What I’m reading…

It has been said that “a teacher that ceases to learn ceases to teach” or “teachers are life long learners.”  You can also tell a lot about a person or at lest their current state by observing what they are reading or in other words, “their teachers.”

So I just wanted to let you peer into my life and mind a little by sharing what I’m reading at the moment.  I frustrate my wife in how I read.  One, I read slowly or at least much slower than her.  Two, I always have 4 - 6 books on the hook and 3 – 4 waiting in the wings.  Here’s what I’m chewing on:

ON THE HOOK

The Normal Christian Life – Watchman Nee

 

 

 

The Watchers – Mark Andrew Olsen

 

 

 

 

 

Finding Organic Church – Frank Viola

 

 

 

The Rabbit and The Elephant – Tony & Felicity Dale, George Barna

 

 

 

Organic Leadership – Neil Cole

 

 

 

 

 IN THE WINGS

So Beautiful - Leonard Sweet

From Eternity to Here - Frank Viola

Organic Community - Joseph R. Myers

Atlantis- David Gibbins

 

What are you reading?

Medium v/s Message…

“in the end the medium always becomes the message.”  Alan Hirsch – The Forgotten Ways

How tough it is in pastoring a church to keep the focus on the message we are called to bring.  You may say that doesn’t make sense.  The church is all about Jesus and the message is about Him.  This is true, but if you are a Pastor you know what I’m talking about.

While we share the message about Jesus and His redemptive love over time people become more focused on the vehicle or medium that the message comes through than the message itself.  Thus, the focus becomes the church itself.

Pastoral leaders spend a great deal of time focused on the building of churches, finding better ways to do church, addressing the problems of the church.  Our focus is more on the organization of church rather than the person of Jesus. 

Without Jesus there is no church.  The reason for church is Jesus.  Our focus should be on Him.  In the book of Acts, those who believed on Jesus intuitively began to share their new life and message with those around them and they began to naturally gather wherever and whenever they could.  The church flowed out of the focus on Jesus. 

When we focus too heavily on the building of our church we can be pulled away from Jesus.  We can depend more on our ability to cleverly do church and focus more on the building the organization than on Jesus and His redemptive power.

As leaders, if we cause those we Shepherd to become more dependent on the church as an organization and her ability to provide programing for their every need, then they will become co-dependent on the church rather than Jesus.  We will raise anemic disciple who cannot stand on their own faith and to believe in the total ability of Jesus to personally enable them to face all challenges of life.

We must be careful to not focus more on our medium than our message.  It is a fine line between the two.  So fine that we can think it’s all about Jesus when we’ve made it more about the church we serve.

Keep the focus on Jesus.  If we are in Him, we are the church.  Jesus said He would build the church (us) as we laid hold of the revelation that He is the Christ.  He is everything you need.

• Are you letting Jesus build you?
• Does your life reveal a total dependence on Jesus?
• When was the last time you blamed the church for something that you should have been dependent on Jesus for?
• If you are a Pastor, do you spend more time on the medium or the message (Jesus)?

The New ESV Study Bible…

I’ve been waiting and it’s finnaly here.  You can pre-order with a 15% discount before October 15th. Check out these videos:

MORE:

What’s your favorite translation?

So You Don’t Want to Go To Church… Pt.2.2

Here’s your chance!   Say what ever you want on the subject of church and a relationship with Jesus.  Leave your raw and uncensored comments.

A few questions I’m interested in but not limited to:

What are you looking for in a church?

What do you struggle with in church?

What should the church be doing?

What are you struggling with in your relationship with Jesus?

If you could change something about church, what would that be?

 

Come on, jump into to discussion.

If you are interested in the current blog series “So you don’t want to go to church anymore” Book by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman you can READ IT HERE.

So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore… Pt.2

CHURCH LEADERSHIP: What motivates our decisions?

So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore - by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman

www.jakecolsen.com

As I write this series I realize I will not be doing so in any chronological or orderly way.  These just happen to be my thoughts for the day, generated from my life as it connects with this book.

The following, taken from the book on page 109 had a profound impact on my personal view of church leadership.

 

“But don’t we learn how to trust him through the body?”

“Actually, it works the other way around. Trust doesn’t flow out of body life, it flows into it!”

“But what if people don’t know how to trust?”

“Certainly we can help one another learn to grow in trust, but that growth is the prerequisite for sharing life together,not the fruit of it.  Remember when you were back at City Center?  How many decisions and policies were made because you were afraid – of people not coming, not growing, not giving money, or falling through the cracks and getting lost?”

“Probably ninety percent,” I responded.  “Most of our discussions had to do with our concerns that someone would make a mistake – hurting themselves or embarrassing the congregation.”

