Our church has just completed, as a part of its 13th birthday celebrations, a weekend of prayer. The idea is that for a 36 hour period from 9 pm Friday to 9 am Sunday we have the church open and we ask people to sign up for an hour or more to come to the church and pray.
I was really blessed when it turned out that we were able to cover every hour of that period in prayer. With a few people away, I knew that it might be a challenge, but we got there.
I was really blown away when I discovered that nearly two thirds of the prayer coverage was by men. I often hear pastors say that it's hard to get men's ministry going in a church. Well my answer to that is get the men to do the ministry. Give them a challenge, an important- even heroic - role and they will rise to it. Get them to commit to coming to church at 3 am just to pray alone and you will have a men's ministry happening right there!
Part of the challenge of this weekend was to bind the spirit of lawlessness that is being manifest in our community in dozens of ways at the moment. I believe that we did that by taking on a challenging discipline and being victorious in it.
We've often said, as have dozens of visitors, that there is an anointing of peace on our building. I experienced that powerfully this morning as I was praying. At one stage as I was praying with Troy, we suddenly both became silent and sat down and we felt this wonderful blanket of peace descend. The presence of God deeply restored our spirits as we sat there and received from Him.
It's been a great weekend. There have been many prophecies, drawings and a song written over this time.
The personal restraints that God places
By G D Watson
If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.
Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.
Settle it forever, then that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life., then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.
Jared Wilson talks about the divisions being promoted by one group in the church.
I guess some half-wit will call me homophobic again.
Division Begins with the Heterodox
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has voted to allow congregations' appointing of homosexual clergy in non-chaste same-sex relationships.
I am not wringing my hands.
This is not a rant about homosexual behavior (which I believe is a sin, in case anyone's wondering). It is about what happens in evangelical discourse when these sorts of things are discussed.
When concerned folks raise voices of protest and warning, when they say adamantly "This isn't right," they are accused of singling out the sin of homosexuality for special treatment, laser-focusing in on the homosexual as a sinner above all sinners, worse than the rest of us.
But I actually think it's sort of the other way around. It is the proponents of gay clergy who single out homosexuality. It is they who are pressing us to respond to this issue. Nobody is pushing for resolutions on the allowance of adulterous clergy, of gossipy clergy, of alcoholic clergy, of p()rn-addicted clergy, or what-have-you.
It is not those who protest who are singling out this sin. It is the proponents of the sin as normative -- or at least, passable -- who are singling it out.
This reminds me of where we got our creeds -- the original stands for normative truth -- in the first place. They were subsequent to heresy. It took heretics to promote their particular heterodoxy for the Church to say, "Supposing we summed up orthodox doctrine as a standard of sorts?"
And so it wasn't the crafters of the creeds who were being divisive. It was the heterodox. Just as it wasn't God who was being divisive when he said, "Don't eat from this tree," but it was the serpent who introduced the option of disobedience.
And it isn't those who believe the Bible when it says homosexual behavior is a sin that are being divisive; it is those who are introducing the idea that it isn't. If you push a decision on something that innovates on the Bible's testimony, you're creating the division. But, sure, many of us will oblige in parting ways with you. If pressed -- as when votes like this go the way they did -- we will cooperate in division.
The man wants to borrow the pulpit provided by the church, but without paying the church its most basic due:
Richard Holloway says the worldwide Anglican Church has made room for “happy clapping” evangelicals, bells-and-smells Catholics, women priests and, in the United States, openly gay clergy and even practitioners of other faiths. So surely, he argues, it can find room for people like him - Christians who don’t believe in God.
Holloway, contrary to popular belief, has not left the Episcopal Church, as Scottish Anglicanism is known. He may have taken early retirement as Bishop of Edinburgh but the writer remains an ordained priest and consecrated bishop, who still preaches from the pulpit, performs baptisms and weddings and even presides at communion.
The SMH reports today that Brian Houston will be expanding the Hillsong empire into Brisbane, and thence to other cities. Apparently an existing Australian Christian Churches (AOG) church will be rebranded as "Hillsong Brisbane" and Brian and wife Bobbie will be installed as Senior Pastors. A previous pastor was thrown out because the church wanted a CEO style of pastor rather than a pastoral pastor, and more to the point the church was not growing and the previous pastor had had a nervous breakdown.
There is so much that is wrong with this story, if the facts even vaguely line up with the reality.
