and called while also affirming and encouraging others to service in different areas according to their gifting and calling.

So how do we know who God has made us to be?

Here is where wisdom is needed.  Unfortunately, it is a wisdom that often takes experience to discern.  I find that most of us learn this wisdom by getting into a ministry area to which we do not fit.  Let me share a brief story to illustrate.  

I had a good friend in seminary who came to school from North Carolina with his wife who was studying to be a psychologist.  He had loved his pastor in college and he wanted to be like him.  He wanted so much to be a pastor who could impact people's lives like he had witnessed.

He began in the M.Div. program, which is a degree to train for ordained ministry.  After a year, he was miserable!  His grades were very good, because he was bright.  Yet, he had no peace and joy in the work.  Before coming to seminary, he was an accountant.  After months of forcing himself to study theology, Greek, and such, he found himself nightly in the library studying tax law.  He found it fascinating (I cannot even imagine!).  Finally, he called his old firm and asked if they had a position in Boston.  He shared that he needed to get back to work in something he loved.  That was a Thursday afternoon.  The next Monday, he began to work at the Boston office of his accounting firm for $80,000 a year (remember this was the mid 1990s)!

What can we learn from this?  First, it pays to be an accountant!  Second, he was trying to force his way into a life and ministry to which he was not called and gifted.  The result was misery and a lack of success.  When he finally came to his senses, the Lord opened other doors and blessed his work.  In fact, he later applied for law school, did extremely well, passed the bar, and became a tax lawyer.  Last I heard, he was also working toward a political career.

If you are not good at understanding yourself (and most of us aren't good at such self-knowledge), I encourage you to find a trusted friend, pastor, or counselor to help you gain some self-understanding.  I also recommend that you take some personality tests and that you take some tests to help you discover your spiritual gifts.  While these tools are not fool-proof, they can be helpful tools in the hands of a wise counselor to help us gain self-knowledge.

Most importantly, get out in a variety of ministries and environments to see what brings you life, joy, and success.  Try everything!  If you fail at something, do not get down, but learn from it.  Why did you fail?  What happened?  If you find that you are good at something, but still not empowered and full of joy while doing it, ask why?  Perhaps the gifting is present, but the direction of this ministry was not quite correct.  Most importantly, try a variety of ministries and areas of labor!

At all times remember that God is one who has given you a desire to serve Him.  He will never forsake you and He loves you dearly!  If you are in a tough spot now, this does not change God's love for you.  If you have failed miserably in a certain ministry, this does not change God's love for you.  He even uses our failure.  In fact, He seems particularly good at using our failures to give us wisdom and direction if we have the heart and faith to ask for wisdom with what happened!

Rest in the reality that God is the one who prepares us for life and ministry.  His Spirit leads us to fruitful fields of labor.  We should strive to discover where and how God is leading us while at the same time be encouraging and acknowledging that others are called to different tasks.  

May the Lord lead us and guide us to use our gifts and personality to pursue His calling for us!

Our Spiritual Problem and Cure

"There is such a thing as spiritual depression.  Relationships or a marriage can collapse.  Children can disappoint you.  The business can go bankrupt.  Grief or trauma produce states of mind and emotion that call for spiritual counsel.  Because we're to live to the glory of God, all our moods have to be brought into relation to God, his love, his work, and the ongoing process of sanctification.

The sanctifying of troubles is a prominent NT theme.  Troubles are to be expected, but God can sanctify them.  The pastor, in the Puritan understanding is there to be God's agent, God's lightning rod, the transforming link between the distress of the Christian and the love and power of God."

J.I. Packer, quoted in "Broader Pastures, More Breeds," Leadership (Fall 2000), 34.

As Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."  For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Matthew 9: 10-13

One of the roles of a pastor is to be a physician of the soul.  This understanding and idea has been a dominate job description/definition of the pastor throughout the history of church when the people of God experience revival and renewal.

Why?

Our greatest need is spiritual.  Our greatest problem is at its heart a spiritual problem.  We are people composed of a delicate interaction between body, mind, and heart (or spirit).  Each of these elements of human experience play a part in our overall health.

