Hang in There

I believe that God is good. Not because I’m good but because He is God.  I believe that God will build His church.  Not because I am anything great but because He is God. I believe that God has a special purpose for my life.  Not because I deserve it but because He is God. I believe that just like Joseph in the Book of Genesis, God will use difficulties, trials and testings to grow you, stretch you and mold you, all for the purpose of His being glorified. But those times of hardship can cause us to feel alone, unworthy of our position and empty of worth.

God appeared before a discouraged and empty prophet and said this in 1 Kings 19:

^{1 Kings 19:11} And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. ¹³ And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴ He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” ¹⁵ And the Lord said to him, “Go"

Is the stress of ministry worth it? Elijah wanted to quit. 

Four questions to ask in the midst of discouragement.

Is God loving? – Jeremiah 31:3

           the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Am I trusting? – Proverbs 3:5,6

          Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

You're not trusting God with all your heart, if you're leaning on your own understanding. If you’ve gone to a conference or read a book or saw something online that makes you feel unworthy as a pastor because of another church, another ministry or another pastor, you need to trust God and His purposes for YOU.

Am I casting? – 1 Peter 5:7

          casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

If you are carrying a great burden and feel all alone, learn to pray to God in a way that is similar to sharing your deepest pain, struggles and complaints with a close friend.  This style of prayer is called “the Psalms.”

Am I faithful? – 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Keep planting, keep watering, keep praying, keep preaching, keep teaching, keep loving, keep forgiving, keep DOING.

God is faithful.

Who's more important: You or God?

What are you looking for? What is God's Spirit saying to you? There is a conversation going on in your soul. Your spirit is saying I want peace, I want purpose, I want to enjoy my life. But the Holy Spirit is calling you to seek something first: Mt 6:33. In theological terms this is known as the battle between the doxological and the egological. Doxos – glory, ego – self. We live in a culture obsessed with self. In fact, much of contemporary church today feeds this: Accept Jesus to be happy, accept Jesus to fill whatever void may be in your life. Sermons have titles such as How to be a better parent, how to have a better marriage, how to be successful in life. Listen carefully. These desires are not wrong but they are subtly calling you away from the true purpose of your life: to glorify God. It all begins with Matthew 6:33. It's not that God doesn't want you to have a meaningful life, a good marriage and wonderful kids. It's that He wants you to put Him first. He wants to be your first love, your first desire, your first everything.

Understanding Biblical Success

I attended a conference in Michigan that was hosted by Gordon Zwirkoski and Five Stones Churches on Building commitment to biblical success in the local church.  Here is my response to Gordon on why I enjoyed the conference.


We live in a performance-based culture. What you do for me is more important at times than why you do it or the character with which you do it.

This is true for many modern ministry models. If a person is getting results, is talented or fulfills a perceived need we often do not question the person’s motives or character. We’ve created a ministry model that values performance and results over godly character. Sometimes we even overlook obvious character faults due to the person’s success. There are a multitude of examples of how this is evidenced in today's church.
 
FiveStone Churches is unique in that the core values are character-based. Integrity, authenticity, trust, leadership and service are qualities that are easily found and supported in Scripture and are qualities which work hand-in-hand with the fruit of the Spirit and the Pauline leadership qualities for elders and church leaders.
 
In fact, Paul's call for leaders to be men who are gentle, faithful and persevering shepherds seems to be a distant memory for what we should be in light of the CEO, rancher, business model for ministry that is taken for granted today. While Paul could write from prison that he had fought the good fight and finished the race, today we read of victory through the breaking of attendance records and the square footage of facilities. 

The new paradigm of FiveStone Churches is really a call to return to the biblical foundation of leadership based on character. But this new paradigm creates a tension in many pastors. Today's message to pastors is that church size is the single most important factor in determining success. The second most implied message, and perhaps the most dangerous is that true godliness always results in quantitative growth, not qualitative growth. In conjunction with this is the message that you do spiritual things in order to get visible results. The debate used to be doxological versus soteriological. Our culture now says that you do not seek godliness to glorify God (doxological), you pursue godliness to achieve personal success (egological).

I can't say that numerical success isn't biblical. For example, we have Pentecost as a huge numerical growth because God was working. But for every Pentecost in Scripture there is also an Isaiah (no one listens), a Jeremiah (no one cares) and a Jesus in Capernaum (John 6:67 - everyone leaves).
So at a conference like The Rock Conference where the focus is shifted away from numerical success there is a definite tension. All of the questions we normally ask just don't seem to fit. That's because we've been conditioned to ask questions that have at their core the desire to be successful in the bigger, better, how many, how much realm rather than at the realm of faithfulness and character. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart.