Let me say that I have a great regard for Brian Houston and what he has achieved with Hillsong. The Hillsong church has done a lot to inspire churches and pastors to get out of the old paradigms and comfort zones- establishing new ones which need to be challenged again.
So there's a large church in Brisbane which is struggling because it's failing to grow numerically. In fine Pentecostal tradition they blame the pastor- as John Maxwell says "everything rises and falls with the leader." They chuck him out with little regard for their responsibility to him- not as an employer but as a christian body.
They lust for the "success" that the Houston name seems to bring so they install Brian and Bobbie as Senior Pastor.
Here are my issues:
1. Brisbane is not Sydney- so why do they think that the Hillsong model should be right for Brisbane?
2. What is meant by a CEO pastor? This is an oxymoron, a contradiction. The roles of CEO and pastor are very different. The imagining of the Body of Christ as a corporate business operation is a total distortion of everything that Jesus died for.
3. Is growth an end in itself? The mega-church phenomenon has always been about attracting a crowd through great entertainment and spectacular "inspiring" preaching. There is far less concern about disciple making and no concern about whether the growth is from genuine conversion or from merely sucking in christians from other churches.
4. It is simply not possible for someone in Sydney to pastor a church in Brisbane. You cannot pastor a community that you are not a part of.
5. The worship of the man, the cult of the leader, has been the biggest weakness in pentecostal churches. The strength has been the freedom of pastors to lead and preach with the authority of their gifting. But this has been twisted over the last couple of decades to become a cult of personality around the charismatic leaders. This is not unique to pentecostal churches- I read a report a few years ago about declining Uniting Church congregations in one region of Sydney where there was a common hope that if they could get the "right minister" everything would be O.K.
We need to understand that the ministry of the church is the responsibility of the whole body, and not just the Senior Pastor or other "staff" members. Getting The Man is not what we should be about.
Pastors are not super-stars- except in their own fantasies. Ephesians 5 clearly paints the 5-fold ministry gifts as being about encouraging the whole body to grow to maturity. If we see the ministry as about one man brining salvation and significance to the congregation (I'm not talking about Jesus!) then we are worshipping the wrong Messiah.
6. Preaching and teaching come from the shared life of a community of faith. Preaching, even in a large crowd, is an interaction, a shared event. What will happen in this arrangement is that eventually (if not immediately) when Brian is in Sydney, the message will be beamed in by internet or satellite so that the satellite congregation can get the best teaching/ performance every week. This already happens in the U.S. as the mega-churches franchise out their operations to other cities or other campuses in the same city.
Think about this: would you rather get a relevant word shaped by our context together or a well presented but generic message from somewhere else? An extreme example of this is that while much of Australia is undergoing an economic recession, Narrabri is undergoing good economic times because we had quite good rural production last year. Does Brian preach a word for the good times or a word for the tough times when we get his message beamed in?
7. This is the last extension of modernity in the church. Modernity, in the cultural use of the term, relates to the way our technological culture with its emphasis on efficiency, achievement and "success" has changed the way that we think of ourselves. Post-modernism is a reaction to that with an emphasis on relationship and expression rather than production. The baby boomers were the ultimate products of modernism where even the church became just another corporation selling a branded product. The post-baby boom generations are seeking authentic relationships and community (not corporate) values. The growth of cell church and house church movements, the resurgence of incarnational and missional movements (the church has to take Jesus to the heart of our cities and towns and not just expect people to turn up at an event), the growth of christian arts communities- all of these things are pointing to a new way of doing things.
The Willow Creek movement has discovered huge failings in the way they did church. Their problem was that church services were focussed on "seekers" (i.e. people) and not on the transcendent God. Hillsong and many pentecostal churches do something similar in that everything focusses on a sharp, efficient presentation with no room in the programme for the Holy Spirit.
8. I really believe that Brian Houston's ministry gift is apostle not pastor. He has tremendous influence way past the local congregation. But he is straying from the New Testament model by installing himself as a pastor in these various offshoot churches. He should abandon the title of pastor altogether and take on board his real calling. This would require him to cut his formal ties with the various Hillsong churches. They could still pay him a salary or a tithe or whatever, but not as a pastor. He could travel from church to church and speak to them as a visiting apostle and with greater authority. I believe that the local church must be led by a local pastor who is in a father-son relationship with an apostle. But the apostle must allow the pastor to lead his own flock and not seek to control the pastor or the congregation.