In the earliest church, perhaps the greatest threat to Christianity was a movement called gnosticism.  Gnosticism emphasized the spiritual element of an individual.  It denied the importance of the physical and it believed that the mental and spiritual were almost one and the same.  In the ancient near eastern and Greco-Roman culture. these ideas struck a chord and in many places the gnostic church arose to combat the orthodox church.

Some of the late writings of the NT illustrate the nature and problems with such teaching.  For example, 1 John was written to address the claims of gnosticism.  It presents a vision of a person as a united whole of body, mind, and soul.  It emphasizes that each element is important, that each element needs to be sanctified by repentance and faith, and that each play a role in how we understand and worship God in Christ.

Today we are not gnostics.  We do not emphasize the spiritual and de-emphasize the flesh.  No, we are materialists.  We magnify, emphasize, stress, and worship the physical while ignoring the spiritual.

We do so to our own peril!

Why do our bodies decay?  Why is there illness and death?  While the cause is often not direct, all of these deviations from the created goodness and perfection of creation arise from a spiritual problem.  Sin has entered the world and now things are not as they should be.  Thankful Jesus is coming back to make things aright again!  Come quickly Lord Jesus.

Furthermore, why do some people have such crazy and dumb ideas?  Why are entire people groups led astray to patently false ideas?  Even as I write, some people will say, "Who are you to judge the ideas of others?  Each of us get to determine what is good and proper for ourselves."  This is exactly the type of thinking I am calling crazy!  

As individuals and as people groups, we can be lead astray in our thinking.  We can be caught up in false ideas about right and wrong, about power, about truth because of our fallenness.  In other words, Nazi Germany did not occur because of one evil man or a small group of evil folks.  It occurred because in our fallen world, our thoughts can get twisted and warped.  All that is needed is for people who know the truth to be silent or to be forced to silence.  Within a generation, evil can dominate!

Why?  

At its heart, all evil found in the world comes from the spiritual problem of the fallenness of creation.  We cannot ultimately fix the physical problems of this world nor can we fix the evil thought patterns if we do not understand and deal with our spiritual need.  In other words, 

Deep in the center of all our cultural issues are spiritual problems!

Into this great and ignored need should step the pastor.  Our job is to remind people of their spiritual need.  Our job is to encourage people that in Christ God has brought the cure to all of our spiritual needs!

We are not called to be merely therapists who deal with the physical.  We are not called to be merely self help advocates who encourage people to be all they can be.  We are not caretakers of institutions.  We are physicians of the soul who point constantly to Jesus as found in the gospel as the answer to our greatest need.

The tools that we use may be honed by experts in the physical or mental realms, but ultimately our tool box must be filled with ideas and answers that inform the spiritual.  If we do not do it, who in our culture will bring the truth to bear on our spiritual needs?

The answer is no one.  False answers and false gods will be brought to bear on our spiritual needs.  People and cultures will go from lost and struggling to blind and completely evil.

We need more pastors and more believers to understand the often forgotten pastoral role as a "physician of the soul."  The exploding individual and cultural needs demand a return to this difficult but important work!

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 Week of The Stomach Virus

"So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, 

our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,…"

2 Cor. 4: 16-18

One of the best parts of ministry is that there is always something different.  This past week was no exception!

A week ago, the first of my children came down with a stomach flu.  He spent a day miserable on the floor of the bathroom so he was close to the facilities.  This child catches stomach bugs easily, so we hoped for the best.

Then Wednesday night, another child proceeded to not only catch the bug, but spread the germs from his bed all the way to the bathroom through a huge river of vomit.  I cannot say I enjoyed the clean up disaster, but I did make do!

Thursday, another victim went down.  Friday claimed the fourth.  Saturday was my wife's turn.  The world is close to ending when the wife goes down with a stomach flu!

On Sunday, I felt fine but I figured with this kind of record, my days were numbered.  Worked through Sunday morning without difficulties.  Got ready for Sunday evening and took my customary 30 minute Sunday afternoon nap.  All appeared to be well.

