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.