I find myself very disturbed, though strangely unsurprised by this development. I think that there will be severe problems in the long term, and it may sound the death knell of the Australian Christian Churches as a denomination- in the same way that ordaining homosexual ministers was the death knell of the Uniting Church.
In the place of these institutional juggernauts we will see, over the next 50 years or so the rise of genuine relational apostolic networks and the complete reformation of the church.
At a small group meeting this weekend, we watched a video on bettering one’s marriage. One of the comments the speaker made concerned finding one’s purpose in God, and that this purpose comes from no one else.
And this bothers me. Not because it’s not true, but because one of the most common discussions I have with other Christian men concerns their nearly universal sense of purposelessness. In fact, I would say that at least 70 percent of the Christian men I know have this nagging feeling that they’re not doing what they are supposed to be doing. And this usually means in their careers, in their walk with the Lord, or in both.
I brought this issue up in the discussion that followed the video, and the general response was that men who felt that way were not close enough to God or else they wouldn’t feel that way. God doesn’t leave people twisting in the wind, they say. Sadly, I think that’s the common perception. But I think there’s a deeper issue here.
Many of the Christian men who struggle with their sense of purpose do so not because they haven’t already caught a vision from God, but because they have. The problem there is they have no sense of how to make that vision a reality, especially when confronted with a common set of dilemmas. Ask a Christian man who struggles with purpose what he suspects the problem might be, and I believe he’ll give you one of these five answers:
1. His wife doesn’t support his vision
“Hon, I think we ought to sell our 5,000 square foot home, move out of the gated community, and buy a tiny brownstone apartment in a poor neighborhood downtown so we can minister to the underprivileged.” In a lot of households, such a proclamation would exemplify the phrase went over like a lead balloon. In a few, it might also spell divorce.
I think a lot of men who catch a real vision from God see it die on the vine right here. If the wife doesn’t agree, that’s the end of it. Better to keep her happy and stay in the megachurch with all the best people rather than risk her cutting you off—and some of you know what I mean.
While this may not be true for all men, it’s true for enough. It may even be true for you, but you’ve been afraid to tell anyone. It’s a sensitive issue, isn’t it? Lots of possible damage if handled poorly.
But then, consider Job and his wife. What would have happened if he had listened to her rather than sticking with what he knew was the right thing to do? (For all their talk of men being prophets, priests, and kings, Evangelicals seem to go mute when Mrs. Prophet/Priest/King objects to her hubby’s vision for the household.)
Still, most men aren’t as righteous as old Job or as steeped in their convictions. So the vision goes on hold. And with it comes that nagging sense of purpose gone missing, a relentless ticking clock, and more frustration than some men can bear.
2. Following the vision may mean a non-traditional upbringing for his children—one that may be generally disapproved of
You have to have your kids in private piano lessons, select sports teams, Chinese language tutoring, and on and on so the little darlings can make it into an Ivy League school right? Isn’t that what Focus on the Family teaches?
What to do then when God gives you a vision that may take you and your wife to the jungles of Africa while your kids stay behind in boarding school?
Ooh, boarding school. How 19th century.
People chosen by God to do a special work used to do that, though. And their kids grew up to be normal and happy in about the same proportions as kids today whose parents would kill to get them into Harvard, ministry be damned.
I read a story of a family that packed up their eight kids into a car and traveled around the country singing in churches or wherever people would have them. No RV, not even a sense of where they would sleep for the night or where the money would come from, they counted on God to provide food, clothing, and shelter.
That would get you tarred and feathered in some churches. You’d be called every lousy parent name in the book, and then some names people would coin just to spite you in particular. Some withered prunes might even call the government down on your head and accuse you of child abuse. Bad, dad!
Somewhere, someone’s sharpening the knives for a man who discusses that kind of greater vision. And rather than risk being publicly eviscerated, that man backs down, and his sense of purpose goes kaput for the sake of the “perfect” Evangelical nuclear family, no matter what Luke 18:29-30 says.
3. His church, the one he’s been a part of since forever, disapproves
A man sits in front of church leaders and pitches his vision…
MAN: “I’d like to start a church ministry to the local gay community.”
LEADER #1: (Nervously) “Doing what?”
MAN: “Evangelism and outreach. We could begin by inviting some from that community to our church functions, like the next father/son baseball game.”
LEADER #2: (Also nervously) “But that’s next month. And it will expose our kids to a sinful lifestyle.” MAN: “Gay men have sons, don’t they?”
