A minister’s path to success in the 21st Century
Posted: June 13, 2013 Filed under: Christianity, Leadership, Ministry, Pastor, Small Church Leave a comment »Here is a list of characteristics, skills, requirements, and yadda yadda yadda, that are needed to be successful in as a Christian pastor; or at least to feel successful.
- You must study leadership, over and over, so that you can play the part of a professional. After all, you are the leader of the church and possibly Jesus wants you to become very successful so that one day you can write a book. You need to know how to exercise “power” among people to hold them accountable toward reaching your goals. What you will learn is that you are a good leader when you are successful, but when you are not successful, you don’t have good followers. You will learn how to get rid of those who are standing between you and reaching your, I mean, God’s goal.
- You must move on from the CB and Ham radio to Twitter. Once you are on Twitter, you have to tweet simple sayings about leadership. Preferably, you must let others know that you are a person of vision and they must develop one too. Never Mind the vision that Jesus already gave His followers. A great tweet to consider might be something like, “Leaders lead from influence.” Or, “Leader, let the people see you sweat.” These are short enough to likely get retweeted by those you followed, and after they followed you, you dropped them, so that you can have it listed on your Twitter account that you have 6,000 followers. Plus, it is great to show that you are only following 60 people who are worthy enough to gain your followership. With 6,000 followers, you have now become a person of influence even though you might be pastoring a church of 45-100.
- You must have an attractive appearance. It would be helpful if you could attract the same type of attention that King Saul did when he was not king. Looking hip is a big help in the 21st Century. A gym membership is a must, along with hair coloring and very intellectual eyeglasses. How you dress will help keep the undesirables away too. A classy wardrobe simply lets people know that you only hang out with a certain group. This way you will gain an audience that may have enough money that you won’t have to get bogged down in their problems.
- You must travel back and forth to major conferences routinely so that you can mingle with other professionals. Successful ministers budget for the top conferences. These are a must even though many conferences are centered around the same topics. The point is that you are traveling, and this helps to maintain your professional appearance. What is more, you can possibly squeeze in some golf during one of these conferences too. Hanging out with professionals will build your network that will bring you clout for leadership. This was where the Apostles went wrong, they caught peoples’ attention, but at the end of the day the people realized that they were uneducated men and were not professionals.
- Your vision must include reminiscing about your awful experiences with church growing up. This will help to communicate to everyone that your church has finally developed the formula that will keep humanity from ruining the experience. The experience has to outweigh the disappointment every week, even though God seems to mold and shape His people through disappointment with church experience and others. In addition, you will help to eliminate the competition of those smaller churches that have to make use of their older facilities. Likely, these were the churches that messed you up when you were younger, before you found the right formula.
- You must attach yourself to every new trend that comes around in the Christian world. Warning, this may require a new wardrobe and younger look if you have been around for a while. You never know when something new will make a splash sent in from the Christian writer’s world of thought. For example, those who went for the attraction movement may now have to jump into the missional movement. Be warned though, poverty is beginning to gain traction in the Christian world. If so, this will change the path to success dramatically.
- You must be able to recite the Starbucks menu by heart. Even if you are not a coffee drinker, it is in your best interest that you begin acquiring the taste for it. After all, whoever heard of an up and coming minister that did not have meetings with potential white middle-class church attendees anywhere else? It gives a sense of an artsy appearance and intellectualism to those who frequent the coffee house. While there, don’t forget to tweet about it. Something like, “Working while at Starbucks, love the private atmosphere, it keeps me close to the real people.” This will help remove any guilt you might feel while your lay people are working; because they now know you are working too.
- You must have the newest Apple technology on the market. You cannot run around with a flip-phone, or just a regular PC. You have to have a Mac. You need an awesome IPhone too (I have an IPhone also). I keep mine in case I have a trendy Twitter thought about leadership that I would need to post. This will simply give the appearance that you are on the cutting-edge of things. We all know how important that is for ministers who are successful to blaze a trail before others.
