When You Think About The Church

I know I just posted an article but it is amazing how God brings things across our paths.  This morning I happened to receive an e-mail by Mark Batterson analyzing the current condition of the church (the whole/universal church).  His comments were worth reading.    He said, “I think the modern church has fixated on sins of commission. Don’t do this and don’t do that and you’re alright. But that’s not alright. Why? Because goodness is not the absence of badness. You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. That is why we’re more known for what we’re against than what we’re for. Christianity was never intended to be a noun. It was meant to be a verb. It is sins of omission, those things we could have, would have, or should have done for the cause of Christ, that grieve our Heavenly Father. We’ve got to quit playing defense and start playing offense. We need to quit fighting amongst ourselves and start loving our enemies. We need to quit pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Discipleship is so much more than the accumulation of rote knowledge. It’s a sanctified imagination that dreams God-sized dreams. It is a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God. It’s not enough to create our own sub-culture. We desperately need to raise up a generation that feels called to culture-shaping professions as God-ordained vocations. We cannot reduce the gospel to the forgiveness of sins. It’s about glorifying God by maximizing our God-given potential and serving our God-ordained purpose. It can’t just be about creeds. It’s got to be about deeds. It can’t just be about us. It’s got to be about others. We need the courage to stand up for what’s right in a culture where nothing is wrong. But we need to do it in a spirit of humility. We need the courage to incarnate the gospel in creative ways. But we need to do it in a spirit of authenticity. And we need the courage to preach the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. But we need to do it in a spirit of grace.”

Batterson’s Post

Last April I was at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida.  I know what you are thinking.  When you see “conference” and “Orlando” in the same sentence, you immediately think, “Yea, that conference was just an excuse to go see Mickey and soak in some rays.”  Well, I actually did go to the conference.  Exponential Conference is the premier church planting conference in the country.  Anybody who is anybod in church planting is there.  One afternoon I chose a seminar to attend that was led by a guy I had never heard of but his topic sounded very interesting to me.  It turned our to be Mark Batterson who is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC.  They meet in five movie theatres across the DC area and own and operate as a ministry/business the largest coffeehouse on Capital Hill (Ebenezer’s).  I was so impressed with him that this summer when I went to DC with my oldest son, Caleb, I went to Ebenezer’s and bought me a souvenir mug.  Their passion for Jesus is incredible and their ministry in the DC area is amazing.

As we begin Journey Church, it is challenging and inspiring to read about other church plants.  How they got started, all their stages and where they are now in their faith journey.  I pray that in the years to come that as we look back on what God has done we will be able to say that only God could do what happened in the life of Journey Church. You see, when God has a plan, God will make a way and all we have to is follow!   Take a moment to look at Mark’s recent blog, “If You Knock Long Enough”-  http://evotional.com/2009/01/if-you-knock-long-enough.html

Responsibility vs. Freedom

Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch.tv out of Oklahoma has become one of my favorite pastors to read and follow through his blog.  His writings are always inspirational and challenging and he is on the cutting edge of church life today.  This morning I came across his blog entitled Responsibility vs. Freedom.  Where do we draw the line between freedom and our responsiblity to not cause others to stumble. How far do we go when weighing our choices.   I encourage you to follow this link and read this entry.  It is written to pastors but is applicable to all Christians.  The link is: http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/2009/01/14/responsibility-verse-freedom/

Nu Thang

Do you ever wish we had audio recordings of certain scriptures?  Well, I do.  I would love to listen to the tone that Jesus used in many places when He was talking with people, especially the Pharisees.  I believe that many times that what we would hear many times would be anger and aggravation.  Matthew 15 would be one of those passages where you would hear Jesus’ anger and aggravation in his voice.  As happened many times, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus.  They raised a question about why His disciples did not wash their hands when they ate according to the “tradition of the elders.”  This “tradition of the elders” was their own set of laws that added to the laws of Moses to ensure that they did not break Moses’ laws.  At the time of Jesus there were approximately 500 such traditions recorded.  Jesus did not obey this or any of these traditions.  When asked why they did not obey this tradition, rather than respond Jesus immediately shot back His own question to them.  “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  What had happened to them can easily happen to us- Tradition had become a trap! By following tradition the Pharisees had missed Jesus and His message.