LEADER #3: (About to wet himself) “Yeah, sometimes, I guess. Still, I’m not sure our people are ready for that kind of…uh…”
LEADER #2: (Claiming to be wise) “At this point, I think we need to table this measure for our next leadership meeting and discuss it privately.”
MAN: “Does that mean I should come back then?”
LEADER #3: “No, the leadership team will talk it over privately and we’ll let you know.”
A couple years later, that man is still waiting.
It happens, folks. It may have happened to you. I know it’s happened to me.
4. He’s hit with “If you’re providing for your family, spending time with the wife and kids, attending church weekly, and involving yourself in a church-sponsored ministry activity once in a while, why would you possibly feel a lack of purpose? That’s the dream Christian life right there.”
Well, it’s the dream Christian life according to some folks. Not all would agree. In fact, in a lot of ways, it doesn’t vary much from the “self-serving” life of the average pagan, except that instead of church, Mr. Average Pagan is in the Kiwanis Club (which in some cases may be as involved in helping others as the local church).
Some men dream bigger. They’re thinking outside the church box. And like the proverbial square peg, others are trying to jam them into a cultural Christian round hole.
Isn’t it odd that Evangelicals laud men like Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliot, and Eric Liddell, then turn around and repeat the words above to other men? What would have happened to those heroes of the faith had they heeded the words above and exchanged their vision for one of average suburban Christianity?
5. He pursued a vision once before—and failed
Does a genuine vision from God ever fail?
That’s a question some are not willing to deal with honestly. Do God-honoring churches fail? Do Christian companies go out of business? Do Christian marriages end up in divorce? Does the long-prayed-for child born to the long-childless couple get sick and die? Does the pastor who loves Christ with his whole being ever get lynched by the very congregation everyone agreed he was called to serve?
Nothing crushes an earnest Christian man more than to step out in faith and get steamrolled by a sin-filled world. And too often, in the aftermath of that failure, people won’t let him forget that the thing he longed to do for God more than anything somehow didn’t turn out. In many cases, the pain is amplified because others spiritualize the reasons for that failure and use the sanctified explanation against him, which only makes his reluctance to follow a new vision even more paralyzing.
I’ve known a lot of good, God-fearing men who have been stymied by one or more of the five items listed above. These are not stupid, lazy, cowardly, weak-faithed men. They’re just finding that the very people or situations that are supposed to be most helpful to them are actually not. Those men may very well have a genuine vision that will lead to the ultimate purpose of God in their lives, yet they fear they may never get there, finding themselves stuck in a gray place with no easy answers.
If that’s you, please drop me a line. I want to pray for you. I can’t promise a solution to your situation, but I can pray. God may indeed step in and clear that pathway so you can finally walk in your God-given vision.
My word to you is Don’t give up. I know the pressure on you is enormous. You have so many people to satisfy, well-meaning Christian people who may not understand your vision. Please, don’t give up.
God can make a way where there is no way. It may mean laying down more than you are willing to sacrifice at this time, but God can mold you and take you to that place of ultimate sacrifice.
God is good. And He’s given you a vision. Trust Him for the fulfillment.
This feed is from Cerulean Sanctum (http://ceruleansanctum.com), a blog by Dan Edelen that covers issues facing the American Church.
Purpose—And Why Christian Men Don’t Always Live Theirs
J. Lee Grady writes powerfully again about accountability in ministry
No More Monkey Business in the Ministry J. Lee Grady Newsletters - Fire In My Bones In this day of compromise, we must restate the obvious: God requires leaders to play by the rules. Almost two years ago a dynamic preacher from a growing church in the Southeast was caught in adultery. His distraught wife talked with the "other woman," an exotic dancer from another country, and shared Christ with her. Meanwhile a small group of pastors "covered" the situation and hurriedly sent the embarrassed pastor to a few weeks of counseling. In the end, the pastor and his wife divorced and members of the congregation who didn't have all the facts blamed her for the breakup. Today this pastor is still in the pulpit—although his preaching has a hollow tone. Some members of the church left when they learned of the pastor's unfaithfulness. Yet many others stayed because they felt they shouldn't judge the pastor for his sin." As painful as it is to remove a gifted leader from his or her position, it must be done to preserve the fear of the Lord.
"I also find that one of the things we don’t preach well is that ministry that looks fruitless is constantly happening in the Scriptures.
We don’t do conferences on that.