This shift from character-based ministry to performance-based ministry affects not only senior pastors but also associate pastors and staff members.

Many young pastors are involved in ministries where they are told that their job security is based on their performance and not their character. I can cite several examples where good, godly men (both young and old) have been told that they were no longer needed, not because of moral flaws or weaknesses, but because in the estimation of the church's leadership their ministry was not successful or large enough (a youth pastor in San Jose was recently released because he only had 350 in his youth ministry and the senior pastor felt it should be higher; no other reason for his dismissal was given). We are therefore raising a generation of future senior pastors who are taught to intrinsically believe that who they are (character and godly example) is less important than results (performance).

However, this in no way excuses laziness or a poor work ethic (both of which are character deficiencies). 

A common model for hiring staff is to hire in order to compensate for the senior pastor's areas of weakness.  But these weaknesses should be in the area of giftedness and not character. Senior pastors, no matter how successful, need to be held accountable for their character.

In addition, we need to reconsider the foundational purpose for why we hire pastors and staff members. Church leadership and search committees need to openly embrace the concept that we do not hire you to achieve a worldly standard of success. We hire you (as a senior pastor, youth pastor, worship pastor, etc) to: 1. model godliness and godly character, 2. lead by example, 3. be a model in your life and family of integrity, authenticity and trust. 4. develop a ministry that demonstrates and exemplifies these qualities. Church leaders, therefore, also need to commit themselves to hiring leaders in an environment that values godly character over mere numbers. 

Here's how I see this fleshed out: When we hire you we are expecting a strong Christian work ethic. Make no mistake that we want a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. But we also want you to know that when you come on staff at our church we are not simply looking for bigger and better. We want you to grow spiritually, we want you to be successful as a father and a husband. We want who you are to have a greater legacy than what you did. We do not want to treat you as disposable in an environment where we use you with no regard for what it does to you or your family and where we simply push you out the door when we feel you are no longer "successful."

This model is almost completely counter-culture to today's church environment.  But I believe it is biblical.

When I first arrived in San Jose to plant Bayside I had lunch with a pastor I knew. I asked him if there were any pastors groups that I could go to. He told me that he belonged to a group of pastors but it was a group only for pastors with large churches and significant ministries. Ouch.

I get several emails each week. The one said why isn't your church bigger, another said how to make your church bigger. Everything that comes across my desk is basically you're not successful unless you pastor a big church.

A good and godly friend wrote and asked me if I had anyone in mind when I wrote this. I said yes. Me.

It all begins with Doug Schmidt, the dean of students at the bible college I attended, challenging me about my off the chart D personality and telling me I wouldn't make it in ministry unless I changed. Of course I ignored him.

I began to realize that my staff relationships were based on performance and what they did. As Joe Stowell preached at the Fellowship National Convention in 1988, I realized that I am basically a lover of things and a user of people.

A leader at our church in San Jose, Jere Allen, began to help me rethink a number of things. Rod Martin, who was on staff with me at West Park, used to talk about my "business mode" whenever I started steamrolling people. Instead of saying in today's vernacular "Mike, eat a Snickers," he would simply whisper in my ear, "business mode." I told Jere about this when he came to Bayside and instead of excusing it (it gets "results") he challenged me (character). The result was a lengthy discussion on this whole ministry mindset of seeking personal success in the lives of leaders rather than corporate performance. So that blog material really began years ago as part of my need to change.

Perhaps at the core of all of this success talk is each man's innate fear of failure and the desire to not be viewed as a failure but a success and how this sometimes drives us off the correct path. But that would be another blog post.

 

Some Thoughts on Christmas

I wanted to write something positive but in order to do that I need your permission to digress a bit before arriving at my main point.  I have three key things I want to say: 1. We can't force the true meaning of Christmas on people. 2. We need to see it as a family day that may open opportunities to share Christ. 3. We need to ask ourselves if we're losing the joy of Christmas by overdoing it.

So here we go:

It's the time of year where we hear phrases such as "Jesus is the reason for the season," or "Let's keep Christ in Christmas." I hate to tell you but Jesus is supposed to be the reason for everything, not just a season.  And to be honest, was Christ supposed to ever be "in Christmas"? So let's talk about that latter phrase, "Let's keep Christ in Christmas."

In some ways I think that Christ was never truly in Christmas.  Why?  Because:
- Since childhood, the first thing most of us have been conditioned to think of on Christmas morning (even Christians) is not "who was in the manger?" but "what's under the tree for me?" Sure we all know that Christmas is Christ -mas but if we're honest there's a vast gulf between what we know and what occupies our thoughts at this time of year.
- The amount of money we spend on gifts this year is probably far greater than most of us have personally given to missions (sharing the love of Christ around the world) this year.
- We get so overwhelmed at Christmas that we no longer think "joy to the world" or "peace on earth." 
- Whenever December 25 falls on a Sunday we actually see a decrease in our desire to corporately worship Christ on "His day."

