the SIGNIFICANCE of insignificance

I’m reading a new book - “Principle-Centered Leadership” by Stephen Covey.  I’m already very familiar with the Franklin, Stephen, and John Covey material.  I’m having to read this book for my upcoming covenant group meeting.  This year, all probationary elders in North Georgia are concentrating on a leadership curriculum.  I’m glad that they’ve included Covey material - it is solid stuff with a definite Christian influence that emphasizes process and paradigm rather than sudden, quick fixes.  It’s all about changing essence and character in order  to actually become success rather than just achieving an instance of success.  Success can be defined in a variety of ways.  For instance, success for a corporate executive is profit and growth.  Success for a pastor can be effective evangelism, discipleship, and assimilation of new leaders into Kingdom work.

I’ve always been attracted to material that emphasizes hard work and actually denounces quick fixes and overnight solutions.  Anything that is lasting isn’t built overnight.  Realizing that becoming an effective leader, or a committed Christian, takes time is crucial.  Too often we have the expectation of becoming Peter or Paul overnight.  We believe that at the altar we can simply decide to become the perfect Christian and walk away without any struggle. 

It’s all about the PROCESS of sanctification.  At our rebirth - at the moment of our salvation - we BEGIN a new journey in life.  Much like a new couple begins a new journey at their wedding.  At our justification, we have not yet arrived at perfection.  We have been set free from the power of sin and death and we have been forgiven for past sins.  Nowhere did Christ say that his resurrection would make us exempt from  sinning.  I have yet to meet even the most committed Christian who didn’t still struggle with sin.

In fact, even John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, said that Christians still sin, but that they don’t commit sin.  His words reflect a commitment which we make when we profess faith in Christ that we will be intentional about not committing sin, or willingly sinning.  However, as Christians, we all fight with our own demons.  We all have our struggles with sinful thought and tendency - we aren’t perfect yet.  We could go from here into the question of “once saved, always saved” and I would invite that discussion with anyone.  (with salvation, we don’t lose our ability of free will - we can still choose to reject the cross - not sure why we’d do that - but we can.  Is that a loss of salvation?  Sure sounds like it to me.)

This is where the process of sanctification and Steven Covey - and for that matter, Bill Murray - come in.  Remember the movie “What About Bob?”  Bill Murray plays a crazy guy that torments his psychiatrist on vacation.  His mantra throughout the movie is “Baby Steps”.  Our faith, our leadership ability, our relationships are all built through millions of tiny baby steps.  Covey’s philosophy is to begin on a realistic level.  Achieve personal victory everyday and through that you’ll begin having public victories.  There’s only been one Savior.  Thank God I’m not him!

I’ve lived this process in life for several years now and it’s proven itself time and again.  I still have to relearn it, or as Covey says, “sharpen my saw” occasionally.  To be honest, coming to Mt. Bethel, having a vision for God’s Kingdom expanding in McDonough, and having to concentrate on baby steps has been difficult.  I’ve been here 12 weeks now…is it so unreasonable to expect the church to multiply by 1000, have financial stability, and be ready for Christ to return?  It sounds ridiculous to expect, but it’s definitely a real struggle.  As Christians, and as Christian leaders, it is our life to swim against the currents of the world.  Nothing eternal happens overnight.  God didn’t even create the universe in a day - he took six and made it a process.

It is in our insignificant steps toward perfection and sanctification that God uses us and makes a SIGNIFICANT difference in the world and in the Kingdom.

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Thanks to Stephen for filling in for me this morning.  It was a little unusual to be away on a Sunday morning.  It almost felt like leaving your child with a sitter for the first time.  I’m glad I could leave it in such capable hands.

I really appreciate the support I get from Stephen and others as I learn to take baby steps in faith and in ministry.

What do you think of when you think of an adrenaline packed career?  A skydive instructor? A bomb squad technician?  A rattlesnake wrangler?

What about ministry?

The last ten weeks at Mt. Bethel have been full of adrenaline-packed moments.  I’ve come to realize that true ministry is lived at the edge of control.

