Generosity: Part 4 of 4

Today, I wrap up this series on generosity. The Bible talks about it continuously, and commands Christians to care for the poor and needy.

In America, the church has, over the past 60-80 years, done a terrible job at this. I contend that is because government has taken over this responsibility from the church. Government created welfare programs to do the job that the churches were originally designed to do. When the churches were in charge of caring for the poor -- and properly doing their job -- there were none with great need. But, government saw an opportunity to open the treasury, and turn welfare into a political machine for the gain of politicians.

In light of that, I think there are at least three things that we can do today to fulfill the biblical commands on generosity.

Love One Another

It is easy to love the people in our lives that we like. I have a special kind of love for my wife and my three boys. I have certain friends that I enjoy being around. It is easy to love those people in my life. But, what about those that are just acquaintances, or that I don’t know at all? How about those people that I don’t really like to be around? What about someone who has hurt me in indescribable ways?

Mark 12:30-31 details the conversation Jesus had with a religious leader about the greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor. What’s interesting about the command to love your neighbor is that it doesn’t say we should love our family, or love our friends, or the people we get along with. Jesus said we should love our neighbor. That means your neighbor you like, and the one that annoys you to know end.

This teaching was revolutionary when Jesus said it, and it’s still revolutionary today. It totally transformed the world, and still changes people today. Unconditional love is what gets the attention of the world, and reveals Christ to them. It's also what Jesus said would be the identifying characteristic of his followers.

Compassion

The next step to living a generous life has to involve compassion. Compassion helps us to identify the needs of those around us. Compassion causes us to move from simply caring about someone to actually doing something about the issues they face.

Jame 2:14-20, 26 talks a great deal about compassion and charity. Your faith in God is revealed through your works of compassion. 1 John 3:17 adds to the thought. Clearly, God intends for Christians to not only love their neighbor, but to stand ready to help in times of need.

Prepare to be Generous

In light of scripture, it is best if we prepare our hearts to be generous. Every Christian on the face of this world has God’s Holy Spirit living inside of them. The Holy Spirit communicates God’s will to us in several different ways. One of those is probably best described as a “conscious prompting.” In the case of the hurting people in our world, the Spirit will from time to time tell us what we should do to help them. It’s up to us to listen and then do it or ignore it.

Now, most of us would want to be open to God’s prompting, and do what He commands. But, I contend that it is easy to say that, but not so easy to follow up. I’ll give you an example.
If you knew of a single mom who just lost her job, and had a couple of children to feed, it would be easy to be generous, and help her out. But, if you didn’t know this person, and you saw her out on a street corner holding a sign begging for help, would you freely give? Or, would you be skeptical and ignore her plight?

I know that in my heart I struggle with the second scenario. In Springfield, I see beggars at the stop lights all the time. They all carry cardboard signs that ask for help. Those signs all play on our compassion by ending in the words “God bless.” How am I to know if they really need help, or if they plan to blow the cash they collect on drugs or alcohol? Or, worse yet, what if they’re just scamming people, and don’t really need the help?

In one of his books, author and pastor Max Lucado wrote about this one time. When he was an associate pastor, he sat in on a meeting between his pastor and a homeless man who had come into the church for help. The man had a dozen different stories about what caused his desperate situation, and what his needs really were. Max admitted to seeing through the man’s phoniness, and was waiting for his pastor to boot him out the door.

But, instead, the pastor showed compassion toward the man and gave him some food and cash to help him out. After the meeting, the man left and Max asked his pastor if he had not seen through their guest’s ruse. His pastor told him that while most of the man’s story was probably a lie, what if one part was true. That one possible truth warranted compassion.

Compassion and love dictate our actions as Christians toward the people we encounter. They cause us to listen to and act on that voice in our heads that says “That person needs your help.”

Generosity: Part 3 of 4

This week, I am reviewing the message I preached last weekend on the topic of biblical generosity. Generosity and charity are themes that run throughout scripture. Jesus instructed his followers to practice it, and generosity really became a defining characteristic of the early churches.

The early churches were quite a site. Nowhere else would you see the rich and poor standing side by side in worship. Only in the church would you find a Roman soldier celebrating the same God as a Jewish convert.

At the end of Acts 11, we see an example of one church helping another. The church at Antioch had heard about coming hard times, and took an offering to send to the church at Jerusalem. This kindness really set the church apart from other religions. It also is what really helped propel the Gospel message throughout the world.

The generosity of the church proved to be an unstoppable force, and within a couple hundred years of Jesus’ founding the church, the entire Roman world had accepted Christianity as its national religion.

Here’s an example of how Christian generosity really played a part in the spread of the Gospel. In the 4th century A.D., the Roman emperor, Julian, assumed the throne. He had spent his early years being taught Christianity, but never embraced it, and never accepted Christ as his savior. In his early adult years, he latched onto pagan teachings. As emperor, he sought to bring the old Roman pagan worship back into prominence, while strangling Christianity out of existence.

Because Christianity had become so widespread, he couldn’t just issue an edict to stamp it out. Instead, he tried tactics such as requiring the Gospel texts be taught in public school. He hoped that the loss of students would force the Christian educators to go out of business. He also intended to manipulate the texts to control exactly what was being taught, and combine it with the religion he was pushing.

When that didn’t work, he recognized that the Christians love for one another, and their generosity were one of the keys to winning over converts. So, he instructed his pagan priests to start emulating the Christian practices. But, without the one true God behind him, Julian failed miserably, and was quoted as saying that the Christian faith

“has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers,
and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is
not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans (his term for
Christians) care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those
who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them."

That’s one of my favorite quotes that really demonstrates the power of the church and Christianity when it is doing what the Bible teaches.

Tomorrow, I have some take-aways from this series.

Generosity: Part 2 of 4

Yesterday, I pointed out that the Old Testament passages of Deuteronomy 15:7-11 and Psalm 41:1-2 address the topic of generosity. God's instructions are to be open handed when taking care of the needy. But, God also promises blessings for those who do this.

Today, I want to return to ancient Israel, because even though Moses gave this very important law, the Jewish people eventually turned away from much of the law Moses had given them.

1500 years later, when Jesus arrives on the scene, the religious leaders had so manipulated the law, that it was impossible for the average person to keep. Plus, they had turned charity into something akin to a competition. In other words, those who had wealth would practice generosity, but not to help the poor. Instead, their goal was to bring fame to themselves.
In his sermon on the mount, Jesus tackles this problem head-on by pointing out that God wasn’t impressed with those who gave in order to get public recognition.

That teaching ran contrary to the popular practice in Jesus’ day, and it runs contrary to the philanthropy practices in our world today. It was counter-cultural 2,000 years ago, and it is still counter-cultural today. But, it was this practice that really defined the church, because when you combine it with Jesus’ other teachings on compassion and caring for people, you can begin to understand why the early church conducted itself as it did.

One of the characteristics of the first church was that they took care of each other. The poor were taken care of to the extent that other believers would sell their belongings to help people out.

That is so far out there that we struggle to understand exactly how this all worked. It’s hard for us to imagine selling what we worked all our life to acquire, so we could help others. But, it was this very thing that really set the Christian church apart from the rest of the world.

The world would tell the needy to fend for themselves, and not bother them with their problems. But, the church had applied something Jesus had said in John 13:34-35: when he commanded them to love each other, and noted that this would be how the world identified them as Christ-followers.

Jesus combined compassion and love as the way that the world would know who his disciples were. So, when the church first became organized, you saw an enormous outpouring of love and compassion for the other believers. And, this philosophy wasn’t confined to the church in Jerusalem. It spread to the other churches as the Gospel message was taken through the region.

Generosity: Part 1 of 4

This past Sunday, I had the privilege to preach at a church in Aurora, Missouri. The topic: Generosity.

I think generosity is something that the church does well with at times, and not so good at in other times. And, honestly, as individuals we stink at it.

But, caring for the poor and needy is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. Deuteronomy 15:7-11 is one of the earliest instructions to care for the poor.

The Israelites weren’t supposed to take advantage of those less fortunate among them. Generosity was supposed to be a hallmark of their society.

One example of this can be found in the book of Ruth where the poor and the widows were allowed to go through a harvested field and retrieve the leftovers for their own use. You see in Ruth the practice Moses instituted as a way for the poor and widows to gather grain for their own use or to sell for profit.

What’s neat is that God makes two promises in this passage. One of them, Jesus acknowledged in Mark 14:7. The passages in Deuteronomy and Mark note that the poor will always be around us. Deuteronomy charges us to open our hands wide with our generosity.

The other promise God makes involves a blessing associated with our giving. I think sometimes we mistakenly associate God’s blessings for our giving as being financial in nature. But, this passage leaves the door wide open. God’s blessings for our charity may come in the form of financial increase. Or, it might be good health; better relationships; increased joy in our lives, or maybe some blessings we can’t even imagine.

