RUNNING ON FULL--The Call to Follow, Listen, and Obey

It is striking to note that the earliest name for the first generation of Christian believers is people of the "Way" (Acts 9:2). The early Christian community viewed themselves as pilgrims on a journey. They had not arrived at their destination, but were continually moving toward their true home. They possessed a clear awareness that they were travelers, voyagers called to a lifelong journey, led by an infallible, infinitely loving guide. They had not yet reached their destination. Rather, they were on a pilgrimage, heading toward home, and traveling light.
St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople in the late fourth century AD, was struck by the incongruity of people who proclaimed the future resurrection of the dead and the reality of eternal life, yet lived as though this world was all that existed and mattered. "Stop nailing yourself to this earth," Chrysostom frequently exhorted his congregation. Why? Because Chrysostom realized Jesus had called the Christian community to be a pilgrim people, people who were journeying home but had not yet reached their destination. Surely, Chrysostom thought, if this is the case why are we trying to set up permanent residence here?

How should the image of believers as pilgrims on a journey influence our own perception of who we are as Christian leaders and what we are called to be? Would Christian leaders——youth ministers, adult volunteers, pastors, teachers, evangelists——who understood themselves as pilgrims moving toward home view their task and position differently from those who are setting up permanent camp in this present world? Would not the lay of the land appear differently to pilgrims than to settlers? That is to say, our present status as pilgrims or resident aliens should profoundly shape our perception of God's purposes and actions in forming us into Christ's image and in sending us in mission and ministry to the world around us.

And so, as Christian disciples and leaders, in what way are we still "nailed to this earth?" Or to get to the heart of the matter, perhaps the first person singular is called for.

"Lord, in what way, in what areas, in what perspectives, have I knowingly or unknowingly lived as a settler rather than a traveler?
What in my life is holding me back from adopting the perspective and lifestyle of a pilgrim?
Where are you calling me to change?"

Closely connected to our first two characteristics of the call to discipleship ——the call to change and the call to live life as a pilgrim——is a third characteristic, that of the obedient listener. Have you noticed how often Jesus exhorted his audience to listen carefully to his teaching? "Let anyone with ears listen!" (Matt. 11:15) Again Jesus repeats himself after teaching the parable of the sower: "Let anyone with ears listen!" (Matt. 13:9). Jesus patiently explains the parable of the weeds to his puzzled disciples and then forcefully reminds them: "Let anyone with ears listen!" (Matt. 13:43). One would think that if one possessed ears, the listening would take care of itself. Apparently not.

As Christian leaders, how well do we listen, not only to Christ, but to family, friends, acquaintances, and the puzzled, suffering rhythms of the broader world around us? Is it particularly difficult for leaders to listen? How would you rate yourself? My hunch is that if we have a hard time listening to those around us——husbands, wives, children, colleagues——we will have a hard time listening to Christ.

And what of the noise level in our lives? How might the noise we allow to penetrate our days prevent us from hearing what God desires to say to us? Do our busy schedules get in the way of discerning Christ's voice? Have we become so busy, even in the good work of the kingdom, because we are afraid of what Jesus might say to us if we slowed down to listen? Do we trust Christ enough to listen to him as if all we had hoped and dreamed depended upon hearing him well?

Listening to Christ, however, whether in the pages of the Scripture, in prayer, or perhaps through a close friend, pastor, or spiritual director, is always connected to obedience. At the core of Christian spirituality rests a fundamental question: who is in charge here? For both beginners and veterans of the Christian life, this remains a question to be asked and answered on a regular basis. Jesus insists on the centrality of this issue in his use of the imagery of the ox and the yoke in Matt. 11:29. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." The basic, indispensable stance of both the beginner and the leader, then, is that of an ox or cow who submits willingly to a yoke for guidance. Why? Because of our inveterate tendency to wander off in the wrong direction.

Our wandering nature has been aptly demonstrated over the past fifteen years as we have witnessed the tragedy of numerous Christian leaders' fall into sin. The gap between the message powerfully preached and the life lived by well-known pastors, evangelists, and missionaries has discouraged many. In our most honest moments, though, almost all of us have experienced this same "disconnect" between what we know and how we live. With our minds we comprehend the gospel, but in our actions we struggle to practice its realities in our daily experience. The result is a gnawing sense of discouragement and unreality in our spiritual life. Our words and lives are increasingly split.

Christ calls us to wholeness and integrity——a manner of life in which thinking and living fit together. Or as the second century AD Epistle to Diognetus expresses: "Let your heart be knowledge, and your life the true teaching." It is only through the posture of an ox bowing its head to a yoke, a yoke placed by one of infinite love, wisdom, and gentleness, that we will find the meaning, significance, peace, and integrity we long for as Christian leaders.

Many of us have been involved in Christian ministry for a number of years. Many feel a deep commitment to kids and have committed themselves to youth ministry. To fulfill these vocations well, though, occasionally demands that we take a step back and evaluate the true state of affairs in our spiritual life, both internally and externally. In light of Christ's call to discipleship, how might we describe our present state of spiritual health?
Here are some questions to consider:

Is the foundation we have laid, sometimes many years ago, still strong?
Have cracks developed that we have overlooked or ignored?
If you were to describe the foundation in Christ others helped you to lay, what were its different elements?
Were certain aspects of Christian discipleship and spirituality stressed?
What might have been neglected?
Do the spiritual disciplines you were taught at the beginning of your journey as a pilgrim with Christ still nurture you?
Were you given enough training and sustenance to last for the journey?
Or do you find yourself trying to run a marathon with only 100 yards of training and ability?

THE POWER OF COMPASSION

Because Christianity’s influence is so pervasive throughout much of the world, it is easy to forget how radical its beliefs once were. Jesus’ resurrection forever changed Christians’ view of death.
Rodney Stark, sociologist at the University of Washington, points out that when a major plague hit the ancient Roman Empire, Christians had surprisingly high survival rates. Why? Most Roman citizens would banish any plague-stricken person from their household. But because Christians had no fear of death, they nursed their sick instead of throwing them out on the streets. Therefore, many Christians survived the plague.
--"2000 Years of Jesus" by Kenneth L. Woodward, NEWSWEEK, March 29, 1999.

THE POWER OF THE LAW 1 CORINTHIANS 15:56

Haddon Robinson writes:
The law can prompt us to sin. I am told that several years ago a high-rise hotel was built in Galveston, Texas, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, they sank pilings into the gulf and built the structure out over the water.
When the hotel was about to have its grand opening, someone thought, What if people decide to fish out the hotel windows? So they placed signs in the hotel rooms, "No fishing out the hotel windows."
Many people ignored the signs, however, and it created a difficult problem. Lines got snarled. People in the dining room saw fish flapping against the picture windows.
The manager of the hotel solved it all by taking down those little signs. No one checks into a hotel room thinking about fishing out of the windows. The law, although well-intentioned, created the problem. (From the book Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson.)
As Paul wrote in the book of Corinthians: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law...(1 Corinthians 15:56)

AS A MAN THINKETH PROVERBS 7:23

And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love.
Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration.
In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. "Gifts," powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort, they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.
The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart -- this you will build your life by, this you will become. [from As a Man Thinketh by James Allen]
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he...(Proverbs 23:7)

THE EAGLE AND THE HIPPO ROMANS 7:22-23

Carl Sandburg said, "There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."
He may not have known it, but he was describing the life of every believer in Jesus Christ. It's our dual nature, as Paul described in Romans 7:22-23. "I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another law at work in me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me."
Everyday you have to choose: Will you live according to the new nature or the old? Will you soar with the eagles or wallow in the mud? Your decision determines everything -- how you greet your day, what you think about, how you talk to (or talk about) your co-workers, how you spend your spare change, and how you spend your spare time.
Every day, and every moment of every day, you have the power to choose your environment: the clear blue sky or the local hippo hangout. You've got a key to both places, and access is unrestricted -- it just depends on where you prefer to be.
Remember today that God is calling you upward.

OPTIMISM Philippians 1:12-30

When it comes to pessimism versus optimism, the Bible doesn’t leave us many options. If we believe in God we can't help but be optimistic — because, regardless of what may happen today, we know that ultimately every thing will work out for our good and God’s glory.

Paul was an optimist. Even as he sat in a Roman jail, he could see the benefits of his imprisonment. He had no promised release date to look forward to, the prison conditions were less than ideal, yet he remained positive about the future. Read his words in Philippians 1... Everything that has happened to me has helped spread the Good News. Because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians here have gained confidence and become more bold.

I will continue to rejoice. For I know that as you pray for me and as the Spirit
of Jesus Christ helps me, this will all turn out for my deliverance. For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better. These aren’t the words of a doomed man. Paul expected the best for tomorrow because he believed in a God who is good, who is powerful, who is merciful, who is love.

Pessimism might come quite naturally to you, but the excuse “It’s just my nature,” doesn't work, any more than we can excuse away lust, laziness, or greed. The bottom line is that pessimism is a sin. It reveals a lack of faith; anything that is not from faith is sin. [Romans 14:23]

Optimism is a choice. I don't believe it comes naturally to anyone. Those who maintain a perpetually positive outlook on life have learned to make that choice.

If Paul can be optimistic in a Roman dungeon, then we shouldn’t let a few minor obstacles ruin our day. We can make the same choice he made: we can choose to expect the best for tomorrow, in spite of what is happening today, because we know that God is good.

THE BIG PICTURE ... Ephesians 5:16

Mary David Fisher said, “The length of our life is less important than
its depth.” It reminds me of what musician Eubie Blake said on his
one-hundredth birthday: “If I’d known I was gonna live this long, I’d
have taken better care of myself.”
We never know how much time we have , but the question of longevity isn’t
nearly as crucial as the question of intensity. Even though quantity is an
unknown variable; quality must remain consistent.
I think of this now when I’m with my brothers and sister. They’re living in
other cities, living their lives. When we’re together, it’s only for a few days —
sometimes only a few hours. When I see them, I forget about TV and my cell
phone gets turned off. I want every second with them to count.
Paul used a phrase translated in the NIV as “make the most of every
opportunity.” The King James calls it “redeeming the time.” How do you do
that? It requires understanding two things:
1. Our lives fit into the Big Picture of God's plan.
2. The Big Picture is played out one frame at a time: one day, one hour, one
moment at a time.
I’m sure your plate is already full. At any moment there are a dozen things
you could be doing. The crucial question is: “What is the best thing I can do at
this very moment?”
Seeing the Big Picture — knowing where your life is going — enables you to
answer this question. It enables you to shape your plans day by day.
Determining the most important thing to do at any given moment isn't as
easy as it seems. It takes practice, discernment and wisdom. And it takes a
grasp of the Big Picture.
The pay off is that your days have meaning, and your life tells a story that
brings glory to God.

GETTING IN POSITION. Isaiah 6:8

My basketball career was less than
impressive. I never actually started a game,
but I did learn a secret about getting to play:
The coach will sometimes send in the guy
standing closest to him. It happens, for
example, when someone has just been
dragged off the court and he needs someone ...
anyone...to fill a spot.
I learned that if I was close enough at the right moment, my eyes glued to
his, he just might choose me. And it worked sometimes—certainly more than
sulking on the bench. This is why, during the course of my single season, I
entered the game as center, right guard, and a left guard, even
though I never practiced in these positions. I usually didn't know exactly what
I was expected to do, but at least I was on the field.
There's a principle here to remember: As Dwight L. Moody once said, “God
always uses the man closest to him.” Unlike my junior high coach, God isn’t
easily distracted and he doesn't send us anywhere unprepared. But he does
use those who are eager to get into the game. That’s why I want to make a
habit of getting in God's way, so to speak, so that when he’s ready to use
someone, he sees me first. I want always to be in a position where God can do
something with my life.
This is the attitude seen in the prophet Isaish. He heard the voice of God
saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah responded,
“Here am I. Send me!”
God is asking the same question today: “Whom shall I send?” He's looking
for those who are to ready to be used in a great way. When he's searching the
sidelines for someone to get into the game, I want to be standing close to him.

WHO NEEDS ENCOURAGEMENT? Isaiah 35:3-4

Truett Cathy (founder of Chic-fil-A) once said, “How do
you identify someone who needs encouragement?
Answer: That person is breathing.”
How do you offer encouragement? Here are a
handful of suggestions.
• Remember that you can’t give encouragement when you’re talking about
yourself. Sometimes we try to give others perspective on their problems by
telling them how bad ours are. It doesn’t help.
• Tell them what they’re doing right. They already know what they’re doing
wrong. Tell them what they do well. Tell them something good about themselves.
Don't worry, they won't get big-headed about it.
• Tell them what the future can be. Remind them of what God can do, how he
can transform any situation for his glory, how he can transform any person
into the image of Christ, how he can use anyone to accomplish his purpose.
• Tell them how it’s worked before. Tell them how a friend overcame a similar
problem. Or how a business leader dealt with the same adversity. Or how
another Christian’s perseverance ultimately paid off. Give them hope.
• Tell them you will help them refine their strategy. You can’t solve their problems
for them. You can’t take the actions they need to take. But, when they ask, you
can gently, in love, point out what should be done differently, and what should
be done next.
Remember the words of Isaiah: Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen
the feeble. Say to those with an anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold
your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but he
will save you.”