I was fortunate today to get to spend some time with two of the guys that really keep me going and that I can always count on, Stephen and Allen.  I asked the question if they felt like they were ministering at the edge of control.  I’ve struggled at times lately with knowing if I’m pushing too hard too fast or if I’m moving too slow in ministry.  God’s put an incredible vision in front of me and all I want to do is run as hard, as fast, and as far as I can for the sake of the Kingdom.  People issues come into play though (ministry sure would be easier if it weren’t for the people).  I’m serving a church where the majority of the members have been members since before I was ever born.  I’ve seen too many times in other churches when people acted as if they were on board with a vision, only to sabotage it later.

The guys echoed my sentiment.  It seems that if we’re not living at the edge of control, we’re not doing much to advance the Kingdom and not making the impact God has called us to.

Ministry is one of the most adrenaline-packed professions in the world today.  Everyday ministers put their careers on the line as well as their authority and influence so that they can follow the will of God.  How scary is that?!  By ministering on “the edge of control” I mean to say that we are somewhere between having complete control and no control at all.  I believe that this is God’s design for all believers that would be leaders.  He gives us enough confidence to keep us going, but takes enough of the control to keep us humble. 

My assurance in God’s plan and God’s care is growing at a record pace.  I feel like an elephant living at the edge of a small branch, supported only by faith and left out there only by the assurance of the tree.  What a rush!

Pray for the Christian leaders you know, lay and clergy.  Support them with all you can.  Words go far, but the actions of backing someone up go much further.  I continue to pray that my heart can survive 40+ more years of constant adrenaline.

Pray also for us that when we delude ourselves into thinking we have control, that God will push us further out on that limb until we realize where the control really is.  Praise God that it’s not left completely to us!

I’ve felt convicted about yesterday’s post since I posted it. 

My name’s Alex and I have a problem.  I complain too much.  There is so much good in my life right now and I choose to spend my time griping about someone or something that really has very little effect on me (if any).

I need to praise God for this past Sunday.  I’ve been at Mt. Bethel for about 10 weeks now (I’m starting to lose track) and I’ve already had two baptisms!

My first Sunday involved an infant baptism that had been planned for a few months.  What a joy to bring a little one into the Kingdom!  He’s already got a head-start and doesn’t even know it.  Praise God for good parents that want every opportunity for their children.

This past Sunday, I was honored to baptize a 70-year-old man.  He had been wayward for a long time.  Part of it was his upbringing, but most of it came from his  military service.  He served as a Marine sniper during the Korean War, which meant he saw a lot of action.  He never really found a way to deal with that, but his wife continued to pray for him and drag him to church.  A few years ago, Herman accepted Christ and is one of the most committed Christians I know.  He’ll tell you what it means that God has put his sin as far away as the east is from the west.  No matter what he did before, he is a child of Christ now.

All that was  missing for Herman was his baptism.  He was raised baptist and couldn’t remember ever having a time that he was baptized, so we made it official this past Sunday.  I’m encouraged by him as I prepare my sermon this week.  I’m preaching on the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin from Luke.  Jesus tells the critics, “I tell you…there will be more rejoicing in heaven overonesinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  WHAT GOOD NEWS! There was real rejoicing at Mt. Bethel on Sunday.  People are still buzzing about it and it brings a huge smile to everyone’s face and sometimes even a tear of joy.

Pray for us this Sunday.  I’m stealing/borrowing an idea from Perry Noble (pastor at Newspring Church in  Anderson, SC).  Perry had his people come up and, on the walls of the sanctuary, write the names of people they were praying to come to Christ or renew their relationship with Christ.  If anybody from Mt. Bethel is reading, don’t worry, we’re not going to write on the oak paneled walls in the sanctuary.  We will have an opportunity for every person to come up and write  the names of those people that they want to pray for.  We’re counting on God to honor these prayers and we’ll keep praying until every person has been reached.  Join us!

As easy as it is for a pastor to become consumed with numbers and keep their finger on the pulse of worship attendance, last Sunday’s baptism was a reminder to me that the lost sheep wasn’t found simply to increase the size of the flock.  The lost sheep was found, at the risk of the other 99, because the lost sheep had it’s own inherent value.  Worship attendance is a very satisfying side-effect of continuing the search for the lost in the world.

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Thanks also to the folks who visited from Lawrenceville on Sunday.  What an encouragement it was that you traveled that far to worship with us!

I’m having a rare week where my sermon is coming to me faster than I  can write it down and my blog is drawing a blank.  I guess if it’s got to be that  way, I  really don’t have room to complain.