Psalm 41:1-2 states this in another way. Clearly, there are physical, mental and spiritual benefits to being generous to those in need.

I know from my personal experience that for me, the biggest blessing is the joy in knowing I’ve helped someone. In fact, I can only really think of one time where I was financially blessed beyond measure for being generous. Most of the time, for me, the blessings are more spiritual. I get a real sense of joy knowing what I have done to help has made a difference. I think most Christians are that way, and it’s something that we’ll come back to in a little bit, because the generosity of Christians actually played a major role in you and I being here today.

Preaching This Weekend

I'll be preaching this weekend at the Faith and Hope Free Will Baptist Church in Aurora, Missouri. Come out and join us. Sunday worship starts at 10:30 a.m.

Your Giving Really Helps

When we are stuck in a bear market, it is easy to assume that if we stop giving, it won't hurt anyone and will help our bottom line.

If organizations only lost one giver among the hundreds or thousands that contribute, then it would be like taking a single drop from a pail of water. It isn't noticable.

But, that isn't the case during recessions. Large percentages of people tend to stop giving to worthy causes. Those organizations are left without the means to function properly.

I started this week's topic with a reference to mission giving. When that giving stops, so do the mission works. The pastors of those operations have to return home to drum up more support. This can be a huge hinderance on the spread of the Gospel.

I love the story of the widow woman who Jesus observed giving all that she had to the work of the Temple. She was human, just like you and I. I'm sure she sweated giving to God what she believed she should do. But, in the end, she gave all she had, because she trusted God to do what he said.

And God noticed.

God and a Bad Economy

This week, I'm addressing the issue of giving financial gifts during a bad economy. Any leader of a not-for-profit (NPO) agency will share how the stress increases when donations are down. Every organization needs money to operate, and NPO's get hit first and usually hardest.

In the church world, people who are faithful with their tithes will typically trim other parts of their budgets and leave giving alone. Those, however, who struggle with trusting God in this area will usually cut out giving to the church before anything else.

In larger churches, this will result in a drop in the ability for the churches to minister. In smaller churches, this could be crippling.

Here's a truth you should let sink into your gray matter. God's economy is not based on man's economy. There are countless experiences throughout the course of human history where God provided the resources to His people at the right moment. The only stipulation he ever gave was to give him ten percent of what He already gave us.

One of the most inspiring stories of God's people giving during a tough economy is found in Acts 11:19-30. It is here that we find the church in Antioch. This was a poor church. Likely deeper in poverty than the church in Jerusalem. But, it is here that we find the Christians giving what they could in order to send an offering to help out the Jerusalem church.

It's an incredible scene of compassion. It's a wonderful example of how we should give during our economic troubles. That example being that we should not stop giving, but we should do so faithfully.

Giving in the Hard Times

"When the going gets tough, the tough ... keep giving?!?"

Okay, so I manipulated that classic motivational quote, but I hope you'll hang on long enough to get my point.

All across the globe, the economic season is "recession," and the forecast isn't very positive. When the economies of the world turn sour, the first things to suffer are non-profit organizations that rely on financial gifts from supporters. In the drive to hold onto their money, givers tend to turn down the faucet or completely shut it off. This can be devastating to great NPO's that rely on support to survive.

I work for an NPO, and our organization works with several other NPO's. All are hurting, but the needs of the people we serve are only growing. Lessened support plus greater need equals pending disaster.

Yesterday, I referenced a newsletter I received this week that noted the sharp drop in giving to a denomination's missions fund. This is playing itself out, not just in the mission fields of the world, but also in our backyard at the neighborhood church.

Giving is down everywhere, and people are justifying it by claiming they just don't have it. And, you know what? They're right. They don't have it.

Now, we could debate all sorts of reasons why this is, but the bottom line is that the money just isn't there to continue giving. So, even if people have good intentions, they just can't give.

Or, can they?

One of the lessons I'm learning about God is that He is the master of the paradox. Reason and common sense point the way in one direction, but God's Word points in the opposite direction.

The last shall become first, and the first last. If anyone strikes your right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you. When you give to the needy ... do it in secret. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

I could go on, but I hope you catch the point. The behavior and reasoning of man is not the same as God's. In fact, we will probably miss it more times than not.

In the area of giving, the natural tendency is to cut out giving when our finances grow tight. But, the biblical examples indicate that these are especially the times when giving should continue. Jesus pointed out the widow who gave all she had as an offering, and she was poorer than you and I could ever imagine. He had high praise for her faithfulness.

God promises blessings for our giving. Why would we in turn ruin those blessings by stopping those gifts in the most crucial times?

Ultimately, it boils down to a trust issue. Do I trust God to do what He says He will do? Most times, our actions reveal that we do not. My challenge to you would be to maintain giving and cut out the other areas of our lives that seem to be eating away our NPO giving.

Missions and Money

Yesterday, I received a newsletter from the Missouri missions department of a Christian denomination. It was unfortunate to hear how financially strapped they are going into the fall months.

To date, their funding is down more than $30,000 compared to this time a year ago. If giving does not improve, and conditions do not change, they may see an annual drop of over $45,000 in the mission funding plan. In hard times, that is a lot of money that missionaries around the world won't have to further the spread of the Gospel.

I would imagine that this scenerio is similar in just about every other denomination out there. When economic times get tough, sacrifical giving and tithing are some of the first things people cut in their budgets.

This week, I will be discussing giving and the church. Why should you continue to give when there doesn't seem to be enough to go around for yourself? What is God's plan for giving during rough economic times? And, how can you be a blessing to others through your giving?

For what it's worth, those 2010 figures I referenced above were down from the denomination's 2009 numbers, which were down from the 2008 numbers. Times may be hard and resources dwindling, but the need is growing.

Teenagers

Today, I am the father of a teenager. I knew this day was coming, and must face it again two more times. Even still, I didn't think I was old enough for this, but the birth certificate says I am.

So, Happy Birthday to my 13-year-old, Jeremiah. Love you, boy!

Eliminating Idols

This week I've been looking at idolatry. Many of us are familiar with the false god's of old, such as the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods that were created by mankind to explain different aspects of nature, business and life.

We often overlook the less obvious idols that we establish by placing things above God in our lives. These could be material items, such as money, our homes, cars, clothing, food, etc. They could be people, such as family, political and religious leaders. They might even be good causes such as charities or even the church. Anything we place above God on our scale of importance -- anything we love more than God -- is an idol.

So, how do we eliminate idols from our lives. I won't profess it to be easy, because it isn't. But, it starts with a personal relationship with Jesus. If you ask Jesus to come into your life and proclaim him as your savior, then God will send His Spirit to reside in you. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can truly sense when we are establishing idols.

Through consistent prayer and Bible reading, Christians can start to identify the things that are out of whack in their lives, and then put them in their proper place. What's cool about this process is that while God is a jealous god, and will not share His role with idols, He is also a very patient and gracious God. He gave the Israelites plenty of time to try to correct their behavior before pouring out judgement. I believe He will work similarly for those Christians that recognize their shortcomings and work to repent of them.

What is an Idol?

I started this series with a quote from Pastor Mark Driscoll that defined an idol as "good things that are turned into god things and they become bad things." That definition differs a little from the idols of old that we think of when we talk about idolatry.

Traditionally, we view idols as little wooden or metal figurines, or large statues inside temples. These are intentional religious idols that men have created as a way for followers of those religions to connect with their gods. The Greek temples are the best known example of idol worship.

Paul points out this fact in Acts 17 when he addresses the Athenians. Scripture notes that Paul was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw in Athens. He saw shrines to Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Apollo and many others. Paul even found an altar to an unknown god that the Greeks had set up just in case they had missed one. They, of course, didn't want to offend this "unknown god."

Entire cities were established around the worship, commerce and tourism of some of these idols. Paul was chased out of one town when Christianity had destroyed the business of those who made idols. Idolatry had become ingrained into the fabric of the Greek society. That is the kind of idolatry we think of when discussing this topic.

But, there is a second kind of idol that isn't meant to be religious, but the importance we place on these items suggests they have taken a god-like role in our lives. Pastor Driscoll defined them well. They can be anything that we place above God in our lives. They can be our jobs, our spouse, our children, our car, television and bank account. There is an infinite list of things that can start out as good, but when we place them above our reverence and love for God they become godlike to us, thereby making them a bad thing.

Parents live their lives vicariously through their children, sacrificing time with God in order to make the weekend tournament or recital. A man sacrifices his family and his God on the altar of a better paying, but time consuming job. A woman wraps her identity around her husband instead of basing it on God. Couples become convinced that they must have a high-end lifestyle, because what their friends think of them is more important than what God thinks.

