The Wesleyan Church needs to . . .

The Wesleyan Church has been in a constant struggle for change since I joined our denomination 13 years ago.  Sometimes I am on board with change and other times I think that we are drifting off course.  I am a first generation Christian from my family.  My purpose for saying that I am a first gen Christian is that it should help you understand where I am coming from.  I did not grow up in church.  I did not know what a Wesleyan church was until I was 26.  When I was 14 a student at my high school was killed in a car wreck and his obituary I heard that he was a member of the Wesleyan church next to my home town.  My wife attended the Wesleyan church before I got saved.  I thought, in both cases, that the Wesleyans were not really Christians since that local church did not us the title Christian Church.  I thought Wesleyans were like Jehovah’s Witnesses or something.  A little funny now as I look back on those thoughts. 

After I received Christ as my Savior, and made up my mind to live for Him, I knew that I needed to spiritually take care of my family by starting us in church.  I went with my wife to try the Wesleyan church out.  But I had in mind to go to another church; preferably a First Assembly of God church where I had experienced the Lord before.  Long story short, the Wesleyan pastor was preaching the Word of God correctly during our visit.  I knew this because at that time I had been reading the Bible for quite some time before I sought a church.  That is another story though.  Long story short here; I stayed at this church and later was ordained through Flame before I attended SWU.

As a new Christian, I was on fire with my learning.  God was showing me so much that I was unaware of through His Word.  When I learned that the Wesleyan Church focused on Holiness I realized that God is concerned with His Church being real inside and out.  I love that we emphasize total surrender to Christ.  That is what I did.  None of us like people who pretend; Jesus had a problem with it too. 

Recently, our General Superintendents took part on a listening tour.  They wanted to hear from local church leaders about what we see as needs that we should focus on in the Wesleyan Church.  After all, we are not growing in North America at pace that we would like to see.  I was amazed at the difference of opinions that I heard about what we need to do.  One opinion that caught my was the need for more testimony time during worship service.  My thought, as soon as I heard that, was has been stopping that?  If the Spirit is prompting people to speak, then they should be speaking.  If He is and they are not, they are disobedient.  But we cannot manufacture an experience with our members.

Another opinion caught my ear; someone said that we needed to focus more on missions.  I think we do this pretty well for our size.  Yet, I thought to myself that missions is just what occurs as a result of a group of people, no matter what the denomination is, living for Jesus Christ.  If we love Jesus, then we will make that happen.  Yet, making it happen for the sake of an institution might be another story.  As a collective group who is sold out to Christ we cannot help but make it happen. 

There was a lot of talk about putting an emphasis on compassionate ministries.  I suspect that is being emphasized because of all of the cool books that are being written about this topic right now.  I am for it too.  I believe I am missional too.  Why?  Because I am a follower of Christ.  Compassionate ministries is the result of surrender to Christ.  Here we come to that fine line between works and faith.  Our faith creates our works.  Holiness goes hand in hand with this movement.

What was not talked about by our local leaders, including me because I felt that it would have been unpopular, was our massive effort to do church differently.  Nothing wrong with this if a Body of believers is led by the Spirit to do it differently.  There is a mindset that believes that if we are not playing the right music, dressing a certain way, following the right leadership model, growing a goatee (just kidding about this one; lol ) and trying to duplicate what the “successful” churches are doing, then we are failing as a result of our stubbornness to grow.  The problem is that God is the Lord of the Harvest.  Doing what works at other churches may not work at our local churches.

Here is what the Wesleyan Church needs to do; in my opinion.  First, we need to recommit to Holiness.  We don’t even have a common understanding of this among our local church leaders.  I like complete surrender, which results in love God and others. 

Get back in the fight against sin.  We tend to be so inviting that we tell people it is okay when they confess sin to us.  Let the Spirit do His job!  If He wants them to be sad about it, let them be sad about it.  Don’t tell them it is okay just so they will want to stay in church.

Start making transformation the focal point again.  I did not want to continue to be the person that I was when I got saved.  What I think is happening here is that those who grew up in church are trying to throw out this concept because it seems to them not be psychologically right.  Yet, this is what appeals to those of us who have been without Christ.  This is the Good News in this life. 

