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.

To Change or Not To Change….

For growth to happen there has to be change.  So why do we resist it.  We want to grow but we don’t want to change.

You want to be out of debt but don’t want to change how you spend or sacrifice what’s costing you.  You want to have that body but don’t want to change your eating or exercise habits.  You want to break that habit but won’t change your behavior or admit you need help.  You want to be treated well but won’t change how you treat others.  You know the list could go on and on.

The truth is; you cannot stop change.  You can embrace it and you will grow.  You can resist it and you will still change but for the worse.

To not change your eating and exercise will decline your health.  To not forgive will make you angry and bitter.  To not be punctual will get you fired.  To not change how you manage your finances will lead to crisis.

We resist change because we are afraid of letting go.  We become comfortable where we are.  We fear letting go of what we know to embrace what is not fully known.  We fear the pain of change.  The steps we have to take to change sometimes are painful.

The truth is, to change takes letting go of what I have come to control and exercise faith.  If I let go of what, where or who I am holding on to, will God protect me and sustain me.  Do I trust that where He is taking me is better than where I am.

Paul entrusted his entire life to God to do whatever He asked because he fully trusted Him.  Whatever change was necessary.
“…for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.” 2 Timothy 1:12

Do you trust God that much, to embrace whatever changes He wants to bring in you?

Do you trust Him to carry you through?

Trust Him today and embrace the change.

What you look’n at?

In processing my thought from Sunday’s message, I began to think about God’s glory.  What is God’s glory?  I heard one of the best descriptions of Glory this past week by Jeff kapusta in his message “Why Questions?”

Psalm 19:1 (NIV) says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

Glory is adoration, affection and bigness.  It is the awesomeness of God.  I want to see the glory of God in my life just like you can see  His glory in creation.  I want someone to look at my life and say, “I don’t understand it, but that is awesome; that is so incredible it must be God.”  Isn’t that what the Apostle Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 4:7.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

We are to reflect God’s glory through our lives.  When people examine your life they should see Jesus!

Glory comes from magnifying God.  We magnify God when we look at Him as Moses did when he drew near to God on Mt Sinai to talk to Him.  Drawing close to God caused Moses to reflect the radiance of God’s glory.  Others saw it on him.

When we look to God instead of placing our focus on all our problems, God is magnified instead of our circumstance.  The closer we are to Him the small our problems seem.  Many people focus so much on their circumstances, it steals their faith and they can’t see that God is bigger than their issues.  Their problems seem insurmountable.  When we truly see God as He really is, then we will see our problems for what they really are – small in comparison to a Big God.

When we look to God, He is magnified.  When He is magnified, we behold His glory.  When we behold His glory, others see God in us.

What the CRAP…..

 Most of you who know me, know that I have been plagued with plumbing problems.  Our house was flooded twice from plumbing issues.  As a result, the down stair ceiling fell in and flooded our den, garage and laundry room. (Read Count it all Joy….)

We finally got everything repaired and….. last night I discovered that one of my boys flushed something, lets just say, that should not and cannot go down the pipes.  I have spent most of today trying to snake our drain lines. What happened to me is to nasty to describe.  Let’s just say my day was CRAP!  If this word offends you then you have no idea what I’ve experienced today.

Last Sunday I talked about the kind of life that Jesus offers to us.  It’s a life that rises above the issues of this world.  It’s not a life without issues.  It’s a life not ruled, controlled or defined by our issues.

The Apostle Paul described his life in Christ and the issues he faced. 

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.  For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”   2 Corinthians 4:8-11 (KJV)

How do we do this?  How do we rise above the CRAP in our lives?

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory;  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:  for the things which are seen are temporal;  but the things which are not seen are eternal.”   2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (KJV)

Paul says our afflictions are light and momentary.  You may say at this point “Paul, has no idea what I’m going through.”  You may feel like it has been a lifetime of difficulty. 

However, this is Paul’s point.  It’s about perspective.  Meaning, your perspective through the eyes of the flesh or God’s through eye of faith.  Every difficulty is heavy to us, but to God it’s light.  Our afflictions can seem to never end, but to God they are temporary in view of eternal life with Him.  It’s all about where you are looking.