The biggest point to ponder is that until the past few centuries Christ was never really in Christmas to begin with. Christmas is not even a biblical idea.  The trees, the lights, the big spending, even the day we celebrate Christmas.  None of this is commanded or practiced in our bibles.  It all began in the 4th century as an attempt to counter the lawlessness and carnality of the week long celebration of the Roman holiday Saturnalia. From that point on the main goal was not to keep Christ in Christmas but to keep the pagans from drinking, pillaging and offering human sacrifices.  This was done with little success.  Stephen Nissenbaum in "The Battle for Christmas" (1997) discusses the pagan origin of Saturnalia (held December 17-25) and the failed 4th century attempt to Christianize it by celebrating the nativity of Christ on the last day of it's celebration.  What many of us don't know is that because of its pagan origins Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts from 1659-1681.

And if we can add one more point to ponder, let me say this: biblical Christianity has nothing to do with worshiping a baby but everything to do with worshiping a risen Lord. It seems that we have created a feel good, sentimentalized form of religion that is nothing more than moralistic, therapeutic deism.  We feel good, we try to be nice to others and we get to ooh and aw the baby in the manger scene.  And serving a Happy Birthday Jesus cake is  not enough to fix it. 

Let's face it, for most of us Christmas is not about Christ; it's about gifts and family.  And now I want to give you the hook.  That's okay.

While there is no way in the world you are going to convince me that credit card debt, panicky shopping, stressed out calendars and anxiety over what to give everyone on your gift list is an acceptable part of this time of year, I will say this: I don't think Christmas was ever meant to "Keep Christ in Christmas."  I think that it was meant to "Give Christ Away."

Huh?  What do you mean by that?  First of all, the early church added Christmas to a time of year when darkness, moral darkness, was at its peak.  They weren't trying to put Christ "in" Christmas, they were trying to bring the masses "out of" their sinfulness.  Second, if there is one time of year when people even take a small step, the tiniest itsy-bitsy littlest step, toward being open to hearing about Christ it's this time of year.

I think we need to reshape our thinking.  Rather than keeping Christ in Christmas we need to recommit ourselves to getting Christ into the lives of those we love, those we live next door to, those we have any kind of relationship with.

You want to buy a tree?  Go for it.  You want to walk around crowded malls looking like something out of a zombie apocalypse holiday special?  Go for it. But in the midst of that, what's your plan?  What's your strategy to make sure that you share Christ with someone?  Invite them to a Christmas service.  The reason that many churches do a Christmas sermon theme is with the hope of reaching those who don't normally think about Christ but want to learn.  There are Christmas musicals and dramas and then there's the always popular Christmas Eve service.  Have coffee with someone and when they grumble about this time of year steer the conversation from Christmas as a season to Christ as the savior.  Have a leftovers party after December 25 and use it to encourage and share Christ.

There's nothing wrong with December 25 being a family day.  Too many Christians have burned bridges in their families by trying to impose their convictions on people who simply want to spend time with each other.  But do indeed think through how you can talk about your faith one on one with the always popular, "It's been so good to see you after all these years.  Why don't we get together after Christmas for coffee or dinner?"

My point is this.  The phrase "Keep Christ in Christmas" has become nothing more than a Christian mob induced attempt to force Christ back into a culture that is no longer willing to be told what to do and how to behave.  But the idea of giving Christ away is an attempt to regain your personal responsibility to do something with someone you know, someone you work with, someone in your circles of influence and acquaintances. 

If Jesus is the reason for everything and not just a season, if the original intent of Christmas was to give Christ away and not keep him to ourselves, then what's your plan?  How are you going to use the trappings of Christmas to tell someone about Jesus?

Is Change Good?

When I think of change and the need for change to take place several thoughts immediately come to mind:
If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.
If we fail to plan we plan to fail.
If you aim at nothing you'll hit it every time.
The good is the enemy of the best.

Several passages of Scripture also come to mind:
    But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (Revelation 2:4 ESV)
 
    Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
    I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 ESV)

    Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! (Psalm 96:1 ESV)

    Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17 ESV)

    And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:3-8 ESV)

I'm sure that there are several other verses that address the topic of change but here's why I chose these verses:

C - Christ first.  We need to change because we need to continually fight the urge to put Christ anywhere but first in our lives.  Tradition above Christ.  Programs above Christ.  "The way we've always done it" above Christ. We don't change for the sake of change, we change whatever is necessary to keep Christ first.