Quit trying to remove consequences from bad decisions.  If I make a bad decision, then God is going to teach me through the consequences that of that bad decision.  We need to begin reminding new Christians, and non-Christians, of this concept.  We are too busy trying to paint a Utopia for people so that they will want to attend church. 

Quit being ashamed of our doctrine.  Yes, we do not believe in Eternal Security.  No, it’s not popular.  Yes, we believe that if we die to ourselves that we can overcome sin.  Yes, people disagree with us.  What we need to deal with is, “Are we Wesleyans getting tired of dying to self?”  Do we want the perks that other churches seem to have?  God has blessed those other churches according to what His own will.  Is it our goal to become a large church like others?  Or, is it our goal to be distinct from the world because we live for the Lord?  I know that I am being narrow here but I think it is at least worth thinking about. 

Pastors need to reexamine their eschatology view.  Is the Rapture really a Holiness concept?  Enough said about that.

Our doctrine, when lived out, accomplishes all of these things that I have pointed out because the Spirit calls us to do them.  These things cannot be legislated.  These things have to be God-birthed in each local church. 

In my opinion, Wesleyan pastors need to be required to pursue yearly theological training at least as a refresher.  Local churches need a better emphasis upon discipleship that includes doctrine and theology mixed in with the other great things that are being taught.  We need to “keep the main thing the main thing” as Lee Iacocca once said.  Holiness is what takes us from an institution to a movement again.  

Show me a church that Christ is the Head of, and I will show you a church that is being successful and growing God’s way.  As I post this, I realize that there are things that I may not have said well enough.  I also realize that much of what I said can be debated.  Yet, you have a view from someone who is still new to this because I have not tradition that is influencing me.  I trust it is the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

One final statement.  I am simply questioning our motives.  Everything that I call into question does not mean that it is wrong.  It simply means that I am questioning what motivates us to do church in these different ways.  The Spirit? Need for success?  What?

Community Life of Disciples

Key Scriptures for Disciples of Christ

Key Scriptures should define key elements to a healthy spiritual life.

Matthew 22:36-40; The Greatest Commandment

Matthew 25:31-46; The Least of These Warning

Matthew 28:18-20; The Great Commandment

Christ Centered Community Life Image

Worship in mind and soul takes place through meditation, prayer, and corporate worship.

Worship in heart takes place by recognizing God’s love for us which causes us to adore Him.  Jesus has wooed us to Him by His love for us.

Worship in strength seems to be accomplished by our works of righteousness.  Plus, in my mind it should also be accomplished in our commitment to the Lord when we do not feel like remaining committed.

Loving our neighbors occurs when we realize that the DNA of God is in them since He created us in His own Image.  We are told to be imitators of Christ.  Loving those who do not love us is also part of that strength in the first commandment.

These 2 commandments set Jesus Christ up as King in the world that we live in today.

We feed the mind, soul, and heart through discipleship.  This is accomplished by learning God’s Word together or one on one.

Worship and discipleship are vehicles that the Holy Spirit uses to transform us.  We are in the process of becoming more like Christ.

Fellowship with each other helps us to learn to love our neighbor; it is the proving ground.  Paul’s letters were written to the churches about how to get along with each other.  Remember, Paul said that we are to submit to each other in unity.  This deals with strength and heart.

The author of Hebrews conveyed the importance of continuing to meet together in worship and fellowship even though these people were being persecuted; much different than being teased.

James called righteous works, or service, real religion; another proving ground.  If we are being transformed in worship and discipleship, then we are rooted in the good spring.  Therefore, good works flows from us without faking them.  They are now natural to us.  This is also back to strength again.

Jesus simply told to evangelize; another proving ground.  We love Him and others and this now becomes the natural thing to do.

I made the pieces of the pie bigger in the areas of corporate worship and discipleship because these pieces feed the other 3 pieces.  Focus on the other 3 pieces without these 2 is idolatry.

Missing the Point

I just can’t get away from the frustration that I feel when I see or hear about churches arguing over a style of music, dress, and focus.  It really makes me feel tired.  I understand that these are serious issues in the church today.  Yet, these seem to side track us too.   

