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.

My problem with healthcare

The biggest problem that I have with healthcare at this point is that our government did not listen to the majority of the American people.  This is really dangerous in my opinion.  Whether or not this bill is good or bad, the bottom-line is that most of America did not want this.  Leadership that is for the people is not supposed to place undo stress and fear on most of the people.

It is obvious that our government, the Democrats, believe they are doing what is best.  Yet, last time I checked, the only one that we can trust to do what is best when we are so uncomfortable is God.  He is infallible while those humans are fallible who are running our country.

This is not the only time that our government has refused to yield to the people.  The majority of America does not want to pay for abortions, nor do we want to legalize abortion.  Yet, this has been legal since the early ’70′s.  The majority wants marriage defined between a man and a woman.  Yet, this could be changed soon.

I watched Nancy Pelosi walk into the Capital Building with her huge gavel and a big smile on her face.  She made this walk before untold thousands who were protesting against the Healthcare Bill.  These protesters represented most of America.  It seemed to me that this was here way of showing us the hammer before she used it.

Pelosi would do well to remember that she is not teaching us a lesson about who is in charge.  She is supposed to be a servant of the people.

President Obama said in his victory speech after the vote, that this is still a government by the people, for the people, which serves the people.  Did he not see the polls that were consistently against this bill?  Then, how could he say that without guilt?

My ultimate problem now is whether or not we have a government that actually listens to us.  I find that a government that fundamentally changed America, when most people were against it, is very uncomfortable to me.  There will be new taxes on the middle-class.  There has to be because we are the majority.

Do you feel good that the majority of America was not listened too?  It doesn’t matter to me what your political party is.  In my mind, liberals and conservatives should agree that the government is supposed to listen to the majority of the people.

These are my personal views and do not represent the views of The Wesleyan Church, or Smith Chapel Wesleyan Church.

Support for any American President

I have written about supporting American Presidents before.  I have also shared with many that I was raised to love our country and support our leaders.  What is great about this country is that we can say what is on our minds.  I cherish that right. 

Those of us who are Christians, and live in America, have citizenship in Heaven and this country.  Both should be considered privileges.  I just went the CNN web site to vote on their daily poll today.  This poll asked whether or not the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at our President was an outlaw or a hero.  At the time of this post 81,347 had voted.  33,920 of these voted that this journalist was a hero.  This means that 42% of those who voted thought it was great. 

People let me just say that if these were all Americans, who were born in this country, this is ridiculous.  I believe that those who were not born here, but are Americans now legally, would not feel this way.  At least many of them would not.  Likely, they are here because they know what living under someone who really is bad feels like. 

Whether or not you agree with the wars that we are fighting, you should still support the President in a way that shows respect for the office.  President Bush stood up to terrorism and I am glad for it.  There were things that he did and did not do that I did not like.  But I stood behind him. 

Now, President Obama has the office.  There are issues that he and I are on opposite sides about.  But, trust me, if someone threw something at him in the same manner that the Iraqi journalist did, I would not consider that person a hero.  I would be upset! 

Our President is the face of this great nation.  If you, as an American citizen, are applauding such moronic actions, then you are irresponsible about who and what you give your respect to. 

If you, as a Christian, are applauding that type of disrespect to a leader that God placed over us, then you better check your spiritual pulse.  I have seen a lot of Christians endorse what happened as a great act that somebody needed to do.  Yet, ignore whether or not human life is worthy of defending.  Further, these will ignore the Bible’s stance about the act of same-sex fornication being a sin.  Evidently, once we throw these biblical issues aside, many are capable of ignoring the biblical point of view about submitting and respecting our leaders. 

I think that if you are Christian who takes part in this type of foolishness that you should be ashamed of your witness.  Where does Jesus laugh about this type of dastardly act in the Bible?  I think that is fine to disagree with policies that our Presidents have, but when we h0pe for, or are glad for, bad things that happen to them, then you have crossed a moral line as a Christian.

If you are an American that hopes for, or is glad for, bad things that happen to our Presidents, then you should try to find some level-headed ground to stand on. 

Why don’t we all support our Presidents?  Yet, still exercise the right to disagree with them intelligently.  Here is the link with the story.

The Journey toward Anything goes

Well, I am still rooting for my new President.  Yet, I wonder why some of the first issues like abortion and homosexuality were on his agenda of his first week in office.  We have two huge dilemmas that must be dealt with like terrorism and the economy.  Yet, President Obama, knowing that our tax money has been flowing freely from the government to save those industries and financial organizations from failure, has issued an executive order to reinstate funding to foreign countries who want to pursue aborting children. 

Let’s think about this for a second.  We don’t really know how we are able to give out billions of dollars to companies who have not managed themselves appropriately.  Basically, it seems as though we have an unlimited supply of tax money to give out.  Well, I think that most of us would agree that we can’t give out tax money hand over fist.  Yet, we are going to take money, that should be held onto to replace those monies given out, that should be saved back for real needs like energy, defense, and the economy, we are going to give money out for other countries to abort babies. 

Here is an nonreligious reason why that is wrong.  Our country is clearly against abortion, according to many statistics.  But our country is in agreement to spend money to fix the energy crisis. 

According to CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Obama said, “It is time we end the politicization of this issue.”  I am sorry this issue is more than politics, it is about the way our government manipulates the lines of morality.  This seems to be one of the first, or the next, steps toward an anything goes America. 

Here are some questions that we, the United States, are going to have to wrestle with.

• Why is abortion so important?  I am sorry, most people are able to have some self-control and can avoid getting pregnant by many different ways. It is as if we want to be able to make choices without any consequences. Yet, there are consequences.  Many Christians and non-Christians said one of the reasons to vote for Obama was that he was going to take care of the poor.  If that is true, then there are ways that many women can take care of their babies with federal help. 
• Why must homosexuals have legal marriage?  They are still practicing their lifestyles.  Further, nobody that I know of is standing in their way to live together.  If it is over benefits, then the good news is that there are already benefits available to those who can’t get any through the government.  Or, both partners can get a job that provides these benefits.  Plus, wills can be made so that if one should pass away, the other person can receive what was left behind.   

 I can’t help but think that there were bigger issues to deal with this week that did not involve splitting the country.  I have seen several other blogs this week that demonize many Christian beliefs.  I have seen many different reasons why people argue for President Obams to order these things.  But, these things are those that should not have been high on the President’s agenda while we are fighting 2 wars, in the middle of a recession, in the middle of an energy crisis, and struggling to do what is appropriate with prisoners who are likely dangerous terrorists. 

One final word to many Christian brothers and sisters.  You and I are still called to stand up for what God accepts as right.  Yes, the poor are important.  But so are unborn children.  If you are willing to ignore such anti-God decisions so that your 401k is saved, then shame on you.  We have been called to refute an anything goes attitude that the world seeks.