Looking Ahead

Have you ever gone through a major change in your life? The last three years have been a major transition for my family and me. This transition has not been an easy one. It's required sacrifice and humbling. But, I'm looking forward to what God has in store for us.

With that in mind, I'm looking ahead.

And, speaking of looking ahead, here are some things to look forward to.

Halloween night, the radio station I work for, KWFC-FM, will be broadcasting C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters." produced by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. It airs 7p-10p CDT on 89.1-FM in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas or online here. Be sure to tune it. It's an awesome program.

I'm excited about next week's series of blogs. I won't drop any hints, other than to say the posts are short, and I'm probably talking about you. Check back Monday. I'm interested to see where this little series leads.

The Twittering Church

One day I plan on pastoring a church. That's what God has called me to do. An idea I'm toying with is something that has become commonplace at conferences all over the world...Twitter.

I attended a church leadership conference earlier this year and attendees were encouraged to tweet their notes and speakers' comments as they listened.

So, I'm wondering how that would go over in church? It's been rather taboo to be using your cell phone or laptop during a church service, but I'm thinking that it might be rather cool to allow the congregation to tweet their thoughts, the message points, etc. during a service.

Tell me what you think?

Book Review: The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley

Our destination in life doesn't just occur by accident. That's the gist of this book by Andy Stanley, the pastor of North Point Community Church based in Alpharetta, GA.

Andy draws from a lifetime of experiences, his own and those of his acquaintances, to point out that the paths we choose always lead to a certain end. He suggests that if we can consider the destination we want to arrive at, we can then choose the right path to get there.

For the longest time I have wanted to get my hands on some of Andy Stanley's material, primarily for its leadership value. However, this book isn't really packed with leadership insight. Instead, this book's value comes in pointing out what seemed to be the obvious. I think most people will read this book and easily recognize the truths that Andy brings forth. The challenge is to accept the truths and live by them.

Being 35-years-old, I found myself wishing this book had been handed to me 17 years ago as I left high school. The high schooler and college student is best suited for this book. The older you get, the less interesting this book becomes.

Monday's Ten

I'm going to try and start a new feature for Monday's on this blog. Monday's Ten will be ten things on my mind, about me or about you. I'm not sure where we'll end up, but it'll have a ten-count to it. So, let's go...in no particular order.

1. I love my wife and kids. I know it's a shock, but I really do.

2. I going to start exercising. I need to lose a lot of weight in order to do a lot of things I want to do.

3. I really love my church. I've been in good churches in the past, but really discovered spiritual freedom when my family started attending North Point Church in 2004.

4. Spiritual freedom isn't about music or preaching styles. It's all about attitudes and atmosphere. At NPC, your life history is irrelevant. Your future is what is relevant.

5. A majority of people who attend NPC go there because they have been either burned or burned out by churches that focus inward, play political power games and scorn people who don't have a plastic "Sunday smile."

6. God called me into full time ministry three years ago.

7. I am planning on pastoring a church.

8. That church will do great things in Jesus' name, not my name.

9. I have applied for the lead pastor position at a local church. I'm totally jazzed about the prospect of leading this church if chosen to be it's pastor.

10. I went to NPC today and realized that it will be difficult to leave the best church I have ever been a part of when the day comes for our next step in life.

The (Christian) Jerk

Let's be real honest about something...the world is full of jerks. People who think they are IT. You can find these people anywhere.

Married man ... sometimes is a jerk.

Boss ... sometimes a jerk.

Drunk sports fan ... generally a jerk.

Steve Martin ... in 1979.

Me ... more times than I'd like to admit.

But, this week I had my first real encounter with a terrible kind of jerk. The kind that claims he has a relationship with Jesus. The kind that attends church each time the door is open. The kind that is a pastor.

The details about what led to the jerk-dom are irrelevant. Suffice it to say that this pastor posted something nasty and uncalled for on my Facebook wall regarding a personnel decision my employer made. I removed the offending posts, and attempted to converse via private message, but quickly learned that he was only bent on venting his anger. I was the target of the moment.