TAKING ADVICE ... Proverbs 15:22

The ability to accept and act on good advice is fundamental to success.
As Solomon said, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors
they succeed.” So, who should you turn to for advice?

How do you distinguish the good and bad? Here are some suggestions.

• Seek advice from those who know. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Ask counsel
of him who governs himself well.” I have friends whose financial advice I will
gladly receive, but whose parenting advice I avoid. It depends on what they
know, what they have demonstrated in their personal lives.
Do you want to learn to endure adversity? Don’t ask someone who’s had
an easy life. Ask the one who has weathered the storms.

• Seek advice from those who care. I used to play Risk in college with a
couple of friends. During my learning curve, my friend Robert once suggested
I take a certain country occupied by our mutual opponent, Mike. I attacked,
but succeeded only in weakening my position and Mike's position. On his
next turn, Robert wiped us both out. When I complained about his bad counsel,
Robert smiled and said, “In the game of Risk, all advice given is diplomatic.”
John Ray said, “It is a foolish sheep that makes the wolf his counselor.”
This is why a salesman’s advice involves purchasing his product. Make sure
you listen to those who have your best interests in heart, not theirs.

• Be willing to hear what you don’t want to hear. And be willing to do what
you don’t want to do. The temptation is to see advice from those who will say
what you want them to say. Good advice will challenge you to rethink your
approach and fine tune your strategy. Solomon also said, “The way of a fool
seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15)
Getting advice is not about allowing others to make decisions for you.
Ultimately, it’s up to you. You’re the one who must live the consequences —
all the more reason to make sure going in that you’ve heard from the best
and are committed to following their example.

Attention to Detail Matthew 25:23

John Wooden, former coach of the UCLA Bruins, has more NCAA
championships than any other basketball coach in history—10 titles
in 12 years. What did he teach to ensure top-level perfomrance? For one thing, he taught his players how to put on their socks. No kidding.

Each season Coach Wooden showed his players how to prevent sock-wrinkles
around the little toe and the heel, and how to lace up their shoes with a double-knot. This helped his players avoid blisters. In the closing minutes of a close game, the player without blisters on his feet will perform better.

This simple, basic detail contributed to a series of National Championships.
Pating Attention to details, Wooden says, creates success in basketball, in business and life. His focus on fundamentals—running drills, executing plays—gave his team an edge. He never had to resort to pep talks or tirades. He just helped players excel at the basics; excelling at the basics wins ball games. Paul said to the Corinthians, “Hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” (1Corinthians 11:2) The basics of spiritual growth are the same for all Christians—for new believers as well as old saints, for mega-church celebrities as well as those who serve in obscurity.

There are no tricks, no shortcuts. The only way to excel in the Christian life is to do the basics: daily prayer, daily Bible study, daily worship, daily service, and daily fellowship. These are the fundamentals of the faith, and we never outgrow our need for them.

Spending time alone in prayer, or memorizing a verse, or visiting a lonely person may sometimes seem as exciting as putting on your socks—but doing it right takes you to the next level of discipleship.

Jesus said, “You have been faithful in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” The Lord is in the details. This week, remember to do the basics; God will reward your faithfulness.

OUTLASTING THE BLUES (2 Samuel 23:5)

During a dark period of Abraham Lincoln's life, he wrote, "I am nowthe most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not."

It's hard to believe these words were written by one of our nation’s greatest leaders. And it’s hard to believe that years later this same despairing man was able to say: “The year that is drawing toward a close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. These bounties are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come.”

After his early struggles with failure, the final years of Lincoln’s life, though not free from struggle, were marked by happiness, acheivemeth, and success. It was because of this capacity to outlast the blues that Lincoln experienced —in this life —the enormity of God’s blessing.
The same could be said for King David. As you read through the Psalms, you get a glimpse of his struggles and heartaches. (Psalm 10, 38, 102 are among many examples.) And though his life was not without tragedy, David ended his days enjoying the benefits of God's blessing.
In a phrase, he outlasted the blues. His final words were: Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? (2 Samuel 23:5) It's almost as if our reward for tenacity is that problems eventually give up and leave us alone.

Today, you may be facing the anguish of Lincoln or King David, but there's more to your story than what you are experiencing today. As He did with David, God will bring to fruition your salvation, full and complete. And he will grant your heart's desires.
This gives us a reason to keep on...to outlast the blues.

EMPTY PROMISES Psalm 62:1

It’s hard to imagine how excited Norreasha Gill must have been when she won the big “Hundred Grand” contest run by her local radio station, WLTO-FM. She won by listening to the station for several hours and being the tenth caller at a specified time. That night she promised her three young children that they would get a minivan and a home with a backyard. When she went to the station to collect the prize, she was sent home. Later she received a phone message from the station manager explaining that she had won a Nestle’s 100 Grand candy bar, not $100,000 cash.

Norreasha sued for deceptive advertising. The station insisted it was just a joke; they assumed their listeners understood. The station manager offered Ms. Gill $5,000, but she wouldn't accept it. “I said I wanted $95,000 more.
Nobody would watch and listen for two hours for a candy bar.”

When Satan tempted Christ, he offered the kingdoms of the world to Jesus --
“All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me,” he said. Though Satan may have influence with the kingdoms of this world, they don't really belong to him. In fact, nothing does. He has nothing to offer, nothing to give. He's a defeated foe. That doesn’t keep him from trying, though. It doesn’t prevent him from promising again and again what he cannot deliver.
And it doesn’t prevent us from getting our hopes up again and again — thinking this time the world’s promises will pay off, this time I’ll be happy, this time I’ll be satisfied...until, once again, we find ourselves fooled by an empty promise, by the world’s equivalent of a gag gift.

May we learn what the Psalmist learned long ago — that the world and all it offers can never satisfy. May we learned that “My soul finds rest in God alone.” (Psalm 62:1)

NOTES ON LEADERSHIP

When John Wooden (former basketball coach of UCLA)
graduated from grammar school his father gave him a Seven
Point Creed to live by. Wooden stuck with it all his life; he said
it served him well. Here it is:
• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I remember hearing a story that shows how people come to follow strong
leaders. It happened early in the 1970s when Hall of Fame basketball center
Bill Walton joined Coach John Wooden's UCLA team. As a young man, Walton
wore a beard. It has been said that the coach told him his players were not
allowed to have facial hair. Walton, attempting to assert his independence,
said that he would not shave off his beard. Wooden's no-nonsense response
was, "We'll miss you, Bill." Needless to say, Walton shaved the beard.
—John Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaders aren't born. They are made. And they are made just like anything
else, through hard work. That's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal,
or any goal. —Vince Lombardi

NOISE CANCELLATION (1 Peter 2:2)

A couple of years ago, I got an MP3 player with a pair of headphones that have a “noise cancellation” feature. Here’s how it works. A microphone in the headset picks up nearby noise
(such as Karen asking me to take out the trash) and the built-in processor then sends a sound to the headset at an opposite frequency, thereby canceling out the original sound. When I wear those headphones I hear nothing except the music in my MP3 player.

They’re amazing. You put them on and the noise of the world seems to disappear.
The Bible also has a noise cancellation feature. Whenever your life gets too loud with the criticism of others, or the temptations of the enemy, or the rumbling of your own doubts, going to the Word will negate the noise.

David said, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)
Paul said, Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)
Peter said, Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to your salvation. (1 Peter 2:2)

I have learned that the more time I spend in the Word, the less distracted I am by the racket the world makes. Reading God’s Word cancels out the sounds of temptation and doubt and makes it possible to hear the music of spiritual growth.

I challenge you to focus today on listening to God’s Word, not the noise of this world.

NO SMALL PARTS (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

I bought a new lawn mower last year, shelling out big money for me: $249.50 plus tax. Unfortunately, my new mower lasted only about 4 months. The little plastic center broke on the rear wheel, rendering the machine unusable. What’s worse, the standard wheel they sell at Home Depot doesn't fit my mower. Worse than that, my mower model has been discontinued already and I can't special order the part. We're talking about a little piece of plastic the size of a half dollar—probably costs less than that to make—but without it my mower is as useless as, well, a three-wheeled lawn mower.

I tried gluing the old piece together. No luck. I tried modeling a replacement. Didn’t work. I tried mowing with only three wheels. Impossible. The bottom line is that without this 50 cent piece of plastic, my $250 mower is sidelined.

It's interesting how the absence of one tiny, seemingly insignificant part can cripple the whole machine--just like something as trivial as a sore toe can sideline players as great Deion Sanders or Dizzy Dean. It's the same way in the ministry. Every member of the team is vital -- though every member doesn't always realize it. Every teacher, every assistant, every helper plays a vital role. Paul wrote about this...

You can easily see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 The Message)

Sometimes it may seem as if you're just a bit part in a grand production, but the part you play is needed in order to get the job done. Don't under estimate the value of your contribution.

YES MEANS YES MATTHEW 5:37

Another sports story today.

A referee in the Vietnamese Soccer League has been suspended for four matches for awarding a goal and then changing his mind. The country's soccer federation reprimanded him for bowing to pressure from a team whose players stormed off the field in protest to a call. After the reversal, the team returned to the field and won the game. (here's a link to the story.)

No matter what sport you like, we've all seen calls that should be reversed. But the fact is, once the call has been made, the referee (or umpire) needs to stand by that call. The worst thing he can do is to allow the players themselves to make his calls for him.

There's a balance that leaders must maintain. We can't be too stubborn to admit a mistake, or too inflexible to change. but neither can we allow ourselves to follow those whom we are called to lead.

I see parents do this all too often. They make a decision, the kids object, and, after a bit of noise is made, the parents relent. I've also employers do this, as well as teachers, pastors, and coaches.
Jesus said, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No', 'No.'" (Matthew 5:37) He was talking about using oaths to give strength to your words. The principle applies here, too.

Only a 'yes' should be enough; we shouldn't have to strengthen it with other words. And 'yes' should always be 'yes,' even when 'yes' is unpopular is unpopular with the 'no' crowd.
When you make an obvious bad call, your leadership can withstand the occasional reversal -- if you create a pattern of leadership in which 'yes' means 'yes.'

HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH? REVELATION 5:9

Over the years there have been some great baseball trades, going back as far as 1899 when the Pittsburgh Pirates traded four players and $25,000 (a lot of money in those days) for 10 Louisville Colonels. The amazing thing about this trade is that four of those ten became Hall of Famers. Nothing like this has happened since.
This happens. When teams trade, one team gets the better deal. Like the time Chicago traded Lou Brock and a couple of others for a guy named Ernie Broglio and a couple of others. Who's Ernie Broglio? That's my point.
Sometimes players are so good that they get traded for more than one player, like when the Mets traded pitcher Tom Seaver for four Cincinnati Reds.
When teams begin trading with one another, you get an idea of the perceived value each club places on each prospect.
Which brings us to John Odom. He's a minor league player who was originally drafted into the San Francisco Giants organization in 2003. Last week he got traded to Laredo Broncos of the United League. What were the means of barter? It wasn't a player-for-player trade, or a player-for-cash trade. It was a player for equipment trade. The Broncos traded 10 bats for the left-hander.
On the bright side, they're really good bats: maple, double-dipped black, 34-inch, C243 style. They retail for about $70.
Some players might consider such a trade humiliating, but Odom has maintained a good attitude about it. He just said, "It'll make a better story if I make it to the big leagues."
It might be depressing for players to find out what they're really worth to club owners, just like it's sometimes depressing for us to find out what we're really worth to our employers.
But as for the One who really matters, you know what you're worth. You're worth everything. God so loved the world -- God so loved you -- that he gave his only Son. The book of Revelation says...
"...you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." (Revelation 5:9)
That's why Paul says, "You were bought with a price."
As a result, we can trade our brokenness and selfishness for God's mercy and grace. We trade our weakness for his strength, and our turmoil for his peace. We trade the wages of our sin -- death and hell -- for the gift of eternal life with him.
What a trade. And what a price he paid.
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Here's a link to the story about the John Odom trade.