There aren’t too many books written about how you can toil away all your life and be unbelievably faithful to God and see little fruit this side of heaven." -- Matt Chandler
He brings up the examples of:
1. Jeremiah
2. Moses not going into the promised land
3. John the Baptist not seeing the fulfillment of Jesus' work
Will you be faithful to your call, even when it seems fruitless?
Are you committed to Jesus and His glory in your ministry, and not towards numbers?
God is in charge of the results as long as we are simply obedient.
I recall my good friend and mentor as a college student, Jim Luebe, saying, "I just want to be a faithful laborer over time."
Today I had one of those mildly nervous moments- the first Scripture lesson of the year. Even though I've been teaching Scripture at Bellata for about 17 years now, the first one of the year still makes me a little nervous.
This year I decided to make use of the Smart Board in the class room. So, I left a few minutes early and of course got stuck behind a slow truck for most of the way and wasn't as early as I intended. Having asked permission from the teachers, I opened the magic cupboard and tried to locate the computer. I turned it on but nothing came up on the screen.
"What do I do now?" I thought. It wasn't a big drama if I couldn't get it going because all I had on it was a song in mp3 format and a presentation with the words on it, and I had taken the CD and printed words in case the technology failed. I thought it wise to just put a toe into the water to start off with and see how we can grow in using it during the year.
Anyway, I asked the teacher whom I knew just hasn't got into using it at all. But fortunately there was a student teacher there who was able to show me how to turn the projector on and get something up.
From there on it was plain sailing. We started the song and touched the screen to move forwards. The technology looks quite good and now I know that instead of taking masses of pictures and A3 sheets with words on I just have to make up the presentations and put them on to a USB stick.
The highlight, of course, was Susannah and James becoming engaged on Saturday- much excitement and rejoicing. Now we have to plan the engagement party (which will be a combined event with James's 21st), and try to find a date for a wedding which minimises disappointment and anger from the varied self-interested parties that gather around such family events... joy oh joy!
Saturday afternoon we welcomed our volunteers from Mobile Mission Maintenance who are camped in our car park for the next few weeks. They are here to complete (we hope) the High School Community Centre. We helped get them organised and settled in and spent some hours having fellowship.
Sunday morning church we had quite a few people away, and it would have been a dismal turn out if we hadn't had our MMM visitors.
In the afternoon we took them down to the High School to see the job and to meet Paul the builder in charge.
I got back to discover that some kind of barbecue was being planned for dinner and more people on the lounge room floor.
Nigh church we had more visitors than regulars, almost. There was a couple dressed entirely in black and looking just a little kooky. They are the super-spiritual type who just travel around as God leads them and have a message that has just been revealed to them out of all the people on the planet. I try to suspend judgement on people until I've had a chance to get to know them. People who talk in mysteries and try to reveal as little as possible about who they are always make me suspicious. They handed me a big wad of paper which is the revelation- I'll probably get around to reading it, but I think I heard enough from what they said last night to know it could well be flaky... the wordier the revelation the less likely it is to be true in my experience.
Then there was the aging hippy who was all too ready to talk about his life. He hung around until well after midnight talking with Margaret. He was someone who seems to have had a genuinely hard time, has been badly treated by Christians but is back to getting his life on track.
After all the excitement I'm feeling a bit like a train wreck today. I'm looking forward to lunch time so I can have a nap!
One of the passions that drives my ministry is the power of small groups or cells to change lives.
There is a reason that Jesus drew around him 12 whom he called apostles and gave as one of their tasks "to be with Him."
I really want this year to be a year in which we once again have all of our members in cell groups and in which we see the cell groups growing by inviting friends and neighbours to join the community of faith.
We had our first Leaders' Cell for 2009 last night, and despite the fact that Grant was knocked out from working outside in the heat all day, it was a great time together. I feel like we are closer than ever and united in our vision of seeing cell groups grow. We might not know how that's going to happen, except by the grace of God, but we want to see it happen.
I am excited by the potential that this year holds and by what God is doing.
Today in church I shared about Cell Church and the importance that we place on people partipating in both Sunday Worship and in Cell Group. I've posted the slides from the presentation on both the New Life Facebook page and on our web page. Click here to view the presentation.
There is a huge immigration debate in America. Our borders are overrun with illegal migrant workers who are often depicted as: aliens, uneducated, dirty, fruit pickers, field hands. These prejudicial images and stereotypes aren’t pretty.