Fortunate for me, I suppose, he deactivated his account before I could become a jerk. I was ready to fire my salvo of comebacks, but he saved me from ruining my reputation.

Now, I fully understand that folks inside and outside an organization are going to be curious when personnel changes occur, but EVERYONE should understand that the remaining employees are not allowed to talk about it. Of all the people in the world who should understand this are pastors. They have to keep all sorts of things private (including personnel moves) even when the rest of the church is clamoring to find out the gossip. I'm going to post more on this subject in the future, but let's just leave it there for now.

Back to the Christian jerk, because I think it's a very important topic that needs some air. I have witnessed Christian jerks do their best to destroy other Christians and pastors, even going so far as to completely embarrass themselves in order to complete the havoc their heart is bent on wrecking.

I have heard many references by non-Christians about the bad attitudes and experiences they have had in dealing with people claiming salvation in Jesus. I've often wondered if it was really that bad.

Enter this week's experience. My first as the victim of a Christian hit-and-run. Now, I have seen for myself why a growing number of people in the world do not like Christianity. They aren't mad at Jesus. They don't like His followers.

The world KNOWS that Christ's followers are supposed to be different. I don't think the world expects us to be pansies, but I do think the world knows that we are supposed to have different motives. That our purposes are different than the rest of society.

Instead, the world is seeing, with increasing frequency, Christians who live just like they do:

sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility,
quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension,
division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. --Galatians 5:19b-21a

The Apostle Paul follows this list with the way Christ's followers should be living:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. --Galatians 5:22b-23a

It's the stark contrast that makes Christian jerks stand out. It's this contrast that convinces the world that Jesus must not be for them. Paul follows the "fruits of the spirit" list with an encouragement for Christ-followers to live this way and to not fall into the trap of the first list.

And, to top it off, Paul also adds, "Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life (the first list) will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21b)" I'm just saying.

Changing Methods: Don't Kill the Messenger

"Anything short of sin." That quote is credited to LifeChurch.tv pastor Craig Groeschel to describe the methods his multisite church uses to spread the Gospel.

That little phrase is a great way to sum up what Paul was saying in the latter part of 1 Corinthians 9. This section of scripture is best remembered for part of verse 22, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some."

Do you see the correlation between the two quote's I've posted? Paul understood the importance of spreading the Gospel. He knew his goal was to do what he could short of sinning to bring people into a relationship with Christ.

I'm reminded of Paul's trip to Athens in Acts 17. As Paul journeyed through the Athens region, he continued to preach Christ. The philosophers in the area recognized that Paul was promoting a religion they had never heard of before. What caught their attention most was his talk of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. These strange concepts had never been heard before, and they brought Paul to the Areopagus to tell the other great thinkers of this new religion.

What's most interesting is that Paul illustrates perfectly what he taught in 1 Corinthians 9. He didn't pound the pulpit, shout and spit, and declare them all sinners in the hands of an angry God. No, Paul met the Athenians on their level. He talked to them in terms their thinking minds could relate. He used the things in their culture to connect to these people.

I'm sure the folks back in Jerusalem, especially the Pharisees, would've thrown a fit at Paul's use of Greek culture to illustrate Jesus. But, if that didn't raise the hair on their necks, what Paul does in verse 28 would've had other preachers blasting him from their pulpits and claim he was selling out the scriptures.

Here's what he said,

...for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own
poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'

Take special note of these two quotes. They're the only quotes Paul uses in his sermon. AND, THEY WEREN'T A PART OF SCRIPTURE. Honest, they weren't. The first is generally credited to Epimenides of Crete, and the second is from Aratus’s poem “Phainomena.”

Now, if you've been following along at home, I hope you've just realized that Paul didn't use Old Testament scripture a single time in his address. Paul simply told the Gospel story as he knew it, from his heart, and in terms the people could understand.