THE TEN SECOND TAKE-AWAY

In the past, I have talked about the benefit of maximizing repetition by reading one chapter or article or quote again and again until the spiritual truth it teaches sinks in. Read it until you can almost say it from memory.
The way to implement this into your preaching is to zero in one idea -- one specific phrase -- of the message and hit it as hard you can. Repeat it once or twice. Put it on a power point slide. Print it in the bulletin. Give them one statement -- or one scripture -- to meditate on throughout the week. Sum it up, if you can, in ten seconds or less.
For example:
• Repentance is trying again.
• "You ain't learning nothing when you're talking." -- Lyndon B. Johnson
• In some area of your life, Jesus is saying, "Get up and walk!"
• Henry Ford said, "Your best friend is he who brings out the best in you." Whose best friend are you?
• God not only loves you, he likes you.
• You destroy selfishness through the spiritual power of compassion.
• Stop defining defining yourself by your job title; start defining yourself by your job description.
And so on. Sometimes it's a summary of the entire message, sometimes it's an idea presented in one of the major points, sometimes it's a related quote. This ten second takeaway is no replacement for the entire sermon, but it gives your listeners something to hang on to throughout the week.

GRATITUDE

I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware.

When somebody is aware of that love—the same love that the Father has for Jesus—that person is just spontaneously grateful. Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy. We're not joyful and then become grateful—we're grateful, and that makes us joyful. —Brennan Manning

THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART ECCLESIASTES 3:11

In his sermon "Better Odds" Andy Stanley makes a great statement. He's talking about waiting on God, and he says something along these lines: We look at our watches; God looks at the calendar.
One of the most difficult lessons for believers to learn is to wait on God. By nature we're not patient, and our culture offers little encouragement to develop the habit. We want, we need, we think we deserve everything now.
Remember that Sarah waited until she was old for the son she had always dreamed about; Moses waited for 40 years on the backside of the desert for God's call; Joseph languished in prison for 15 years before God vindicated him. Even Paul spent 17 years in preparation before he began the ministry that God called him to on the road to Damascus. But you can be sure that each of these saints would say it was worth the wait. It always is.
There are, no doubt, a number of things that you are waiting for, too: victory, healing, peace, growth, vindication, success. Today I encourage you to remember one thing: God is on his way. Sometimes the night seems to last forever. Sometimes his silence seems permanent. That's because we look at the clock while he looks at the calendar.
Solomon wrote, "God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
We cannot see the whole scope of God's work, but the scope exists. And we may not see the big picture, but there is one. Today might be just another day of waiting for you, but here's how you can make it better: Take your eyes off the clock and turn them toward Jesus. Spend this time waiting in expectation rather than desperation. God is at work in your work in life, making all things beautiful in their time.

LITTLE SHARKS, BIG JELLY FISH MATTHEW 25:21

Every time I go swimming in the ocean, someone inevitably warns me: Watch out for sharks! Of course, I always do, but I've never seen one. I've never even heard the "bom-bom-bom-bom" music that plays in the background when sharks come near. And it's a good thing, because once you hear the music, it's probably too late.
I've been warned to watch out for sharks, but no one has ever said to me, "Watch out for the jelly fish." The fact is, jelly fish are far more dangerous. Each year they kill more people than sharks do.
Also, I take a walk each day in the park, but no one has ever said to me, "Watch out for the bees." Yet, bees kill more people each year than sharks and jelly fish combined.
We tend to spend our lives worrying about the sharks (whether we ever go near the water or not), because sharks are big and scary. And we tend to ignore real threats because, by themselves, they're not all that intimidating.
Don't let the little things in life fool you. You ignore them at your own peril.
Every good marriage...every good employee...every good business succeeds because they've learned to pay attention to the little things.
Jesus told a story about a servant who was given some money to manage, and because he managed it well, he was rewarded by his master. The master said...
You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. (Matthew 25:21)
Our greatest wins and losses in life result from our ability to master the seemingly minor details of life.
• Reading a few verses of scripture and spending some time in prayer each day may not seem significant to some, but its long-term effect is revolutionary.
• Making the effort to bite your tongue may not seem that important, but in the long run it could save a relationship.
• Giving a customer a little extra attention might not seem like such a big deal, but it could pave the way to your next promotion.
Don't give the sharks more attention than they deserve--especially at the cost of ignoring the jelly fish. It's the little things that hold us back, and the little things that move us forward. They're our greatest danger and our most powerful weapon.

LOSING BY INTIMIDATION 1 JOHN 4:4

Some 80 years ago, as Notre Dame was preparing to play USC in college football, Fighting Irish coach Knute Rockne was aware that his opponent had a far better team, so he devised a plan to intimidate the Trojan players.
Rockne scoured the city of South Bend and hand-picked 100 of the largest men he could find--each at least six-foot-five and three hundred pounds. He put them in Fighting Irish uniforms and at game time marched them onto the field ahead of the real team. (Obviously, this was before the days of limited rosters and eligibility restrictions.)
As USC watched these giants line up on the sidelines, they forgot about their talent and their undefeated record, and they began mentally preparing themselves for a beating. Though none of the specially recruited men played during the game, their presence on the sidelines was enough to knock Southern Cal's concentration off balance. Knute Rockne's trick had worked; he had intimidated the Trojan players into giving up before the game even started, and Notre Dame won.
Our 'opponent' tries a similar trick. He tries to intimidate us by appearing larger than life-- but we must remember that he, too, has been sidelined. John said, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
Don't let your problems intimidate you. No matter how big the enemy may seem to be, remember that you have God's power on your side. And he is greater.

HONESTY AND INTEGRITY

Here's a good illustration on honesty from the Associated Press.
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When an 11-year-old Boy Scout found someone's wallet with $800 inside, he understood what the person who lost it was going through.
Only a few weeks before, he had lost his own wallet and the $45 it contained.
J.R. Bouterse immediately told an adult about his discovery, which was turned over to a law-enforcement official and returned to its grateful owner.
''We're just so proud of him,'' said the boy's mother, Michelle Bouterse, 41. ''We can't say enough.''
To reward the boy, the Michigan State Police threw a pizza party Monday night, not only for the law-abiding child but for all 30 Scouts in Troop 90.
Another guest at the party, to J.R.'s surprise, was 20-year-old Jessica Cutler, the wallet's owner, who wanted to personally thank him for his act of honesty.
''I can't believe someone would find a wallet with that much money in it and not take some,'' she said. ''A lot of people maybe wouldn't have done that same thing. I'm just glad he found it and not someone else.''
J.R. found the wallet a little more than a week ago while leaving a Scout meeting at the church.
''I knew exactly how she felt,'' he said.
Not exactly: His own wallet has not been returned to him.

SELECTIVE RECALL PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14

Sometimes I wish I had a better memory. I have a tendency to forget things, like where I put my keys, or an important phone number, or the exact content of certain conversations. It can be really annoying, both for me and for the victims of my forgetfulness.
I recently read about a woman who has the opposite problem. Her name is Jill Price; she's a school administrator. Her memory has been the subject of scientific tests for many years, because she never forgets anything. She is able to remember every detail of everyday since 1980: What time she got up, what she did, who she met, and what she ate. You can name a date and within seconds she can tell you what day of the week it was and what took place on that day.
Neuroscientists are intrigued by her "condition", but she considers it a curse. She says, "Some memories are good and give me a warm safe feeling. But I also recall every bad decision, insult, and excruciating embarrassment. Over the years it has eaten me up." She blames her memory for many years of depression. (Here's the story)
In college I had a friend with a photographic memory, though not nearly to such an extreme extent. He told me once that he had to learn "selective recall." Otherwise, when people asked about his day, he would tell them everything: about choosing his socks and tying his shoes and which commercials he heard on the radio and on and on. He literally had to learn to not remember certain details of every day. If Ms. Price could do the same thing, I'm sure she would.
We need to learn to do the same. We need to learn to forget -- to not remember -- certain details of our lives. Which details? The details of those events which do not empower us to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus.
Reliving the shame of a sin you committed yesterday or 30 years ago will not help you live in Christ today. Remembering the humiliation of a past defeat or the pain of a past rejection will not empower you to move toward the prize today.
That's why Paul said, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
It's a choice we make. It's not always easy, because memories -- especially the worst ones -- can be tenacious. Every pastor, every leader, every believer needs to learn to practice selective recall. You don't have to dwell on the past. You have God's permission to forget everything from yesterday that doesn't strengthen you today.

HUNGRY AND FOOLISH 1 CORINTHIANS 4:10

Steve Jobs made a commencement speech a couple of years ago at the Stanford University graduation. It's a good speech to read, so I'm including a link here. Even though we wouldn't agree with everything he believes, you can see how he uses three stories from his life with great impact; it would help us to remember the power of simplicity and the power of personal stories.
He closes with a story about The Whole Earth Catalog. Here it is...
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay hungry, stay foolish. Great advice for every pastor, every church, every believer. Don't allow yourself to get too comfortable: stay hungry. And don't allow yourself to become too cautious: stay foolish. Keep taking risks, even though risks increase your losses -- and losses don't come without pain.
Paul compares the risky life to the cautious life in 1 Corinthians 4, declaring, "We are fools for Christ's sake." (1 Corinthians 4:10) Every time I read this chapter my commitment is renewed: I want to stay foolish until this race is over.

WE NEED EACH OTHER ROMANS 12:5

Rueters reports that a New York Yankees fan has been charged with murdering a Boston Red Sox fan after running down two men with her car during a drunken dispute over baseball. She was in a bar and somehow let it be known that she like the Yankees. A group began to taunt her, and when the taunting continued outside, she drove her car into the group -- trying to scare them. One man was injured, one man died. The Yankees fan is being held without bail.
I think it's strange when fans of certain clubs -- such as the Yankees and Red Sox -- automatically hate each other. I think it's strange that they look for a fight when they see each other. It's strange because do you know what the Yankee players do when they meet a Red Sox player? They chat. They laugh. They golf together. They socialize. They're not sworn enemies -- in fact, they see each other as colleagues, brothers in the same fraternity. Even though the play for different teams, their commitment to the game -- and their love of the game -- unites them.
Fans should do the same thing. They should be able to say, "I'm a Yankees fan, you're a Red Sox -- we have different teams, but isn't baseball a great sport? And haven't we had some great teams over the years? What would baseball without the contribution of all the great Yankees and Red Sox of the past? And even though I'm a Yankee, I've got to admit that the 2004 World Series was one of the best ever..."
I do this very thing when I talked to Cubs fans. I say, "Haven't the Cubs had some great teams? Remember when they won that World Series in 1908? They were really good 100 years ago, weren't they? Maybe they'll win a series this century, too." (Yeah, that's pretty funny, isn't it?)
My point is that baseball fans should be united by their love of the game more than their hatred for other teams.
Beyond that, my point is that this applies to Christians. Our love and commitment to Christ should over ride any differences we have with our brothers and sisters -- personal differences, stylistic differences, doctrinal differences, and so on.
I'm not just talking about transdenominational toleration. I'm talking about toleration within each body. We need to learn to over look the differences and accept the fact that everybody doesn't like everything that we like ... and we need to embrace our common heritage as followers in Christ.
Paul said in Romans, "We are parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others." (Romans 12:5)
It's hard to imagine that Yankees fans and Red Sox fans need each other, but they do. Even more amazing is that you need me and I need you and we need one one another. We are part of the same body, members of the same fraternity, servants of the same king. For this reason, we belong together.

FAMILY VALUES IN THE BIBLE

Eugene Peterson writes:
A search of Scripture turns up one rather surprising truth: there are no exemplary families. Not a single family is portrayed in Scripture in such a way so as to evoke admiration in us. There are many family stories, there is considerable reference to family life, and there is sound counsel to guide the growth of families, but not a single model family for anyone to look up to in either awe or envy.
Adam and Eve are no sooner out of the garden than their children get in a fight. Shem, Ham, and Japheth are forced to devise a strategy to hide their father's drunken shame. Jacob and Esau are bitter rivals and sow seeds of discord that bear centuries of bitter harvest. Joseph and his brothers bring changes on the themes of sibling rivalry and parental bungling. Jesse's sons, brave and loyal in service of their country, are capricious and cruel to their youngest brother. David is unfortunate in both wives and children—he is a man after God's own heart and Israel's greatest king, but he cannot manage his own household.
Even in the family of Jesus, where we might expect something different, there is exposition of the same theme. The picture in Mark, chapter three, strikes us as typical rather than exceptional: Jesus is active, healing the sick, comforting the distressed, and fulfilling his calling as Messiah, while his mother and brothers are outside trying to get him to come home, quite sure that he is crazy. Jesus' family criticizes and does not appreciate. It misunderstands and does not comprehend.
The biblical material consistently portrays the family not as a Norman Rockwell group, beaming in gratitude around a Thanksgiving turkey, but as a series of broken relationships in need of redemption, after the manner of William Faulkner's plots in Yoknapatawpha County.
— Eugene Peterson "Like Dew Your Youth: Growing Up With Your Teenager."

