I Used to Think I Knew it All (a personal reflection)

I thought I knew everything there was to know about marriage…I was the expert and had philosophies and ideas that I knew would make marriage unbelievable. THEN I got married and discovered that it took more than philosophy to make marriage successful…it took work and change and adjustments and a willingness to unlearn everything I thought I knew!

I thought I knew everything there was to know about raising children…I was the expert. I was NEVER going to be THAT parent that had a kid freak out in the middle of a restaurant…I was NEVER going to say ridiculous things such as, “do you want a spanking?” THEN Jacque and I had Tori, and then a little over three years later, we had Ian. Jacque and I came to the understanding that it takes more than philosophies and book knowledge to raise our children…it takes work and change and adjustments and a willingness to unlearn everything I thought I knew.

I thought I knew a lot about leading a church…I thought I was an expert. After all, I had taken some seminary classes, had experiences working in some great churches and had read a lot of books by some people who had done quite well in regards to leading great churches. I've come to the understanding that it takes more than philosophies and some inspirational one-liners from my favorite conference speaker to really lead a church...it takes work and change and adjustments and a willingness to unlearn everything I thought I knew.

I’ve been in full-time ministry many years, and the longer I do this the more I realize that I really don’t know what I’m doing, which is awesome for me because realizing this will keep me desperate for God’s voice; after all, it IS His church.

I will NEVER have church leadership figured out! The more I am around amazing leaders, the more I realize I have so much to learn. The thing that I have learned though is that in order to be an effective church leader we MUST be willing to throw out philosophies, ideas and “book knowledge” that doesn’t fall in line with what the Scriptures and the Spirit is saying.

The beginning of Jesus bringing serious change in His church is when He begins to bring that type of serious change in the leadership of that church! If we are willing to embrace all He has for us, we will see things that absolutely blow our minds…and that’s my prayer. I don’t want to know it all, I want to know HIM who controls it all, and trust Him to lead me step by step!

Making Happy Christians Mad

Here's a great post from Tony Morgan...tonymorganlive.com

“I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved,” 1 Corinthians 10:33

Fascinating perspective isn’t it? Typically, we don’t operate like that. We put personal conviction or preferences ahead of what may be best for others. Think about it…

*It isn’t worship if the music is too loud or too fast or the wrong genre.
*It isn’t discipleship if the content is delivered in a home or online instead of in a classroom.
*It isn’t missions if we help a neighbor who has wealth instead of focusing on people who live in poverty.
*The message is good if it calls out the sin of other people, but when it’s our sin, we’re offended.
*Rather than embracing the ministries that are impacting the most people, we want the church to embrace our
personal projects and passions.
*We’re more inclined to give when we can direct how the money is used.

Crazy. You’d think we’d be intentional about living out our faith to do what’s best for others. Instead, we make ministry decisions to try to keep people happy. That’s how we end up with churches full of happy Christians. That’s why churches stop growing. We start doing church for us instead of trying to impact the lives of people around us.

The reality is that if we’re going to reach people outside the church and outside the faith, we’re going to have to be uncomfortable. And, once we figure out what’s best for others today, it’ll be different tomorrow. That will involve change. That means we’ll have to get uncomfortable again.

Let’s face it. It’s a lot easier doing ministry when our only goal is to keep people happy. Doing what’s best for others makes life and ministry messy. We have to be willing to rock the boat. We have to be willing to watch people who don’t have a “1 Corinthians 10:33″-mindset leave the church.

When I stop doing what’s best for me and focus on what’s best for others, though, that’s when real life-change happens. It’s worth making “happy Christians” mad so that many may be saved.

Long Haul Discipleship

Discipleship can't happen in sound bytes. What a profound sound byte!

I think this is a statement of critical importance. In an age of short attention spans, meals in microwaveable boxes, and life moments reduced to 140 Twitter characters, we need to recapture the ideas of longevity and endurance.

Discipleship is a whole life journey, not an 4-8 week class. It's about developing the fruit of the Spirit and spiritual gifts and looking more like Christ, not about checking off a set of boxes. It's a process of becoming, not a destination. There is no way to short-circuit discipleship. It's about turning every moment of every day into an encounter with God.

Read what Paul's final encouragement to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5-7 (NLT)
"Fulfill the the ministry God has given to you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as a drink offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful."

These are not the words of a man who has just finished a set of sprints. These are the words of a man who is on the last leg of a super marathon. Listen to some of his words. He has been "poured out as a drink offering to God." Are we allowing God to pour us out? Have our lives spilled out all over those that God has entrusted to us?

He "fought a good fight." If you want to shorten a fight, there are three ways you can do it- die, surrender, or win. Unless Jesus returns, the final victory is not something we can control, and I know I don't want to surrender. So I have to keep fighting until the death.

He "remained faithful." Discipleship is not about us and our schedules. It's about remaining faithful to God and the people he has put in our paths.

If someone discovers a Biblical way to shorten the discipleship process, then I am all for it. Until then, I'm going to have to find some way to follow Paul's example.