There are groups of younger people feel that they could reach more people for Christ if their churches would change their Sunday morning program to a modern music format.  In contrast, groups of older people believe that the church should not change and that the modern music is not of God.  They reason that the church must not change so that people will recognize that the church is unchanging just like God.  They also reason that their style of music is sacred and should not be tampered with.   

Some groups dress casual and others dress formal for church service.  Some pastors believe that dress can be a barrier for people to attend their church.  Both believe that the way the other side dresses will run people off.  In my opinion, these groups that worry about these issues have spent their entire lives in church.  Both want to leave something of themselves in the church.   

Most of the time these groups grew up in church rebelling against what was established beforehand.  Each generation fights the other.  Each sees where the other generation has faltered in some way.  Each side uses Scripture from the letters that Paul wrote to different churches to justify why they believe what they believe.  What is unique about Paul’s letters is that he stressed the importance of unity and submitting to one another within the Church.  He even, in a few letters, dealt with how each generation was supposed to treat the other.  Are we missing the point? 

I asked the pastor I was saved under if he remembered when I came to the church for the first time.  I reminded him that I did not grow up in church.  My point was that I did not have any traditions that were following me through life to worry about.  I reminded him that when I came to Christ I did not say to him, “Hey, I will accept Jesus as my Savior if you wear a certain type of clothing.” I also did not say to him that I would get out of my Lazy Boy chair and come to church if they would assure me that they would play the right style of music.  He confirmed that these were not issues that I struggled with in the beginning. 

People! Listen to me!  There are not any people who are lost sitting in their homes tonight saying to themselves, “If the church would play my style of music, I would get saved.”  Or, “If the pastors would dress like I think they should would get saved.”  The only thing that  I was interested in was finding salvation.  The only Person I wanted to meet, was not the cool pastor who thinks that the Church is not doing enough to save the starving children, but I wanted to meet Jesus.   

Yes, I do care about the starving children and other injustices.  My point is that we Christians focus on the wrong things too much.  Don’t you think the devil loves our disunity over trivial issues?  My point is that we need to keep the focus on Jesus instead of on the non-essentials. 

When it is all said and done; I think the problem is that we just want to look like what we think a real Christian looks like.  We want to impress people with our huge compassion for the things that matter to the world.  We want to show people how intelligent we are by connecting the Word of God to the issues today.  We want to be the new, and improved, church.  Or, we want to be the church that did not change so that we can look super spiritual.  God’s point is, “When will His people get the point of Scripture and simply be the Church?”  In other words, when will we learn that we can find Jesus when we choose to look? 

I am not hindered by the style of clothing that I, or anyone else, wears.  I am able to enjoy all music that points me to Christ.  Why?  Because I know that I was lost, but now I am found.  I know what fate I avoided because of my desire to let Christ love me and save me which caused me to want to live for Him.  That is the point.

Right Worship

While at Family Camp this week I have enjoyed the worship and preaching.  This year our district had The Difference from Southern Wesleyan University come to lead our worship in music segment of the nightly service.  It is great!  I’m blown away with the amount of talent that God has given to the SWU; it is like that every year.  Let me tell you, those young guys and gals, I guess I can say that since I am 40 now, really give it up to Jesus.  Hey, isn’t that awesome!  I say yes!

I have sensed that not everyone is excited about allowing a different style of music to be played during our Holiness    camp setting.  It is possible that some think it is the world being mixed in with the church.  I confess, as a person who was young in the Lord, I entertained those types of thoughts some time ago too.  I think God brought me out of that by showing me that He is not limited in the ways that He chooses to connect with people.  Besides, what is right worship?  Jesus said that it is in spirit and truth.  In the OT God desired obedience over sacrifice and noted that His people worshiped Him with  their lips but their hearts were far from Him. 

One thing that I come back to time after time is the thought that people who are lost (those who are not trusting in Christ as their Savior) are not having heated debates about what style of music should be played during church service.  American Christianity is something else sometimes.  We continuously find ways to focus on everything but what matters.  Jesus forgive us!  Listen, I can worship traditionally, or worship with older tradition like chants, or contemporary.  You get the picture. 