Then I got up from the nap with a strange stomach pain and bloating.  O no!  Got ready for Sunday evening service.  My wife suggested I take a bucket.  My kids laughed about how I could be the preacher who goes viral on the internet by puking during the service and then continuing to preach.  I did not find this comforting or encouraging!

Got to church and did not feel well.  Did not feel awful, but not well.  Perhaps I could make it another hour?  Then during the prayer time, I was struck by a huge wave of nausea.  I have never had that happen before.  I hope never to have it again.  I hastily apologized for not being able to finish, I walked straight out of the service, I got home, ran straight to the bathroom, and I assumed the position.

It only took 12 hours to stop.  Another 12 of sleep to feel O.K.  New experiences abound!

Now that I am ready to return to the office, I do wonder what people thought.  I know there was absolutely nothing I could do except go viral on the internet, which was my greatest fear!  (thanks kids) 

Alas, God chooses to use such frail, cracked jars of clay. (2 Cor. 4:7)  I am sure He was and will be glorified even through my incredible weakness.  I was felled by a virus so small you cannot even see it!

My hope and prayer is that now that I have had this new experience, I don't ever need to have it again.

The Real Difficulties in Witnessing about Jesus

We want to see people come to know Jesus.  We want to see people in heaven with God forever.  We want to see people become devoted followers of Jesus Christ.  That's what you and I long for.  That's way you're reading this book.  You and I won't be satisfied until God's hand is stretched out and we're seeing more fruitfulness.

This chapter is about identifying and taking down barriers- old ways of viewing and doing evangelism. If we don't first understand what's holding us back, we won't be ready to embrace important new ideas.

Often when we start to make witness a passion and a priority, we run into a major barrier: our "boxes," mental models of ministry and evangelism that keep us from pouring our passion into new ways of witness.  If we are growing in our passion for witness but pouring our efforts and energy into the same structures and strategies we've always had, we will see little increase in fruitfulness.  After a time we will get discouraged and our passion will disappear.

Rick Richardson, Evangelism Outside the Box, 17.

Sharing your faith.  Evangelism.  Outreach to the lost.

So many people talk about these issues, but so few do them with regularity.

How could I say such a thing?  Are not most bible believing Christians interested in evangelism?  Yes, as a concept we are interested.  Unfortunately, it is like the old saying that we love the poor and the homeless in general, but having them around us makes us uncomfortable when faced with a specific person.

We know we should engage in active outreach.  We know and memorized the great commands of scripture (Matt. 28:19-20).  We know and have heard of the heroes of the faith who began and encouraged movements of grace by the power of the Holy Spirit (I think of Jonathan Edwards or the Wesleys).  Yet, I find most of us are more interested in the concept of outreach than we are in doing anything about it.

Why?

I think many of us are scared to death of witnessing for Jesus.

I think others are so self-consumed that they figure once they get their life in order they will begin witnessing (unfortunately this will never happen).

I think that many of us have false and misleading views of evangelism and outreach.  We think of a method or a knowledge base that we must know and understand so we can be effective witnesses.  We know what worked (sort of?) in the past, and we hold to this method as the best way to move forward in outreach.  Yet, the conditions never appear to be just right.  In time, we talk about evangelism and outreach, but we do very little to make it happen.

The beginning of Richardson's book helps us identify the "boxes" or categories we have firmly in mind when we think about "proper evangelism."  I say proper, because most of us have some notion of how it should be done.

While this is true for individuals, it is particularly true in churches.  As Richardson states,

It is my belief that most churches do not engage in effective evangelism and outreach because we corporately have invented, maintained, and enforced methods of thought and ministry that actually work against effective outreach.  

This is quite a mouthful and it could be taken as quite accusative.  I do not intend it to be!  I work as a church revitalizer.  I love the Church.  I wish to see each local body of Christ moving forward in effective ministry.  I believe following the NT pattern, a healthy church will be constantly growing deeper in the gospel and outward in ministry.  Such a church will be marked by at least 5-10% growth in new converts per year, and it will have many young believers who need to be discipled.