I could go on and on, but I don't think I need to do so. The point is that when we replace God as the most important thing in our lives, regardless of whether it is overtly religious or not, we are establishing an idol that the Bible says will lead to destruction.

Idols of Old

When you read through the Bible, you will find many warnings against idol worship.

Exodus 20:3-6 makes it clear that God does not put up with idol worship. I think it is significant that this is the first of the ten commandments. While all ten are important, this one carries the most weight.

In this passage, God declares that He alone is God. He also states his intolerance for false religions, and for His people placing their love for other things above their affection for Him.

It's interesting that God says those who place Him above all else in their lives will be lavished with His love for a thousand generations. However, those who chase after idols will receive God's punishment. And, that punishment will be so severe that it will affect their children, grandchildren and even the great-grandchildren.

Elsewhere in scripture, God instructs the Israelites to not marry people from foreign nations. (Side note: Some have assumed this is an instruction against intermarriage of the races, but that's not really the case.) This order was designed to prevent the Israelites from introducing false religions into their homes and nation.

Sadly, as time passed, the Israelites didn't keep this command, and intermarried with other nations. Eventually, Israel was infected with these false gods, and their worship practices. These ordinances included temple prostitution, sorcery and human sacrifice.

Eventually, God displaced Israel and Judah as punishment for their violation of what Jesus called the first and greatest commandment: loving God first and foremost. But, it wasn't like the Israelites didn't have advance warning of what was coming.

Moses warned the people on several occasions about what would happen to them if they stopped following God. Many prophets provided ample opportunity for the people to turn from their evil ways, but each generation slid farther down the slippery slope of immorality. God was generous in the amount of time He gave the people. Eventually, though, judgement had to come.

What followed were several decades of exile and ruin. The people eventually returned, but the land God had given to the Jews remained occupied territory until the nation's sovereignty was restored in 1948.

God takes worship very seriously.

Idols Among Us

I've been reading through the book of Deuteronomy this month, and time after time God tells the Israelites to not go after false gods and the idols made for them.

That began a thought process about idolatry in our world today. So, this week I'll be blogging about idols, and putting perspective on them.

Pastor Mark Driscoll had one of the best takes I've ever heard on idols. In the following video, he points out that "idols tend to be good things that are turned into god things and they become bad things."

Cool is Temporary - The Church is Forever

This week, I've been talking about "coolness" and the Church.

Everyone wants to be considered as cool. The cool person is the one everyone else wants to be around and be like. Cool people dress cool. They act cool. They drive the cool car.

I remember back in high school that the coolest kids seemed to excel at what they did. And, if they didn't excel, they gave off the appearance that they had excelled. But, something funny happened. Graduation.

Graduation has a neutralizing effect on high school coolness. Everyone goes their separate ways, and the guy who once was cool is now a stranger in the adult world. That's the way coolness works. What's cool today won't be tomorrow.

Look at fashion trends. They change with the passing seasons. And, what some try to pass off as cool fads eventually become the horror fashion of a generation (bellbottoms, anyome?). We all laugh at our photos from a couple of decades ago, because what we thought was trendy then is laughable today.

Coolness is clearly temporary. In fact, all but one thing is temporary.

The Bible tells us that eventually everything, including Heaven and Earth will pass away. They will be no more, and will be replaced by a new Heaven and Earth. However, Jesus said in Matthew 16 that His church will last forever, and that nothing could destroy it. It will weather the storm while coolness will burn away.

With that in mind, I think a church and its congregants need to be deliberate in keeping their focus on the Gospel message of Jesus, while also keeping a finger on the pulse of the culture around them. This is important, because just as the landscape is littered with churches that sought after coolness, it is also littered with those that have sacrificed ministering to the culture to protect the church's culture, and are now close to death's door (or already buried).

I think there needs to be a series of checks and balances - evaluations, if you will - to ensure that a desire to be cool doesn't turn the fire for the Gospel into a lukewarm message.

What are your thoughts on the coolness factor of churches?

Cool Church Can't Be That Bad

This week, I'm giving my take on an article written for Relevant Magazine by pastor Cole NeSmith. I've been mulling for a long time on the idea of churches that strive to be cool.

One one hand, being the cool place at the moment isn't necessarily a bad thing. A wise church would use it's current popularity to further the spread of the Gospel.

We are humans, however, and our nature has us striving for the shiny, new thing, or better yet, trying to be the shiny, new thing. When a church follows this line of thinking, the results can be devastating for the congregation.

When the church wants to be cool, it realizes that the culture is constantly changing, so it will constantly change to keep up. Nothing wrong with that, except that the changes in culture always lead in one direction...toward immorality. At some point, the cool-seeking church will face a decision that causes it to pull back from the brink or go along with the destructive culture.

The landscape is littered with churches and denominations that have sacrificed God's truth in order to pursue the culture. They were at one time the strongest in Christianity, but today are toothless dragons. Their people long for the days when they were once cool, but never for the days when they were effective ministers of the Gospel.

These remind me of the churches at Sardis and Laodicea that are mentioned in Revelation 3.

So, if coolness isn't where it's at, what is? Find out tomorrow.

Cool Churches - Good of Bad

Yesterday, I pointed my blog to an article by Cole NeSmith, the pastor at Status in Orlando. Cole wrote on Relevant Magazine's site about coolness and Christianity. He essentially pointed out that the church errs if it strives for coolness, because what is hip today will not be tomorrow. However, the Church will last forever.

This struck a cord with me, because it has been one of the issues I have been chewing on for a while. Each of us has a certain style of church that we like, from the music to the preaching and kids programming. We tend to search out the church that best fits who we are, and there is nothing wrong with that, provided we are growing in our relationship with Jesus.

But, at times we find churches that, over the course of time, become the cool place to go. Inevitably, the focus of the church can trend away from biblical mission to one of being cool within the culture. We justify such moves by telling ourselves that we are simply being relevant, or trying to reach our culture by using things they're familiar with.

Don't get me wrong. Short of sin, everything in the world is fair game to use in order to bring people to Jesus. But, there is a gray line that exists between being relevant for the sake of mission and relevant for the sake of being cool. In fact, it's so fuzzy that I don't think a church realizes it has crossed the line until it is fully over it, and dug into the mindset of being cool.

Tomorrow, I'll continue with my take on the cool church.

Cool Christianity Redirect

Today's blog entry is a redirect to an interesting article on Relevant Magazine.

Let me know what you think about "Christianity Shouldn't Be Cool."

Blogging Schedule

As I return to blogging, I'm toying with the idea of a schedule. With a wife and three kids, plus a full time job with leadership responsibilities, finding time to blog can be difficult at times. So, I will probably be toying with many different ideas and formats over the next several weeks.

It's Hard to Grow When You Don't Eat

I have three children at home, and as any parent can attest, there are no two kids alike. They all behave differently, eat differently, sleep differently, grow differently. They're just different.

As different as they are, some things are the same. For instance, if they want to grow up to be healthy and strong men, they need to eat good, nutritious meals. And, they can't just pick at them either. They have to eat it all in order to get all the vitamins and minerals they need. Without them, their growth is stunted.

Our spiritual lives are much the same.

A lesson I have learned is that when I don't read my Bible or pray daily, my spiritual growth sputters, and I actually shrink in my relationship with God. What's interesting is that just like my children's growth is dependent on them actually feeding themselves, my growth with Jesus depends solely on me. It has to be my choice to "self-feed." I have to be the one to open my Bible. I have to be the one to pray. I have to make the conscious decision to grow closer to God.

The best illustration I can come up with is that of the prodigal son. At the end of the story, the father (representing God) was always waiting for his son to come to him. The son (representing all of us) had to make the personal decision to return to the father.

So, what's keeping you from growing back to God?

I'm Back

I just checked and it has been about a month and a half since my last posting. That's awful if you want to build a blog.

So, where have I been? I'd love to say that I've been taking a sabbatical to renew and refresh and all that stuff, but I haven't. Truth be told, I got sidetracked. Derailed. Lost focus. Complacent. Dried up.

Yeah, there are a lot of excuses, and that's all they are...excuses. Have you ever done that? You know, dropped a project you had an interest in only because you lost interest? Let's work together to pick up where we left off.

Do We Really Need So Many Churches?

I've heard this question many times, and to be honest, I've even asked it a time or two. Do we really need so many churches, especially in areas that seem saturated with them?

It's a valid question. After all, do we also really need McDonald's restaurants every half-dozen blocks? Is it really necessary that a Walgreens sits, seemingly, on every other street corner? How many Wal-Marts, gas stations, Starbucks are enough?