Without going into a long story about an experience I had with Christ I will tell you that the outcome of it was that I sent an email to my pastor and his wife and asked them if they wanted to come over to my house to worship with me.  It was in the middle of the day and everyone else was at work or I would have called them too.  Now this was a lot like a child calling another up and asking the child to come over and play games for the day.  I didn’t have any special music in mind, I only knew that the Presence of Christ was with me and that I wanted my friends to worship Him with me. 

Wouldn’t we Christians do better to focus on bringing the lost to the Presence of Christ so that they could make a decision to accept Him or reject Him?  I think so.  But, most of us believe that before we can invite someone to church that the music has to be a certain way or that the pastor has to be a certain way.  We Christians are wasting precious time that some who are lost do not have debating over whether or not modern music is better than traditional music and vice versa. 

It is funny how many are in a continuous search for the right ministry or church to be part of.  Can we ever be honest admit that it is ultimately about us instead of Christ?  It tires me.  The path that leads to the Presence of Christ is to truly seek Him and only Him through humbleness and Holiness.  Good, or bad, music has less to do with it than we would like to admit.  It is a tool that the Spirit uses to help put me into the right attitude.  Seeking Him is about thirsting for Him and when you find Him you bring others to the drinking hole where you found refreshing. 

So what is right worship?  Is it seeking Christ with the heart?  Or is about finding the right pastor, the right type of music, and making sure things are done the way they have always been done?  Then if everything meets our standards then we will give approval and consider that to be our worship for the day.  Let me tell you that giving our approval is missing the bulls-eye by a mile.  Meaningless.  It is about us coming in to His house so that we can receive His mercy.  Then we adore Him because of who He is.   

So I say let’s not burn up our energies on this issue.  Instead, let’s use our energies to seek Him and bring the lost to Him.  This is right worship to me.

Thoughts about Doctrine

I shared several weeks ago that we took a survey at our church to see what topics people wanted to hear in a sermon series.  One of the topics was “What is the difference between Wesleyans and Baptists?”  What should be made clear is that both denominations believe that Jesus Christ is the Way to Heaven.  There is no other salvation for humanity. 

I have also pointed out in the past that many people, especially in a Baptist culture, do not understand who The Wesleyans are.  As a result, this becomes a barrier to church growth for us.  This is unfortunate.  Since Wesleyans and Baptists are Christians; a.k.a brothers and sisters in Christ.  Now, this is important!  We are all Christ followers first!  Doctrine is man’s poor attempt to explain God.  However, for some reason doctrine, which is supposed to help us understand God, has become a divider. 

It has become a divider because there are too many clergy and laymen who insist that you beleive exactly as they do.  Here is some damage that this has done and both sides are guilty. 

• People leave a Bible teaching church to attend a church that teaches doctrine over Christ. 
• People do not join a church even though The Holy Spirit has placed a desire in their hearts to join.  Instead these people will go somewhere else because they will say they are their self-chosen denomination first instead of simply being a follower.   
• When new Christians are touched by Christ they cannot help but share with family and friends about it.  As a result, those family and friends who attend churches end up preaching what they want these ”Babes in Christ” to believe instead of allowing The Holy Spirit to use the Word.  People, if someone has an experience with Christ at a church there is a good chance that God is using that church.  So there is no need to deliver them from that church especially if God is using that church to make disciples.  In my opinion, those who insist on interjecting doctrine upon a new Christian are likely shirking their responsibilities of evangelizing those who are lost.   
• I have seen sheep tampered with who are growing to become more like Christ over how they were baptized and whether or not they did it fast enough.  Listen, I know there are those who say that baptism is the moment of salvation.  That is fine, I happen to believe that you can go down a dry sinner and come up a wet sinner. 

Those were real situations that in my opinion are silly.

Here are two issues that seem to really divide Wesleyans and Baptists.