Father's Day Memories of and from Famous People

Jack Benny. Joan Benny remembers Sunday mornings as being her "special time" with her father, Jack Benny; "Daddy would wake me up for breakfast about 7:Then we'd head outside to go for a drive. Daddy would get into the car and turn the ignition key. Inevitably, nothing would happen. He would push and pull every button on the dashboard, twist all the knobs, and pump the accelerator, but the motor still wouldn't start. At length he would sigh and say to me, 'Honey, the car just won't start until you give me a kiss.' So I did, and it did-and off we went. For a long time I believed there was some kind of scientific connection between kissing and car-starting." --Jack Benny and Joan Benny, Sunday Night at Seven

Harpo Marx. Harpo's son Bill, on his father: "At dinnertime, Dad would begin his nightly ritual by raising his fore-finger and intoning, 'And in conclusion...' Then we would go around the table—Mom, Alex, Jimmy, Mimmie and I—reviewing our triumphs and trials of the day. Dad fielded gripes by reducing tragedy to absurdity. Soon you were laughing at yourself, and your problem faded away. He was a born healer."

Billy Crystal. When Billy Crystal's daughter turned 11, Billy was in New York filming a movie. He called her, apologized for his work schedule and said a package would be delivered soon. He then flew from NY to LA. Later that day when Lindsay opened the front door, a six foot high carton greeted her and she began ripping it open on the spot. Dad was inside the carton. Billy said, "She hugged me for five minutes. It was unbelievable." He went on to say, "I missed 25 birthdays with my dad. I'm not going to let that happen with my girls." Billy was 15 when his father died of a heart attack.

Jack Nicklaus. Jack Nicklaus was a Kodiak bear on the golf course, impervious to pressure while huge galleries and television audiences watched his every shot. But put him in the maternity waiting room and he became weak as a newborn Kodiak cub. Four of five times he fainted on hearing of his children's births. The first time he hit his head on the floor. The second time he was fortunate enough not to hit his head. The third time they caught him going down. The fourth time he sniffed smelling salts—and fainted anyway. The fifth time he narrowly escaped fainting.

David Brenner. Comedian David Brenner came from a poor but close family. When he graduated from high school, however, he was given an unforgettable gift. "Some of my friends got new clothes and a few rich kids even got new cars," he remembers. "My father reached into his pocket and took something out. I extended my hand, palm up, and he let my present drop into it—a nickel! "Dad said to me, 'Buy a newspaper with that. Read every word of it. Then turn to the classified section and get yourself a job. Get into the world. It's all yours now.' I always thought that was a great joke my father had played on me until a few years later when I was in the Army, sitting in a foxhole, and thinking about my family and my life. It was then I realized that my friends had gotten only new cars, and only clothes. My father had given me the whole world. What greater gift!"—Soft Pretzels With Mustard

Will Smith. According to movie star Will Smith, everything his father did, he did for a reason. Smith recalls: Once Dad wanted my brother Harry and me to repair a 16-by-14-foot wall in front of his business. We had to dig a six-foot-long trench and rebuild the structure. It took six months. Years later Dad explained why he'd given us that task. "When a kid's growing up," he said, "he needs to see something that looks impossible to do, and then go out and do it. There are always going to be walls in life." My father helped us get over one wall, so we would never be scared to take the first step and try to do the impossible.

LET'S HAVE A MEETING

I saw this graphic the other day. A comparison can be made between inefficient corporate meetings and inefficient church meetings. Many church leaders think the solution to the church-growth challenge is to have more meetings to discuss more detailed strategy.
Actually, the solution to the church-growth challenge is evangelism, which involves one-on-one, face-to-face contact with non-Christians -- and the last place you'll find them is at a church board meeting. (OK, there's a joke waiting to be made here. I know several pastors who would say, "Oh yeah? Come to one of my church board meetings and you'll meet several non-Christians.)
My point is that meetings can easily become an alternative to ministry, and it's our responsibility to make sure they don't. Churches don't grow because they are well-organized or well-strategized. They grow because they're full of life -- a kind of life is that is too much for non-believers to resist.

COMMENTS ON THE CHILD AND THE VILLAGE

As a parent, I am horrified by the changes that have taken place in the common culture over the past thirty years. I believe that we are raising children in a kind of post-apocalyptic landscape in which no forces beyond individual households—individual mothers and fathers—are protecting children from pornography and violent entertainment.
The "it takes a village" philosophy is a joke, because the village is now so polluted and so desolate of commonly held, child-appropriate moral values that my job as a mother is not to rely on the village but to protect my children from it. —Caitlin Flanagan.
Caitlin is hardly a fundamentalist, or even a conservative. She is a Berkley born and bred journalist who writes often (and writes explicitly) about sexual mores in modern American culture. But she's also a mom, and she recognizes that society at large does not have her children's best interests in mind when it comes to teaching values and morals. This is why I found her comments interesting.

A STATISTIC ON GIVING

In December, Christianity Today reported that there has been a decline in giving to missions in the past 85 years -- not in actual dollars, of course, but in percentage. According to a survey of 28 denominations, in 1920 churches gave 10 percent of their offerings to foreign missions. By 2007 the amount decreased to 2 percent of offerings received.
I realize that money doesn't spread the gospel, people do. But it does say something about our willingness, as the richest Christians in history, to do the thing that Jesus plainly said is our most important task: preach the gospel to every creature.

A TEMPORARY SITUATION JEREMIAH 1:19

Most people are familiar with the convoluted sayings of baseball hall-of-famer Yogi Berra. Berra was the catcher, and later the manager, of the legendary New York Yankees. Some of the misstatements attributed to Yogi include...
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.It gets late early this time of year.If you come to a fork in the road, take it.I usually take a two hour nap, from one o’clock to four.If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.If I didn’t wake up, I’d still be sleeping.It ain’t over till it’s over.
My favorite Yogi-ism occurred when a reporter asked him what he was going to do about the fact that he was in the middle of a batting slump. Yogi looked at the reporter with surprise and said, "Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting."
There is undeniable wisdom in his perspective. It's the difference between seeing your problems as a temporary situation or a permanent condition. "Not hitting" is a game-to-game struggle; a "slump" lasts indefinitely.
The Bible teaches that believers can strike the word "slump" and its equivalents from their vocabulary. We may face challenges, setbacks--even outright persecution--but we have God's guarantee that it will not last. His words to Jeremiah apply to us today:
They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you. (Jeremiah 1:19)
During a difficult time in his life, a friend of mine told me that he kept in his desk drawer a legal pad with the heading "Things that will get better." It contained an itemized list of his many problems, and without exception every one of them fell into the category of "temporary." He referred to the list several times a week--and often several times a day--to remind himself that he wasn't really in a permanent slump, and that soon he would be hitting again.
I once heard a man say that as a child, when his mother couldn't afford to buy him new clothes or expensive toys, she would remind him, "Son, we're not really poor, we're just broke." He learned to understood the difference. Poor is a long-term label; broke is a temporary inconvenience.
Paul made reference to this mindset in one of his letters. He said...
We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
Paul reminds us there is a difference between being knocked down and being knocked out; there's a difference between seeing a problem as a temporary situation and a permanent condition.
Be careful of the labels you give to the challenges you face. Remember that they will not last forever, and by God's grace, it won't be long until you're hitting again.

Above All

QUOTES ON GIVING

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." --Mother Teresa
"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving." -- Albert Einstein
It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it. -- Albert Einstein
"Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get." -- H. Jackson Browne
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. -- Winston Churchill

NOTES AND QUOTES ON MONEY

Money doesn't change character, but it reveals it. And it magnifies it. If you're honest, you'll be honest with a little or a lot. If you're generous, you'll be real generous with a lot of money. If you're a jerk, you'll be a bigger jerk. If you were a jerk before, you'll be a bigger jerk with a billion dollars. -- Warren Buffett
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Buffet also reported in Forbes Magazine (March 8, 2007) that the billionaires in the world gave only 1.2 percent of their wealth to charity last year. Buffett himself gave 44 billion dollars. Forbes reports there are currently 946 billionaires in the world.
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In April 2007, Forbes Magazine listed the 10 most expensive celebrity divorces. Here they are:
• Michael Jordan's recent divorce will cost him more than $150 million, making his divorce the most expensive celebrity divorce ever.
• Neil Diamond's 1995 divorce from Marcia Murphey cost him an estimated $150 million. (Can you say "Love on the Rockssssss"?)
• Director Steven Spielberg paid Amy Irving an estimated $100 million in 1989 -- half of his fortune at the time.
• Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones) paid Melissa Mathison $85 million.
• Kevin Costner's divorce from Cindy Silva cost him $80 million.
• Heather Mills managed to get more than $60 million from Paul McCartney after 6 years of marriage.
• Film director James Cameron's divorce from Linda Hamilton cost $50 million.
• Michael Douglas gave Diandra Douglas $45 million and two homes.
• Lionel Richie paid $20 million to Diane Richie.
• Rolling Stone Mick Jagger gave Jerry Hall an estimated $15-$25 million.
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According to Time Magazine's article "One Day In America" (November 26, 2007), each day Americans buy an average of...
• 3,972,603 movie tickets• 1,683,835 songs and albums from on-line resources• 1,650,000 DVD rentals from Netflix• 978,030 bags of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet popcorn• 568,764 Titleist golf balls• 443,650 large French fries at Burger King• 160,968 bottles of Absolut Vodka• 7,500 Samsung LCD TVs• 60 Ford Mustangs on eBay
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He who labors ought to perform his task not for the purpose of ministering to his own needs but that he may accomplish the Lord's command, 'I was hungry and you gave me [something] to eat,' and so on...Everyone, therefore, in doing his work, should place before himself the aim of service to the needy and not his own satisfaction. --Basil the Great
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The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money. -- John Henry Jowett
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Some things in the world are far more important than wealth; one of them is the ability to enjoy simple things. -- Dale Carnegie
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The care of 200 million bucks is too great a load for any brain or any back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it. -- W.H. Vanderbilt
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You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you. --Maya Angelou
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Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. -- Benjamin Franklin
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Money is not the most important thing in the world. Love is. Fortunately, I love money. Unknown
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The best possible financing plan you can use is: 100% down, nothing to pay each month.

For People Like You

IMAGE PROBLEMS??

Contrasting yesterday's poll results, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons have recently written a book called unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. The book is backed by extensive polling data received from primarily from 16-29 year olds, outlining their overwhelmingly negative impressions of Christianity and the church.
The advertising campaign for the book uses the phrase "Christianity has an image problem." We are seen as too political, too judgmental, too anti-homosexual, too hypocritical.
To be honest, I winced when I read how Gabe Lyons got the idea to start the ministry to raise the money to fund the major research project that would tell us what non-Christians think about the church. Don't we pretty much already know what they think? Do we really need to spend more money talking about our "image problem" and what the church needs to be doing? Haven't we already talked ourselves blue in the face?
Regardless, Lyons and Kinnaman have written an interesting book, full of facts and figures and anecdotes that we can insert into sermons for years to come. (I'll offer up some tidbits in the weeks to come.) The real challenge, however, is for us to put aside the data and get busy doing the work of Christ.
I hope I can be honest with you without sounding arrogant. In the community where I work, Christianity doesn't have an image problem. I think we've gone a long way in ensuring that Christians aren't perceived as judgmental and/or hypocritical, and are, instead, perceived as being serious about helping people and serious about demonstrating the love of Christ.
Therein lies the answer to solving Christianity's image problem. It can only happen one church at a time, one Christian at a time. The more involved we are in serving people and serving communities, the more positive influence we'll have in the world. So we, each of us, each individual church and each individual Christian, has an option. We can talk today about what needs to be done, or we can get busy doing it.
There is an online preview available here.

Gallup on Faith

Gallup conducted a poll recently about American's attitudes toward specific faith (and non-faith) groups. They asked people to describe their feelings and impressions toward certain groups (for example, Methodists) as Positive (Very or Somewhat), Neutral, or Negative (Very or somewhat). From that, each group's "net impact" was determined.
Catholics have a net-positive view of +32. Baptists scored +35; evangelicals scored +16. Atheists have a net-negative view of -32. Scientologists were at the bottom with a -45 view. Methodists were at the top with a +45.
Interestingly, Methodists had a total positive ranking of 49% and a neutral ranking of 47% -- which is just about the whole pie. Maybe their slogan should be "The United Methodist Church -- you either love us or you don't hate us."
Here's a link to the Gallup story.