 My spacebar is finally worn out, so if I’m  missing a space here or there or it looks like I’ve put in too many spaces, please understand.  If anybody knows how to unstick a spacebar that seems to have lost its spring, please let me know.

 I had an interesting meeting this morning that felt like a complete waste of time.  Next month, an evangelistic organization is planning to host a Billy Graham-style crusade here  in my area.  A pastor-friend of mine called to see if I’d be willing to meet with one of the organizers and hear his spill.  Honestly, I came away disappointed and with some real questions about the old methods of evangelism.

Is it still effective to hold evangelistic crusades?  Make sure you hear what I’m actually asking.  I believe in evangelism as the top purpose of the church.  We are called  to make disciples in the world and nothing else really matters.  What I’m asking is if a gathering of  thousands of people to hear the Gospel turned into a sappy love-story or an angry message that doesn’t come across as good news, but rather a threat, still work? 

I’m saddened by people that make the decision to follow Christ based on emotion.  Accepting Christ as Lord and Savior isn’t an emotional decision.  If we make it one, the relationship to follow is doomed to fail.  It will fade with the emotion is rode in on.

When I perform premarital counseling for couples seeking to  get married, the first question I ask them is “why do you want to get married?”  This is a trick I learned from my mentor, Quincy Brown.  An emotional response to the question sends up immediate flags to me.  If the  couple is head over heels in love and hasn’t stopped to weigh the implications of marriage, I know it’s time for them to build a surer foundation.

It’s the same with our faith.  Why do you want to be a Christian?  Fear of the afterlife or mushy feelings for Christ isn’t good enough.  Where does your real commitment come from?  Our faith should come from the choice of something better and not from the escape from something we fear.  Our relationship to Christ should be left-brained, AS WELL AS right-brained.  Even love is more than an emotion - it’s  something that we choose and choose to do well.

 The other thing this guy kept saying that was  really getting to me was how freely he used “making disciples” as his objective for the crusade.  What does it mean to make a disciple really?  According to Christ, it’s a lot more than a  lifestyle change.  It’s the choice to follow someone.  For the original disciples, it was 3 years of teaching and learning.  It was 3 years of following Jesus everywhere and being in community as well as relationship.  You aren’t made a disciple at the altar and that’s it.  We aren’t instantly sanctified.  Our discipleship is a journey and just like anyone learning anything, we need a teacher or a guide.  This circus wants to come to town and preach for 3 days and expect that to suffice as making disciples.  There’s no guarantee for anyone who receives Christ to plug in afterward.  Sure, they can fill out the card with their  church affiliation and the church will be notified, but what about the dozens of people that will make a decision and have no affiliation?  Are they just  left to their own devices?

Just had to vent.  This guy never had a chance when he quoted the King James (as if it was the only true version) and spoke highly of Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham (both of  which said some truly idiotic, and in my opinion, un-Christian, things following 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina).

 It’s time to be active in the evangelism in our own communities.  The harvest is plentiful and we need to pray for workers.  We can’t depend on these sideshows to do our work for us.

Are you significantly generous?

That’s the question that I’m putting out to the people I encounter.  It’s actually becoming a theme at Mt. Bethel.  God has given us so much that I want to ask, what are we doing to give it away?

I feel like generosity is one of the core values of a healthy faith.  Serious Christians find true joy in giving.  Whether it’s putting a check in the collection plate, serving a meal to a shut-in, giving shelter to the homeless, or just giving a gift to someone you love, generosity is one of the most satisfying and freeing virtues we can have.  I’m convinced that only Christians can fully understand the saying, “it is more blessed to give than receive.”

I’m in the middle of preparing a stewardship campaign for my church (can you tell?).  The more I read and the more I prepare, the more I realize that stewardship isn’t something you can do for  4 weeks in the fall and leave alone for the rest of the year.  Stewardship, giving, hospitality, and generosity has to be something that is in every aspect of what we do as a church.  I challenge anyone to find one ministry team, committee, or church that isn’t impacted by the spirit of giving in its people.  Civilization rises and falls on the ability and willingness of people to share.

I’m alarmed by pastors that don’t recognize the importance of stewardship.  I’m concerned when a whole year goes by without any mention from the pulpit of how we can be better stewards of what God has given us.  I’m bewildered by ministers that feel that it’s inappropriate to talk about money and its use on Sunday morning.