Against this backdrop, I had a detailed dream where I was standing in a sea of people before the throne of God. I saw well known ministers, invisible ministers, people who had falsely accused me, people who had justly accused me, and many people I didn’t know. Weird, but everyone had a black spot on their chest. The numbers were too vast to count. I was standing pretty close to a tele-evangelist known for $1,000 suits and for boasting of many healings. I had the distinct impression he was impatiently waiting for the Lord to hand him a microphone!
We were all wearing name badges and (like military insignias) badges of rank. The Lord spoke to this vast group yet we each heard him as if he were only speaking to us individually, “Lay down your ministry, your vision, your promises. I have new assignments for each of you.” We all assumed a promotion. Then all went dead silent while the Holy Spirit ministered to each of us. To me he spoke, “I want you to become a field hand, a migrant worker. Go pick fruit.”
A really strange thing happened last night that can only be put down to God.
Bear in mind that it was the evening of New Year's Day and that not only is it a public holiday here but it is in the middle of the National Siesta which runs from Christmas Day to about the first Monday of January- although some people maintain it runs to the end of January. Most businesses in Narrabri are actually closed this week except for essential services such as groceries and beer. I've always thought that a perfect day to invade Australia would be Boxing Day because the whole country is watching either the cricket or the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and even the Defence Forces are on holiday.
We've been thinking about buying a car for Philip for his birthday- he turns 25 in a few weeks and that make insurance cheaper and with him finishing his studies and (hopefully) finding permanent work soon, it seems a good time to get him his own wheels and return the 17 year old Daihatsu home to die.
Anyway, we've been thinking about this for a while. Last night Sheree told us that she really loves her car, a Kia, and Tim thinks it's pretty good also. Not only that, there is a used one at one of the dealers, and it looks in pretty good nick.
About 9 pm, Margaret and I wandered over there to have a bit of a look under the cover of darkness. After all you don't want to put up with pushy sellers when all you want to do is look!
As we pulled up I noticed that the gate was open. Then when we got out of the car we saw there was somebody walking around inside the yard and heading towards the gate. It turns out to be the owner of the dealership-- what's he doing there at 9 pm on a public holiday?
So we talked about cars and kids. We talked about what we do and the conversation just got deeper and deeper- he just wanted to talk about his life and how it had all gone sour over the last few years. He has a very deep knowledge of the Bible and until a few years ago went to the Seventh Day Adventist church. We encouraged him to keep going and to work on his relationship with God, because in the end that's all that matters. We told him about our church and invited him to come over for a cup of tea some time when he can get away from work.
An hour later we came away, no closer to a decision about a car but certain that we had just had a God moment.
Allan Roxborough and his colleagues at Allelon have produced some great resources on the theme of leading the church in the post-Christendom era.
One of their analogies is the use of maps to describe the shifting sociological forces at work. Just as you keep a map of the neighbourhood in your head that helps you navigate through your daily life, we all have "maps" of how our society/ community works and how the church fits into that. They argue that the old maps are no longer relevant because our society has changed so dramatically over the last 40 years. It's like using a 1960 street directory to navigate around Sydney- it might work in parts but mostly it's not going to get you to where you want to be.
In this article, Len Hjalmarson compares leaders to navigators rather than map-readers.
navigators, not map readers by Len Hjalmarson
Eddie Gibbs writes, “The Church needs navigators tuned to the voice of God, not map-readers. Navigational skills have to be learned on the high seas and in the midst of varying conditions produced by the wind, waves, currents, fog banks, darkness, storm clouds and perilous rocks.” (Leadership Next, 66).This is a significant insight. While we have generally located ourselves on maps based on a predictable rate of change to the surrounding landscape, we are now in a time where the pace of change outstrips our ability to locate ourselves. Moreover, the increasing fragmentation of western culture makes context king - adaptive responses must be local. (Perhaps this was already true twenty years ago and the universalising tendency of modernity simply made us blind to the fact.)
Navigation is a significantly different skill than map reading. The points on a map are fixed, and so when one wants to locate a point in the real world one simply locates oneself by known geography or artifacts, and then proceeds step by step methodically to the next point. If you have a compass, this is really, really easy.
But navigation requires no fixed planetary points and requires no compass. Instead, one learns to read the sky - the stars, really. Map reading is a skill that can be learned on a table top in any school room. Any ten year old can master it. And with a compass, any ten year old can go out and use that knowledge with a high degree of confidence. This skill is only useful, however, when the landscape is not changing.
