4 Gravitational Pulls All Churches Experience

I took these notes from Andy Stanley at the Newspring Leadership Conference in September. 

Text: Acts 15:1-21

One of his comments about the Scripture was that a controversy arose about the need for surgery to be saved. 

He also said that every church has a “they.”

1) Churches always gravitate toward insiders and away from outsiders.  Jesus liked people who were nothing like Him.  The people liked Jesus who were nothing like Him.  Resist this pull in the way you preach, build, and etc.  We must keep our churches externally focused. Red flag prayer requests. Sin, sorrow, and death are what makes our message more important!  Lost people are what matters!

My take: Prayer requests must be centered on people finding Christ.

2) Churches gravitate toward law instead of grace.  People think categorically instead of relational.  Love must always overcome rules.  Acceptance paves the way to influence.  Use grace to sort things out.  We will have to accept people who sin; not the sin.  Homosexuality, abortion, fornication. 

My take: Those who live this way must not be influenced away from the church. The Holy Spirit can still work with them and that is His job. 

3) Churches gravitate toward complexity instead of simplicity.  Clarity.  Partner don’t pioneer; fund and volunteer for other organizations that are already doing it.  Don’t lose your uniqueness in your community.

My take: We are all unique and have a purpose in God’s plan.  Sometimes we need to simply cut the fluff away and focus on the one thing we do.  Discipleship should be a clear process too. 

4) Churches gravitate toward preserving and not advancing.  The Jews were trying to preserve the Law of Moses.  The same Law that God gave him.  Do not move into a protection mode instead of moving into the community.  We cannot protect assets before fulfilling the mission.  Think like a church plant. How did we think when we did not have money? 

My take: Protect mode really brings everything to a stop.  The assets that we protect are Gods; we must watch burying our one talent.  

4 Commitments

1-Be more concerned about who we are reaching instead of who we are keeping.

2-Let’s error on the side of grace.

3-Remain focused on our unique calling.

4-Remain open-handed.  We started with nothing we may end with nothing; and that is okay.   

This is great advice.  I think this advice is great for a small church pastor.  There is a lot to chew on and ponder on here.  Everything in these notes I took are applicable even my small church situation.  I recently shared this with my board.  My goal was to help us focus on what is important.

Thoughts on faith

Luke gave a great insight to what faith is supposed to look like in his gospel.  Luke was great at creating contrast between people and groups.  He contrasted human emotions many times which help to reveal character someone either in a positive or negative light to those who read his account.  With this in mind, I want to share a thought, or two, about the faith that Christians should have. 

Here is a definition of faith, Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Many times Christians use this verse as a biblical promise to be healed from a disease or something tragic.  But what if I use the word faith to describe someone who is devout?  You know, someone who gets it.  If I can use this word in that manner, then I am free to look at the context of a passage that uses the same word.  I’m gonna do it just for kicks.

In Luke 7:1-10, though we should look at the passages before and after, there is a snapshot of the word faith being used by Jesus about a centurion.  In this passage, Jesus heals the centurion’s servant.  Luke contrasted some people in this passage.  By the way, this passage comes after Luke’s Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus dealt with judging others in that passage. 

 Here are some contrasts in these 10 verses to look at from Luke himself.  The Centurion cares about his servant.  The Jews care about the Centurion, who has authority and who loved the Jewish nation and built their synagogue.  The Centurion had been good; at least a good tither.  Israel was a nation of priests devoted to God and had The 10 Commandments and Law.  The Gentiles, as depicted with the centurion who was considered to be unclean as a Gentile.  The rich and the poor.  The rich elders who cared about their nation and building and the man who had money, because they judged that he “deserved” for his servant to be healed.  The servant, who only had 2 people worried about him, Jesus and the centurion.  People with pride and those who are humble.  I might be missing some other things to look at but you get the picture.  And, all of this was taking place before a fickle crowd.

The Jews were supposed to care about the widows and the orphans, the poor, and the alien.  It was written throughout the Law to them.  In the way of this type of love, they were to be distinct from the world.  They did not do well with this.  Yet, the centurion cared about his servant.  Most of the time we Christians just want to talk about the centurion’s faith because healing took place on account of his faith.  The problem with this is that we have it backwards, we look for the miracle because we want to see someone who is important to us to be healed.  All the while Jesus is looking at us to see if we have the faith of the centurion. 

Simply, the faith of the centurion was the picture of someone who got it.  The elders did not get it according to Luke.  There care was for the money man.  Maybe they thought, “Hope Jesus can do this so that the centurion will continue to be good to us; otherwise he may give up on our God.”  Of course we know that if he gave up on God, that would mean that the money would stop.  Therefore, they did not get it.  The very Law they taught was not within their hearts.  Too many Christians today focus on the same things that the elders did.  Respectable people who can help the church.  Heaven forgive us!