First, the issue of security.  Wesleyans beleive that since God has given us free will that we can choose to reject Christ and fall away.  On the other hand, Baptists believe that although God has given us free will that there is nothing we can do to lose our salvation.  Here is what is ironic; when we witness someone who lives a life of sin after a confession of faith Wesleyans will say that they have forfeited his or her salvation.  Baptists will say that that person who confessed Christ were never saved.  This is silly to have a divide over this.  What difference does it make if that person lost his salvation or was never saved?  They are still lost!  And both denominations agree on that. 

Finally, there is division over whether or not we must continue to sin.  Wesleyans say that by God’s grace and our surrender to Christ that we can be Sanctified.  In other words, God can change our hearts so that we can finally be delivered from sin.  This means that we can desire not to sin.  If a mistake is made, like going 60 mph in 55 mph speed zone, because we were not paying attention, while it is wrong  it is a mistake only.  We did not intend to willfully disobey God.  Baptists would say that we cannot be changed until we get to Heaven.  I can’t bend on this because this is why I need a Savior now.  I need to be delivered from sin now.  This does not mean that I will never sin again, but it means that I do not have to be bound to sin now.  This is Good News!

So here we are.  The last time I checked, God has worked through both traditions and continues to do so.  Those of you who insist on tampering with God’s children for the purpose of taking from one church to add to your own, Stop it!  Why?  You are dividing Christ.  Christ is the only loser in this debate.  Besides, the Bible says that The Holy Spirit calls and leads His people to a local Body of Christ.  This means that you may be placing yourself against God and His work. 

Jesus said that those who are not against us are for us.  This was after some of the disciples saw others, besides them, baptizing in the Name of Christ.  Sounds very familiar doesn’t it.

Newpring and Unleash

I went to the Unleash 09 Conference this year.  Without a doubt, this was the best conference that I have been to.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot things that made an impression on me were:

• The happy-to-do-it volunteers.  I think there were 500 of them.  Every one of these people smiled and waved to every vehicle pulling in that I could see. 
• There was a mob volunteers who hootin-n-hollerin with everyone that came in.  These people were located at the entrance.  They gave directions to where you needed to go.  They spoke to everyone that I could see. 
• It was a Thursday.  I wondered how many of these people gave up a vacation day from work to help at this event on behalf of their church?  I can’t even get people to come to church on Sunday consistently; and like it. 
• I know that these volunteers have been coached that what they do is important.  And, that they must make everyone feel welcomed; it works! 

Pastor Perry Noble was straight forward in each main session.  This conference was not the type that has someone come in to do some group counseling.  Instead, Perry challenged everyone to weather whatever storm they were facing and go hard for Jesus.  Let me share some thoughts about Perry Noble:

• As much as I would like to, out of jealousy, I can’t deny that God is using him.  I see it! 
• He had a breakout session for Senior Pastors only.  This was conducted the right way.  Pastors were able to ask questions and he answered every one.  He did this graciously.
• Every pastor wanted to know how he did it.  Pastor Noble was careful to point to the mission of spreading the Gospel.  In other words, sharing Christ is the difference. 
• He is straight forward about salvation through Jesus Christ alone.  This is not a liberal preacher.  He fears for people who are lost because they will go to Hell if they do not give their lives to Jesus Christ.  Preachers and churches everywhere would do well to be burdened in this way. 

For those seeking the formula for church growth.  And, I suspect that is why most churches and pastors showed up to this conference.  They want to know how to get to where Newspring is; and is going. 

• Preach Jesus Christ!  He is Savior, Lord, He will be Judge, He is coming back soon, He is Healer, Miracle Man, He is All that we need.
• Terms that were called a fad: Contemporary, Emergent, Missional, and etc. He believes these will outdated in 3 years.  I think he is right.   
• A funny illustration about Missional: All churches are missional or they are not churches.  Saying that we are missional is like a fish swimming around saying I love water. 
• There is no formula!  Just Jesus.  Amen.

The worship team was phenomenal!  I would say they are as good as anybody that I have paid to see.  That is saying a lot. 

• I have not been moved in worship like that in a long time.  Let’s admit it, we get bored with the way we systematically do it. 
• It was good to see one of the singers get moved by the Spirit.  I have not seen that for a while.
• The songs were so good. 
• The music was loud.  This meant that I could sing loud and not make anyone sick. 