- You must woo people by talking about their potential. I mean, never mind talking about them decreasing so that Jesus can increase; that is outdated. Instead, talk about how they too can become a great leader like you. Further, talk about how God wants them to be happy and that life is not supposed to be hard, especially once you teach them how manage properly their sin. After all, Dr. Phil has been successful with doing this too. I wonder if going to conferences regularly helped him.
- You must have trendy clothing that goes well with the Christian culture of today. I prefer special caps along with this piece of the success puzzle. Shirts with the Phoenix are slipping as I type, but it appears that shirts with patches and jeans with holes are sticking right now. Shoes . . . that is a huge statement about the character of the successful minister. Try to live with flip-flops and hiking shoes. These demonstrate your oneness with nature. You know going Green is a great trend to attach yourself to also.
Now this post has been written in fun. Nevertheless, there are still truths in this post. I won’t say which of these 10 I struggle with, but be assured that many do struggle with these. It is time that ministers start distancing themselves from CEO role playing and consider people as those whom God treasures and not buildings or the work they feel called to.
My battle is to make sure that I’m not role-playing with a motive that is really more about me than it is the church that Jesus has entrusted to me. If nothing else, this list could be a way for lay people and ministers to hold each other accountable so that we can be re-aligned with the purpose that Jesus has for His Church; the Kingdom of Heaven is near.
Rethinking the Christian fight for America
Posted: April 5, 2013 Filed under: Discipleship, God, Living it, Missional Resources, Relationships, Sacrifice, Salvation 2 Comments »I often wonder what types of things that I would think about and do if I wasn’t a Christian. In particular, I wonder about those situations that occur in my life that I didn’t create. In other words, would I handle certain situations different as a person who doesn’t care about what God thinks? I think the obvious answer is yes.
On the other hand, I wonder if there are some things that I would like to do differently as a wiser Christian. What I mean is maybe there are some situations and issues that I found myself in as a young Christian that I would like to do over. My guess is that anyone who thinks there isn’t anything they would like to do over is full of self and likely thinks, “I am right.” “Everyone else is wrong.”
Since I’ve been a Christian I have seen an evolution take place in my life; maybe I should say a type of transformation in my life. When I came to Christ I joined the “fight.” All I knew was that I wanted to “do” for Jesus. I remember yelling at family members who did not want to get saved. Some of them I talked to them daily about getting saved. Needless to say, they avoided me after a while, and looking back I don’t blame them.
Some of the “fight” was to “re-take” America. I remember boycotting Walt Disney, shopping malls because they allowed certain “bad” stores to do business in them, ABC, and the list goes on. I assure you that my motives were not bad. I just wanted people to live for Christ. Politics and preaching were important to me if “we” were going to take back America.
What happened to me was that I realized that we Christians who want to take America back actually created an “us” and “them” scenario. There was a wall built between “us” and “them” that created a disconnect from God and His children. The children being those who He created in His Image. This includes both “us” and “them.” We Christians were in one camp, and many still are, while those who did not believe the exact way we did were in another camp.
In our camp, we knew that the other camp was going to get theirs one day for all of the bad they have done to America. But, the funny thing is that we in our camp never realized that we might what we deserve for all of the bad we have done to the Kingdom of God. After all, we are the “enlightened ones” who know the will of God and understand His mission. We should realize that there will be accountability for us too.
Consider that there are two camps, at least according to our thinking and behavior. This means that those who follow Jesus are not living among them like Jesus did; and still does through the Holy Spirit. Our message to the world has been, “Think and act like we do or we are leaving your behind to suffer.” We haven’t communicated that God loves them and wants good for them and us. He wants to be the Father that many of us haven’t had and wants to care for us while teaching us to care about others.