The Centurion, who ironically I assume learned the Law from the Jews, cared for the poor much.  He lived out what he heard.  He cared about the same thing that Jesus did, the poor.  If only, elders in churches today would focus on the same things that Christ is focused on.  I believe people would see a dramatic move of God instead a manufactured move of social justice.  The centurion was humble, he was not bragging about his authority, because was under authority.  He simply recognized Christ as the Authority in contrast with the elders.  All the while the crowd is watching. 

So if you were in the crowd watching Christ, and you heard Him say that He has “not found such great faith even in Israel,” how would you respond?  Would you say to yourself that Jesus’ point was that we should try real hard to believe so that by faith people could be healed?  Or, do you think that He meant that the Jews, who were supposed to know God, were not living their faith out in regard to love for others?  I think Jesus would say this to the Church today.

In my view, Jesus pointed out plainly that the centurion was living by the Law.  His heart was different from the Jews.  This meant that the centurion would enter Heaven before the elders and the Jews.  Shocking!  Because we Christians teach about believing God for our healing from this passage instead of teaching about the humility and love that God desires from us. 

Does your relationship with Christ resemble the elders or the centurion?  What does your heart care about?  The nation and the church building, or those who are “the least of these?”  Christians, it is time to stop placing hope in politics, money, and people.  It is time to quit associating with Jesus because He has power.  Instead, it is time to allow Him to live through us because He loves us.  And if He lives through us, this means that we will care more about those in need than building facilities.  So what is faith to you?

I want a mad church

An amazing thought I have been wrestling with lately is “Should the Church get mad?”  What I mean is should the church develop an anger that will motivate her to spread the Word?  Someone might think, “Isn’t that what the Church already does?” Yes, and no. 

The Word of God is being preached in many churches.  Sometimes though, the Word comes with a slant toward a particular view, or goal.  Periodically, I will use the topical method of preaching, which tends to naturally have a view point with it.  More often, I use an expository method.  In my opinion, this gives me, and others, a better opportunity to allow God to speak. 

The problem is that generally only believers are going to church, which is good, but they are not bringing anyone from outside the church with them.  As a result, the preached Word is staying within the Church.

Back to where I really want to go with this.  Somehow, the Church has allowed herself to appear, or become, unlike Jesus Christ.  When I thought of church as an unconverted person, the first thought that came to my mind was I don’t belong.  I felt that attenders looked at me and my family with disdain.  This is another story.  I did not see Jesus in the midst of  that attitude.  Sinners were attracted to Jesus because He is lovingly attracted to them. 

As a believer, I now see churches struggle with each other over 10% of the “desirable” type of people who we think are worthy to come to church.  You know, those people we think would make good members and contributors.  Amazingly, the others are left out.  I venture to say that they do not even come up on the radar screen as those who need to be targeted. Well, maybe in shop talk once in a while.

As a believer, when I think of church my first thought is flip flops, gotees, coffee, and a lot of theory.  The battle the Church has been fighting in America is not against the kingdom of darkness, it is against itself.  Freedom used to mean freedom from self desire to sin against God.  Now freedom is about worship style.  The bottom-line is that one group of believers wants to bind another.  Freedom?  This is the ever present struggle within the Church to please Jesus the right way.  Or please selves?  Sigh.  Does this stuff make you feel as tired as I do?

The whole time, the above struggle is taking place, the Church is not moved with the real love of Jesus Christ to mobilize in an effort to save her community’s children from sin.  Jesus did not spend time struggling over generational warfare with His disciples.  He spent His time talking about love for God and others.  He said that if we did this, people (sinners) would know that we are His. 

So when is the Church going to get mad over the fact that we have been wasting our time on too many philosphies that cause us to struggle against each other and be mad that Satan is destroying people with sin?  If we get mad about that I believe that we will really focus our attention on setting the captives free

This madness must be rooted in love for others.  Madness can, and will, motivate us to do what Christ called us to.  This madness will create an overwhelming desire to be Jesus and deliver the good news that people can have a better life through Jesus Christ.  What is more, salvation can be gained through Christ.  The Church has to become mad for those who are lost again.  We cannot settle for being mad at each other.  We are called to be mad for those who are perishing. 

I want a mad church.  I want a Mad Church.  I want Christians who will stand up and say that they have had enough of Satan snatching our community’s children and adults and leading them to hell!  I am tired of Christian groups Church bashing.  I am tired of Christians competing with each other.  I am tired of the freedom march that seeks to deliver churches from a particular style of worhsip.  I long for the freedom march that sets people in bondage to sin free.  It sets them free from eternal damnation!

