Transitions

I love watching football.  It doesn’t matter if it is college or NFL I will be more than happy to sit for three hours to watch the game.  Fantasy football has also made it much easier to watch games that previously I wouldn’t have cared about.  This is also the time of year for transitions in leadership.  Coaches get fired and coaches get hired.  I am not exactly sure why but observing transitions like this fascinates me.  Programs, both college and pro, go through all sorts of processes to determine who they think will best fit their program and get the most out of that program and the players.

This week there have been two big hires in college.  Florida and Miami have named their next coach.  What interests me is how teams make these choices.  For some programs, they want a coach who will come in and rebuild their program.  For other programs, they want someone who can come in and work with the existing players so the coach must have a similar philosophy to the players that are already recruited.  Regardless of what the program wants they want a leader to come in and take their program to the next level.

Churches go through transitions in leadership to, especially when calling/choosing a “new” pastor.  One of the interesting differences between the calling of a pastor and the hiring of a coach is that sports teams usually expect more.  They are ready for change and want new and greater things to happen.  Churches have a tendency to want more of the same and to make sure they are “safe” rather than challenged.  While this is sad it is also a time for churches to reevaluate the type of leadership they want from their members and pastor(s).

My prayer today for churches around the world is that they begin to move in a direction that challenges them and their pastors to connect more people to the Savior.  As Reggie McNeil says the church is an airport not a destination.  The time for launching new missional-minded people and movements is now!  Don’t let the “familiar” distract you from accepting the challenges of the future.

Pastor and People

When a Pastor and people come together under the umbrella of the same local church a dance begins.  Learning to dance for the first time is always awkward and requires patience.  There are always going to be times when you inadvertently step on toes.  There was no harm, misguided intent, or evil behind it.  The reality is this happens when two people are trying to move to the rhythm of the dance.

In the course of time two people working together will learn to dance.  They will move as if they’ve always shared the same rhythm beating through their veins.  The reality is that most will forget the majority of bruises it took to get to this point.  You always know when you’re watching two people dance who have been through much together.  My grandparents were like this.  When they hit the floor they were almost floating in a mysterious rhythm that was deeper than the music being played.  I guess that is because they were.

The time is now more than ever for pastors and people to dance as one.  The one unifying reality is that we are all in this soul harvest together.  The Lord leads us.  The Lord teaches us.  The Lord orders our steps.  When we forgive the missteps and work toward the rhythm of connecting people to Jesus a life-transforming dance ensues.  When God’s people move together with His leading and prompting people around the world are blessed.

Whether you recognize it or not, pastors and people are dancing right now.  Some have figured out how to do it together and some have seemingly sought only to disrupt the music.  I pray you become a pastor and church that aims to move as one for the Savior.

Applauding Churches doing “Tough Stuff”

This weekend I had the privilege of presenting to a congregation that is facing an important question:  What imprint do we aim to leave on the world?  This particular congregation receives a round of applause from me and heaven I do believe.  This congregation has been around for a number of years and is beginning to realize the importance of moving from a maintenance model for ministry to a missional model.

This is “tough stuff!”  People, by nature, do not like making major changes in their life and certainly the church is not immune to these resistance dynamics as it relates to change.  Yet, courageusly this church through their pastoral leadership and congregational leadership has said, “Yes, we must change there is no other option.”

One of the major lessons to be learned for all of us is that major change and cultural changes do not occur as the result of a vote in a voters meeting.  Culture change begins one person at a time.  To become a person and church that is concerned more about connecting people to their Savior than they are meeting their own personal felt-needs is a MAJOR step to take.  The step is scary no doubt.  The step is necessary no doubt.

Jesus has very clear expectations for His church and their purpose in the world.  The question becomes do we have the courage to hold ourselves accountable to this mission?

The “Tough” Truth

There is now the potential for a major shift in churches around the world, especially in the USA.  For years the model for most churches is what we would call an “attraction” model.  This approach is best conveyed by a quote from Field of Dreams, “If you build it they will come.”  You have seen the size of church campuses increase in almost every suburb and city.  This approach to connecting people to their Savior is being so attractive externally and internally with programs that people will simply come to your church.  The truth statistcally is that this is not working so well today.  The Mega-churches are shrinking and only a few, really great ones, remain on a path to growth.

So, what’s next?  I would advocate that the next evolution should be an ancient one: incarnational.  Jesus left the glory of heaven to become a man in the flesh.  He chose to share table fellowship with those that were considered outcasts, sinners, and reprobates of society.  He invited them into His life through these simple gestures like sharing a meal.  Jesus lived in perfect alignment with God’s Word and will for His life.  This made Jesus attractive and people flocked to Him not a building.

If our churches are to regain their missional focus they will first have to build themselves with the mercy, love, and grace of Christ and live up to their soul’s calling.  This means people will leave the “attraction” church campus to become “attractive” brothers and sisters to those in need of the Savior.  They will invite others into their lives so that they may one day meet the Savior of the world.

The time is now to move out of the church to be God’s agent in expanding His church.