Tradition can be good. Repeating something that God has ordained and is being effective in His kingdom is good.   But when tradition becomes what we follow rather than Jesus, it is time to let go of our tradition. We cannot risk missing Jesus’ mission and purpose for the sake of tradition.  Holding on to tradition for the sake of tradition causes our worship to become empty and our lives void of the power of God.  If we were to look in our closets, attics, garages, etc. we would probably find many things that we are holding onto that really serve no purpose.  We hold onto things for various reasons- sentimental value, anticipated future use/value.  But really most of that stuff is just taking up space that could be used for something else.  When we moved in August we had a chance to go through our stuff as we packed and pull out the stuff that we had accumulated.  We had a yard sale and took a lot of stuff to Goodwill.  We realized that over the years we had accumulated a lot of stuff that was no longer useful and by getting rid of the clutter it was easier to move and make room for other more useful things.

When Jesus healed the man in Mark 1, the crowd was amazed and they asked, “What is this? A new teaching with authority!” Never be afraid of what is new . . . Never lose your pioneering spirit . . . Never lose your edge!  As DC Talk said several years ago,  “God is doing a NU THANG!”

Cruise Control

Studying this week,   I have been reading one of the most famous Psalms in the whole Bible- Psalm 139.  I am always amazed at how many times I know things so well and I begin to take them for granted.  Like verse 16 that says, “. . . in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”  I was riding to Asheville the other day and was singing and thinking through my day and as most all of us do whenwe are on interstate, I put my car on cruise.  And what happens when I  put my car on cruise?  So many times I zone out because I am not actively operating the accelerator.  How many times is my life like that?  How often do I get up, start my day, go through my day and at the end realize that another day has passed and I can’t recall anything special?  As I say a lot, “It was a normal day.”  In other words, it was uneventful and rather predictable.  But if I live in the Spirit, my life should be wild, untamed, exciting and anything but predictable!  Mark Batterson says in his book, Wild Goose Chase, that the Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit.  They called Him, “the wild goose.”  For more on his book , go to:  http://chasethegoose.com/  Even though my days are planned and predictable in God’s eyes, every day and every moment is a mystery to me until God reveals it to me.  May I live in expectancy of God’s presence and consistently listening for His voice making clear to me the mysteries of my life and I live moment by moment walking in His presence.

Pioneering Spirit

About a week ago, Debbie and I had the opportunity to meet the family who has graciously given us a house to live in while we are getting settled, starting the church and building our house.  It turns out that Carl’s dad was a church planter.  His Dad planted his first church in Ohio in 1943.  That morning Carl had spoken with his Dad and the conversation was about church planting and the pioneering spirit that it requires to do something like that.  Carl said his Dad’s wisdom that morning was that you need to be careful to guard that pioneer spirit because it is very easy to get into the status quo and forget that spirit.  That was a strong word but a convicting word for me.  I realize how easy it would be to lose that edge and settle for less than what God has called me to do.  Many times that is the easiest way and has the strongest temptation.  In Matthew 7, Jesus talks about the wide and narrow gates.  He challenges us to, “Enter by the narrow gate.  for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” When we interpret this verse, we most often reference it with eternal life.  But maybe Jesus meant much more than that.  To do what other people are doing is very easy because most of the time it is the accepted way and many people get on board because it is popular.  But try and do something radically different and you are scorned and looked down upon; even though what you are doing is theologically and Biblically correct it might not be the popular thing to do at the time.  I am praying that I will never lose that fire; that edge in life and ministry.

At the end of our conversation, Carl looked at my boys and told them to watch and learn from what we were doing in planting Journey Church.  He told them this was life lessons for them.  He challenged them to observe how Debbie and I would grow in our faith through this and to be a part of what God is doing in and through us.  I sat there weaping when I thought about the awesome task before us and the privilege that God had blessed us with.  I am anxious to see what God is going to do.  May we say as Zechariah said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.”