The problem is I work in a denomination where this is seldom the case with our established churches.  I also find that my denomination is not alone in our struggles for healthy growth!

So, what do we do?  We talk about outreach.  We spend money on programs.  We look for and reward those individuals and churches who have effective ministry.  Yet, nothing seems to change.  In fact, our churches grow older, we find less children in the pews, and we can see strange and scary handwriting on the wall that says something has to be done.

So, we talk more about outreach, we get a new leader/pastor, we spend money on programs, and often still nothing changes.

Is it hopeless?  Is growth and outreach into this culture impossible?

Perhaps it is if we expect that God will and must work through the same means as He did generations ago.  Perhaps the problem is not our passion for the lost, but our way of thinking about how to "do church" and "do outreach."  

I honestly do not believe that individual and corporate evangelism is particularly hard in today's world.  I find that people are open to talking and very needy!  The problem is that our methods of operating need to "fit" with the way people dialogue and think.  Notice I did not say our theology should adapt!  Most of the time this is not true.  If we lose the gospel, we have no real purpose and no real message.  

What needs to change is our methods of ministry.

Some individuals and churches will change easily while others just cannot make the transition.  In 20 years, those that change will still be going strong while those that refuse to address their ministry "boxes" will be ineffective and possibly closed.  Thankfully God in His sovereign love will raise up other churches and other denominations to reach this generation!

May our sovereign Lord raise up such leaders because the next generation needs to hear a fresh and anew the song of the gospel!

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.

Our Prophetic Role

"A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and 

among his relatives and in his own household."

Jesus, Mark 6: 4 

I have been enjoying reading the OT every morning.  Reading the major and minor prophets is truly educating when you know the rest of the story of redemption.  One thing I have learned is that if I could go back in time and be any occupation or calling, I surely would not wish to be a prophet.

Why?

Jesus says prophets have some honor.  I believe this is true.  Yet, they also had a difficult time because all too often people did not listen to their warnings.  As you read the OT, so many of the prophets were rejected, denied, and maligned as false.  So were the apostles.  In fact, so was Jesus.

Why?

Who really wants to hear the message that we need to repent and believe in God?  It runs counter to our nature.  We would prefer to hear, "You are doing great!  Keep up the good work!  God is so pleased with you that you do not need to change anything!"  

I know I love these messages.  I cannot deny it.  I love being told how great I am doing.  My guess is that most of us love that message!  Fortunately or unfortunately, in today's and everyday's religious world, there are plenty of people who will only proclaim this message because they want to be positive.

I can understand wanting to be positive.  I think all of us can.  Yet, what if we really are not doing well?  What if we really do need to change?

Let me give an illustration.  Say you are coaching a basketball team.  They are not really good.  Yet, all you can do is say how great they are, how they will win every game, how everyone will see their greatness.  In fact, the coach doesn't even have them practice hard because they are so good, they don't need it.

Then, when it comes time to perform, they lose by 80 points.  They are completely crushed by the opposition.  They cannot defend.  They cannot run an offense that works.  To make matters worse, they were playing what was known as the worst team around.

In this illustration, the coach lied.  The team will be confused, demoralized, and much less trusting of the coach's "positive" message.  

It would have been better to have known the truth.  

What is the truth?  

As a team, you need work.  What seems right and natural to you needs correcting and refinement.  You need to learn to work together.  You need to work on your conditioning and the fundamentals.  There are still no guarantees of victory; but if you work at it and learn to play like a team, you have a much greater chance for victory.

In fact, after the 80 point loss, it would be good if truth were told by everyone.  We need to work on defense.  We need to work on offense.  The team will only improve if the coach confessed that he did not coach well.  He needs to confess that he lied and he did not prepare them for the battle of a real game.  If the team makes a commitment to turn from their destructive patterns and turn to learning new patterns, they will improve.  They might even win a game by the end of the year!