Try doing that in a church today, and the pastor would get hanged. What's amazing is that a lot of church folk today like to criticize all the different methods used to tell people about Jesus. And, if your church is growing by leaps and bounds, that critical heat gets turned all the hotter.

Recently, Outreach Magazine announced it's annual report of the fastest growing congregations in the United States. Three churches from Missouri made to Top 100 list: (#5) Faith Church of St. Louis in Fenton, (#9) North Point Church in Springfield and (#26) James River Assembly in Ozark.

That's pretty impressive that two from the Springfield-metro area made the list. For those wondering, North Point is a church plant of James River Assembly. JRA shared people with NPC when the younger was founded. Oh, but their similarities don't end there. Both have been accused by critics of watering down the Gospel, and entertaining crowds to get those numbers.

The truth is, these churches are simply duplicating what Paul did...meeting society on it's turf with things familiar to the people in order to share Jesus.

Paul proved that sometimes you just have to explain it in terms the world can understand, even if you never use scripture. Paul never compromised the Gospel, but the methods he used changed all the time.

Times Have Changed, The Methods Need to Also

One of the biggest debates in the Christian church today is whether or not we should do away with our traditional format for the worship service. This debate commonly centers itself around music styles with multiple sides digging their trenches and lobbing volley after volley of un-Christ-like attacks to salvage their point of view.

To be honest, I used to play that game. I thought my point of view was right, and the other side(s) were old fashioned and whacked out of their mind. Not a very Christian attitude on my part.

What's funny is that the style that I fought for in my 20s (I'm mid-30s now) is not the style I prefer today. No, I'm not a big fan of the other side of the worship debate. My perspective has changed.

In previous days, I fought to get what I wanted. It was all about MY preference and MY likes. When we look at any debate in this manner, opposing views become the ENEMY. The end results of this line of thinking are bitterness, restlessness and hatred. Not exactly the recipe Christ wants in His church.

Probably the saddest part of all is that the opposition tended to be two or three times older than I, and they should've learned the lesson I did back in their mid-30s.

So, what is this lesson? It's a two-parter.

1. The debate isn't really about music. It's about the approach to worship services. In our country's history there have been nearly a half-dozen well defined "music wars" in our churches. The music drew all the attention, but the underlying cause was a major shift in the way the Gospel was received by the people. Not only did music styles change in these shifts, but so did the preaching and programs offered at churches. Yet, without these struggles, we never would have had some of our most loved hymns. Sunday School never would have been a reality. Bus programs would never have gotten out of the garage. Church services would never have been sent worldwide via radio, television and the Internet.
2. The reason for these shifts has more to do with the way people receive the Gospel than anything else. Over generations, perceptions change, culture changes, and the way people perceive and respond to the Gospel changes. As a result, the church MUST adjust to the changes. Without the continuous change in approach to ministry, a church will miss the shifts, and eventually nail the lid on it's own coffin.

So, what should churches be doing? For starters, ALL churchgoers, YOUNG and OLD, need to remember that the church isn't ours. It belongs to Jesus. Our thinking that the churches belong to us is both arrogant and stupid on our part.

Once we really start viewing the church through Jesus' eyes and heart, we become more open to shifting the approach to ministry as the culture around us shifts. Make note that NO WHERE has it been said to change the Gospel message, or to become sinful like the culture. Some folks like to use those two excuses to justify their selfish desires to keep things the way they've always been.

Be open to the change, no matter your age and preferences.

Happy Birthday Babe

Today is my wife's birthday. If you have twitter, send her a message at @momof3rascals.

Happy Birthday, dear.

Distraction Update

It will probably be Monday before I get any new posts up. My regular job has gone through a major change in our leadership, and that is consuming my time. See you next week. Or, if you'd like to see me live, I'll be speaking Sunday morning at the Faith & Hope Free Will Baptist Church on North Elliott in Aurora, Missouri, during the 10:30 a.m. service.

Temporary Distraction

Hey all, there likely won't be any new blog posts for a few days. A situation in my employed life is requiring more time, energy and concentration. See you in a few days.