God Projects

Several years ago I was reading The Message and came across Romans 9:30-33.  It made a huge impact on me that continues to this day.  It says, “How could they miss it?  Because instead of trusting God, they took over.  They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing.  They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road.”  Personally that has greatly impacted how I view things in my life.  It is very easy with my personality to become absorbed in my “to do list” and miss what is happening around me.  I have to be careful.  Also, in our new church plant I have found this to be temptation as well.  It is always a temptation to have what I call a “fortress mentality” where I stay locked up in my office all day and miss the world around me.  It is very easy to get overwhelmed with the tasks at hand and miss Jesus altogether.  I desperately desire to stay focused on Jesus’ mission/purpose for His church and not what seems urgent for the moment.  When we started this church plant, I spent every work day at a coffeeshop here in town.  I met a lot of people and had begun several key relationships.  We opened our new office and I had spent a couple days getting organized and set-up when it hit me that I had not been out and met many people over those days.  When that realization hit me, I wanted to go out and meet some people but my immediate thought was of all the “stuff” I had to do.  All that “stuff” was real and did have to get done but then I finally reasoned that all that would get done but I had to get out.  I locked up the office and went to the coffee shop.  I went to meet one of the employees I had been talking with for several weeks but God had other things in mind.  He was not working and I ended up having a great conversation with a new guy that I had never met before.  I was humbled by the thought that my “God projects” that were all good and necessary things almost caused me to miss the most important thing God had for me that day.  My prayer for myself is that I will not get consumed with those “God projects” to the point that I miss Jesus and His mission/purpose/ministry for myself and His church.  As Chris Tomlin says in the song, “God Of This City”- “Greater things are yet to come, Greater things are still to be done in this city!”

The Power of God’s Word

I was reading Ed Stetzer’s blog today and found a fascinating article from Jared Wilson.  In this blog article, Jared had posted a video from entitled, “Don’t Waste Your Pulpits.”  It is well worth your time investment to watch this video.  So many times we can get caught up in “psycho babble” and forget what really changes lives . . . God’s Word.  Scripture says, “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  – Hebrews 4:12.

As a pastor, it is so easy to get caught up in the latest trends, what is fashionable for the moment, what seems to be working in churches, etc.  We must seek to be culturally relevant but maintain the integrity and centrality of God’s Word.  It is not enough to be Biblically based but we must be Biblically saturated!

God’s Vocabulary

Years ago I was facing some huge tasks with opening a new Youth Center.  We were remodeling an old Ryan’s Steakhouse and were facing what seemed to be impossible situations.  We were going to use the old dining area as our worship space, but we had a problem.  The Buffet Bar had been located right in the middle of the room which made the ceiling very low right where the stage would be located.  We desperately needed more clearance overhead.

An older gentleman in our church who was heading up the project asked me what I wanted to do.  I told him but immediately said, “But I think it is impossible.”  He instantly stopped me and said, “Mike, nothing is impossible.  All you have is opportunities.”  I learned a valuable lesson that day that I have to keep reminding myself of:  What seems impossible is usually an opportunity!

We know the truth of Scripture, “With man this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible.”  When you really get into it we realize that God’s vocabulary does not contain the word “impossible.”  We must continually train and retrain our minds to think like God and remove “impossible” from much of our existence.

This past week I received an encouraging word from someone.  It came from Blackaby’s Experiencing God devotional.  It was taken from the story in Matthew 14:16 where Jesus feeds the 5000.

Christ will lead you into many situtations that may seem impossible, but don’t try to avoid them.  Stay in the middle of them, for that is where you will experience God.  The key difference between what appears to be impossible to us and what is actually possible: a word from our Master!  Faith accepts His divine command and steps out in a direction that only God can complete.  If you attempt only things that you know are possible with the visible resources you possess, those around you will not see God at work.  You will be the one who receives the credit for a job well done, but God will have no part of it.  Take inventory of your life and the decisions you are presently facing.  Have you received a word from the Master that awaits your next step of faith?  If you will proceed with what He has told you, no matter how incredible it might seem, you will experience the joy of seeing your Lord perform a miracle, and so will those around you . . . Henry Blackaby.

Incredible Day!

Our first-ever Core Group Get-Together was incredible!  Check out some of the pictures and see what I mean!