As a result of this misguided motivation, we have caused those in the other camp who try to venture to ours, to think that they have to get themselves together. In other words, they need to clean up their lifestyles and then come to church. At least that is what they’ve heard from us, whether or not we meant to communicate that. Wow, Jesus is still cleaning me up because I can’t do and would never be able to do it; that is why we needed saved by the Savior. In fact, they don’t see this because we have avoided contact with those who do not believe the way we do.
Thankfully, God began to remake me and to work on my focus. I learned some time ago that those political fights lead us no where. In fact, seeking a political solution to certain issues instead of a spiritual solution has created disdain from Christians toward those who practice different lifestyles. Further, it has created disdain from those who are secular toward Christians too. After all, before I was a Christian I didn’t care what Christians thought of me. What is more, I didn’t care what the Bible said, and only a little about what God thought. In fact, I’m not sure that I was afraid to go to hell. I heard you gasp. Listen, I felt that my life had always been hell. I was used to it.
Now we come to the fight that The Church should’ve been more vocal about rather than political issues. We Christians must learn to put coercion aside and focus persuasiveness when it comes to sharing Christ with those who are not living for Him. Notice I didn’t use the term “Those who do not know Him.” Newsflash! There are many who are aware of who Jesus is, or at least a version of Jesus, but sadly, we established the wrong fights and communicated that some shouldn’t even try to be saved.
I propose that The American Church get up in arms over all the hurting people who have felt pain all of their lives. What I mean, instead of fighting to get prayer back in school, we should fight to get it back into homes. In fact, we should be teaching “Christians” how to love like Jesus does. This eliminates disdain, since we can’t possibly lead anyone to Christ through disdain. What if Christians started caring for the community that they find themselves in instead of fighting against it all of the time. Can you imagine telling someone who has not known the love of a father and mother that Jesus loves them? How about telling someone that God never meant for them to suffer like they have? Of course, this would have to replace the famous, “Well, God has a reason.”
What if we focused on developing healthy relationships with those who have none? I think sometimes we Christians have become so used to our camp that we have forgotten to set those in the other camp free by persuading them to receive Christ’s love and ours. To do this, at least in my mind, we can’t just settle for a food drive event, or a clothing drive, and etc. Instead we have to be willing to develop a lifestyle, everyday way of living, that includes living among those who are not following Jesus.
This proposal eliminates the camps structure and leads to win others through love and compassion. Plus it takes the hope out of politics and places it back on Jesus Christ with a demonstration of the peaceful life, that if trouble comes, has hope for this life now through Jesus our Lord. This demonstration is not the type where we can put our Christian masks on for and event, but we have to be transformed because we are living among those who are learing about Christ and His love through watching us and trusting us enough to learn from Him through us.
The Church and her fight against same-sex marriage
Posted: March 27, 2013 Filed under: Christianity, compassion, Doomsday, Holiness, Homosexuality, Love, Marriage, Same-sex marriage 1 Comment »I haven’t been a good citizen or a good pastor lately because I am on break from watching the news. I impose these breaks from time to time because it seems like there is a lot of bad news for the world, America, and me. Add to this that politically, I find myself in a dying breed category. Politically I’m conservative. You may be someone who is on the other side of the aisle right now and just felt a strong disdain for me. Or, you might just feel sorry for me since I’m such a poor misguided soul who just doesn’t get it. Nevertheless, if you are still reading at this point, I am aware that politicians, federal justices, and Americans are dealing with same-sex marriage again. Therefore, I felt that it is in order to remind Christians and secularists about what the Bible actually says about this hotly debated issue.
First, I want to Christians to step back and examine what their motive is that dwells in their hearts when they post statuses on Twitter and Facebook about same-sex marriage. I feel that honesty with what is going on in our hearts is needed in this arena. I fear that some Christians really are attacking a group of people who commit a particular type of sin, according to the Bible. What continues to be forgotten is that sexual immorality is a branch off of Original Sin that everyone, theologically, is born with. In fact, the self is always in contrast to God. If sexual immorality is a branch off of the tree of Original Sin, then a branch off of sexual immorality is homosexuality, and, a list that includes sins like adultery, sexual fantasy with people other than your spouse, all sex outside of the context of marriage, pornography, incest, and etc. These, and others that I may not have listed, are stems off of the branch attached to the tree.