Those businesses each use strategic research to determine the need of the market they want to enter before setting up shop. The smart business owner will only open if there is a profit to be made.

But, a church is nothing like a business. In fact, most churches don't have the resources to research the area they serve. So, when you have a dozen churches crammed into a small area, is that too many?

There are analysts who can probably break this down into much greater detail. And, sure, if all the churches in the area are doing the same things (singing the same songs, preaching the same messages, doing the same thing in the community) problems will arise in areas these churches are not impacting.

However, if these churches are doing different things, even slightly, together they will be impacting many different areas of their community. Taking this a step farther, no single church can cover all the needs of the people in their community, but multiple churches tackling different needs can cover a greater area.

Translation: Many churches are necessary in communities in order to effectively minister and share the Gospel to the entire community they serve.

Monday Ten

1. Father's Day weekend was a blast.

2. On Saturday, my family "daddy-napped" me, and took me to Branson Landing for lunch at Famous Dave's. Can't beat good BBQ.

3. We also had some ice cream next door at The Fudgery. Met a woman behind the counter who was very generous.

4. We wandered around Branson Landing for a couple of hours enjoying a beautiful Ozarks afternoon.

5. Father's Day kept the good stuff coming. My kids each made me homemade cards. Oddly, they all had a Star Wars theme to them...or in part of them.

6. My wife and kids then followed that up by giving me a t-shirt with the kids' hand prints on it.

7. And, they topped it off with homemade Oreo-pudding pie.

8. Today, I start my new diet and weight loss plan: Couch to 5K.

9. Last week was also great for golf. Monday at Highland Springs. Friday at Horton Smith. All as a work representative. Translation: FREE GOLF!!!

10. I brought my golf game to church on Sunday. As head parking lot greeter, our pastor joins me before the first service to wave at people coming onto the lot. I brought a driver and some junk golf balls to whack around. Lots of fun!

Respecting the Leader or the Position: Part 2

Respect is always a two-way street. Yesterday, I wrote about this from the leader's perspective. Today, I write from the follower's view.

Respect works in both ways. A follower respects a leader, and a leader respects the follower. In both cases, respect is earned through a lengthy relationship building process, and can be destroyed in a single moment.

For the employee, student, volunteer, etc., gaining the respect of those that lead is valuable, because it gives you leverage when interacting with your boss, teacher, pastor, team leader, etc. When you become trustworthy and dependable, you will gain access to your leader that few others will have opportunity to get.

But, respect, once gained, cannot be taken for granted or abused. Respect will fade away if the follower becomes consistently lazy in their efforts.

Here are some tips for those who follow:

• Do your best to respect the leader, and not just the position. Respect is mutually given and received.
• Don't let past bad experiences with other leaders cloud your ability to work for leaders around you today.
• If you do work for a jerk, you have two options: live though it or get out.
• Leaders highly respect followers who perform well, are dependable, and care for the organization's well being.

Do you have any other tips? Let me know.

Respecting the Leader or the Position: Part 1

Every one of us, from time to time, have had to deal with the issue of respect, whether as a leader or a follower. For the next couple of days, I'm going to tackle this idea, first from the leader's perspective, and tomorrow from the the follower's perspective.

All leaders know there is value in having the respect of the followers, whether it be a teaching, volunteer, political or employment setting. Gaining the respect of those we lead is a valuable asset, because respect makes leading easier and requires less convincing to get "buy in" from the followers.

Respect is similar to trust in that it has to be earned, and can be lost in an instant. One major misstep will distroy the respect and trust that followers have for their leader. As such, it must be protected and nourished.

One good way to view respect (and trust) is as if it is a bunch of coins in your pocket. As you earn the respect of those you lead, they are giving you coins. When you lose respect, you are giving back those coins. The catch in this is that it is much easier to lose those coins than it is to gain them. It takes much longer to gain respect than it does to lose respect.

With that in mind, here are a few tips for leaders to gain the respect (and keep it) of their followers:

• Constantly work to increase the respect your followers have for you. This isn't about manipulation. Instead, it's about becoming trustworthy and honorable. No one respects a scoundril, but they do look up to someone who is honorable.
• Work on becoming humble. Arrogance is the enemy of respect.
• Be quick to listen and slow to speak. That will prevent you from sticking your foot in your mouth, and by default, losing respect. This becomes especially important during stressful moments when we are most vulnerable to anger.
• Don't be a jerk! A jerk demands that people respect them, because of who they are, not what they do. In the end, followers will respect the position the leader holds (if the leader is lucky), but not the person. In volunteer situations, chances are higher that the follower will ditch the leader and find something else to give their energy to.
• For what it's worth, the person in a leadership role who demands that people respect him isn't really a leader.
• The best way to secure respect is two-fold: 1) Let followers know that their input is valued and respected. 2) The leader should be quick to admit a mistake and ask forgiveness if he wrongs someone he leads.

Those are just a few ideas for leaders. Do you have any more? Let me know.

Tuesday Ten

Ok, so I was planning on this being my Monday Ten, but the Joplin tornado necessitated it be delayed.

1. This was a very eventful weekend for me. I'm ready for the next one.
2. I preached at the Faith & Hope Free Will Baptist Church in Aurora on Sunday. They're nice people.
3. I'll be posting my notes and thoughts about my message later during blog posts later this week.
4. A very good friend of mine got married yesterday afternoon. Congrats to Grant and Melissa.
5. Grant called me last week, and asked if I would be interested in reading Hebrews 11:1-3 at the ceremony. I was thrilled to do it for him.
6. Grant and Melissa are moving away from this area. I'll miss having him as a golfing buddy this summer.
7. An advantage to having a smart phone is that you can track the weather from your phone. So, we rushed it back home before the storms hit Sunday.
8. Elsewhere, the school year wraps up this week for my kids. Summers are always interesting around our home.
9. I have some very creative boys. We went shopping a couple of nights ago, and they wanted to tag along. They never like to go shopping, but they had some money they wanted to spend...on duct tape.
10. They used the duct tape to create several different things. Further proof that duct tape can solve the world's problems.

Monday Ten

Ten Ways to Help Joplin Residents Recover from Yesterday's Tornado:

1. Give money to Convoy of Hope and the American Red Cross. Both agencies use money to buy supplies in the affected regions.
2. Give blood at the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. There is a Red Alert in the Ozarks for O-negative blood.
3. Volunteer if you have medical skills or have equipment to sift through debris. All volunteers are asked to report to the Leggett & Platt recreation center in the Missouri Southern State University campus.
4. Several organizations are accepting donations of non-perishable goods, such as blankets, water and the like. One such organization in Springfield is Ozarks Technical Community College at National Avenue and Chestnut Expressway.
5. Stay out of the area is you aren't there to volunteer. People who are not part of the organized effort only get in the way, and waste manpower. Disasters tend to bring out a lot of gawkers. But, many times, the police will let you gawk at the inside of a jail cell if you are in the way.
6. This week, and especially this weekend, many church groups will be sending teams to help Joplin clean up the debris. Be a part of those efforts if you can. Joplin is our neighbor.
7. I heard from a friend in another state this morning. Her church is going to gather donations to send to Joplin. You don't have to live in the neighborhood to love your neighbor.
8. Several schools and churches were damaged or destroyed. These centers for the community will need help rebuilding. Maybe you have something they need.
9. To locate loved ones in the Joplin area, visit www.safeandwell.org or call 417.659.5464.
10. Pray ... a lot. For those of us not in the area, we cannot imagine the horror and devastation. These people need us to pray for them.

Monday Ten

Ten things I'm grappling with:

1. Trying to figure out this Ozarks weather. One day it's summer, the next we revert to early spring.

2. Trying to figure out how that I ended up with a sunburn while leading the parking lot crew at church. It was cloudy 95% of the time.

3. Trying to figure out a new schedule that will get me back to the gym. My wife made a super deal with me to lose weight and get in shape. Now, I need to get with it.

4. Trying to find time between rain and cold weather to mow my lawn. Seriously, it's reverting to prairie land.

5. Trying to teach our pup new tricks. I can get him to spin around while standing on his back legs. Now, to get him to do back flips.

6. Trying to figure out all the details to a message I'm preaching this Sunday at Faith & Hope Free Will Baptist Church in Aurora. We'll be talking about faith. Come check it out at 10:30 a.m. at 619 N. Elliott.

7. Trying to discover a massive oil reserve under my home. Gas prices need to come down somehow.

8. Trying to figure out ways to maximize fuel efficiency in my car. Near $4/gallon gas is eating my lunch.

9. Trying to figure out a nice, inexpensive, close-to-home-so-gas-doesn't-kill-us vacation this summer.

10. Trying to figure out a major personal move. It's ministry related, but with drastically different end points.

Wednesday Ten?