You should want a mad church too.

Sunday Ups and Downs

We had a good attendance at Smith Chapel yesterday.  I got to teach about the importance of being connected to church.  Our text was 1 Corinthians 12 and I read from verse 4 to the end of the chapter.  While reading we noted that this chapter is about more than simply trying to figure out what our spiritual gifts are.  The bottom-line is that God connects us to The Church, the church, Him, and connects us (the church) with a lost world so that Jesus can connect to those who do not know Him.  That is it in a nut shell. 

During our service we able to baptize a man, which connected him to The Church, and hopefully to the our church too.  It was a good moment in our worship.  Some of his family was there with tears in their eyes.  This helped us as a Body to focus on Christ and the importance of knowing Him which led to singing praises from our hearts. 

Later, a young man shared with me that he is a universalist.  I hate to admit it, but it is refreshing to meet someone who is honest in the Bible-Belt about their view of God.  Most really do not know what they believe and why they believe.  He challenged me to dig for intelligent answers.  It has been a long time since I’ve focused on Apologetics.  It might be time for a refresher.  Nevertheless, for those who think that there really is not much of a mission out there that requires Christians to share Christ, here is your reminder. 

Finally, I capped off the day going to see someone who might be hours from slipping into eternity.  This person has not received Christ as Savior and Lord.  These are always tense moments for me as a pastor.  There are nurses and family around who do not want you to bother someone who is passing away.  I understand.  However, we must realize that receiving Christ is also how someone can pass away peacefully.  I asked the question, “Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior?”  There was no answer.  We must remember that God gives us all a choice.  I wish I had better news, but I don’t. 

Sunday started out with a sense of victory, but it ended with the reminder that there are still many who do not know who Jesus Christ is.  Further, there are many who choose not to know Jesus Christ.  Yet, God is merciful and longsuffering.  He continues to astound me by trying to save right up to the last breathe.  To Him be all glory and honor forever.

We feel better when someone cares

Exodus 4:29-31 (NIV)
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Interesting. The Hebrews were not free yet. As a matter of fact, they still had more hardship on the way. Yet, in the previous chapters of Exodus, out of bitterness and desperation the Hebrews prayed to God. So I think that it is interesting that although they are still struggling with their lives, the fact that they knew that God knew about their suffering actually was the first moment of relief for them. They felt better. And they were going to need to because their bitterness was about to increase. So how many times would we deal with a hardship in our lives if we could simply take comfort from the fact that God knows all about it and that He is working for our good too? Many times we just need to know that someone cares about what we are facing. And that Someone is God.

So what made them worship?  The signs or the fact that God cared for them?

Does God use you?

It is a simple question really.  Does God use you?  In my years of being a Christian, 14 years now, I have met all sorts of people who asked questions about why God had not done anything big with them like He did with those in the Bible. 

I have also met Christians who were jealous of other Christians when they saw amazing things happening in someones life.  They felt that God did not helped them to make a difference.  Then there are those who attend churches that do not seem to be making a difference in anything.  These people are continually looking for a place where it is happening.  This sounds fair, right?  Yet, it is likely that it is not happening because these people are looking for a way for it to happen without faith. 

Consider a large church.  They have many resources like people and money.  These churches can almost do what they need to do without faith.  Yet, God is always at work with His servants.  What I mean is that although we desire to make a difference, He still uses our service to teach us about having faith in Him.  This is how He reveals Himself to us in new ways. 

It is often that we believe that we know Christ in an intimate way.  Yet, we have not seen Him move mountains for us.  This is what happens in churches where it doesn’t seem like anything is happening.  But this is the school of faith for that local body. 

You may ask how then do we know that God is trying to use us?  This is another question that I get asked sometimes.  The answer is in the condition of your heart.  This is the key.  I say this because there are a lot of people who just want to go out and get busy for Jesus.  That is fine, but if you want the Spirit to be part of it, it should be something that burdens you; not something that looks like what you should do because you are a Christian. 

Here is what I have noticed about Moses recently.  He was a rescuer at heart.  In his own way, he was driven to action to rescue a Hebrew slave being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster.  In his own way, Moses decided to simply kill the Egyptian.  It seemed like a rescue to him. And it was; sort of.  As a matter of fact, I believe that Moses went home and felt good that he did such a noble thing.  After all, what was happening to his people was wrong. 