Verse 18 gives us the key to living the life of Christ that rises above the CRAP.  It says look at the things which are not seen, the eternal things.  When our eyes are in the right place the rest of us will follow: our mind, our mouth (words), and our actions.  When we focus on the CRAP, it is magnified.  When we look at Jesus and the things of the Kingdom of God, He is magnified and faith increases.  When we focus on our difficulties we cause them to seem insurmountable and all encompassing.  When we do this we rob God of glory through us. (look at v.15)

So are you going to wallow in your CRAP or rise above it where you experience the kingdom of God and the life of Jesus?

I’m dying…

The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4 that he carried around in his body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his mortal body.  He said there is a treasure in our body (that is if we belong to Him.)  That treasure is Jesus Himself. 

How is this treasure revealed in our life?

In the Gospel of John 12:24, John tells us that unless a seed falls to the ground and die it will produce no fruit.  It’s still just a seed.When the seeds of Jesus’ Words fall into the soil of my life I have realized that there is a death that has to take place.  If I allow the seed to take good root in me then the Word encounters areas that are contrary and resistant to the Word.  A death must take place where the seed lands in my life.  If it does it will bring forth life and fruit.

In Matthew chapter 5-7 we find the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus tells us if we look at a woman to lust we commit adultery; bless people who insult us or talk bad about us; we can’t give our offerings if we are not in right relationship with others; we must go the extra mile; turn the other cheek; love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, and the list goes on and on.  At first we look at these things and religiously say, “OK, no big deal, I do that.”  But do we?  Do we show up early for work and stay late with out complaining?  Or do we go the extra mile on our jobs or in our relationships?  Do we give more than we are asked of?  Do we think of kind words to say to those who say unkind or insensitive things to us? 

When the seed of Jesus’ Word truly fall into the broken up soil of our life we see this kind of life is impossible.  Our flesh rises up and say no, it’s my human right.  Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”  This means dying daily.  This means denying self.  As you see when we really allow the Word to penetrate us it causes a dying in us.  Our flesh resists death.  It wants to preserve the life it has. But dying is necessary if we want the life of Jesus (the treasure) to produce life and fruit.  It is an impossible task to follow Jesus with our old life.  It is impossible to embrace the new life the way Jesus commands.  When we recognize the truth of His Word and can admit we cannot do it, we are at the dying place.

Let the Word offend your flesh.  Embrace it.  Die to it.  The result will be life and peace.  It means the manifest presence of God.  When you truly discover the Shepherd in Psalm 23, you will want for nothing else and you will find everything you ever needed.

I’m Dying…but not dead yet…

The Next Top Model…

This TV Reality Show with Tyra Banks take some everyday girls who would like to break into the Modeling Industry and gives them a shot at becoming America’s Next top Model.In 1Thessalonians 1:6-8 Paul talks about the Thessalonians who followed after the example of Paul and Jesus and became a MODEL for others throughout Achaia and Macedonia.

In John 13:15 Jesus said He came as an example for us to walk in.

What kind of Model are you?

I understand Paul’s pride in those who were being models to others.  I get excited when I see people on Sunday intentionally being an example of the kind of worshiper we should be.  There are a couple of guys I know who are our church’s Top Models.  Pastor Ben, whether he realizes it or not, is one of my biggest cheerleaders on Sundays and I try to be his.  He pulls out his Bible and takes notes.  He stays engaged with me throughout my sermon Modeling what it means to be a disciple who desires to learn and apply the Word of God.  For Pastor Ben I try to be near the front to model the kind of worship that God deserves and hopefully becomes contagious to others.  I also think of the example of  my father who has a way of changing the entire atmosphere in a room when he worships because he models an enthusiasm and passion for Jesus in worship that is an encouragement to the worship-leader and an example to other worshipper.  This reminds me of the scripture that says the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father David.

Our whole life is about modeling the example that has been given to us by Jesus and others.

Are you The Next Top Model?