TEAMWORK IS THE POINT 1 CORINTHIANS 12:27

I played volleyball last week with a few friends. My team won, but not because we were better. We had an unfair advantage: Clark, who played for the other team. Clark is actually pretty good at volleyball, and that's the whole problem. Since he's a little better than the others on his team, he tried to play all six positions at once. He wanted to serve, play the net, guard the backline and cover the middle all at the same time. He tried his best to save his teammates the trouble of having to make plays on their own (after all, they probably would have made a mistake) and though he managed to get his hands on the ball with every volley, he wasn't good enough on his own to beat an entire team that was, for the most part, working together. Winning is rarely this easy. Clark's teammates were afraid to play the ball (knowing Clark would try to play it) ... and in spite of his sense of indispensability, he couldn't be everywhere on the court at once.
I know a lot of leaders, like Clark, whose strategy for ministry is "stand aside and let me do it." They're convinced no one will do the job quite as good as them. Why delegate when others are bound to make mistakes? Why delegate when you can do it all yourself?
We forget--those of us who are task oriented--that finishing the job isn't the point. Not completely. Especially in ministry. God's idea is that in the process of doing his work we will build community. He wants us to learn to work together. He wants us to be a team.
Look at the areas that you lead. Are you trying to play all six positions at once? If you are, your teammates may wonder why they're even on the team. And they're probably wondering when you're taking your vacation--so that they can get finally a chance to make a play.
Here's an idea. Let your players play their position. Don't try to cover the whole court. They might make a mistake or two, but they'll also surprise you with some good plays.
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body...Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12, 27)

THE LORD'S TABLE 1 CORINTHIANS 11:24-25

Week by week you come to the Lord's table to receive bread and wine. What do these things mean to you? Do you regard them merely as some kind of spiritual medicine, which will purge your soul, like a laxative may purge your body? Or do you sometimes wonder what God is saying in these simple elements?
Bread and wine represent the fruits of our labor, whereby we turn the things of nature into food and rink for our sustenance. So at the Lord's table we offer our labor to God, dedicating ourselves anew to his service. Then the bread and the wine are distributed equally to every member of the congregation; the poor receive the same amount as the rich.
This means that God's material blessing belong equally to everyone, to be enjoyed according to each person's need. The whole ceremony is also a meal at which everyone has an equal place at the table. Thus we are celebrating our fellowship as brothers and sisters, with Christ as our unseen elder brother at one end of the table, and God as our unseen father presiding at the other end.
—St. John Crysostom
This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me...This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. (1 Corinthians 11:24-25 NAS)

For People Like You

New Day Mississippi has been in operation for less than a year, but already thousands of Rankin County families have been helped by the program.

Since opening in June of 2007, the Christian social services program has provided more than 1,600 Thanksgiving meals for senior citizens, helped more than 900 low-income families with Christmas needs, and provided utility and rent assistance to 58 families.

The Rev. Mark Howie of New Day Community Church in Brandon formed the charity as a way to gather goods and services from the community and distribute them to those in need.

"People helping people is the best way to create a healthy community, and we specialize in services to widows, the fatherless, and the working family, no matter what shape the family takes," Howie said.

He said corporations and business might not feel comfortable giving to a church because of doctrinal issues, but they readily give to a faith-based social service.

Earline Ashley, a licensed social worker, is the executive director of New Day Mississippi.

With more than 20 years experience, Ashley says she has a heart to help those in need no matter what their background.

"I am so thrilled with what we are doing here and what we are going to do because we have just only gotten started," Ashley said. "With the size of this building and the vision we have, there are so many opportunities to help the community."

As funding allows, Ashley says the New Day program provides assistance for Rankin County families in need of food, shelter, utilities, clothing, funeral expenses and prescriptions.

"We use state-of-the-art thumb-print recognition technology as part of our screening process as a means to inhibit fraud," Ashley said. "We confirm there is a need before any assistance is given."

Howie said one of the most successful programs has been the New Day Food Club.

He said the group gives out a variety of fresh and frozen items - enough to feed a family of four for about a week or a senior citizen for a month. The bundles cost about $30, less than half of what it would cost in the grocery store, he said.

The distributions happen once a month and there are no income requirements for the program.

"We are seeing people from all income levels participating in this program and the food is really good," Howie said.

Betty Myers, 75, of Brandon orders from the New Day Food Club each month.

"It helps a whole lot, because you can't go to the store and get that much for $30," Myers said.

Both the church and the charity operate out of a 60,000 square-foot warehouse in Brandon near Trickhambridge Road.

The pastor said his small congregation voted three years ago to be a debt-free organization and not move from a rented building until God provided.

"So when this $7.9 million facility was offered to us for a fraction of the cost, I knew it was a miracle in the making and the miracle is still unfolding," Howie said.

A miracle centered around helping the less fortunate.

"The church is not about the building, or the programs, but it is about people who know what it is like to fall and get back up again," Howie said. "Our mission is to lead broken and hurting people to become fully functional followers of Jesus Christ."

MAKING MUSIC INSTEAD ROMANS 5:3

In the Ken Burns PBS series on jazz music, Duke Ellington was asked how it felt to be unable, due to segregation, to stay in the guest rooms of the hotels he and his band performed in. He said, "I took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
I've been working on a series about Character for the past couple of weeks, and I keep coming back to Romans 5:3 -- "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character..."
Tribulations are unavoidable, inevitable and inescapable, but you can change how they affect your life with a right response. You can use your energy to pout, or to make great music. It's up to you.
Every day we face some kind of setback, some kind of disappointment -- and everyday we have the opportunity to invest our energy in something more productive than anger, frustration, resentment or self-pity. Our challenge each day is to put those reactions aside, and focus on every opportunity to make music.

BENEFITS OF GIVING ACTS 20:35

Maybe this is what is meant by "It is more blessed to give than receive." (Acts 20:35)
New research shows that it's not how much you have that matters, it's how you spend it. People who donate their dollars to charities or splurge on gifts for others are more content than those who squander all the dough on themselves.
Social psychologist Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, wanted to find out what kind of spending really does make people happy. So she and colleagues surveyed 109 UBC students. Not surprisingly, most said they would be happier with $20 in their pocket than they would with $5. They also said they'd rather spend the money on themselves than on someone else.
However, when Dunn's team gave 46 other students envelopes containing a either $5 bill or a $20 bill and told them how to spend it, those who spent money on others (donating to charity or giving a gift) were happier at the end of the day than those who spent it on themselves (to pay a bill or indulge in a treat).
Two more surveys involving 632 people across the US mirrored these results. In both groups, happiness correlated with the amount of money people spent on others.
Dunn said that the effects of altruistic spending are probably similar to those of exercise -- they can have both immediate and long-term effects. Giving once might make a person happy for a day, she says, but "if it becomes a way of living, then it could make a lasting difference."

IF LIFE WERE LIKE A COMPUTER

There are four common computer functions that I have learned I can't live without.
CTL +H. In Microsoft Office programs (and some other programs) when you press the Control key while holding down the h key, a box pops that allows you to search and replace. You can search for every instance of Oklahoma and replace it with Tennessee, or every instance of football and replace it with baseball, and so on.
Wouldn't it be great if we could do that in real life? Search for all the arrogance in my life and replace it with humility. Search for all my laziness and replace it with productivity. Search for all my sin and replace it with obedience.
CTL + Z. This is the undo function. When I've made several design changes to a webpage that I've decided aren't going to work, I start pressing CTL + Z until the page looks the way it did before I started making changes. All my bad design decisions get undone.
I wish I could do this in everything. When I say something stupid or do something wrong, I wish I could start pressing CTL + Z to get rid of the mistakes -- to make that dumb thing I did disappear forever, to make those wrong words spoken be forgotten forever.
CTL + S. This function saves everything you've done up to this point. If your computer crashes, it's no problem -- when you reopen the file you will still have everything up to the point in which you last saved your work. I still remember several years ago writing a complete sermon and, just as I was finishing, the computer inexplicably shut down. I hadn't saved my work for quite some time .... and when my computer came back I learned that everything after the introduction was lost forever, just because I didn't press CTL +S. Extremely frustrating.
I wish that when I make spiritual progress I could CTL+S my progress to make sure I never go backward from this point on.
FORMAT C:\*.* I haven't had to use this one in a long time, but back in the old days there were times when my hard drive was so junked up that the only solution was to wipe everything out, get out my DOS disks and re-install everything from the beginning.
Sometimes in life it seems like this is what we need: the ability to wipe the board completely clean and start afresh.
Though in real life none of these functions are as easy as pressing a key on the keypad, there is a sense in which God does this work in us.
The Holy Spirit examines our hearts and points out those things that shouldn't be there. His ministry to search for what is wrong in our life and help us replace it with it what is right, convicting us of sin and righteousness, as Jesus said in John 15.
And though we can never undo the past, we can be forgiven for it. God has promised, "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I remember their sins no more." (Hebrews 8:12)
The responsibility for the CTL+S is on us: Paul said, "Only let us hold fast to what we have attained." (Philippians 3:16) Just like we need to save our work when we're sitting at the computer, we need to strive to save our progress as we grow in the Christian life.
And, thank God, he still offers the format option. When a person's life is wrecked by sin, God has provided a way to wipe the slate clean, remove all the ugliness from the past, and start over. As Paul said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
May we each allow God to work his goodness in our lives.

THE POWER OF HOPE

A man can keep his sanity and stay alive as long as there is at least one person who is waiting for him. The mind of man can indeed rule his body even when there is little health left. A dying mother can stay alive to see her son before she gives up the struggle, a soldier can prevent his mental and physical disintegration when he knows that his wife and children are waiting for him. But when "nothing and nobody" is waiting, there is no chance to survive in the struggle for life. -- Henri J. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer

A Personal Inventory of Spiritual Health

In my last column I asked you some tough questions and particularly focused on one issue: What is the present state of affairs in my spiritual life? This month I want to continue to explore this question with you, but from a slightly different angle. In order to evaluate helpfully how we’’re doing spiritually——strengths, struggles, habit patterns, temptations, confusions, disillusionments——we need to have a good idea of what healthy Christian spirituality looks like.

That is to say, what’s the goal of the spiritual life? And how can we best attain it?
Christians, for example, have practiced specific spiritual disciplines for hundreds of years, believing that practices such as prayer, meditation, silence, solitude, fasting, study, worship, confession, service, and simplicity nourished spiritual growth and helped to prevent spiritual sickness.

These specific means for facilitating spiritual life, however, were never considered ends in themselves. Rather, Christians viewed them as means to a end, formation into the image of Christ. His image should be reflected in the mirror of my life. Jesus’’ life, values, power, and love should be fleshed out in my life in such a way that if a person "tasted" my life they would taste Christ.

To put it simply, the goal of spiritual formation is likeness to Christ. If I’m spiritually healthy, when people come in contact with me they should experience Christ in me.

Here’s a picture to keep in mind as we talk about these matters.
Think of a wheel. The center is the hub on which the entire wheel rotates. The spokes of the wheel communicate the power manufactured by the axle or hub to the rim of the wheel and also support the rim of the wheel in its contact with the road. Just as the hub of the wheel is the center of its power, the source on which everything depends, so Christ himself is at the center of the believer’s life. The rim of the wheel represents our daily encounters, rough or smooth, with the world around us. The spokes? Here we have the means God uses to communicate and nourish Christ’’s life in us so that our life in the world faithfully reflects our relationship with him. Let’’s take a moment to focus on the center of the wheel, our life in Christ.

I want to suggest four key words that capture well the heart of the spiritual life:
"Love", "Image", "Maturity", and "Perseverance."
Each one of these words expresses a possible model for the goal of spiritual formation.

1. The goal of a healthy spiritual life is love. Jesus taught that the whole of God’’s law is summed up in loving God with all we are and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. God’’s intention is to recreate and reform our character so that we are capable of freely loving in this way. In becoming more like Christ we become creatures capable of the self-less, self-giving love of God. In the life of discipleship we are called to learn how to relate to God and to each other in loving rather than indifferent, hostile, or selfish ways.

2. The goal of a healthy spiritual life is reformation into the image of Christ. Our actions, attitudes, relationships, and words are to be signs or parables of the character or activity of God. Our human lives, for the brief span God gives us in this present in-between time between Jesus’’ first and second coming, are meant to manifest to the watching world around us what God is like. If God is loving, then we portray what God is like when we are loving. If God preserves and cherishes life, then we reflect God’’s attitudes and actions when we care for and protect life against death. If God seeks justice and righteousness in society, then we become small parables of God when we establish justice in some small way in our society. If God cares about kids, we reflect God in our own love for them. So the goal of spiritual formation, at least as imagers, is the concrete reflection of Christ in us and his actions in the world around us. Often we describe imaging by the short-hand phrase "Christ-likeness."