“Then ninety percent of what you did was based on fear rather than trust.  And you passed that same insecurity on to others as a way to keep them involved.  You have yet to see what body life can be when people are growing to trust God, instead of living in fear.”

When I read this, I had to evaluate how we made decisions and what was the root motivation behind them.  This means a real gut check.

If you are in leadership, Here’s the question:

When you plan and make decisions, why are you doing it and is any of your motivation rooted in building the institution or maintaining the system?

This is critical.  If we are trying to maintain or build the church as an organization then we will manipulate people with guilt to get them to do things.  This is not born out of trust and faith in God.  Paul said anything not born of faith is sin (Romans 14:23).  This makes people dependent on a church system, programs and leaders, instead of a dependency on the living Jesus.  The result is a people who when crisis comes into their lives they expect the church to sustain them instead of Jesus.  They think they are trusting Jesus until the system and organization disappoints them.  Instead of thriving through crisis by the life of Jesus, they are let down by a dependency on man and are left with feelings of anger or guilt.  This also creates a works or performance based religion by making people think that if thy do certain things they will mature or God will be pleased and bless them.  And, If you’ve been in leadership long, you know the pain of being blamed for things that people expected from you that they will only find met in Jesus.

So, what do we do?  What do we expect?  Nothing?  As the church, do we do nothing?  What about leadership?

We have to see ourselves in the people business, not the church business.  We are making disciples, not building churches.  We are to be equipping people to know Jesus and encouraging them to live deeply in Him as we journey together so He can lead them.  Our job as leaders is to serve.  Leaders lead by serving, not leading.  Too much of our own agenda can get in the way of leading.  We can easily find ourselves thinking we are doing the will of God when actually we are feeding our own insecurities. 

Do we as leaders trust God to build His church while we serve Him in equipping others to follow Jesus for themselves, be dependent on Him and respond to His leading?  Will we let people be led by God in our congregations?  Is this a scary thought?

My job is not to use people to fulfill my personal vision.  It is to lead people to Jesus.  Here is Paul’s leadership philosophy:

“For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.”  2 Corinthians 4:5

Leaders, who’s leading you and are you teaching people to be lead by Jesus or making them co-dependent on a substitute for Him?

Anything else is building our own kingdom.

So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore… Pt.1.5

Along with this current series “So you don’t want to go to church anymore”, I will be inserting some others thoughts on the subject so we can see how God is moving on the hearts of people in other places.  When we talk about the church, we need to begin to see how God is speaking to the church universal, not just our local congregation.  God is moving in His body and it’s encouraging to see it’s not just me.  That’s humbling to know.

With that said, here is a post by Jeromy Johnson in Folsom,California (The home of that prison  famous by Johnny Cash.)  What is God doing in His church on the other side of the continent?  CLICK HERE or the above banner which is Jeromy’s Blog “A Mending Shift” and read his thoughts entitled “Going to church to avoid being the church”.

You can also read another good post by Jeromy entitled “What if the Church was invisible? HERE.

Yoda on Small Groups…

This is like a commercial between my series post on “So you don’t want to go to church anymore.”  I love this video about the value of small groups and it reminds me of my brother Scott, who is, yes, a Star Wars Freak!  Much love Scott.

So enjoy!

So You Don’t Want To Go To Church… Pt.1

What is the Church?

The Church is not a Where but a Who.

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18  (ESV)

“Wherever you go, there you are.”  I tried to google it to no avail in finding out who we can credit this profound Hello Captain Obvious statement of reality.  I’ll take GOD for 1000 Alex.

When I am asked, and they always do, “where do I go to church?”, I direct them to a building with a name on it – The Dwelling Place Community Church.  I have a delima though.  I believe in our effort to direct people to church something gets lost in translation.  When people find our buildings do they really find the church and do they have to find our buildings to find the church and when we find the church, what then?

“You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a royal priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  1Peter 2:5 (ESV)

The Church is being built by God, not by itself (us).  Not with human hands.  It is being built with precious material (you).  Like living stones, we are being built by Him together into a spiritual house, the church.  This is not just a spiritual reality but also a literal reality.  This means you can see the church, but where?  That where depends on the who.

So who is the Church?

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  1Peter 2:9  (ESV)

A little word study.

Wherever you find the word “church”, it is the Greek word “ekklesia”, which means “called out ones”.

It’s a compound word made of “ek” meaning “out” which denotes origin and motion; and the other “kaleho” meaning called (by word), to hail.  It is interesting that Peter describes this in the above verse.  We are the church, called out from where we once were without Him in darkness and now with Him in His marvelous light.  We are the Church in Him, members of His body.

Therefore, wherever there are those called out, there the church of Jesus is.