The problem is that we Christians focus all of our efforts to grab the saw to remove the stem of homosexuality from the branch of sexual immorality. All the while, however, we simply try to manage the other types of sin with less vigor. In fact, we do not even really get upset when those sins are committed because we understand them; and most of us have committed them. Therefore, we become compassionate toward those people who struggle with those sins. And, could I say, that some “Christians” even practice some of those sins regularly. Here is the rub, pastors will correctly say that we have to work with these poor lost souls. But, not with homosexuals. Instead of acknowledging them as those who are in bondage to sexual immorality like most other people are too, Christians begin to call judgment down on them.
This is much like OT Israel who continued to long for The Day of The Lord, but prophets warned them that when that day came it would not be what they expected. In fact, it would be a day of justice for their injustice toward others. Yes, injustice was practiced in Holy Israel, where God was “their King.” They practiced racial hatred even though their Law called for them to care for those who were foreigners among them. They ignored the poor often, and the list goes on. The lesson that we Christians, The New Israel, should learn is that sometimes when we start calling down curses, like some disciples wanted to do, and ultimate judgment we might not get what we expect. We might just get what we deserve. After all, we never had the zeal to hold people in our churches accountable for those other sexual sins that they continued to practice. We settled for “loving” them and fighting against one particular type of sin that we personally did not like.
Further, I am shocked at how few Christians really know what the Bible says about this issue and how we are supposed to live in a world where this issue isn’t going to go away. Some Christians will post that God is fine with this type of behavior, but upset with those are not because they are “judging.” Christians continue to misunderstand what judging is. I make judgments daily, for example, I make the judgment that if I place my hand on a hot stove I will get burned. Therefore, I do not do it. In fact, I tell children, don’t do it. The problem is that some children have put their hand on a stove that was not hot before. In fact, they enjoy doing that. Nevertheless, I tell them not to do anyway. But they think I am judging them because that stove has not burned them before. Besides, what they do with their hand is their business and I should not care as long as it isn’t hurting me.
I used possibly a silly example, but the point is that I don’t believe that my motive, if I’m judging others by saying that homosexuality is a sin, is meant to intrude on someone’s right to touch a stove. My motive should be that I know that one day that stove will be on and it will burn the child’s hand so I don’t want the child to eventually get hurt. In fact, I deeply care about the child, otherwise I would not say anything to the child about the stove. I would simply sit back and watch the show. When it was over I would say, lol, I told you and walk away. Now obviously, I think that according to the Bible homosexuality is indeed sin. Those who practice it, along with the other types of sin I mentioned earlier, may not be getting hurt now, but they will. And one day Jesus will return and those who clung to their Original Sin will be sent to a place of judgment. These will be those who rejected Jesus and His teachings. They wanted the right to live their lives and touch that stove without people like me bothering them.
For those who are secular I want you to know that we Christians are supposed to be showing you respect and love. If you experience those who do not, please know that they are not currently speaking the language of Christ. You are right that you should be able to live the way you choose. We Christians call that Free Will. From my point of view that is biblical, that is a gift from God to you. If you don’t believe that the Bible is the ultimate source of truth, then none of this matters. But, if you do believe that the Bible is God’s communication to His Church, then you need to know that homosexuality is sin. Plus, as Americans, even if there people misusing Scripture, or being hypocritical while quoting Scripture, it is their right to take part in the American process politically.
I do ask for forgiveness though when you experience wrong-motived Christians attacking you if you are someone who supports same-sex marriage, or someone who is homosexual. I want you to know that you would like Jesus, sometimes His people get a little edgy, but eventually we will grow to become more like Him. The Christian Church simply cannot support same-sex marriage, but she should not attack those who do. Christians are supposed to be ambassadors who persuade on behalf of her King. Jesus is not into coercion.