3. The goal of spiritual life is maturity in Christ. The goal is, as Paul put it, the edification and growth of the whole body of believers, "until all of us come to the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). Maturity is seen in well-rounded, fully developed character, a person with wisdom as well as knowledge, with experience in distinguishing good and evil in real life situations, a person who understands how people and cultures work so as to be able to live a pure and compassionate life that is expressive of God’’s purposes and ways. This means the goal of spiritual formation is not simply learning a certain set of moral rules or conforming one’’s life to an established style of ministry or passing an exam that shows one has mastered large amounts of information about the Bible and the spiritual life. Maturity is more than all these things.

4. Finally, the goal of spiritual formation is perseverance——running the race well, fighting the good fight, persevering in the midst of discouragement, suffering, and bewilderment——with the result that one day God says to us, "I’’m so proud of you. You never gave up, even when you were confused and hurt. I gave you a rough path to walk and you walked it well. You used the gift of years I gave you so wisely. My kingdom was extended because of your faithfulness, steadfastness, and perseverance. Welcome home." To use the language of biblical writers, the goal is to be found well-pleasing to God on that great day when we stand before the Great White Throne and our works are tested; or to be the Bride who is pure and unblemished at the marriage feast of the Lamb; or to be among the sheep who are brought into the fold of the Shepherd rather than among the goats.

So——these are fours ways of describing the center or goal of Christian growth——loving as God loves, imaging God on earth, maturing into the fullness of Christ, finishing the race completely and excellently.

If these descriptions characterize the goal, how can we move effectively and safely toward cultivating these characteristics in our lives? Surely by heeding Christ’’s call to faithful discipleship and embracing the very means he practiced to maintain his own spiritual health. As we draw this month’’s column to a close, let’s explore briefly one aspect of Christ’’s call to discipleship and meditate upon it over the coming days.

First and foremost, Christ’s call to discipleship is a call to change. After taking last month’s spiritual inventory, it’s probably clear to us that Jesus is calling us to change in a number of areas, for our sakes and for the sake of others. Think of Jesus’ call to each of the apostles. If they were to heed his call and follow him, they had to leave certain things behind.

As Christian leaders, almost all of us understand the centrality of "leaving" as an integral aspect of discipleship. For the first disciples, as for many of us, this "leaving" meant a radical change in vocation and livelihood. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were explicitly asked by Jesus to leave their fishing nets behind as Jesus called them to follow him. "Leaving" also entails, however, the loving and firm call of God to surrender deeply loved or loathed emotional, spiritual, or physical habit patterns to the healing touch of Christ. Some will be returned to us after they have been further refined. In time, others will be left behind for good.

Many Christian leaders, for example, remain trapped by fear. If they are not in control of every aspect of their ministry, anxiety mounts. Other leaders are enslaved by ingrained patterns of behavior or attitude that have been consciously or unconsciously nurtured for years; examples include anger, ill-temper, laziness, envy, greed, or various sexual addictions. On a cognitive level, we understand Christ has called us to substantial freedom from these traits and behaviors, but we are unable to break free. The frequent result is spiritual discouragement or self-deception.

And so we ask a very difficult question: What is our gracious Lord asking us to leave behind as we heed his call to discipleship? A destructive habit pattern that has plagued us for years?
A relationship that we know is far outside God’s will for our life? Different fears and anxieties that have controlled our lives for too long? Memories that continue to poison our lives today? Hard questions, but good ones.

Checking Your Spiritual Health

Which of the following scenarios describes your spiritual life ?

1. Tired. I must admit I'm tired——tired of running to so many meetings, trying to carry so many needs. I have been working so hard for so long that, frankly, I'm numb. I haven't felt really close to God for months. Reading the Bible has gotten stale and dreary. I can't remember the last time the Bible's words leapt off the page as though it were a word of God directed right at me.

2. On a Plateau. Where am I with God? On a plateau, I think. God isn't far away——but I can't say I have any sense of significant change in my life for the last four or five years. I keep struggling with the same emotions, habit patterns, temptations, the same old arguments with my spouse, the same conflicts over ministry priorities and style with my church or ministry team. It's just not like it was when I was converted and everything seemed new and different.

3. Struggling at Home. When I'm with others singing and praying, perhaps in a worship service or leading a youth group meeting, I feel great. But when I'm back at home or in my office, I feel alone, dull, ineffective, drifting. My marriage has been ok——well, maybe not even that good. It seems my wife and I have settled down to having the same problems, the same arguments, the same dead ends for the last decade. I'm almost always glad when I can leave on a ministry trip and dread coming back home. Sometimes I wonder if I'm married to the right person.

4. Jaded. I'm increasingly skeptical about the possibility of genuine spiritual growth taking place in me or the kids I work with. As far as I'm concerned, we've oversold the spiritual life——made it shine so bright in testimony and books, all advertising dozens of new techniques and secrets to the Christian life——so that the humdrum of Christian living I'm experiencing looks like a dead corpse in the morgue. I don't care whether it is the Pentecostals, the Deeper Life people, the Spirit-filled emphasis, twelve step spirituality——none of it works very well. We've got to get real, to be authentic, to stop kidding ourselves that there is a formula for spiritual health——and "you can discover it if you buy my book or come to my seminar!!"

5. Confused. I don't know. I think I'm doing okay. I can't say that things are terrible in my spiritual life. I've had some good results in leading Bible studies lately and things are going well in my youth group. But there isn't much appetite or hunger for God in my life. I seem to be struggling with God's will. Am I doing what God wants me to do——really wants me to do? Overall, things seem murky and uncertain. Most of the time I feel like I'm in a fog. Is there anything I can do to clear the air, or to change metaphors, to clean the carbon out of my spiritual engine?

Dazed and Confused If one of these scenarios describes you, don't be surprised. Over the past seven years I have discovered that Christians, leaders or not, are experiencing a deep sense of confusion and disillusionment in their spiritual lives. Many people admit a radical disjunction between what they confess with their minds, believe in their hearts, and experience in their daily patterns of living.

Consider the following example: I have come to fully expect that within a group of 40 to 60 congregants, many will be sexually active, struggling with substance abuse, alienated from parents, victims of rape or incest, and confused in their sexual orientation.
Many of my African-American parishioners speak of continuing encounters with racism in the white church.
Some folk, particularly women, recurrently relate their distrust of pastors because of the emotional and occasional sexual abuse they have suffered from their church leaders. Other women share the frustration of leading a. marginalized existence as their home church and Christian community remain blind to the gifts and abilities these women long to offer to Christ.

Maybe the people who attend my church are uniquely crippled in their life experiences and level of spiritual health and maturity. As I have shared my experiences with colleagues who pastor at other Christian churches, though, my observations and misgivings have been confirmed.

Other pastors share with me similar horror stories. The same themes keep reappearing. Congregants battle struggles with or exposure to sexual sin and abuse on a broad scale, substance abuse, racism, loss of purpose, vision, and call, self-absorption and self-indulgence, self-righteousness and mean-spiritedness. The list could easily be lengthened.

What is happening? Why does the Christian community appear to be so sick? What is this virus that has entered the church bloodstream, this bacterium that threatens to undercut our ability to present a viable, genuine witness for Christ to what Francis Schaeffer coined "a watching world"? Or to play off J.B. Phillip's translation of Romans 12:2, is the pressure of the surrounding North American cultural consensus squeezing us into a foreign mold?

Have you experienced this same gap between word and life, between affirmation and reality? Do you hunger for a greater reality to your spiritual life, refreshment and renewal rather than stagnation and frustration? If so, know that you are one of many.

People involved in youth ministry often find it more and more difficult to retain control over what they spend their time doing——and yet it is our time and what we do with it that can facilitate our life with Christ, enabling us to remain strong and vibrant amidst the bruising and exhausting struggles of ministry all of us face. Indeed, I would argue that God has provided us with specific means to refresh and renew us prayer, study, worship, confession, fasting, service, meditation, silence, solitude disciplines that at first glance might appear burdensome and even legalistic, but in reality can be channels of God's grace and love to us and those around us.

Know that I assume you are already doing things to nurture and strengthen your life with Christ. So I won’t be starting at the beginning——but rather in mid-stream. I want to enhance the good things that you are doing already. The last thing I want to do is to cut off what is vital and living. Rather, I hope you will build on what is already strong.

A Basic Question; Allow me to leave you with a basic question that we'll begin to investigate together in future articles: What is the present state of affairs in my spiritual life? For example, Christian leaders frequently relate the following struggles. Do their difficult experiences match up with your own?

•• 1. Some leaders struggle because they are not very wise and are not affirming the goodness of the limits all humans have. They are not sleeping enough. They are overextending themselves for months and years in exhausting activity.

•• 2. Others struggle because they have the weight of years of bad habits built into them from the time before they became Christians. Some were abused as children and have painful, unhealed wounds that continue to fester within. Some simply have temperaments that are oversensitive or prone to depression or high levels of fear and anxiety.

•• 3. Some are lonely and isolated, not having a small, accepting, affirming community of fellow believers where they can be totally candid. They need mature friends who will help mentor and model better patterns of living. They have no place where their struggles and longings can be expressed and supported in confidential prayer and confession.

•• 4. Some don't know what's the matter. They simply are moving through life without any notion that God wants something deeper, broader, and more vital than what they have seen so far. Some are trapped by secret sins whose grip seems so strong they have never been free from them for long.

•• 5. Some have inadequate ideas of what it takes to become Christ-like. They've thought a disciplined spiritual life is a matter of works-righteousness rather than grace. For others, grace means there doesn’’t need to be any effort on our part. God’s part in making us like Christ has no relationship to anything we are to do in becoming like Christ.

Does Any of This Sound Familiar?
Does your own self-analysis of your present spiritual health match up with one of these areas? Don't be discouraged. The first step toward spiritual health is to diagnose carefully what the problem is. This might take a few weeks. Don't rush. And surround the entire process with prayer, all the while knowing that anything you discover is no surprise to Jesus.

Impulsive Decisions Proverbs 6:27-28

One night at Jr. Hi Church Camp we had a big bonfire. The next day, during free time, a friend and I walked past the place where the bonfire had been held. It was now a big pile of fluffy, soft, gray ashes. "Wouldn't it be fun to jump in the middle of that pile?" my friend asked. Being uncharacteristically cautious, I said, "Won't we get in trouble? Won't we get dirty? Won't we get caught?" He said, "Naaa! We'll jump in the pool afterwards and who'll know the difference?" I agreed and began taking off my shoes. He was faster than me, and raced barefoot into the pile.

What couldn't be seen underneath the top layer of gray ash were the embers still burning from the night before. They couldn't be seen, but they could be felt. My friend, never having been to a Tony Robbins seminar, wasn't prepared for the effect the red hot coals would have on his tender feet. He started yelling and jumping up and down, trying to get out of the ashes as fast he could, (dispelling, in the process, the myth that Nazarenes don't dance).

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the nurse's station. Even though I got through the experience unscathed, I stuck around for moral support. The question we were asked again and again was, "What possessed you to jump into a pile of burning embers?" The only answer we could come up with was something along the lines of "It seemed like a good idea at the time." The truth, of course, was that we didn't think about what we were doing. We made an impulsive, split-second decision without considering the consequences.

We do a lot of things in life that seem like a good idea at the time. Maybe it appears to be the easiest thing to do, or the most exciting thing to do, or the most expedient thing to do, but we make these spur-of-the-moment decisions without thinking them through, and inevitably, we end up getting burned. Solomon warned of the consequences of impulsive decisions when he said...Can a man scoop fire into his lap without being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without being scorched? (Proverbs 6:27-28)

Solomon was speaking specifically about sexual sin, but the principle applies to every foolish choice we make. A person can't make emotional, impulsive decisions based solely upon surface-level appearances without getting burned. Maybe this is where you find yourself right now. Maybe you've gotten into a relationship that has disaster written all over it. Maybe you've taken a job that is forcing you to compromise your faith. Maybe you're pursuing dreams that can only turn into nightmares. And you're in this position because you took a running leap before thinking things through.

If that is the case, there are only two things you can do. One, ask God to help you get out of the fire as fast as possible before you get burned any further. Two, decide quickly never to decide quickly again. Take your time before making a decision. The best decisions I've made are the ones that I've made slowly, prayerfully, and with much advice. It seems the longer it takes me to make a major decision, the more likely I am to discover God's will in the matter.

I wish I could say my friend's firewalk taught me a lesson about impulsive decisions. However, if you looked at the bottom of my feet, you would see a few scars. And though I've learned that God is merciful enough to pull us out of the fire of dumb decisions, I've also learned that life works much better when we allow him to direct our steps away from the burning coals.

Creed

What do I aim for when success seems like a moving target?

I WAS attending my first-ever pastor's conference. As I entered the elevator, I was feeling pretty good about ministry.