Let’s talk about the money!

• $59.  Did you read that!  I will say it again, $59.
• They did not make any money, I don’t think.  They gave each person Lee McDerment CD.  Great worship music!  It would probably cost $16 to buy it. 
• They gave us Chik Fila for lunch.  $6 to buy it.
• Free drinks and snacks all day!  $5 per person. 

Hey! Christians! Let’s get motivated to preach Jesus.  Thank you to Newspring for caring for all, no matter what denomination that is Christian, because we are on the same team.  As Perry said, we don’t compete, but we complete each other.  I have been refreshed. 

To all of those that Perry and Newspring down, get over it.  Let’s all do what God called us to do without worrying what the other person is doing.  Did you know that there are enough lost in Pickens County alone that they could not possibly fit into all of our churches?  I am going to seek to do my part in God’s Kingdom.  What about you?  Or, will you focus on petty things and continue to put Newspring down because they are getting it done? 

It has been a while since someone encouraged me like I was at Unleash.  Thanks be to God!

Sunday Recap

We are in the middle of our series “Survey Says . . .”  As I think I have mentioned earlier, we handed out a list of topics that the church was able to vote on so that they could hear a sermon about it.  Last week was The Difference Between Wesleyans and Baptists.  That sermon was a very hard topic to preach.  I think that it should have been a topic for Sunday school; but not everyone will come to Sunday school.  So it seems that the pulpit has had to take on some of the Sunday school responsibilities of teaching.  I think that is good in some ways, but I am still a supporter of Sunday school.  So here is last Sundays recap.

• The topic was Why don’t I get along with others.  The sermon was Harmony with Others.
• The main point in the message was that our relationship with others reflects the health of our relationship with Jesus Christ. 
• Scripture was Ephesians 4:15-32; yet, all of Ephesians 4 and The Sermon on the Mount give direction on this topic. 
• The first point was change brings harmony.  In other words, we must dies to ourselves so that we can truly repent.  Repent means to be sorry enough to make a 180 degree change.  Paul said “Put off the old man.”  Change from who we were before we met Jesus Christ.  That old person was influenced by the way the world sees things.  As Christians we know that the world is against Jesus Christ.  So we cannot please God by allowing ourselves to be influence by a fallen world.  We must die to that way of life.  If we allow ourselves to be influenced by the world, then there will always be conflicts between us and others. 
• The second point was that we must sacrifice for harmony.  In the world, when there is a conflict between us and others, and if we are not able to find peace, someone will suggest that we sacrifice for the sake of peace.  Yet, when the world suggests that we sacrifice this means that we compromise.  So that type of sacrifice is out of the question.  Paul points out in Romans that we are to present our “bodies as living sacrifices to God.”  This is not a compromise that says, “Okay God, to have peace with You, I will give You this much of Me.”  Instead, sacrifice in Paul’s mind was that we give ALL OF OURSELVES to Christ.  This is “putting on the new man.”  This is how we allow Christ to change that worldly influence in us so that the Holy Spirit can dwell in us which means that He will guide us in what is right and wrong.  This is where most Christians fall short in their relationship with Christ, which reflects poor relationships with others.
• Some commentary that I gave was that there should be a time in our walk with the Lord that we know that we have died to ourselves.  After this, there should be an experience that demonstrates that we are full of the Spirit.  I don’t mean spiritual gifts, but spiritual fruit.  Before our church can, as our mission statement says, “Transform our community and world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” we must be full of the Spirit.  Everything that we do flows from this central point.  We cannot care for others until we are surrendered to Christ and transformed ourselves by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• The last point was the Paul showed the way to harmony by giving direction about what a Christian life should like after “putting off and putting on.”  After being transformed by Christ, on the inside, we will desire not to do sinful things against our neighbor.  As a matter of fact, other people can do things that would anger others, but because of the love in our hearts for others, we will not want to do wrong to them when they do us wrong. 
• We discussed Holiness, a.k.a Sanctification, in our Sunday night Wesleyan Men’s group.  I shared what my experience was as well as failures since my experience. 
• The Wesleyan Women went to a lady’s house who has recently become a shut-in, hopefully not for long, and this is what I think it means to be part of a Christian community.  I endorse this.  We don’t have to always be at our church for a Sunday night service.  We should be in each others homes. 
• We had 41 in attendance for our AM service. 
• 31 for Sunday school.
• 31 for Sunday night. 
• Could these numbers indicate our relationship with Christ as a church?  We minister to approx. 70 different people.  And these people all come on different Sundays but we never get over 55 in attendance.  And, it was 74 degrees Sunday, very suspicious looking.  I have to say, I was tempted to call in sick .