The role of a prophet is to declare the truth.  Some will accept the message.  Many will deny it.  In fact, some/many will "Be stubborn and continue in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation." (Acts 19: 9)

Yet, if we speak for God as His ambassadors, we have no choice but to tell the truth in love.  To do less would be a lie.  To do less would be to follow the father of all lies, which is the devil. (John 8:44)

While I would not wish to be an OT prophet, I do wonder if in our fallen modern world, true believers and true pastors must play the role of prophet?  

Who is equal to such a task?  None, but the Lord will give us strength and grace to carry on!

May the Lord bless this week of life and ministry!

What Could Demonization Look Like?

"And when He had come out of the boat, 

immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him." 

Mark 5:2

"Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 

and do not give the devil an opportunity (or foothold)." 

Ephesians 4: 26-27

We live in a strangely spiritual world.

There is so much that goes on that I do not understand.  Folks experience deeply spiritual events that do not fit into any paradigm that I have constructed through my experience.  I am sure my experience is the same to many others.

We truly live in a strangely spiritual world!

While all of us have different spiritual experiences, I often find that believers in Christ are some of the least likely to affirm the spiritual weirdness of life as we know it.  I am not sure why.  Perhaps we do not wish to over emphasize the work of demons?  Perhaps we do not wish to admit that we do not understand everything?  I don't know.

I do believe that ignoring the spiritual nature of our world is both dangerous and pure foolishness.  We should know what scripture teaches about every dimension of our spiritually charged universe.  This includes to work of demons in the lives of individuals and society.

Please understand, I do wish to over emphasize the topic. Many of us have seen the Hollywood sensationalism of demonic work in the movies like The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose.  Most of the time we pacify our fear by saying that it is just a movie that does not mirror real life.  I agree that much of the sensationalism is overdrawn.  I also know that when confronted with possession or severe demonic oppression, I hope I do not hear scary music in the background!  

The primary problem with these movies and their portrayals of the demonic is their starting premise.  Both of the above flicks begin with the premise that there is an epic battle between good and evil with the outcome always in doubt.  In fact, most of the time evil is stronger!  In each, a doubting and struggling priest confronts his own doubts and the reality of evil.  It ends up being an individual against the demonic.

Such a portrayal falls into a variety of errors, but dualism is the most obvious of these errors.  There is only one true God!  I encourage you to read several other posts from earlier in the month where I discussed this topic in-depth.

Another obvious error is like dualism but it is more specific. These movies do not proclaim nor understand that Jesus Christ has already won the spiritual battle.  When we encounter the Evil one and his demonic servants we are  powerless apart from Christ.  If we know and live the gospel, we also see how powerful we are with Christ for He has already won the victory (Eph. 1: 20-22).

All of this is background.  Now I want to give an example of what demonization could look like.  I believe that the work of the demonic can and does take many forms.  This is just one example.  Yet, it is an example that I believe matches the teaching of scripture.

For many of us, we read the stories in the bible about Jesus casting out demons, and we wonder what this is all about.  We do not experience the same occurrences, so we treat Jesus' interactions with the demonic as representing His healing of psychological illness.  If this is your take on the demonic, I beg you to hang with me to see if what I have to say matches with the teaching of scripture.

Now for the story and some background for the story.  I spent the summer of 1990 in Thailand on a mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ.  It was a great time to experience another culture, and to learn how to share the gospel in a different culture.  We witnessed many people coming to faith, opened several new college campuses in Bangkok to the gospel, and witnessed a spiritual world very different than America.  In many places throughout the city are places to offer incense and to pray to the local god (demons).  I met people who affirmed that their family had been granted success for hundreds of years because the oldest son had inherited the help of a spirit (again a demon), who blessed them with success.  It was a strange spiritual world.

When I returned, it was life back to normal.  That is until about six weeks after I returned.  I was practicing with the worship band of our college ministry one warm fall evening.  We were practicing, but also praising the name of Jesus.  When we would stop practice, through the open windows, we would hear someone cursing Jesus and telling us to stop.  The first time, we thought it was a prank by guys in the dorm next door.  It was in bad taste, so we ignored it.  The next time, it was louder, and I went to see what was going on.