After fleeing to Midian because Moses was wanted for murder he bumped into shepherd girls watering their sheep.  I want to pause and say that Moses was awesome.  He not only found God, later, in the desert, but he also found a wife too.  Not many can go into a desert find those two things.  Kudos to Moses.  Anyway, these shepherd women were being bullied by men.  Moses jumped in and rescued them too.  Do you see what is going on in his heart?  He already had a desire/burden to rescue people from injustices.  He was frustrated enough about what he saw to do something about it. 

Finally, God, who had been watching all that was taking place, took a person who had a general desire/burden to rescue, and gave Moses a special burden/call to be used by God to rescue Moses and God’s people.  So God called Moses to be used on His mission instead of Moses being on his personal mission. 

The answer to the question, does God use you?  involves what burden is in your heart?  If you are moved to action already about rescuing someone, God will use you.  Those who desire to be missional must understand that missional is not a glamorous fad to say you are a part of.  Instead, it is a calling for God’s people to be burdened enough to action.  Then God who sees all will give His special call so that we can be used by Him. 

Those churches who are not seeing anything happen might be able to trace their problems to unburdened hearts that do not desire to rescue the lost from going to Hell.  Missional is about rescuing people from a terrible eternal fate and from bondage in this life.  Until we get some Moses’ who will stand up and do something about what is not right, like people missing Heaven because they have not met Jesus, God won’t use any “Christians” until He sees a genuine desire in the heart.

Can Churches and People be taught how to be Missional?

First of all, I want to clarify that I desire to be missional.  As a matter of fact, if I was looking for a church to attend with my family,  I would attend the missional church that is was capable of teaching the Word of God while striving to be missional.  In other words, there needs to be a good balance between missional and teaching God’s Word.  This means that one should not exist without the other.   

I am a Wesleyan pastor.  So if you are reading this article you should be aware that I am coming from a Wesleyan point of view.  Although, I do not claim that we Wesleyans have a lock on theology and are the only people who are right, I do, personally, feel more comfortable with the Wesleyan point of view.  Here is web site that you can see what we believe theologically compared to our Calvinist brothers. 

Anyway, theology between the camps is not really what I want to discuss.  I would rather hear both views  about whether or not we can teach churches and people to be missional or if we must be surrendered completely to Christ to be missional.  In other words, do we have to be full of the Spirit in such a way that we cannot help but be missional? 

1. From a Wesleyan theological point of view if we are Sanctified (Full of the Spirit and God’s love), do we need to be taught how to be missional?  If we have surrendered to Jesus Christ and asked HIm to come into our hearts so that He can be Lord of our life, and sought victory over our sinful nature, then He has filled us with the Spirit.  This would mean that we now have the nature of Christ in us and that our motives and desires have truly been changed.  If this is so, then we would instinctively know to be those who are sent to take the Gospel of Christ into the world. 
2. If we are Sanctified, then we have a natural love for God, others, and ourselves now.  This would mean that we are free from the bondage of selfishness so that we can give with great joy in our hearts to those who have needs.  We would not have to check the Sermon on the Mount because we would be living it.  It seems that if there are people and churches who are not living this way that there might be a spiritual problem.  If there is a spiritual problem, then are we really doing any good to teach people how to be missional? 
3. I hope this is wrong, but is the desire to be missional driven by the fact this type of Christ-living grows churches numerically and financially?  The danger in teaching others to be missional, and in people seeking to learn to be missional, is that we are only trying to appear to be something that we truly are not inwardly.  Again, if we have the nature of Christ now, then we are going to be missional because that is what we are now.  Why?  Because Jesus is. 
4.  To me, being missional is finding what upsets you in your community.  Once you find it, because of the love that you have for God and others, you will decide if it is something that only Jesus can fix.  If it is, then that is when His people spring into action.  If it is a church body, then they will all know what is expected of them if most are truly sold out to Jesus Christ. 
5. If we are not really Spirit led, of full of the Spirit, then when we seek to be missional can it just be classified as a social gospel?  Frankly, if we are not really surrendered to Christ, then we are merely taking part in community action that mirrors the governments purpose for community action. 

To my Wesleyan brothers and sisters: if you are trying to learn how to be missional, then have you forgotten your first love?  Our denomination was a movement first before it was a denomination.  When we were a movement, we were missional!  We were a movement because of our love for God and others.  We saw the world as a realm that needed delivered from the bondage of sin by our Savior.  Freedom was always at the forefront when it came to slavery and sin.  We helped to stop slavery, and for a while, we were used by the Holy Spirit to preach deliverance from sin ruling over us.  Now, we go to seminars and buy books to learn how to used by God.  It is time for us to surrender again to God’s will and seek to join Him in the work He is taking part in.  Yet, to see God’s work taking place would mean that we have to go out into the lowly places to help Him.  We can’t go until we love Him and others. 