Can people really change?

Reading: Romans 3-4

Paul you might recall was previously one of the most zealous Pharisees around (Philippians 3:4-6).  Pharisees were educated, steeped in, and wrapped 100% around the law.  So much so that they observed and put laws in place that exceeded the laws God gave.  To be a Pharisee was to almost be an obsessive compulsive law oriented person.  It truly became a mental illness that kept originally well-intended people from knowing Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.  The law was a way of life; it was the lens through which a Pharisee evaluated every one and every thing.  The way of a Pharisee reached neurotic levels not to be exceeded (Matthew 5:20).

Sometimes we might ask ourselves, “Does Jesus really make a big difference in a person’s life?  Will a transformation in Christ really show noticeable change in a person?  Is believing in Jesus really like night and day when a person comes to faith?”  Well, judge for yourself by what Paul says in Romans 4:13, 16 “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith…Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and my be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring…”  The law as the means for obtaining the promise and salvation is out the window.  Paul makes it unequivocally clear that the righteousness that saves come through faith and faith alone.  Talk about a radical transplant of the psyche.  Jesus has done His work on this Apostle.  Make no mistake when Jesus touches a life or a church it should be a night and day difference between one’s previous way of life.

There is nothing Jesus can’t buy you back from.  There is nothing Jesus can’t buy your church back from!

History Lessons

“History is a valuable teacher.  Yet when I maintain that we live in an unprecedented era, it implies that the lessons of history will only be marginally successful in framing our questions and suggesting our remedies.  Having navigated ourselves off the map, we do not know what is around the next bend.  Furthermore, we cannot depend on the lessons of history to tell us, for history, too, has never been here before.”

 

“Comparisons with the past are risky.  Our tendency is to select what we wish to remember and conveniently forget the rest.” – Richard Swenson, M.D.

We men are in an unprecedented era.  The pace at which things move along today has never been seen before.  This leads everything to happen faster.  Our debt rises faster than it ever would have been allowed to in years past.  Our problems at work make it to us faster which also leads to hearing about more and more problems.  Solutions seem to never be as quick as the problems coming at us from all sides.  Opportunities to advance professionally come quicker than what they used to, sometimes quicker and sooner than the man is psychologically ready to embrace.  Of course we would never admit this, but it is true.  We hear less from our kids more often.  Romantic dinners and evenings with spouses have been replaced by multiple “I Love You” texts throughout the day.  Deep inside us there is a longing for days gone by when everything happened at a much more manageable pace.

There are some lessons we can learn from looking to the past, but many of the solutions in the future are still unknown.  Many of us remember the past with fondness but remember what Jackie Gleason said about the past, “The past remembers better than it lived.”  Men how are we going to slow things down enough to be participators in what matters most in the present?  Some of these things are intentional time with spouses, children, family, spiritual walk and growth.  The most ancient words we have are recorded in the Holy Scriptures.  These are remnants of the past that still remain timeless today.  These truths have served and will continue to serve all of us until our Lord returns victoriously on the last day.  While we might not know what is around the next bend for us we know who does.  The Lord of all history, present, and future is well aware of what lies ahead for you.  The question becomes are you permitting Him to prepare you for it through His Word and your own spiritual growth.  The toughest place to be is in the present when you’ve left your spiritual growth behind.  Now is the time, more than ever before, to kick it up a notch as it relates to our being in God’s Word.

Willingness to be a Missionary…

Reading: Acts 16

Okay for openers today we see a painful part of missionary work.  There is a young man named Timothy whom many believers thought very highly of and Paul thought it might be good if he took his first missionary journey.  Almost with no warning we hear that Paul circumcised him right before the journey.  There are two humbling lessons here.  First, Paul was determined that the journey would be successful and could be hindered by Timothy not being circumcised since folks knew his dad was Greek.  While circumcision didn’t effect salvation in Jesus one iota Paul did not want any roadblocks in the way of people’s receptivity to the Gospel.  The second humbling lesson is what Timothy was willing to endure literally at the hands of Paul.  This shows us a very willing spirit in Timothy and his heart for helping to reach the lost with Paul as his mentor.  Really this is quite a beautiful image of how straightforward the mission had become to God’s chosen instruments.  This is truly amazing!

You will also see that as they begin this second missionary journey that the Spirit of Jesus would not permit them to preach in certain areas.  In a vision Paul has this invitation to preach Jesus in the area and region of Macedonia.  Upon getting to Philippi (leading city) in that district of Macedonia Paul and his companions (includes Timothy) went down to the river for prayer.  There were some women down at the river and they simply began a dialogue.  At some point Paul had a dialogue type sermon and Lydia’s heart was opened by God to respond to Paul’s message about Jesus.  What began at the river led to an entire family being baptized and it all began with a conversation at the river.

This is how God works amongst us.  When we invite other people into our lives, God creates receptivity, and they tend to invite themselves into the family of faith.  Our only responsibility is to open and keep open the dialogue with these people.  Try working hard on this relational level to love people as Jesus would and watch what happens!