If same-sex marriage is legalized, then Christians you and I are still called to love God and love others. We will continue to operate as we have since they lowered the age for consensual sex, legalized alcohol, and in some places marijuana, divorce, and etc. We live in a fallen world. Do you really think that legislation will fix it? Or do you suppose that being motivated by love and compassion to disciple others will eventually impact your surrounding community? I can’t help but think of the Kingdom that was spawned by One Man over 2,ooo years ago who did not condemn, but came to save.
Believing toward freedom
Posted: October 1, 2012 Filed under: Christianity, Faith, Living it, Sacrifice, Salvation 2 Comments »Before I came into a relationship with Jesus Christ, there was a point in my life that I wanted to be a good person. In fact, I desired to become a good person for several reasons, such as, I felt sick about how I didn’t care for others, I wanted to be respected in the community, I wanted my wife to have a good husband, and I wanted to be different so that my children would not behave as I did. What I found was that while I tried to do these things, I could not achieve peace with myself about the results. Now the results were not simply centered around right actions; they also included right thoughts along with right actions. I soon found that I could not become the person I wanted to be.
After a few years of trying to be different, I decided to try God. I thought that if I got saved that somehow that would establish me as the person that I longed to be. I decided to read the Bible, mostly because I didn’t know many Christians who would help me and from my experience I did not want to be associated with them. As I read, I found that God had an entirely different plan for, not just my life, humanity as whole. This knowledge enlightened me to the point that it became about desiring to know this God of the Bible instead of simply being saved.
Many people who are not associated with a community of believers realize that there is something missing in their lives as I did. The problem is that God has outlined what is best for us in the Bible, but we generally do not find out for ourselves. Instead, we rely on other Christians to tell us spiritual things that will make us feel better. The problem is that most Evangelical Christians get stuck at the point of belief. What I mean is that most simply point out that believing is what God does to make you and I saved. Then the problem becomes that you and I, who have not been associated with church, find that we are still the same persons we were before getting saved.
Finding out that nothing has changed, both internally and externally, becomes troubling to those of us who have not been properly pointed to Christ. After all, Evangelicals simply believe that we should get saved to avoid hell and to be ready for when we die or Jesus Returns. This type of believing causes many of us who are giving church and Jesus a try to give up. We learn quickly that simply believing has not helped us in this life now. We are still in bondage to our poor attitudes and behaviors. Yet, those of us who will turn to the Bible can learn that Jesus wants humanity to believe toward freedom.
Believing toward freedom, means to me, now that we believe in Jesus Christ and received Him as our Savior, what does that demand that we do? Think about; the Bible is full of God’s plan for His people and continually communicating the importance of being different. This is where much of our problem occurs. God wants us to be different from who we were before we established a relationship with Jesus. Yet, we Evangelicals continue to be reluctant to tell those outside of the Kingdom, along with those who are new in the Kingdom, that God expects our belief in Jesus to bring us into freedom. Freedom is being free from the internal and external issues that troubled us in the first place, which is why we investigated who Jesus Christ is.
God wants us to do more than simply believe in Jesus. He wants us to become more like Jesus. In fact, if we don’t and simply are satisfied to just believe, then are we really saved? These are questions that are age-old, but these may need to be wrestled with again in the Evangelical circles. Consider the Fruits of the Spirit, these are those characteristics that I longed to have but could not on my own. Why? Because Jesus was not involved in the change. In fact, simply just believing in Jesus can also lead to Jesus being uninvolved in our character reconstruction. The Fruits represent the freedom to be who, I and Jesus, desire me to be.