Ok, so this delayed top ten thing is the pits. But, it's been an ultra-busy week, and I need my rest sometime.

1. Mothers Day was awesome in our home.

2. I love Groupon. I managed get my wife an hour swedish massage at a great price. That was her Mom's Day gift.

3. Then, we treated her to a Springfield Cardinals game Sunday afternoon.

4. All was going well until I ran my youngest son's nose into the metal countertop of a food stand. Ouch!

5. Shortly after that, the same kid hit his head on something else at the ballpark.

6. My wife and I spent Thursday through Saturday at a conference for parents. Interesting material.

7. Monday, I got a call from a pastor friend who wants me to come speak at his church in a couple of weeks.

8. I haven't preached in a year, and not at this church in two years. They recently finished a long remodel of their building. I'm interested to see how it turned out.

9. I still don't have a topic yet, but am begging God to reveal it.

10. My chances to tell people about Jesus from a stage don't come very often, so I'm asking God to make this chance count.

If God Lays a Person on Your Heart, It's Your Responsibility

Last week, I posted about it being your responsibility to share Christ with the people God has burdened you for. Here is a video of Perry Noble, from NewSpring Church, talking about sharing Christ with people.

Monday Ten

How 24 hours changes what a guy will blog about.

1. Osama bin Laden is dead. Justice has been served.

2. Proud today of our men and women serving our country. You have done well, and will continue to do so.

3. Elsewhere, a little sunshine is good for the soul. Thursday and Friday were so nice that it made a chilly Sunday hard to bear.

4. Speaking of that chilly Sunday, I was re-assigned yesterday from usher leader to leading the outdoor parking lot team. Yesterday was a cold and wet way to start my new assignment.

5. All but two of the guys on my new team are rookies. It'll be fun getting to know new faces as we train and grow together.

6. It was a bit sad to leave ushering. I went through the same thing when I left teaching kids at the beginning of the year. But, that's how leadership goes.

7. I enjoy leading people, helping to develop their talents, and working together to put a plan into action. Helping people help you succeed is very rewarding.

8. One of the lessons I'm learning about leadership is that it is more about building a relationship with people than it is telling them what to do.

9. Talked to a friend of mine who pastors a church. They are a traditional church that wants to add a contemporary service. It was good to share some ideas. I'm excited for the opportunities they have.

10. On a lighter note, today I am going shoe shopping. I have finally worn out my dress shoes. When the rain water seeps through the bottom of them, it's time to find some replacements.

God Told You and You're Responsible

Today's blog post is exclusively for Christians.

Have you ever had a moment in life when you felt burdened for someone you know? What did you do with that burden?

There are typically only three things that you can do: Chase after that person and meet their need, ignore it and hope it goes away, or ask someone else to help them. Which do you think is the right choice to make?

The last two are what most Christians, especially in America, do. I'll admit, I've done all three to varying degrees. And, that would make me wrong about 2/3 of the time.

I've been involved in the church for nearly two decades, and one of the most consistent themes I have witnessed is the reluctance of believers to tell their friends about Jesus. Instead, the tendancy for believers is to hide behind the excuse of prayer (more on this in a moment), or pass their burden on to their church leaders.

Now, on the "excuse of prayer," don't misunderstand, praying for people is a vital part of reaching them for Jesus. However, if all we do is pray for them, but never actually tell them about Jesus, we are defeating the purpose. Sometimes, without meaning to, we make prayer the excuse for not physically telling our friends about Christ.

In the end, we either ignore or pray the burden away.

At other times, because sharing Christ can be tense and nerve-wracking, we tend to revert to the other other option of passing our burden to the church professionals.

We'll go to the pastor, youth pastor or small group leader and tell them about this person we know who needs Jesus. When we do this, we're essentially asking the "church professional" to take our burden from us and make it theirs. Typically, this is done by asking the pastor (or others) to go visit our friend.

I say all of that to lead up to pointing out that these two approaches are the wrong way to go about it. God burdens us with the people he was US to witness to. It is our burden and our duty to share Christ, not just ignore it until it goes away or hope our pastor will win them over.

Romans 10:14 says, "how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?"

Monday Ten

1. Today, I have Post-Easter Fatigue. PEF occurs when an individual volunteers a lot to help make the Easter services at his/her church happen.

2. I can only imagine what pastors go though.

3. Speaking of Easter...services at North Point Church were tremendous. Over 9800 people attended the 13 services at our two campuses. More than 200 people gave their lives to Jesus. That never gets old.

4. The Easter services put me in a volunteer area I had never been before...the parking lot. Hundreds of cars loaded with church-goers passed by as my team and I directed them to their parking spots.

5. I only almost got run over once. That was by a friend who was just teasing. I told him he was the wrong kind of person to come to NPC.

6. That was an inside joke based on an actual event that happened earlier in the week at the church.

7. Someone called the church office to complain about a mailer that had gone out promoting our Easter services. The caller warned the church that the stuff we do will attract the wrong kind of people.

8. The wrong kind of people...that made me laugh and cry. Laugh, because it's funny that someone would tell a church that. Cry, because it's very sad that someone would think that the church should exclude certain types of people.

9. Jesus died on a cross for EVERYONE, not just those who fit a certain mold. He rose from the grave to demonstrate the power of God, and to win the battle over death, Hell and the grave.

10. Yes, our band did perform an Ozzy Osbourne song as part of the Easter performance. Let's just say, it was included as part of the demonstration of Christ's crucifixion. BTW, in the end, God won, Satan lost.

The Day God Died

Today is Good Friday. For the Christian, this is the day we mark the death of Jesus on the cross. His death was such a terrible event that Christians for the first few hundred years of Christianity were repulsed by the cross.

Today, we use the cross as a symbol of Christianity. Today, we create pageants to focus on Christ's glorious resurrection three days later. But, often I think we forget the terrible horror of the crucifixion.

Listen to Rick Gamache from Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Bloomington, Minnesota, or download the mp3 here.

Easter at NPC Will be AWESOME

Last night, I and several other volunteer leaders at North Point Church got a preview of this weekend's Easter services. Now, while we didn't get to see the whole presentation, we got samples and details on how things will shake down.

If you're planning on attending, you MUST arrive early and get your seat. We will be closing the doors and not allowing people to enter or exit for the first five minutes of the service. This is because there will be things happening in the isle that could get roaming people hurt.

Plus, because of the nature of some of the events going on, we recommend children through 5th grade go to KidPoint for service. We'll have lots of exciting things going on for them, and it will open up seats in the main auditorium for guests.

Come expecting God to do something amazing in your life.

Tuesday Ten

Ok, so procrastination got the better of me yesterday, and you get this week's Ten on Tuesday. But, you'll see by #1 that it was ok.

1. My youngest boy, Malachi, asked Jesus into his heart last night! All three of my kids are now Christ-followers. I can die a happy man.

2. What's cool is that my boy is a Christian just in time to celebrate Easter. So cool!!!

3. I love Easter. This is my favorite time of the year.

4. Each Easter, my church does something spectacular to draw people to church, and then leave them with an awesome impression about God.

5. For the first time ever, my church is having Good Friday services. All told, between both campuses, there will be 13 services.

6. That requires a lot of volunteers. And, sometimes those volunteers will be in unfamiliar places.

7. I will be in the parking lot directing traffic Saturday afternoon and evening. First time ever! Should be fun.

8. I'll be leading the usher team for one service and working another on Sunday. That should also be fun.

9. Kids will have a blast at our church for Easter. After hearing the plans for those areas, I kind of miss teaching the kiddos.

10. BTW, if you are in the Springfield, Missouri area and don't have a church home, visit North Point Church for Easter.

Hope by Fire

It is a given that each one of us will experience some type of hardship in our lives. It might be a period of time spent in poverty or deep debt. Perhaps it's an illness such as cancer. Maybe it's a divorce or death of a loved one. Whatever the case, we know that each one of us will be hit with trials from time to time.

Some people blame God for the hard times in their lives, not understanding how a loving God would permit bad stuff to happen in this world. That's entirely understandable.

It's natural for humans to look for reasons why things happen. When an answer cannot be found, the next alternative seems to be blaming God. After all, God is supposed to be in control.

The assumption is that if God is in charge, then our lives should be smooth flowing and easy. There's only one problem with that line of thinking - Jesus was murdered. If good people should be allowed a pass in the suffering depart, how do you explain the crucifixion of Christ?

The reality is that our world is filled with sin. Death and decay are the result of sin. God is not responsible for bad things. That's sin's fault - sin that entered our world through the fall of Adam and Eve.

The Bible has God's answer for sin and for suffering. Jesus had to suffer death on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. Anyone who believes this in their heart and confesses it will their mouth becomes children of God. It is our faith in Jesus that saves us.