Now, the reason I bring this up.  It should raise a lot of questions about our life.  We can no longer deify our buildings and treat them sacred when it is not the church.  That’s Religion.  We have to begin to see all life as spiritual and not just what happens on Sunday in our institutions.  This means that when I gather with anyone, church is happening.  Think about that one for a while.  It might change what you are doing.  This should also change our perspective on worship, fellowship and discipleship.  Many sing songs on Sunday and call it worship, they attend and call it fellowship and listen to a sermon and call it discipleship.  But is it?  And is this church?  Oh, and maybe we will take better care of one another better than we take care of our buildings. oops.

Before you give into the possible growing anxiety of you entrenched ecclesiology, stop and breathe. 

There are 77 times in 76 verses of the New Testament that the word church is used in the KJV and 74 in 73 in the ESV. I’d say take a fresh look at the church and see if it messes with our present theology and more so how we do what we do when we do it.  If that’s a bit much, just read through Acts.  There are 18 verses that give a goo overall picture of the church.

If all else fails check back here.  We are going to camp out here for a while.  Come back and read an most of all LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS.  If you’ve never commented here before, jump in, take the plunge.

So You Don’t Want TO Go To Church Anymore…

A must read, by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman.  If you are struggling with church and/or experiencing a longing to know the Father better, this is a must read.  After going through some difficult church times, this has been a breath of fresh air into my relationship with Jesus.  It has also been challenging all my views of church and leadership.

I will be writing about my conclusions over the next few days/weeks.  You can CLICK HERE to order a copy or you can find it at your local christian bookstore.

If you’ve read it or at some point do, please leave your comments.

I’ll say this, the Father is so loving and He wants that to be a living reality.  We will have to rethink and unlearn some religious stuff to live in this reality.

Me, Erwin, Jesus & Java…

Just so you know where my head is right now, I’m in my Tuesday Office meeting with Erwin McManus and Jesus.  OK, Erwin is not actually, physically here.  I am so excited about my devotional and study time.  The other day I was in the bookstore picking out a couple of things to read.  I felt really drawn to a specific author, Erwin McManus, who is the Lead Pastor of Mosaic.  Something in me got excited like me and Jesus were about to embark on a great journey.  So I am stoked.

Go pick up a copy of one of Erwin’s books.  It will bless you or maybe I’m just on my own little trip.

What good books have you read lately?

What do you think?

I am currently reading a book called “I’m OK – You’re Not: The Message We’re Sending Nonbelievers and Why We Should Stop“, which I’ll write about after I’ve finished it.  However,  I would like to pose a question that it has raised and see what you think.  Here it goes.  What is more important, to love people or get them saved?  Does the great commandment trump the great commission?  Should we pay more attention to the Great Commission than the Great Commandment?  (Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:33; Matthew 28:18-20)  OK, that’s maybe 3 questions or the same 3 ways.  So, what do you think?  Please Comment.

How an Atheist ministered to me…

You ever thought about what goes through the minds of some people?

As christian leaders, this is the question.  This has to be “the question.”  We have to evaluate our ministry based upon this question. 

When someone walks through the doors of our church it is our job to remove as many obstacles as we can between that person and them having an encounter with God.  There is much about what we do as Christians that makes no sense to an unbeliever.  There is frankly much that we do in church that makes no sense to unbelievers.  We have to ask ourselves, as we look at what we do, what would an unbeliever think?  Would this be an obstacle to them or would this help them encounter Jesus. 

I believe a sign of maturity is when our attention turns from ourselves and how we want it in our churches to the needs of others, especially unbelievers.  Paul told the church in Colossee to be wise in how they act toward those outside the faith.  Colossians 4:5  He also tells us that we need to be mindful of the needs of others. Philippians 2:4  We have to ask ourselves what the needs of unbelievers are when we are ministering to them.  What goes through their minds?  If we are wise this will affect how we do what we do.

Some food for thought.  How an Atheist ministered to me…  Take a look at this little book by Jim Henderson & Matt Casper called “Jim & Casper Go To Church.” Jim is a Christian / retired pastor and Casper is an Atheist.  They team up and travel the US visiting 12 well known Churches documenting their experiences at and their reactions to each one.  This is an easy and interesting read.  It will cause you to take a look at what we do in our western Christian Churches and if we really know what is on the minds of those who we say we want to reach with the love of Jesus.   Read this book!

Book Recommendation…

WHAT WOULD YOU DO !

500 Questions to get your teens talking.

Kevin Mahaffy Jr.

If you are a parent, Youth Pastor, Sunday School teacher, or spend time talking to teens then this book is for you.  When you are not a teenager any more, it can be hard to know how to start discussions.  This book will be an excellent tool to help in your ministry. 

You can purchase it at these online stores: (click one of the links)

xulonpress.com

Amazon.com.

target.com 

For more information about the author, check out Kevin’s MySpace. (click here)