The bottom-line is that we are in tough times as a nation.  It is imperative that each Christian be sold-out completely to Jesus Christ.  This means that He is first all of the time.  Every comes after Him.  It is time to quit being luke warm.  He will spit us out of His mouth if we remain this way.

Missional Small Church

How does a small church become missional?  This is a question many small church pastors might ask.  This is also a question that many witnesses for Christ might ask also.  While at New Life Wesleyan Church, we were missional in the late 90′s, and they still are.  This is where we focused on a ministry called the ROCK, Reclaiming Our Community’s Kids.  Our goal was to be Jesus, otherwise known as be Incarnational, to children. 

What each church should know is that each church is different.  We are different because God sets every mission up.  In other words, he creates the opportunities while preparing the church that already exists and while sending new lay people in to take part in the mission.  God goes before because He prepares the way, and God’s people must respond to His lead.  Duh!  We have heard that before.  Yet, what does it look like when God is leading you to a specific mission?

God uses frustration over injustices.  He breaks hearts.  Here is what frustrated our church and broke our hearts which brought us to action and this is what our mission looked like. 

Our community’s kids were not recieving proper love from the adults in their lives.  These kids were struggling with school, social skills, and having adequate clothing and a home.  Our kids did not have any adult in their life to create the sense of being valued.  They were not being heard.  Some were staying in multiple houses and where they stayed depended on where the party was the night before.  Some kids’ parents were working multiple jobs which meant they were too worn out to do things with them, or even cook supper at night.  In other words, our kids were too worried about what they needed to live in this life to learn another Vacation Bible School story about Jesus in the next. 

Notice that I said, “Our kids.”  You have to look at God’s children that way.  You have to own or take responsibility for the mission.  Plus, our goal was to let them know that Jesus wants to be part of their lives in this life.  Lordship now is what they needed too, on top of the sinner’s prayer to escape hell when they die.  Jesus wants to  be known now as the God who is with us. 

To other churches, mission may start to take root from frustration that some in the church might feel about any type of injustice that they see in the community.  This becomes the seed of something great.  Think about it.  If Christ’s people are frustrated about any type of injustice, then there is a huge chance that the Spirit of God is spurring that frustration so that we will get burdened enough to move. 

Next, someone needs to talk about a practical Jesus way of dealing with the injustice.  Practical means finding a way to be the hands and feet of Christ while sharing the Gospel.  One without the other won’t do.  They must be happen jointly.  This ministry must not be one that is duplicated from what someone else is doing.  A better way to say that is the ministry or mission should not be developed because someone else, who seems successful from doing that type of ministry, is doing it.  It is a ministry that should meet two requirements.  One is that the ministry fits the community, or situation, like a glove.  Two is that the ministry will have to be accomplished by faith.  This is important for God to demonstrate His awesome power to individuals.  Why?  He wants to show those who are lost that Jesus Christ is the answer.  But . . . He also wants to demonstrate His power to the individuals in the church too!  This is faith education 101. 

You will know that you are on the right track when the needs to run this ministry are being met continuously, by those outside of the church, those who did not know that there was a need, and from people inside the church who are willing to do without luxuries, like never before, and give their money or time.   This is when you are able to see God working.  This is when the church is supposed to join Him.  Joining God in His work is the only way to success.  God is missional and this is why His Church is led to be missional. 