This is what I call believing toward freedom. Freedom means that I am not locked into the hatred, jealousy, pride, and anger I felt all of time anymore. So if you are someone who believes in Jesus, but you are not free to love God and others that would demonstrate that you are becoming more like Jesus, then you may not really be saved. My Jesus came to set the captives free.
Here’s what you need to do. Seek Him with all of your heart. In other words, you have to desire Him for more than just avoiding hell. You need to seek Him while surrendering yourself to Him so that He has the freedom mold and shape you into someone He wants you to be; this better than the person you tried to become without Him. Pray to Him regularly. Read His Word regularly. Meditate on Him and His Word regularly. Incorporate His commands into your new lifestyle. Don’t give up. If you surrender you life in these ways, then you will have the freedom be the person that loves God and others.
We need Christians to start teaching lifestyle change instead of lifestyle acceptance. We need Christians to teach lifestyle change now instead wait until later change. The Church needs people who model this change in a positive light instead of an unhappy negative light. Believing toward freedom makes more sense than simply believe and you will be saved. So what are you going to do about it? Believe toward freedom.
Rightly Dividing the Word
Posted: September 4, 2012 Filed under: Leadership, Ministerial training, The Wesleyan Church, Unity? Leave a comment »Since we live in an age where college degrees are more common, and information is accessible, does it matter if someone has been trained to teach God’s Word? The easy answer is no. Yet, should someone who teaches God’s Word be trained theologically, have an understanding of the original text, and be familiar with Church history?
It is obvious that God uses those who do not have this type of training. On the other hand, it is obvious that God doesn’t use many either. In fact, there are many who have had this type of training that fail to allow God to use them. I’m always amazed at how people are so quick to follow someone who regularly misinterprets Scripture. The Bible calls these people “false teachers.”
What is good about denominations is that most expect their ministers to be trained in rightly dividing the Word of God. In fact, the Wesleyan Church offers those who believe that God called them into ministry the opportunity to receive training through various types of education. What is more, Wesleyans also have supervised ministry in place so that ministers can be trained practically while being supervised. New ministers are held accountable for various things, and also whether or not they are able to rightly divide the Word.
I write this post not to sound arrogant. My goal is not establish some type of hierarchy. Neither am I putting down autonomous churches. I believe that today it is important that people can depend on the minister to have a good grasp for dividing God’s Word.
Here is the rule of thumb: if the person who is teaches God’s Word has no accountability, then when is no accountability a good thing? Furthermore, Jesus said that we would know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). This is a biblical truth that continues to be the best deterrent from being misled.
My advice is be aware of who you agree with, because you may be misled intentionally, or unintentionally. The person who teaches me the Word must be formally trained and be accountable. This person’s teaching must be in line with historical understanding, along with accepted orthodox theology.
A Guide to Learning How to Love
Posted: August 23, 2012 Filed under: Love, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships, Sacrifice | Tags: Love 1 Comment »This is a very vague guide and I admit that. Yet, it is also very simple. Since I first got into ministry, 1997, I’ve learned a lot about the Lord, and people. Often people notice that they have trouble with the many different relationships they have. This is a lot of a pastor’s ministry; helping people to become “better” in the relationships that they have.
The relationships that we have with each other are very important. However, some are more important than others. You will see this in this little guide I have.
Often people have trouble with their heart feeling right in their relationships. This can be helped by the Holy Spirit working with His people to change. I like to think of it like this . . . He brings the change to pass, but our part is to set our minds and hearts on what is acceptable to God.
So here is a priority list that may be helpful for people who want to do a better job of loving in their relationship with God and others.
Priority list
- Jesus
- Spouse
- Children
- Church
- Job
- Friends
- Money
There may better listings. Nevertheless, this seems workable. Notice that often, people flip-flop this in their lives. Those who flip-flop this list are both those who attend and do not attend church. I believe that our troubles with relationships would be decreased greatly if people lived by this simple list. In this list, we can see the proper place of money. Money should not be valued more than those ahead of it.
Just a thought. Blessings.
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