But, what about suffering? Romans 5:3-5 has the answer for this, too. Essentially God says that the trials we go through don't have to end badly. They are part of a process of growth that will make us better people, and more in line with God's heart if we allow it.

This passage essentially says that suffering produces endurance to survive the hard times. Surviving the hard times develops character within us. And, this creates hope.

Monday Ten

I turn 37 tomorrow. Here's the top ten things I hope to accomplish this year.

1. Lose weight. I would like to trim a pound a week from my physique.

2. Read more. I love to read. But, time schedules being what they are, it can be difficult to do sometimes.

3. Win an iPad. Ok, that one is probably not very realistic, but you can't accomplish a win without actually trying.

4. Write more. Not only do I love to read, I also love to write. Again, time schedules need to be freed up.

5. Get up earlier and go to bed earlier. I think that has to happen to accomplish #2 and #4.

6. Love my wife and kids more. There is never an end to the love.

7. Discover what God has in store. Ok, so this isn't so much an accomplishment for me as it is for God. I guess a better way to put this is....

8. Listen to God more.

9. Continue to grow as a leader. I love leadership. I enjoy leading people.

10. Celebrate birthday #38...in one year. The more birthdays you have, the longer you live.

Testing Out the Blogger App

I'm testing Blogger's new app for Android phones today. The jury is still out on how good or bad it is. I'll let you know.

Book Review: Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick

I just completed Steven Furtick's book "Sun Stand Still," which released last summer. I purchased the Kindle version of the book for a small group study (FTC disclaimer).

This book revolves around the concept of "audacious" prayer, which Furtick (pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina) says is missing among the Christian lifestyle in America today. His primary example is based on the story of the Israelite battle against the Amorites that is recorded in Joshua 10.

During the course of the battle, as the sun was beginning to set, and the enemy was getting away, Joshua prayed to God to hold the sun and moon in their places in the sky. God heard the prayer and did not allow the sun to set until the enemy had been destroyed.

Those types of bold prayers seem to be missing from Christian prayers today. Instead, we ask God for things that don't really tax the abilities of the creator of the universe. Things like generic protection, blessings, and the like.

Furtick does a good job encouraging the reader to be faithful in their prayers, and to pray expecting God to do something. He even addresses those situations when God says "no" to our audacious prayers.

The book has been a good read for the men in my small group, and I think you will enjoy it as well. But, as Furtick notes at the end, don't just read it to soak the information, then do nothing with it. He wants to see the reader change the way they approach God in prayer.

For the most part, I would give this book an above average rating. It cuts to the heart in some areas, and is very challenging. Definately a suggested read.

The Elephant in the Room

I'm sorry that I missed out on this opportunity to hear some of our nation's best church leaders talk about differing aspects of what they believe.

Fortunately, James MacDonald is posting several clips on his blog. Check them out.

Spin

It isn't even 2012 yet, but the election season has kicked off with yesterday's announcement that President Obama is starting his re-election campaign. Now, while it's no surprise that the president is seeking re-election, the fact that he's kicking off the campaign allows for a perfect discussion on "spin."

"Spin" is a term that has become popular over the past couple of decades. It is a term that is used to describe a person or group's take on a particular topic. Typically, people who "spin" a topic will take a few of the facts, leave out some of the other facts, and promote their agenda or view of the topic as it favors them.

Spin has become very popular among politicians. Any given day, the network news channels will feature politicians and pundits who paint a picture that serves only their agenda and no one else.

There is nothing wrong with giving a personal perspective on a topic. But, what has made spin so bad is that it ignores reality. By only taking self-serving facts and ignoring other truths that are involved, spin creates a lie and tries to pass it off as truth.

Reason and logic go out the window in the spin zone.

What are some ways that we can end the spin and bring back truth?

Monday Ten

1. KWFC kicks off our annual spring fundraiser today. Raising $49,000 for much needed improvements.

2. April is here. The month of my birth. Excited.

3. I'm finishing up Steven Furtick's book "Sun Stand Still." Expect a review later this week.

4. For those wanting an update, I'm still brainstorming the concept of writing a book this year. The pieces are swirling in my gray matter. Soon, they'll start to organize into coherent thoughts.

5. If I write a book, I'll give the first review of it. I promise to be brutal.

6. One of the cool things about being a reviewer is being able to give constructive criticism.

7. My day job has allowed me to constructively help several singing groups as they strive to get better at what they do.

8. That has translated into better music hitting the radio, which translates into better listenership.

9. Better music makes everybody happy...except for people who don't like music.

10. Tomorrow is election day in our community. We have initiative petition ballot items to restrict smoking in public and alcohol sales in theaters. Believe it or not, I'm against both measures. Both infringe on the rights of citizens and businesses. And, the smoking issue is next to impossible to enforce. It doesn't mean I support smoking or alcohol. It means that I don't support more government intrusion.

Monday Ten

1. Spring Break is over. Now it's back to the office.

2. It seems like most times I am away from work, disaster strikes.

3. This time, a major component at our transmitter site broke and melted away. Fortunately, it was relatively easy to fix.

4. Fortunately, too, one of our other Christian stations in town had the part we needed, so we weren't off the air too long.

5. The moral of this story, for me anyhow, is to leave my cell phone turned off when on vacation.

6. Turning to other things, I had plans to go golfing this past week, but the weather turned sour.

7. That allowed for a lot of basketball watching.

8. I filled out one NCAA bracket this year. Only two of the teams I chose made it to the regional finals (Elite 8). None made it to the Final Four.

9. Strange year for my bracket. Usually I'm much better at picking winners.

10. Of course, who would've thunk that Butler and Virginia Commonwealth would meet in the Final Four. I suspect no one's bracket is still intact.

I'm a Fan Award Nominee

I learned yesterday that I am a nominee for medium market DJ in the Singing News Fan Awards magazine competition.

This verifies it.

So, if you subscribe to the Singing News, vote for Kyle Dowden for medium market DJ.

Beware the Misguided Dagger

A few years ago, my wife and I visited the church her brother attended at the time. It was my first time to this church, and will probably be my only time there.

Things were rolling along smoothly in the service until the pastor, in his message, took time to directly bash another local church in the same denomination, calling them by name to his congregation. Something in my gut tightened up, and I might've even thrown up in my mouth a little.

The negative words he spoke toward that other church did not match that other church's history or current activities. Ultimately, I was able to read through the sermon spatter, and recognized this man was a) upset that some in his congregation had probably went to that other church, and b) jealous of this other church's success.

Fortunately for me, those words birthed a distaste in my soul for churches (and their members) verbally attacking one another.

Fast forward to the present day. The church I attend is now one of those that are being verbally attacked by other Christians. The reason: we don't do church the way they have always done church...and its working in our community.

This past week, a friend of mine overheard another pastor giving a devotional that called our church out by name, and blasted some of the sermons we had preached.

There are two problems with Christians bashing the things other Christians and/or churches are doing.

• When you attack another Christian or church without just cause (just cause being that they no longer preach/teach the Bible and do not adhere to the Nicene Creed.), you only serve Satan's purpose of dividing the Church and bringing mockery and scorn to Jesus' name.
• If God is really behind the things you openly oppose, then you are fighting God.

That last point is very important. in Acts 5:29-41, Peter and John are hauled before the religious leaders of their day, because they were teaching about Jesus. After being ordered to stop preaching in Jesus' name, Peter and John refused to deny the call of God on their lives.

This infuriated the religious leaders so much that they wanted to kill Peter and John. But, a Pharisee named Gamaliel calmed the crowd and pointed out one very important truth. If God is not behind what the apostles were doing, they would eventually fade away like all the false prophets and false teachers eventually do.

Gamaliel pointed out, however, that if God was behind these men, there was nothing the opposition could do to stop this new movement. His words of caution were that not only could you not stop this movement, but you could also find yourself fighting against God.

The point here is this, if you see a church and the Christians there doing things that make you upset or uncomfortable, examine thouroughly what is going on there. Be very cautious about portraying them negatively.

My experience from the two churches I have witnessed being attacked by others is that God is doing incredible things and changing lives through the different methods these churches are using. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a work of God.

Monday Ten - Spring Break

It's spring break at my home, so I've listed ten things about spring break.

1. Up until a couple of years ago, I had worked every spring break since graduating from high school.

2. I now try to take spring break off, so I can spend more time with my family. (That's what I'm doing this week.)

3. Spring break is only truly great if you have the financial wherewith all to actually go on a great road trip.

4. Walmart is not a great road trip.

5. If a road trip is not feasible, then a round of golf is a great substitute...provided the weather is good.

6. Spring break might be better spent at a casino, because the weather is a crap shoot in the Midwest.

7. I suppose an advantage to spring break in the Midwest is that you can get a lot of honey-do projects and spring cleaning finished...because there isn't a warm, sunny beach to distract you.