H - honoring God.  If we truly seek to honor God then change will take place.  It's inevitable. We cannot simply go through the motions year after year after year. A rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out.  The message never changes but sometimes the methods by which we communicate that message must change. 

A - allowing God to work.  God does new things.  He commands us to sing new songs.  Perhaps we need to do something new so that God can continue to work through us.

N - new opportunities.  Without a willingness to change we might possibly miss out on new opportunities.  New wineskins stretch as the new wine ferments.  A willingness to change creates the right environment for new opportunities to flourish.

G - growth.  I'm more concerned with the quality of disciples we are creating than the quantity of disciples.  But we also need to recognize that healthy things grow.  Within our church we need new ways to reach new families, new ways to challenge new growth, new ways to spur one another on and new ways to let people hear the gospel of Christ.

E - examination.  Maybe you would have chosen "energize" for this one.  And for some people, change energizes them.  But for me, I value the simple truth that change causes us to examine ourselves.  What am I doing and how am I doing it?  Why do I do what I do and how can I allow God to do even more through me?

The more I talk to people the more I realize that almost no one likes change.  There's uncertainty, there's the fear of the unknown, there's a fear of failure.  However, when the sower sowed the seed he sowed it everywhere.  His responsibility was to sow.  The soil in this parable represents the hearts of people.  Our responsibility is to put Christ first and to honor him so that he might be allowed to work in new and glorious ways in the hearts of all people.  Am I allowing God to work?  Do I want to see growth in my life and the lives of others?  Are we willing to examine ourselves, our programs and our ministries and let God point out to us the necessary changes?

So What's All the Fuss?

So what's all the fuss? Why now? What happened?

Matthew 5:17-20

Skip Moen:
In 144 AD the Church branded Marcion a heretic and rejected his truncated Bible. Marcion taught that Christians had no further use of the Hebrew Scriptures except as a matter of historical interest. He also rejected a great deal of the New Testament books as too “Jewish.” He accepted the gospel of Luke and ten Pauline letters as the only true canon for Christians. The Church rejected this heresy, but it didn’t quite demolish the theological position behind Marcion’s claim. Marcion’s heresy was based on his belief that the Law and, consequently all things Jewish, was done away with in the death and resurrection of the Christ. In other words, Marcion read this verse as follows: “Don’t think I came to erase the Law and the Prophets; I did not come to erase but to finish.” Marcion believed that Jesus completed the Law making it no longer necessary or essential for Christians. The Church threw out Marcion, but it kept his theology.

Rethinking How We Do Church

Christianity is not "the faith of" Gentiles. It is "a faith for" Gentiles. But it was not created by Gentiles. Christianity is the fulfillment of the Messianic promises of the Hebrew scriptures. Its origins begin in Judaism and the promises of Christ's coming begin in Genesis 3:15.

In Acts 24:14-15 Paul makes this amazing statement:
But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. (Acts 24:14-15 ESV)

The Pharisees considered the Way a sect of Judaism. Paul lays out the faith of the Way based on the faith of Judaism: he worshiped the "God of our fathers." He believed everything in the Hebrew scriptures. He believed in a resurrection of the just and unjust, which the Pharisees also accepted.

How can I explain this further? Christianity is not a Gentile contrived faith with Jesus as the beginning. We do not have the right to start with Jesus and then go in whatever direction we wish. Jesus is the center or to be more precise: the way our faith should be directed, the truth by which we should develop our faith and the life of our faith when we honor Him.

Our contemporary Christian culture has abandoned biblical Christianity. We say that we seek to model ourselves after the New Testament church. But in fact we can trace the abandonment of biblical Christianity from Marcion to Constantine and even to the Reformation.

If I have your attention (or at least your shocked ambivalence) I need to clarify something. The purpose of this blog is not to attack contemporary music, reformed theology or whatever else you may hold dear. It is meant to be an appeal to come back to the truth of Matthew 5:17-20, Matthew 28:20 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17. It is meant to create the realization that you may be unknowingly missing out on God's richest blessing and even more important, you may not be living in full obedience to the word of God. In other words, your faith may not be the faith God desires you to have.

Topics we need to cover:

What does Matthew 5:17-20 mean for the contemporary church?

Obeying the commandments of Jesus: An alternative to legalism and license (Matthew 28:20)

Reunderstanding the preincarnate teaching of Jesus.

Why do we ignore the 4th commandment?

What does it mean to be salt and light?

Why did we stop doing what God says we should do "forever"?

How should we understand 1 Corinthians 5:8?

Do we want to be a New Testament church or a 4th century church?

The influence of Marcion and Constantine.