What is the concern?  My parents’ generation has this thing about talking about money.  Personal finances are just that - personal.  Sure, in today’s culture, you don’t want to show your hand.  Somebody would take advantage of you.  As a pastor, I don’t want to know what you make.  I don’t want to see a check stub.  I can do a good enough job of guessing what you make.  I also don’t want to know what you put in the collection plate on Sunday.  I don’t need to know it either.  What you give is between you and God.  However, I fully accept as my responsibility to teach you about giving, teach you how to give, inspire you to give, and help you to grow your giving. 

Pastors would quickly get called out for not teaching their people to pray, study, or share their faith.  Why don’t pastors get called out for not teaching a congregation to be generous?  I just don’t get it.  Sure, God has made it clear that his Kingdom doesn’t rise and fall on men and women.  After all, he can make the rocks cry out.  I understand that, but I also understand that at present, Americans could afford to give 2 trillion dollars more each year to charity.  With that extra giving, imagine how quickly the world’s problems would begin to disintegrate.  No more hungry in Darfur, no more remote locations unreached with the gospel, no more homelessness in the United States, no more of a lot of life’s woes. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not interested in stewardship so that one day I can be a Creflo Dollar, making millions, owning multiple homes, multiple cars, gaining as much for me and my family as possible.  I’m interested in your generosity for your own sake and for the sake of the coming Kingdom.  How are you giving it all away?

This is not my weekly blog.  We’ll get to that later.

 For now, I’m soliciting all prayer for the folks in Honduras.  I’m learning that it’s difficult to watch a weather map when a category five hurricane is passing directly over the homes of people you just built relationships with six months prior.

Pray for those enduring the storm.  Pray that they would see Jesus coming to them, just as  the disciples did on the Sea of Galillee and that Christ would calm the storm.  Pray particularly for the people in La Ceiba and El Pino who are down by the coast and will most likely endure immense amounts of flooding even after the storm has passed. 

I know it’s been a few days since I’ve added a post.  It’s been a long week - mosting consumed with leadership development with other probationary elders at the conference center.

I’ve been participating in leadership development since I was in middle school.  I’ve been almost overexposed to different leadership philosophies, but somehow I seem to get a little more out of each training I participate in.  Our emphasis in our probationary covenant groups this year is on leadership.  I’ve been a little hesitant about the curriculum this year, since most of it is stuff I’ve already heard, but being able to hear from leaders I respect for three days this week was uplifting and left me hopeful for what lies ahead.

I’m a little concerned about what I see in some of the ministers around me though - whether just entering the ministry or having been serving for years.  Maybe it’s because of my over-exposure, but I don’t see how some people manage to miss some of the basics of leadership.  For instance, I don’t understand how some pastors feel that by micro-managing their staff, they’ll get more productivity out of them.  I don’t understand how so many pastors feel like handing down edicts to their congregational leaders will motivate them in Kingdom work.  I don’t understand how true servant leadership is rejected in favor of other styles by people that follow the ultimate servant leader, Jesus Christ.

I’ve been a part of numerous churches now and I’ve seen differing leadership styles.  I’ve also learned that leadership is like a car.  If you don’t look at it from the underside every now and then, you’ll end up with a great looking exterior with poorly working machinery.  Every now and then, leaders have the responsibility to those that they lead to examine their leadership from underneath, to ask the hard questions about their own effectiveness and to be willing to subject themselves to a tune-up.

For all leaders, this is the most difficult thing that we can do.  To be honest with ourselves, to ask for input from those who follow our lead, and to sometimes ask for help leaves us vulnerable.  It can add to the insecurities that all of us have (face it, none of us are free from insecurity, ESPECIALLY as leaders under constant scrutiny), it can make us feel more out of control than we already are, and it can feel like a threat on our authority.  Those leaders who already deal with a powerful insecurity, unfortunately, are those that rarely do this important maintenance.

The key is humility.  Tomorrow, my message is on Jesus’ lesson on table manners.  Never should we elevate ourselves to a place of honor.  Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who are humble will be exalted.  So it is with everybody, especially those called to be leaders in the Kingdom of God.

 I do want to conclude this post by letting you know just how excited I am that football season is finally upon us.  GO DAWGS!!  My sympathies go out to Andrew Erwin, my friend, and an incredible Michigan fan.  My heart breaks for you!