I went to the front door of the church, and I could see through the glass a man with two Elders from the church behind him.  I opened the door, and I was immediately stuck by a feeling of evil I had not experienced since Thailand.  I cannot explain it, but to say that my spirit immediately declared watch out and pray.  I back up, and the man came charging through the church door and headed to the front of the church.  There he looked upon the lighted cross, and he cursed Jesus' name.  One of the two Elders said in a low voice,

"Greg we were afraid someone would open this door.  We believe this man is under the influence of a demon.  Get your worship team together and pray.  Please stay out of his way, as he is really dangerous."  I did not have to be told twice!  The four or five members of our worship team gathered in the back of the church and prayed.

As we prayed, the man cursed the name of Jesus.  He swore often.  He threatened these two men.  The Elders continued to claim the protection of Jesus.  The man would get up quickly and violently, and the men would tell him in the name of Jesus to be seated.  In response he would immediately sit.  Slowly he became more subdued.  After about fifteen minutes, the man said he did not know why he was here, he cursed, and he got up to leave the building.  The Elders went with him praying.  When he left, they asked me to lock the door.  Eventually, the man got in his car and drove away.  I can say, that our worship team was visibly shaken as we had never seen anything like it.  We had felt incredible evil.  We had seen the power of Jesus' name.  We finished prayer and honestly did not know what to do.  Several folks on the worship team left.

After just a short while, the pastor of the church and the Elders returned.  They apologized to us for having to have seen this and for being short with me.  Truly, no apology was needed!  The Elders affirmed they had never seen anything like this.  Now that it was over for the evening, they were shaking and bewildered.  Then the pastor told us this man's story.

This fellow had been special forces of some sort in Vietnam.  He had been captured and then tortured by his enemies.  Somehow he had escaped captivity, and when we returned home he was a different man.  His wife had recently come to faith, and she had told the pastor that she feared her husband was possessed.  He was an angry, but quiet alcoholic.  Almost every night, particularly around a full moon, he could not sleep because of horrific nightmares.  He also was openly hostile to the person and name of Jesus.  He had a history of violence, and the military training to make violence deadly.  She wanted to bring him to church, but she did not know what would happen.  It appears that he had been in church for several Sundays without incidence, but the pastor was concerned.  He had shared what he knew of his history with his Elders, and introduced him to several of these men.

That evening, one of the Elders had felt led to drive by the church that evening "just to check it out."  He heard us practicing through the open windows, and he noticed a car in the parking lot.  As he looked closer, he saw it was this man.  He approached him to ask if he was O.K., and the entire event began with him jumping out of his car and screaming his hatred of Jesus.  The Elder had not experienced anything like it, but he knew this was demonic.  Providentially, the other Elder was driving by, saw the man, pulled in, and began to pray for the first elder as he also could tell this was evil and different.  With this information, we all prayed for him, and the rest of the worship team left for our dorms.  The pastor and elders were going to handle it.

Now for the rest of the story.  That evening, the man drank heavily and did not return home.  Within a week or so, he was broken before the Lord and He called out to Jesus for help.  The pastor and elder prayed with him, and was set free.  Then they learned the rest of the story.

While in captivity in Vietnam, he grew increasingly angry and bitter toward his captures.  He wanted them dead!  One night, he heard a voice in his head telling him that he could help him get revenge and get out.  He noticed the cage was unlocked.  He crept out, killed his captors, and escaped.  Unfortunately, the voice did not leave.  He began to have horrible nightmares.  He began to drink to self-medicate.  He had married, but he could not escape his internal issues (as some say, his personal demons!).

Finally, his wife had come to faith.  He had heard the voice saying, he would never come to faith because he belonged to him.  He had helped him escape.  He was beyond help.  The man witnessed his wife change.  He had gone to church, but he could not hear anything but condemnation on how God could not love a murderer like him.  He did not remember the night at the church that I detailed above.  He had no memory of it.  Thankfully, he was finally set free when he called out to Jesus for help.  "The voice" left him at that time.