8. I like warm, sunny beaches. But, in the Midwest, the closest beach is the sandbox in your back yard...after you've cleaned the cat droppings out of it.

9. I'm sure pets don't like spring break, because the kids are home. Hence, they go and hide in the sandbox.

10. Since it's spring break, and the weather isn't completely perfect yet, we'll pretend like it is and treat this week as if it were the middle of May. BBQ anyone?

Saturday Church

My pastor blogged today about Saturday night services that we began at North Point nearly two years ago.

My wife and I attended the Saturday services until this past January when a change in volunteer positions forced a move back to Sunday.

Honestly, we absolutely loved Saturday night church. The biggest advantage we found was that we didn't really have big plans on Saturday night anyway, and this gave us something great to do and be a part of. Of course, it also meant not having to get up Sunday mornings and hurry around to get ready for church.

Saturday night church has a much different atmosphere than Sunday church.

And, for us at NPC, Saturday night carried several surprises. We didn't know which, if any, of the services would be popular. We didn't know if Saturday night church would even work. After all, other churches in town had tried it and abandoned it.

Saturday night church turned out to be very successful, especially the 5 p.m. service, which has as many people attending it as our heavily attended 11 a.m. Sunday service.

Now, to be honest, when we moved back to Sunday services, we realized some negatives about Saturday night church. Since we volunteer, and have kids, we found ourselves rushing around to make it in time for pre-service meetings, and get our kids in their classes. Also, since most people we know go to church on Sundays, doing anything with them takes more planning and coordination.

All in all, Saturday night church is a great thing, and a very enjoyable experience for a church that can pull it off.

Monday Ten

Today's list of ten are random things that are going on in the neighborhood.

1. Living in the Ozarks will always keep you hopping. Saturday was sunny and 68. Today, it's snowing and 36. Next Thursday it will be 74. Stupid groundhog!

2. My family experienced a little sadness and a lot of joy last week when my wife's grandfather passed away. Fortunately, he was a Christian and today is in Heaven with Jesus.

3. The church we attend baptized 248 people at our two campuses this past weekend. Watching people go public with their faith in Jesus is an awesome sight.

4. Next week is Spring Break. A golf course is calling my name.

5. I don't know about you, but I couldn't take my eyes off the amazing video coming out of Japan last Friday. Such a terrible tragedy. I only hope the people of Japan will turn to Jesus during this time.

6. I was filling in for our morning show host Friday. The reporter in me got a chance to come back to life, as I kept listeners updated on the tsunami as it hit Hawaii and the west coast.

7. My friends at the Convoy of Hope are doing what they can to help Japan. You can help too by donating through them.

8. The radio station I work for is experiencing some of the busiest times ever in my history here. I'm having to delagate some stuff just to get my daily chores completed.

9. This past week, the man who dreamt the dream that became KWFC passed away. He was only 22 when he approached Baptist Bible College about starting a Christian radio station in the Ozarks.

10: Lesson from #9: Young people can change the world.

Disaster in Japan

Today's earthquake and tsunami has ravaged Japan, especially the northern part of that island country.

To help in recovery efforts, text TSUNAMI to 50555 to donate $10 to Convoy of Hope's Disaster Response efforts. Message and Data Rates May Apply.

New Version of the New American Bible

Today, the New American Bible releases its newest revision of the scriptures. This Bible contains heavy Catholic influences, but was also influenced by a wide range of Christian theologians.

This version of the Bible is primarily for Catholic audiences, and the notes contained throughout will reflect this.

What do you think? Do we need to constantly revise our Bible versions? And, what do you think of some of the changes the NAB has made? Review this link and let me know.

NRB Comments: Chuck Swindoll

I spent most of last week at the National Religious Broadcasters annual meeting. The keynote address on the last night was delivered by Insight for Living's Chuck Swindoll. Here are some notes from his address.

I should tell people how I feel about them now rather than later. Later seldom comes.

Things I'm not even aware of are being noticed and remembered by others.

Little things mean so much to people.

Being real is a lot better than being religious.

Authenticity will keep you from a lot of problems.

When you fit, things flow. When they don't, they have to be forced. When God is in it, there is a flow. When it has to be forced, it tends to be a mistake.

It doesn't pay to talk anybody into or out of a big decision. Pushing & pulling has big consequences.

Days of maintainence are a lot more in number than days of magnificence.

Most of ministry is just plain hard work.

Some people aren't going to change, no matter what.

I seldom feel sorry for things I did not say.

4 gates to run what we say through:
1. Is it confidential?
2. Is it true?
3. Is it necessary?
4. Is it kind?

Perception overshadows reality.

Time spent with my family is always worth it.

Grace is worth the risk.

Stop saying "never" and "always."

Thinking theologically pays off big time.

Some things are worth the sweat.

You can't beat having fun.

NRB 2011

I just returned from my first ever trip to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, and I must say that it was time well spent. Not only did I learn some great stuff, but I also connected with some wonderful people.

I'll have more details and pictures later. For now, I'm resting and recovering from the long trip.

Blogs to Read

Once in a while I will re-direct you to some blog posts worth reading. Today is no different.

My pastor, Tommy Sparger, writes "The 15 Commandments for a Great Church."

John Maxwell writes a good post on understanding people.

And, this soon-to-be-adoptive mom is giving away an iPad and iPod Touch on her blog.

Monday Ten

1. This has been a very exciting and busy past week.

2. This week will be equally exciting and busy.

3. I'll clue you in later in the week about this one's activities, but last week was Radicalis at Saddleback Church.

4. For the second year in a row, Rick Warren and his fellow leaders have placed the sold out conference on the Internet. Four straight days of the morning sessions.

5. This year's speakers included Rick; his wife, Kay; Steven Furtick; Matt Carter; Pete Wilson; Dave Gibbons and others. Furtick and Warren really rocked my world when they talked about Radical Faith.

6. I'm praying God would develop with in me a "radical faith."

7. I'm trying to dream up ways to interact my blog with social media. Have any suggestions?

8. Saddened to hear that Kansas City Chiefs announcer Bill Grigsby passed away over the weekend. His voice will be missed.

9. My alma mater did me proud Saturday when Missouri State beat Wichita State to win the Missouri Valley Conference regular season crown.

10. On that note, let the March Madness begin.

Radicalis 2011

Saddleback Church's annual Radicalis conference is going on this week. For four days, you can watch some great speakers talk about church, leadership and living the life God intends for you.

Visit the Radicalis website, and use the promo code RADRICK11 to get the video stream free.

Monday Ten

1. It's winter in the Ozarks, which means we can go from two weeks of snow to 70 degrees at the drop of a hat. Then, back to freezing weather a week later.

2. My family and I took advantage of last week's warm weather. We played a lot of basketball on my wife's new goal.

3. Yes, it's her goal. It was a Christmas gift. Although, one of my boys thinks it is his, since he likes basketball.

4. I have a new job. No, I'm not changing jobs. Instead, I have added a second. I'm now a freelance writer.

5. I have always enjoyed writing. Now, I can get paid to do it.

6. I'm hoping that freelance writing will get me into the habit of good writing, which will hopefully lead to some major coin down the road.

7. I think most people have a skill they can profit from on the side.

8. Tonight, I am watching a Hillsong DVD through my new sound system. It's going to be great.

9. Speaking of that sound system, I had a great chance to test it out Sunday with the Daytona 500.

10. I love NASCAR.

A Great Lesson My Church Taught Me

I will admit that sometimes I can have a very cynical attitude. I used to not be that way, but time has a way of changing optimism into cynicism. It can be a battle to constantly keep that glass half-full.

I used to be that way in my opinion about churches, and the sometimes strange things they can do. The unconventional ones could be the worst, or so I thought.

Today, I attend one of those unconventional churches. And, that has completely changed my perspective. We do some pretty off the wall things in our music and messages. They may be irreverent and funny. They might be ultra-serious. And, they all tend to draw some criticism, especially from the religious crowd outside the church.

But, this church has taught me a very important lesson. Criticism should be saved until the results become known.

Recently, we did a preaching series with a gag toy as the main element. You might expect that it drew a lot of angry phone calls and letters. But, at the end of the day, hundreds of people gave their lives to Jesus as a result of the irreverent sermons, because they dealt with the stuff that we face on a daily basis.

Just a thought for the next time you're tempted to jump on a church for one of it's unconventional methods.

Tithing - A Challenge Worth Investing Toward

This past weekend at North Point Church, Pastor Tommy kicked off a new tithing campaign. But, unlike the tithing campaigns you've likely seen in your church, this one is short term (three months) and comes with a money-back guarantee.