It was then that a pastor, I had never met before, introduced himself. We exchanged niceties, and then he asked forcefully, "So, Mark, what is your vision for evangelizing the communities in your area? How many people have you personally led to Christ this year? Do you have a strategy?"

We arrived at my floor, and I bid him farewell after only mumbling a few dull responses to his pointed questions. On an elevator ride of seven floors, I had been reduced from feeling affirmed to feeling like a total failure. I did not have the right answers for this man. He had hit me at our ministry's weakest point - evangelism.

I went back to the room to do some hard thinking. The challenge from my aggressive friend was appropriate for two reasons. First, it delivered me from a complacent feeling that our ministry was satisfactory in all respects. But the second impact of that conversation was more significant: His challenge got me thinking about success.

What is success? Is it doing everything that speakers and seminar leaders say I should be doing? Is it having a strategy to evangelize the communities in my area?

The conversation, difficult as it was, reminded me of a book by Robert Raines, Success Is a Moving Target.

Why do we fail spiritually? Because we sacrifice our spiritual lives in pursuit of what we perceive to be success. That moving target called success introduces us to this second in a series of articles that look at some of the hurdles we face in ministry leadership.

Is the Hurdle Getting Higher or Am I Jumping Lower?
Imagine a hurdle that increased 12 inches in height at the moment the runner attempted to straddle it. It would knock him down or knock him completely out of the race! That's the way it is with success. Just as we think we can attain the goal that we think will make us feel successful, it shoots up and blocks us. The pursuit of success cries for more——a few more people, a few more programs, a few more verses memorized, a few more goals achieved.
David Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men in the world, illustrated it when he was asked, "How much money is enough?" He responded, "A few thousand dollars more."

•• Pursuing success knocks us down spiritually because it makes us feel like failures.
"One of the main deceptions we tend to believe," writes Robert McGee, "is that success will bring fulfilment and happiness. Again and again we've tried to measure up, thinking that if we could meet certain standards, we would feel good about ourselves. But again and again we fail, and we are left feeling miserable. Even if we succeed almost all of the time, occasional failure can be so devastating that it can dominate our perception of ourselves."

In a ministry seminar I led, I asked the question, "In twenty years, what would need to be true for you to look back and say, 'I have been a success'?" One young man responded, "If the people I am working with today are still walking with the Lord, I have been successful. Their ongoing faithfulness is the measure of my effectiveness."

Listeners sighed with admiration at this measurement. Who doesn't want to be like John the apostle, finding joy to hear of our "Spiritual children" walking in the truth (2 John 4)? My mind flashed to Jeff and Glenn, missionaries in Japan, to Tom in Bible College, to Holly in youth ministry leadership, to Elaina finishing her master's degree in social work.

When I thought of the people I had worked with five to ten years earlier, I felt like a success by his definition. But then I remembered others. People from my ministry, including even those who had served on our discipleship-focused missions teams, who now suffered from alcohol dependency, whose marriages were in shambles, who had committed suicide, whose faith had been left at the high school graduation ceremony as they went off to become party animals.

My thoughts of these people dissipated any thoughts of success that I had entertained earlier. My mind roamed to thoughts of spiritual failure: Who was I to think that I had had any impact on others?

•• Pursuing success knocks us down spiritually because we get caught in the cycle of comparison.
James and Mary Tillman wrote a thought-provoking book on racism titled Why America Needs Poverty and Racism.
In the book they argue that many of the 'isms' (race, class and sex for example) are built on the American way of identity formation at someone else's expense. A poor white person finds peace because "At least I'm not black", and a middle-class black person finds peace because "At least I'm not poor".

The basic idea is expressed in the Pharisee's prayer: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector" (Luke 18:11).
The cycle fails, however, because our comparisons down-ward (at least I'm not like...... ) are overshadowed by those over us. If I feel superior by comparing myself to others who've written no books. But what do I do with my friend Neil Wiseman who has written ten times my total?

The comparison cycle draws me like a fly into the spider's web. "Well", I reason, "maybe he has ghost writers or a research staff". As I try to defend my self-esteem, now shaky because I am not as successful as I thought, I rationalize by making myself equal to those who are conspicuously more successful than I.

And we do it in ministry. If we feel successful because our church group has the best program in town——the hottest mission trip, the biggest rally——we are setting a standard of success based on comparison, and this will lead either to pride or to despair.

The pursuit of success knocks us down spiritually because it creates false images of successful people. At one of my first ministers' gatherings, I went to every seminar, notebook in hand, hungry for the keys to effective Bible study, the best methods of youth discipleship, the design for effective ministry talks, and the sure-fire solutions to mobilizing church folk. I listened. I took notes. I gobbled it up.

But two weeks after the conference, I felt depressed. I had learned the keys to effectiveness (or so I thought) at these seminars, but I couldn't seem to implement them. Fortunately, an older, more experienced pastor helped me process my perceived failure: "You are suffering under the illusion that every one of the speakers you heard is implementing every one of the ideas you learned. Chances are, the woman who spoke on discipleship does that very well, but her Sunday-school program might be nil. The man who spoke on effective sermons, how does he organize a retreat?"

His point made sense. The specialists in each area made me feel (although unintentionally) that unless in every area of my ministry I were as successful as they were in their specialization, I was a failure. I have since learned that there are no super-hero pastors. Even the most successful in one area might be a dismal failure somewhere else.

•• The pursuit of success knocks us down spiritually because it leaves us at the mercy of others' opinions. For most of us, success is determined more by what others say about us than by what we feel about ourselves. If this is true, we are in for a roller-coaster ride because the feedback we get from others is seldom uniform. In fact, Jesus warns us to beware if everyone speaks well of us (Luke 6:26).

As pastor I was often given other ministerial responsibilities to help broaden my experience. On one occasion I was leading a service at a nursing home. Since they expected me to look pastoral, I had donned a sport coat - a brown plaid that I considered my best - and tie for the occasion. I led the service, gave a brief devotional, and closed in prayer. Most of the attendees filed out mumbling something like, "Thank you, Reverend", or, "Nice service Pastor", under their breath. I suppose I was feeling a little smug about my versatility - able to speak to a nursing home audience by day and to enthusiastic teenagers by night.

A spunky looking lady in a wheelchair rolled towards me. She seemed harmless, so I prayed (pridefully), "God, help me to handle affirmation without pride". I grasped both of her hands, as a Minister of Pastoral Care would have done, and gave her a warm greeting. "Young man", she said sternly, "I never thought I would live to see the day when a minister would wear a coat like that!" And she wheeled away.

In one short comment she reduced the versatile young minister to a blight on the ministry. If our posture in ministry depends on the commentary of others, we will either find ourselves distracted in search of the praises of men and women or devastated by those who criticize us. Ultimate spiritual success is getting God's approval, not others.

•• The pursuit of success knocks us down spiritually because it leaves us unfulfilled when we do achieve it.
After the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, Cliff Harris, the safety, described his feelings: "You have something to look forward to only if you lose. After we won I looked over at Charlie Waters and whispered, 'But who do we play next?' When you win the super Bowl——I hesitate to say it——you're depressed."
Success is not all that people make it out to be. Realities of life temper it (as in our case) or feelings of loss force us to re-evaluate it (as in Cliff Harris' case).

•• The pursuit of success knocks us down spiritually because it distracts our focus.
On many days I know that I've cheated my wife out of time together because I had to make one extra phone call or spend a few extra minutes in preparation. In my desire to be successful, I strove to care for others while ignoring the person I care about most. When success becomes the goal, other priorities are pushed into second place.

Those who "want" to burn out in ministry——in their search for success——Make sure you stay so busy you don't have time for God. A good formula to follow is to spend ninety-eight percent of your time and energy running around telling people how wonderful it is to have a personal relationship with God, leaving two percent of your time and energy for your own relationship with Him.

This highlights the greatest pitfall of the pursuit of success; it distracts us from what should be our top priority: our relationship with God. Even the goal of Christian growth should be secondary to this relationship. As soon as we are preoccupied with our own progress as Christians, we take our eyes off of Jesus and put them on ourselves. Honoring Christ should be our foremost priority.

When worldly success dominates our thinking, we focus our attention on power. We try to orchestrate situations to put ourselves in the best light, rather than simply serving and leaving our reputations in God's hands. The temptation to be successful is the third temptation of Jesus.

After showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the World and their splendor, the Devil said, "All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me" (Matt. 4:9). "Circumvent God's way, sacrifice your priorities, and I will give you success beyond belief, "says the Devil—— to Jesus and to us.

God does not call us to success. He calls us to faithfulness and fruitfulness. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of god. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful" (1 Cor. 4:1-2).
Faithfulness and fruitfulness is difficult, but it is not impossible. As we commit ourselves to spiritual growth and health, we need to make sure that we are pursuing God's best for us——namely, faithfulness to him.

The Spirit-Led Church

The Holy Spirit's Leadership. . . Yes even in the church!

We run to conferences, flock to seminars and scour bookstores, looking to the church-growth gurus for the latest secrets that will teach us how to maximize our ministries. But the real key has a whole lot less to do with us and a whole lot more to do with Him.

Traveling and speaking at numerous conferences and seminars, I am often asked by fellow pastors, "What is the No. 1 church conference to attend?" As the new editor of MinistryNow.org and having written for a number of others periodicals, I constantly peruse the newest church magazines. What I see is what you see: page after page of conference ads, all heralding themselves as the best, the premier, conference of the year.

Immediately the reader searches the faces of those shining stars pictured in the ads. Depending on the reader's experience and bias, various charismatic speakers carry varying degrees of the weight of glory.

First the heavyweights--those who are in greatest demand. Their books are best sellers. Their appearances at conferences draw the largest crowds. Their offerings reach into the highest levels of sowing and reaping.

Next are the lightweights. They are the emerging spiritual warriors who will definitely open the heavens above a city, although not quite as much glory pours out as when the heavyweights speak. Nonetheless, the reader nods in recognition that the mixture of heavyweights and lightweights could definitely provide the breakthrough needed--especially if early registration is paid, space in the actual conference hotel is booked and the reader arrives early to sit as close to the front as possible.

Obviously, I'm being a bit facetious. But with such a variety of leadership conferences and church-growth models, how do we know which paradigm is best?

Admittedly, I have chased both the rising and falling stars of church-growth experts. Early on, I went to Robert Schuller's leadership events. Then followed John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and others. All have great insights and inspirational messages. And books...good heavens, do I have the books!

Based on the number of conferences I have attended both as a participant and a speaker--not to mention my education, all the books I've read and 10+ years of pastoral experience--I should now have the largest church in my city. But alas, I don't. Hence, I must still be at least one conference short of my breakthrough!

Let me share what I've observed in church-growth paradigms, and then what works. Every model has an upside and a downside save one. Each prototype does offer us some constructive elements but cannot by itself give a total picture.

MINISTRY PARADIGMS

Most church-growth paradigms, as much as they try not to, still have some limitations built into their designs due to cultural biases and the creators' blind spots. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here are some examples.

1. The past-driven church. The past-driven church tries to drive forward by looking constantly in the rearview mirror. The way things used to be done dictate the boundaries for the present. Glory days are fondly remembered. Pictures and memories from the big events of the past are regularly projected before the people.

Strengths: Much can be learned from the past; past successes build hope for the future; a history gives stability and foundation. Weaknesses: The past limits the present; past successes can become idols; history can become a grave.

2. The policy-driven church. The policy-driven church finds itself driving a certain model built and shaped by pioneers. Like automobiles, churches have makes and models. We have the make called "Baptist" and the model called "Southern" Or the make called "Holiness, " or "Wesleyan," or "Methodist," and the model called "Church of the Nazarene." We even have the make called "Non-denominational" and the model called "faith," "healing," "latter rain" or "new wave."

The policies of the pioneers, either as oral or written tradition, govern the directions and thoughts of policy-driven leaders. The policies of the way worship should flow, the style people should preach in, or the way structure or governance must be implemented are all essentials for the policy-driven church.

Strengths: Policies, tested and true, provide firm footing; policies provide for needed accountability; policies provide structures for decision-making. Weaknesses: Policies often take priority over people; policies limit creativity; policies inhibit the new thing God is doing.

3. The personality-driven or pastor-driven church. In the personality-driven church, the present leader-visionary drives all that happens, or a past leader's ghost haunts everything. In a pastor-driven church, it's almost impossible for an outsider to succeed the founder. Only an insider who carefully maintains the vision of the founder can assume the mantle of ongoing leadership.