I tell this story not to cause fear nor to sensationalize demonic power, but to explain what it could look like.  I experienced these events, and I have tried to explain them as clearly and accurately as possible even though 23 years of past since I lived them.  I have not seen anything like this before or since!

Looking back, I ask what happened?

Through anger, this man had opened himself up to demonic influence and control.  Anger and bitterness is a great doorway into our soul, thus Paul's warning in Ephesians 4.  He had struggled and suffered under this demonic influence for almost 20 years.  The demon did not come out of the man on the evening at the church because he did not want the demon to leave at that time.  He clung to the demon he knew, instead of asking the God he did not know for help.  When he sincerely called out for Jesus' help, the demon left.  As far as I know, it never returned.

As this week goes on, I will offer more thoughts on demonic possession, demonic oppression, and how this relates to Christians and non-believers.  This is an important topic even if we do not see much open demonization in the West.  I know some of you will not buy into what I am saying.

All I know is that Jesus and the apostles cast out demons.  Jesus treated this topic as important and real.  As we move to see the Kingdom of God advance, we most likely will encounter demonic resistance.  We need to know what to expect, and how to appropriate the power of Jesus in the midst of this conflict.

Renewal Through Church Planting

 I grew up in a fairly typical mainline denomination.  As I recall, the goal of the Christian faith was for us to be nice people.  Yes, there was some debate on what it meant to be nice (typically divided along political lines), but all tacitly agreed that Christian people should be nice.

The problem with this definition of the Christian faith was that my family, in particular my mother and grandmother, were very involved in church politics.  I heard about and most importantly felt the tension between these "nice" people.  I also witnessed many things in the church that was far from nice.

When I became a believer in Christ, I was amazed to hear that the purpose of the church, indeed of my life, was not to be nice, but to proclaim Christ as my only hope.  I was so encouraged to hear that the Church is the only institution in the universe that exists for others.  The purpose of the Church is to live out and proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord!

This does not mean that we are not to be good and honest folks.  What it does mean is that we don't need to pretend that we are always nice people who have it all together.  In fact, when we are honest we can confess our need for Jesus, find His mercy afresh and anew, and grow in holiness through heart transformation.  What an inversion of the message I grew up hearing!

Moreover, the purpose the Church is to die to itself so that it might proclaim Jesus is Lord to those who have not heard or known God's grace.  Instead of fighting over ministry "turf" or personal preference, the uniting factor was seeing Christ proclaimed and the Kingdom growing.  

How is the best way to do this?  How do we proclaim Christ and see the Kingdom advance the quickest in a city, country, or region?  Since this is our goal given to us by Jesus, how do we reach it?

I think the follow quote by Tim Keller captures how the Spirit is moving through the entire world today.  The Spirit is on the move!  He is propelling believers out of their personal preference, their comfort zones, and their quest for personal piety above all else.  He is calling us to die to self so that we might live for others.  

How?  Through church planting.  These new churches breathe new life into the body of Christ.  They provide new ideas.  They also are powerfully effective at reaching new, unchurched people.  As Keller states,

“Numerous new churches are the only way to really expand the number of Christians in a city. New churches reach the non-churched far more effectively than longer-existing churches. Dozens of studies confirm that the average new church gains most of its new members from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations. This means that the average new congregation will bring new people into the life of the Body of Christ at 6-8 times the rate of an older congregation of the same size. …

Planting lots of new churches is one of the best ways to renew existing churches. New churches bring new ideas to the whole Body. It is the new churches that have freedom to be innovative and they become the ‘Research and Development’ department for the whole Body in the city. …

We firmly believe that the vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for reaching a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, mega-churches, consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study of the subject, it is not even controversial.”

Tim Keller, “Being the Church in our Culture”

So, what do you think?  Is this true?  What does this mean for churches that are 10, 15, 20, 50, and 100 years old?  What does this mean for you?