Navigation, on the other hand, is a skill that does not ask for a predictable landscape. And it is learned in the wilderness or on the ocean. It requires courage and the ability to withstand harsh conditions. And it requires something that is never required of map readers: faith and a fundamental inner restfulness. When there are no physical points to locate ourselves, we rely on an imaginal map - an internal compass. That internal compass is tuned not to earthly points, but to a fixed purpose and an external reference point - the North star.
Map readers, and navigators, are actually two different kinds of people (See Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?) While it is possible to make map readers into navigators, it is not easy, and some will never make the transition. Map readers as leaders make good managers; navigators as leaders are explorers. Map readers love predictability; navigators enjoy complexity. Map readers are impatient with process; navigators enjoy the journey. Map-reading is a lonely vocation; navigators value company.
In my devotions this morning I read 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 where Paul gives a solid description of his motivations and behaviour in ministry. It struck me that this is a perfect standard that all ministers should be driven by-- by that I mean all christians because we are all called to be ministering in the world.
These are the standards Paul lays out for himself and for all of us:
courage to tell the Good News despite harsh treatment-- the message of God's Kingdom should burn in us so that nothing can stop us from speaking what we have heard.
expect mistreatment and insults-- if the world speaks highly of you there may be a problem!
no personal agenda or hidden motives-- my life should be about Jesus and not about me or what I can get
no fooling or trickery to manipulate people into doing what I want
never speak to please people- not even the major donor or the chairman of the church board. The true minister of God must speak God's word in all it's fullness whether that upsets individuals or not.
sincere motivation to please God only. Do you desire just to please your Father? Or is there something else that you are secretly trying to achieve?
never use flattery-- flattery is lying to make people feel better about you. It's important to speak highly of others, and to compliment those around you but it has to be done from sincere motives and be truthful
don't speak to please people. There are times when the Word of God demands that we confront vested interests, sinful actions and hypocrisy. You don't have to be obnoxious in this but we must never water down the truth. We must never call good what God calls bad.
Do not be greedy. The servant of God is worthy of a good wage, but that does not justify excessive salaries and high speaking fees.
Do not seek glory or the praise of men- we are here to glorify Jesus only
Do not demand help or support. Often people in full-time ministry come to expect certain things- ways in which people offer support for the ministry. These are good when freely given, but when we start to believe they are our right then we are heading for trouble,
Sent by Christ. Every minister should have a strong sense of being commissioned by Jesus. It should never be a job or even a hobby. Ministry is serious stuff and satan will quickly kill off anybody who is not convinced of the call on their life.
Gentle, like a mother.
Nurture and feed the flock like a mother nurtures a child. This does not mean spoon-feeding milk to people who should be mature. It does mean providing the resources to grow into maturity, recognising the need of the people at any time.
Caring- we need to invest our heart into the people we serve. This is not a job but a calling to model the love of Jesus in the church and in the world.
Willing to lay down our lives for the people we serve. Do we love the people of God more than our own lives?
Paul lays down a very high standard for himself and for all in ministry. As we look towards Jesus and lay our lives at His feet we will find He gives us the grace to meet this high standard.
I think I pass this test from the Gospel Driven Church Blog:
Pastors, ask yourselves these questions.
1. How often do I get out of my office and serve somewhere in the community?
2. How often do I read my Bible other than for sermon preparation?
3. How integral is Jesus to my sermon? (How often does he appear in it? One mention? Two? Is he an illustration? A quote? Is he the point of the message? Could the same sermon be preached to Muslims if you substituted "Allah" for "God"?)
4. If someone from my church is in the hospital or dying, is it likely that I will visit them? (If it's not likely, is it possible?)
5. What is the chief indicator of the spiritual health of my church?
It never rains but it pours. It's raining water but it's also pouring people.
Today's agenda looked like this: 9-12 Prepare for tomorrow's scripture lesson plus all the following meetings! 12 pm The Cottage Crisis Centre Board Meeting- at our church 1.30 pm Ministers' Fellowship- at our church 2.40 pm Minutes after last meeting ended our friend Adrian, a Romanian truck driver from Melbourne came with his wife 3.30 pm School pick up 3.45 pm Do minutes of previous meeting 6 pm Leaders' Cell plus team of Rockhampton people staying overnight (only 3 people tonight!) 7.30 pm Regular ministry time with Mick 9.00 pm Early to bed?
The coffee machine is getting a real work out today!
I wonder how many other things will get squeezed in also?
If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.
WIDGETIZE