What often happens in the personality-driven church is that a family member or close associate of the founding pastor takes the reins of succession. If an outsider is brought in, the frequent scenario that unfolds sees the successor become an unintentional interim pastor lasting but a few years. Or, the successor slowly "runs off" the old diehards and eventually after five to seven years takes over the church, which by then essentially has a whole new constituency who never knew the founding pastor. Or, the successor so radically changes things that he either fosters a mutiny or leads one.

Strengths: A strong personality gives vision and leadership; dynamic personalities attract followers; decisions are efficiently made by strong leaders. Weaknesses: Strong leaders often surround themselves with weaker staff and laity; sheep often will follow only one shepherd; laity are rarely released into ministry.

4. The program-driven or people-driven church. This church usually has the well-worn philosophy, "Find a need and meet it; find a hurt and heal it." If the need is youth or children's ministry, then the program-driven church builds the best youth or children's ministry program in the area. If the need is to help hurting people, then the church abounds with self-help and recovery programs.

Whenever a new group of people voices a need or hurt, the leaders promptly find the best program, fund the resources and train the facilitators to get the job done. The church grows by fishing with hooks and bait. The bait is a new program to attract people. They are hooked into the church through taking the program bait.

Strengths: Effective programs meet the needs of many people; programs keep people involved in ministry; people make decisions democratically or through consensus, giving many people a feel of ownership. Weaknesses: Ineffective programs die hard; programs segment a congregation and create program "turf wars"; people not having a program to meet their particular needs leave.

5. The purpose-driven church. This paradigm springs out of a mission or purpose statement that comes from a visionary leader or leadership team. That purpose or mission-vision statement has core values that permeate everything the church does. If a program, position or people group is not on-purpose, then it must change or cease to exist.

Everything in the purpose-driven church fits neatly together like a complete jigsaw puzzle. From the parking lot workers to the greeters, from the part-time volunteers to the full-time pastors, from the Sunday morning bulletins to the new members' packets, everything looks, feels, talks and implements the church's purpose.

Strengths: Everyone and everything stays on-purpose; decisions are facilitated by understanding everyone's purpose and core values; unity and cohesion emerge from team ministry. Weaknesses: Specific purpose or mission statements may tend to exclude some; important decisions may be ignored if their tangency to the purpose is not immediately recognizable; new purpose is difficult to birth.

All of these paradigms have something to contribute to congregational life. Still, no one paradigm encompasses all of these models. Each model tends to exclude the others and demands a church's ultimate loyalty.

However, it is possible to envision all of the above as parts of a car. Each part or paradigm fits as an important part of the whole. The windows might be purpose. The doors might be the programs. The steering wheel could be the personality or pastor. The past could be the body or frame. The policies may be the engine.

But what makes it go? That which powers the vehicle must come from outside the structure. It must constantly flow, be renewed and be replenished.

That power is God's Spirit. It is God's presence continually birthing new people into the kingdom, constantly healing and delivering the hurting and bound, and creatively birthing new purposes that build on the solid foundations laid in the past through biblical principles, persistent prayer, and powerful signs and wonders. This is the Spirit-Led Church.

SPIRIT-LED CHURCH GROWTH

A Spirit-Led Church may encompass some or all of the above paradigms. However, God's presence precedes and permeates all other models of church growth. Without His presence, church growth is simply a menagerie of methodologies doomed to temporality. A method may work for the moment, but shouldn't our desire be to do only that which has eternal impact?

Radical? Absolutely! It's time we return to our roots. Church growth is rooted in what God does rather than what we devise. Too often we are so busy with good ideas on how to get people through the door that God's ideas get lost in the shuffle.

Going back to our roots in Scripture, being a Spirit-Led Church literally derives from Ephesians 5:18, where Paul instructs us to "be filled with the Spirit" (NKJV). The filling referred to here projects the image of a sail being filled with the wind (the ruwach, or wind, of God). The breath of God's Spirit must fill the church, empowering it to move forward into God's destiny.

God's Spirit births every movement of our church. Without being Spirit-Led, the church sits listlessly in time, like a sailboat going nowhere in a calm sea. We can use our paradigm as paddles and row as hard as we like, but the forward progress is negligible. Or, we can hoist our sails of worship, catch the wind of His Spirit and move forward into His purpose, plans and productivity (fruit) in ministry.

Two concerns dominate our attention in considering what a Spirit-Led church looks like:
(1) the process--by what birthing process does God's presence impregnate us with both the vision and power to bear lasting fruit for His glory? And --

(2) the proof--what does the DNA of a Spirit-Led contain? What genes mark the church that any discerning believer can observe without a Th.D., D.Min or a lifetime of pastoral experience? What evidence can we see by which we know that a church's growth is rooted in Spirit Leadership?

God's Spirit always births. From the beginning, God created something out of nothing. God is the only One who creates something from nothing.

His creative process begets that which is radically new (see Is. 43:18-19; 2 Cor. 5:17). As such, we can always expect God to be doing a new thing in our midst. Therefore, the irreducible constant of a presence-driven church is change.

Spirit-Led churches are to be constantly having babies--literally and figuratively. God's Spirit shows up, and the impossible is birthed.

Remember the example of Abraham and Sarah? They were going to have a baby (see Gen. 16-17). Both laughed. Both tried to birth an Ishmael--their own idea and creation--instead of Isaac, who was God's answer to the future. How many human driven churches find that they are constantly birthing Ishmaels instead of Isaacs?

Let's take a closer look at the process that takes place in a Spirit-Led ministry.

1. Spirit Leadership births purpose. Every purpose goes through a gestation process requiring time, trials, tests and tribulations. Birthing never happens immediately after conception.

Human-driven churches, however, are constantly trying to achieve a purpose too soon, and that always results in miscarriage. God's purpose is always for an appointed time (see Eccl. 3:1; John 12:27). Presence-birthed purpose cannot be thwarted or nullified (see Is. 14:27).

Some advocate that God just has one purpose, or one plan, for a church. Such a mind-set limits the limitless God. In the Spirit-Led church, the church flows in a river of the Spirit moving from one purpose into the next as God's Spirit directs. Each Spirit-breathed purpose builds on the previous one and leads to the next.

A prophetic word may come to a church, discerning a coming purpose. Leadership must be careful to discern the hour of the heralded purpose. To rush into it prematurely can wreak havoc in a church. To procrastinate may bring decay, or even death, to a body. God's given purpose for a particular time requires implementation at the right time, in the right way and with the right motivation.

2. Purpose births plans. The Spirit-birthed purpose implemented by a church in "the fullness of time" births a plethora of plans. Why? Because of the prodigality of God. God never creates just one star, one wildflower or one snowflake. The God with cattle on a thousand hills always births a purpose explosive with possibilities, potential and an abundance of plans.
Since we humans often defile, destroy or desecrate that which is holy, God has a built-in, fail-safe method of growth for us. We cannot fail because if we "kill" one plan, another immediately replaces it.

Whatever we touch, we can potentially mess up due to our selfishness/ego/or agendas. However, God has such an abundance of plans (see Jer. 29:11; John 10:10) that we cannot fail for lack of plans. Our job is to be persistent in prayer, patient in planning and prepared to apply biblical principles at every turn. Tragically, some churches fail to grow because they give up on God's plans right before a breakthrough.

3. Plans birth productivity. The bottom line for every ministry is fruit (see John 15): people saved, healed and delivered. If a plan ceases to be productive, discard it. When a purpose ceases to birth plans, its season is past. Be still. Rest in God's presence as the new purpose is birthed.
To sum it up, the process in a spirit-led church is God's presence, which births purpose, which births plans, which births productivity.

BEING SPIRIT-LED

What marks the Spirit-Led church? Should we examine the matrix of its DNA, what genes would we uncover as proof that, in fact, the Spirit of God is actually driving or propelling the church forward?

What the world and some liberal theologians deem extraordinary and singular or unrepeatable in history is quite the contrary. Acts 1-2 is both normative and indicative of what the spirit-led church looks like in the 21st century. While the various church-growth paradigms mentioned earlier are in operation all around us, they cannot become the foundations on which we build. While they may be the parts of the vehicle, they will never be the power or gas that drives the vehicle.

So, what are the ingredients of the gas? Or, what are the genes of the spirit-led church's DNA? The following proposed list is not exhaustive, but it is, at the least, a beginning point for assessing whether or not the church being grown is spirit-birthed and on-purpose or simply an Ishmael posing ever so weakly as an Isaac.

These genes mark the church growing in the Spirit for our times. Each gene identified is evidenced in Acts 1-2. The 21 marks of the spirit-led church are:

1. Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Not just a touch, but total immersion with the Spirit; the Spirit immersing in you. Not just the individuals, but the organization as well. (Corporate Sanctification)

2. Holy Spirit Empowered. Not just any power, but authoritative power that works the miraclous.

3. Expectation of Jesus' return. Not just lip service about His presence, but an expectation of His return.

4. One-accord unity. Not just a superficial consensus, but an indivisible covenant.

5. Prayer and supplication. Not just vain repetitions, but intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered.

6. Apostolic leadership. Not just leadership within a local body, but bold leadership for the church in a city or region.

7. Filled with the Spirit. Not just led by the Spirit, but driven and empowered by the Spirit.

8. Spirit Language; Allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through you. This is not just a loud cacophony of estactical gossolayical utterances, rather a river of understandable human language flowing under the Spirit's guidance, speaking under the annointing of the Holy Spirit, accomplishing seemingly impossible spiritual breakthroughs, conversion of sinners, and the building up of others according to their needs.

9. Signs and wonders. Not just to impress the saved, but to witness to the lost.

10. Prophetic witness. Not ministering the prophetic to the saved, but releasing the prophetic to persuade the lost.

11. Bold proclamation and preaching. Not just preaching to the choir, but proclamation from the Word with boldness to please God, not to tickle human ears.

12. Exalting Jesus. Not just a motivational message, but an exaltation and passionate adoration of Jesus the Nazarene, the risen Lord.

13. Repentance with Public Profession of Faith, water baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Not just transfer growth, but true conversion with spiritual babies being born frequently.

14. Many being saved daily. Not just rededications, but the lost daily being snatched from hell by the Good Shepherd through bold, unashamed witnessing. Not just adding to the church, but moving into multiplication (see Acts 6:7).

15. Sound doctrine. Not just teaching for knowledge, but for impartation and equipping the saints to do the work of ministry.

16. Fellowship. Not just meeting as strangers in a service, but body ministry one to another.

17. Breaking of bread. Not just a ritual of the Lord's Supper, but a deep communion partaking of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus.

18. Holy fear of God. Not just reverence and respect, but a holy fear akin to the fear that moved Noah to build an ark of salvation for his whole household.

19. Faith together. Not just faith trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord, but faith together to hear the incredible, see the invisible and do the impossible together as His body.

20. Sharing to meet needs. Not just a benevolence fund, but a substantial sharing that could meet the deepest physical needs of people.

21. Joyful gladness, simplicity, favor and praise. Not just a warm, fuzzy feeling generated by a great service, but a simple, heartfelt joy that praises God no matter what the circumstance.
Should you boldly dare to go where few churches have gone before, prepare yourself for stringent challenges posed not just by the world or the enemy (though their attacks will be furious). First, brace yourself for attacks from within your church. Those wedded to a human-driven model will fight hard to hold on to it. Those professing to be with you through thick and thin may be the first to take flight when the Spirit is given full liberty to change the church from organization to organism, from institution to instituting, and from internal revival to reconciling the world to Jesus.

Where do you start? The transformation from a human-driven to a Spirit-Led church begins with you. The Spirit-Led church emerges from the Spirit-Led life of it's people who are totally, radically, irrevocably surrendered to following Jesus. Such a life says what Moses declared: " 'If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here'" (Ex. 33:15).

IT'S FRIDAY, BUT... Luke 24:5-8

Most of us have heard, or at least heard about, the sermon called,
"It's Friday, but Sunday's Coming." It's taken from a story by Tony
Campolo, about a message his preaching mentor delivered. The
original sermon went something like this...
"It's Friday. Jesus has been arrested in the garden where he is praying. But
Sunday's coming.
"It's Friday. The disciples have all abandoned their master. Peter denies that
he knows the Lord. But Sunday's coming.
"It's Friday. Jesus is beaten, mocked and ridiculed by the Roman soldiers.
But Sunday's coming."
And on it goes: "It's Friday. Jesus is in the tomb. Heaven is silent. Satan is
laughing because he thinks he's won. But Sunday's coming."
What a great sermon.
For some of you, it's been Friday for a long time. You've taken some hits.
You've lost some battles. You've failed, and then failed again.
Remember, though, it's only Friday.
Sunday's coming.
As the angel said to the women on Easter morning: “Why do you look for the
living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told
you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’”
Then they remembered his words. (Luke 24:5-8)
It may be Friday for you right now; it may have felt like Friday forever — but
Sunday's coming.