Click here to read more about the three-month challenge, and let me know what you think.

Monday Ten

Today is Valentines Day (aka: Singles Awareness Day). Here are ten things you should remember about this day.

1. Cash - You'll need it for dinner, flowers, chocolates, diamonds, etc.

2. Plastic - You probably need to replace #1 with this, because no one should be carrying around that much cash.

3. Reservations - If you're going out to eat tonight, you'd better have some.

4. Reservations - Unless you are proposing to your valentine tonight, ask the waiter to seat you away from anyone who is proposing. No one wants a crying woman or jilted dude sitting next to them.

5. Reservations - I would have reservations about you if your idea of a Valentines Day treat is dinner at McDonalds.

6. Card - If you're waiting until today to get a card for your Valentine, you are hosed. Your choices today are either a Scooby Doo card or a $10 fancy one that no one was stupid enough to buy.

7. Babysitter - I am taking the day off from work to spend with my wife. As such, we need a babysitter. You'll need one too if you have plans out on the town tonight.

8. Gift - Let's be honest. The whole notion that you have to buy your honey all this stuff for Valentines Day is a scam. The flowers and candy will all be gone on a week. And, you'll be paying those credit card payments for years on the bling you just bought her.

9. Gift - For the record, my wife likes roses. So, that's what she is getting today. And, maybe something extra special.

10. Words - Be sure to tell your valentine that you love him/her...unless you don't, and are planning on splitting up on Thursday.

Happy Valentines Day, babe.

Valentines Day is Coming

I like to refer to it as Singles Awareness Day. Regardless, Valentines Day is Monday.

Yes, this holiday is a commercial ploy to get you to spend your money on crap that won't last a week (flowers and chocolates). But, you still need to play the game. Because, Tuesday is coming, and guys, you don't want your woman being the only one at work without a good Valentines Day story.

Life is a Vapor

Yesterday was a bad one for motorists in Springfield. With the snow falling, roads became slippery and dangerous.

One mother with two kids in her SUV lost her life when she lost control of her vehicle and slid off the road and rolled into a large road sign. In an instant, she was here, and the next she was facing eternity.

The tragedy brought back haunting memories of an incident a couple of summers ago that easily could've had the same impact on my family. My wife was involved in a roll over crash not too far from yesterday's wreck. She survived.

Yesterday reminded me of James 4:14. Life is very short, and can end in an instant. All the more reason to live with purpose. Even more reason to live with Jesus as the driving force in your life.

The Snow That Will Never End

Those of you in the northern states and Canada are used to the white stuff on the ground from November until April, but here in the middle of the U.S., we aren't. So, a week after getting dumped on, we're getting it again.

As such, my day job will prevent me from blogging for a couple of days.

The Importance of Integrity and the Realization We Don't Have It

If you have ever had dealings with anyone of questionable character, you fully understand the importance that integrity plays in a person's life.

Recently, I learned that a person I have known for a long time has struggled with a very serious character failure for much of his adult life. He has led people to believe that he is something he is not. Now, if you knew the ways in which he has destroyed his integrity, you would no doubt be shocked.

But, here's reality -- there isn't a single person who has his or her integrity fully in check. Romans 3:23 points out this fact. It says that even if we have never committed adultery, been addicted to drugs, or murdered someone, there is still a flaw in our character that has allowed sin into our lives. We have all fallen short of God's standard.

I say all of this simply to point out that the next time someone you know has a major integrity failure, remember Romans 3:23, and do a self-examination of your own character. Then, whatever behavior you find that has you falling short of God's standard, seek His forgiveness and repent of that sin.

Do you have some ways to safe guard your integrity? I'd like to hear them.

Monday Ten

1. The Monday after the Superbowl should be a federal holiday so no one has to go to work. Seriously. Studies have shown that the Monday after the Superbowl is one of the least productive days of the year.

2. I watched the game with my wife and boys at the house. I had predicted on the air last Friday that the Packers would win 31-28. I wasn't far off. The Pack won 31-25.

3. Many people watch the Superbowl for the commercials, and there were some winners last night. Volkswagon had a couple of hits with the beetle ad, and our family's favorite, the Darth Vader kid.

4. Speaking of the commercials, it appears that the beer commercials have matured a bit. They weren't nearly as racy as they have been in the past. If there were Razzies for worst ads, Pepsi Max would have won all categories. Terrible, family un-friendly stuff.

5. A lot of people have been cracking on Christina Aguilera's botching the lyrics of the National Anthem. Two thoughts: a) You practice and memorize the lyrics to dozens of songs for a tour, but you can't get the lyrics right to a song you've sung since grade school? Seriously? b) Oversinging The Star-Spangled Banner does not make it any more pleasurable than forgetting the lyrics.

6. Halftime show with the Black Eyed Peas was about as terrible as the stuff my cat gacked up on my carpet Saturday night. Admittedly, I'm not that big of a Black Eyed Peas fan, but I don't have anything against them...except that they sounded terribly off key. But, I'll give the blame there to the sound crew that had weeks to prepare for this event only to show up and not do their job. It's the Superbowl halftime show. The number one rule is to make sure everyone's microphone is ON...unless they're lip synching, which the Peas were obviously not doing. Please, NFL, I beg you, hire me for half the money, and you'll get a good show. Better yet, Jerry Jones can hire me to coach the Cowboys and I'll do as good as they did last season.

7. The game was good, but the spread of food that my wife came up with was even better. Great chili, Pizza Hut's new pepperoni dipping sticks thing and a delicious crumb cake. The food rated better than the baby back ribs we used to get from Cheddars.

8. This past week's snow storm delayed delivery (by a day) of speakers for my new sound system. I'm using Pioneer's VSX-1020-k receiver and a pair of Sony SS-F7000 floor standing speakers. The Superbowl sounded awesome. I'll be reviewing these components in the near future.

9. Now that the Superbowl is over, I want to put my sound system to a real test. NASCAR is right around the corner. "Let's go racing, boys!"

10. Last, but not least in this special sports-themed 10, it is February, which means that Major League Baseball's Spring Training is around the corner.

Snowmageddon

When the snow strikes in blizzard-force, it impacts many parts of your life, and sometimes that involves a person's blog.

Yes, Snowmageddon '11 had me holed up in the house for the past couple of days trying to dig out. We'll resume blogging as normal next week.

Monday Ten

With the major winter storm set to slam us this week, here is a timely, ten things you can do while the skies dump a foot or two of snow on your neighborhood.

1. Gather the kids and let them watch the two inches of snow per hour come down. They'll be bored after thirty seconds and want to watch TV.

2. With that much snow, it's better to work ahead and spend the day shovelling snow. Since the kiddos will be out of school, make it a P.E. day, and put them to work.

3. It has been a while since we received a foot of snow. Take time to make something interesting. Just keep it clean. A few years ago, some students at a university where I live got a little vulger with their snow sculpture.

4. A foot of snow brings new meaning to snow angels. Each angel will be a two-person effort. One to fall in, and the other to hoist them out.

5. With that much snow, two good snow forts should be easy to pull off, not to mention the massive snowball fight.

6. When having a snowball fight, you want to keep it clean. Any dirty play can lead to a host of retalitory efforts by your opponents. Slush balls and yellow snowballs among the worst.

7. When shovelling that snow, the object is to get it all cleared off before your neighbors. There's nothing that says neighborhood dominance like being the first with a cleaned and dried driveway after a snow storm.

8. To that end, right now I'm wishing I had installed a driveway heating system.

9. Once you get your driveway cleared of the snow, use all that excess to construct a life-sized snow car. Your neighbors will envy your new wheels...until the sun comes out.

10. If you're having trouble with a neighbor, take a cue from "Grumpy Old Men" and spray his roof with hot water. It'll turn to snow. I would include some movie clips of that and the ice war, but this is a family friendly blog.

Blogs to Check Out

• If you ever schedule guest speakers at your church or business, check out this post and this one from pastor Herbert Cooper.
• Here's a good, funny post from Perry Noble about how much God loves us.
• Steven Furtick, author of Sun Stand Still, which is a great book, writes about a need for controversy.

Audacious Faith

My small group is currently going through Steven Furtick's book, "Sun Stand Still." One of the themes in this book surrounds developing and audacious faith.

Essentially, an audacious faith is all about trusting that God will take your ordinary and make it extraordinary. It isn't a cocky or arrogant belief, it's an expectancy that God will come through on His promises.

Many times, we want our faith to be based on perfect circumstances with as little risk as possible. But, God's extraordinary works through ordinary people often involve a lot of risk. For the ordinary person to follow God's commands requires faith while not knowing whether God will come through.

It's taking a chance. A major risk. And, if it's in line with God's heart, we can expect him to turn our ordinary into something really special.