Finally, for small churches, the mission might consume the entire focus of the church.  It may be all that the church will do.  Being missional is not necessarily a way to achieve growth.  Instead, it is how we introduce others to Christ.  When we expect to grow numerically from this mission or ministry, this is when we begin to get discouraged.  Pastors and lay people listen to me, “It is not about receiving, it is about sacrificing.”  Being missional will have a heavy work load for pastors and the men and women who attend church with a light pay off.  In other words, the pay off may be something different than what one might expect.  There will be a huge pay off in Heaven because people will receive Christ as their Savior, but it may not have anything to do with building a mega-church here on earth.

Sunday Recap

We had another good turnout Sunday.   We had 50 show up.  However, we were missing over 10-12 regulars.  When you are a small congregation, people missing from service has a way of deflating a good day. 

What is troubling is that we had such a good Sunday service last week and young families showed up.  The good news is that these young families want to learn about Jesus.  The bad news is that there were 67 people at our church which caused us to struggle to accomadate these people.  Plus, we found that we struggled to provide services to these young people such as kid’s ministry, kid’s Sunday school, and enough people to take care of the nursery. 

So, if you attend my church, or, if you attend another small church.  If it is possible, your pastor and church needs you.  The only way that we can provide services in a small, but growing church, is with our regular attendees.  Do not allow yourself to have the philosophy that the pastors will take care of everything.  Realize that God calls all to be involved in serving.  In a small church, everyone has to chip in and sacrifice.  Sacrifice may simply start with giving up every Sunday for God’s Kingdom.  Now, this does not mean vacations too.    

God has been sending us steady visitors.  Plus, it looks like some are hear to stay.  Praise the Lord! 

Pastor Jon has a good young adult group coming to our church too.  I am so happy. 

One of our newer Christians has been praying for God to send people to our church.  They have been coming.  Awesome!

We joined other churches at the Thanksgiving Community Service Sunday night.  This was a good experience.  It was good to mingle with other Christians and worship together.  Pastor Larry Burke of Golden Grove Wesleyan delivered a good sermon.  The choir, made up of different churches, sounded great! 

I believe that God is growing our church.  Likely, He is shaping all of us to be usable by Him for His purposes.  There is hope; we all have to hang in there and not lose sight of Jesus and His mission.

An American Christian’s thoughts about our new President’s election

I am a Conservative.  I have been since President Carter’s failure in 1979 to deal appropriately with Iran for taking our embassy over and taking our people as hostages.  My political views do not match President Elect Obama’s.  Nevertheless, here are some of my thoughts about this historic election.

• He is my President now.  He deserves my respect and support and he has that now.  However, I reserve the right to disagree with his policies as many still do.  Again, I am an American, and President Elect Obama deserves honor and respect.
• I know that racism still exists in this world, and sadly always will because we are in a fallen world, but America has shown the world that racism can be overcome.  I have a side opinion about this too.  I hope that Americans will see that while this country enacted laws that helped to stop much of the racism, it should be understood that many Christians have helped too.  So if you are a Christian tonight and have been frustrated because an African-American has been elected, then you better allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you that you are sinning against God and His children.  Likewise, if you are someone that thought that Christians were part of the problem with racism, I have heard this from time to time, then be advised that many of us preach against this and teach that God loves everybody.  We rejoice that American seems a little more colored blind tonight.    
• President Elect Obama will likely be compassionate in dealing with those who struggle in poverty. 
• Juan Williams described a picture in his mind of the Obamas and their children enjoying the White House.  I too am excited for this family to enjoy this experience.  In a couple of months, they will be our First Family.  I pray that God will keep them safe, prosper them, bless them, and shine His face upon them. 
• Our nation is great!  I cannot imagine the amount of fear, shock, and awe, that may be going through Obama’s mind right now.  What an awesome responsibility!
• I wish that his grandmother could have seen this day.  I too was raised by mother and grandmother.  He has a commonality with me and many other Americans.  It will be good to have someone who does seem to have a connection with those of us who have not been so privileged in life.   
• As a Christian it is important to remember that our hope in Jesus Christ.  No matter who would have won this would not have changed.  So fear not.   
• The Obamas appear to be a good family and will hopefully be an example to our nation about the importance of married couples staying together and mothers and fathers loving their children. 

We must pray that God will unite our nation now and bring us closer to Him, each other, and our neighbors.  God bless America.