One last word, I do not wish to say that we should not buy books and go to seminars.  My wish is that everyone would see that we must be sold-out to Christ to be truly missional.  I have been accused of being unteachable in the past because I was not gushing over reading books by those who are current.  Wow!  I do read some.  Yet, knowledge is knowledge.  But, love is what spurs us.

Another minister illustrates the sacrifice of clergy and laity

I have been reading the Padre’s blog for a while now.  Today I came across this post that I think all ministers and laity should consider.  There is tremendous sacrifice and dependency that accompanies giving.  I was thinking about the possibility of preaching about this subject before Christmas at our church.  I generally preach about stewardship in January; and still may.

I think this article is good because it is not me saying it.  So if you know me you will understand that I am always uneasy about teaching or preaching this subject.  I would much rather someone else do it. 

Here is my struggle.  I love our people enough that I want them to know God’s power and will for giving freely.  Yet, I don’t want anyone to think that I am pushing them to do something that appears to benefit me or the church.  Giving benefits the giver for eternity while receiving benefits the recipient for the time being.  Yet, both are taken care of by God.  Both receive from God when people give.  

It is hard to really know the Lord if you do not take part in giving.  I know I may have a comment come in and tell me that I have a poor understanding of God’s love.  Well, I disagree.  God is a Giver.  Giving is the heart of God.  We are  to be imitators of Christ who freely gave.   

Now, everyone can see from this article what type of faith some of us live by.  I have had to live by faith in God first, and in God’s people being obedient second.  This is where the rubber meets the road as a Christian as far as I am concerned.  Faith in God who can supply our needs grows and matures us when we must rely upon Him.  Yet, many who are financially comfortable and don’t give much struggle to learn about God’s heart of giving and sacrifice. 

I will be writing soon about sacrifice too.  Because sacrifice is not just for the missionary or the third world person.  God calls us all to sacrifice.  I would invite you to meditate about sacrifice and giving during this time of the year that spend money upon those who already have it and neglect those who don’t. 

God bless.

The World’s trouble with the Church

I shared a conversation today with someone who challenged me and caused me to defend what I believe with answers that went beyond “Because the Bible says so!”  Here is what needs to be defended according to those who do not attend church and have family members who go to church.

• Why won’t some churches allow people to serve in leadership if they have had a divorce, but will gladly receive their money and allow these people to work themselves to death?  I don’t care if you are a Bible scholar; this looks bad!  I have known people who have been damaged because of this.  If the Church is supposed to be the corporate character of Christ, then how can this happen? 
• Why does the Church spend a great amount of time screaming and complaining about what they are against instead of doing something to help those who are lost to find Jesus?  Isn’t this simply about control?  Is control an attribute that Christ bestowed upon the Church?  Or, did He bestow love as the main attribute of the Body?
• Why do small churches spend so much time condemning other churches and denominations?  Does this come from jealousy?  The most frustrating accusations from these churches who try to keep what little people they have scared straight is that Billy Graham is going to hell (a preacher in Phoenix has this video on youtube).  Wow!  If this is true, we are in serious trouble. 
• Why are so many churches and ministers trying to escape from the run-down neighborhoods instead of staying to minister (serve) in them?  I listen to some church planters and get excited to dream with them.  Yet, some want to plant in the affluent areas instead of the places that are surviving on government help.  This is a whole new type of “Left Behind.” 
• Another question in our conversation that was asked, “Why doesn’t the Church like to talk about Jesus in casual conversations?”  It does seem that we Christians try to keep our faith quiet instead of shouting about what God has done for us recently.  As a matter of fact, this person said that most of the time sermons come from the OT or Paul’s letters to the churches.  There needs to be a good balance of the Word of God in light of the Gospels people!
• My favorite.  Why do Christians get stuck in debates over alcohol or cigarettes?  Shouldn’t God be allowed to be God by letting Him help these people to quit for their health and not eternal damnation?  Could it be that God might be more concerned with children who are starving in Africa?  Isn’t gossip more damaging to the Body of Christ than someone drinking a glass of wine?
• My last favorite.  Why is it that those Christians that God has blessed financially give less than those who do not have much?  This trend seems to be true even in the secular world. 

Well these are some good discussion starters that should get those of us who care about the Church being Christ thinking.  If you comment and use Scripture, remember not to take special verses out of context.    And please limit yourself to what the Bible actually says about this stuff; nothing more and nothing less.

Fighting Apathy

Another post from Mark Wilson that should be seen.  I hope that we can be challenged as a church to get on mission.  Check it out.