Highest Calling versus Ministry

Don't neglect your highest calling in the name of ministry. We all do it. We don't read the Bible to grow closer to God; we read the Bible to get a message for Sunday. We don't preach for the glory of God; we preach to grow our churches. We cheat our families and our friends to tackle a to-do list of ministry activity that will never end.

Ezekiel gives us a sobering message in the 44th chapter for his book. In Ezekiel 44:10-14, we learn that the priests in the temple have served the people well, but have not worshiped God. So God allows them to continue to work in the temple and serve the people, but they can no longer enter the most Holy place to worship him and experience his presence.

How tragic to live a life of service to the people of God without experiencing the presence of God. And yet if we are honest, many of us must confess that we have found ourselves in that place before...if not living in it now.

Do not neglect your highest calling in the name of ministry.

Information Overload

Information barrels down on people like a relentless convoy of eighteen-wheelers. Books, magazines, the web—the available resources are excellent and helpful but overwhelming. What sources are important?

I'm gradually being disabused of the notion that all this information matters. The Enlightenment suggested that if we could just get more information, we'd be better people. I don't believe that anymore, which has helped me be less compulsive about my reading. The feeling that we've got to read all these things can be an idol.

I would rather know a few things well than a lot of things pretty well. I'm told this happens when we get older. I'm more accepting of what my genuine interests and strengths are, and I'm going with those. I'm not driven to expand into areas I'm not so good at. When I was 25, I wanted to be a renaissance man, but I've finally given up. For example, I don't read much science anymore because I'm just not strong in it.

I still read a lot, though, and despite what I tell myself, I still feel a little compulsive about it. I'm not reading for information as much as for perspective. With everything I have to juggle, I'm always trying to find where the fulcrum is on this mass, the perspective that will help me make sense out of things. In magazines I might scan a book review, but if there's a good article that synthesizes a lot of ideas and will give me perspective, I'll read that.

Stop Doing Ministry

I’m guessing you’re familiar with the story from Acts 6 where the widows in the church were not getting fed. That’s a bad situation. I know how grumpy I get when I’m hungry. I can’t imagine how grumpy a group of hungry, older women can be. That can’t be good.

The grumpy, old women weren’t getting fed because the apostles weren’t getting the job done. These leaders were supposed to be focusing on prayer and teaching God’s Word (see Acts 6:4), but instead they were stuck trying to pull off a not very effective food distribution effort.

So who’s at fault? It could be the people in the church who are just showing up for services on Sunday morning but not engaging in ministry. Maybe they haven’t studied the Bible enough to learn that it’s not biblical to pay pastors to do all the ministry of the church.

It could be the fault of the leaders. Maybe they’ve fallen into the “I can do it better” trap (see the post below). Maybe they aren’t really leaders, so they aren’t spiritually gifted to empower other people in ministry.

Either way, here’s what strikes me about this passage in Acts. The apostles were engaged in ministry. In that day, food distribution was just as much a part of the ministry of the church as praying and teaching. They were doing ministry; they just weren’t doing the right ministry. In other words…

It’s possible to do the work of God without doing the work God has called you to do.

That should be alarming for us. Because as the church grows, it requires us to prayerfully consider questions like this:

• Am I encouraging people to serve in ministry?
• Am I helping people determine their gifts?
• Am I empowering new leaders?
• Am I a leader, or am I just in a leadership position?
• Am I doing what God designed me to do?

Fortunately, the apostles decided to empower seven other leaders to take responsibility for the food distribution. That allowed the apostles to get back to focusing on prayer and the teaching of God’s Word. I guess you could say they stopped doing ministry, and encouraged others to do it instead. As a result of that, “God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too,” (Acts 6:7).

If you’re doing all the ministry, you’re probably going to lead a small, ineffective ministry that’s not consistent with God’s plan for your life. So what are you going to do? Are you going to continue to do the work of God, or…

Are you going to do the work God called you to do? Here are some Scriptures to consider:

Galatians 6:4 NLT Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else.

Ephesians 5: 17 NLT Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

I Can Do It Better

Pride makes you do stupid things. One of the consequences is falling into the “I can do it better” trap. It’s what happens when you look at a situation and or a decision and say to yourself, “I can’t let anyone else have this one, because it’ll just be easier (and better) if I do it myself.”

Here are some thoughts for those of us who wrestle with this:

• If you are a perfectionist, people won’t like to be around you. It’s one thing to give our best effort. It’s another thing to think it always has to be perfect. Perfectionism isn’t attractive.
• Needing to be in control will kill you. It leads to anxiety and fear. It’s an indication that God’s not in control. It will paralyze you.
• If you always do it, no one else will learn to do it and you will always be stuck thinking you have to do it. It’s a vicious cycle.
• If you always do it, you’re denying other people the opportunity to live out God’s purpose for their life. That’s kind of like telling people you know better than God what’s best for their life.
• What if Jesus said, “I can do this better.” Because, if you think about it, he could do it better…but he still elected to give ministry away to others.
• When we don’t let others do it, we limit our influence and impact. Small organizations (and churches) have leaders who think they need to do it all.
• When we choose to do it ourselves, we’re taking the easy way out. It’s harder to find someone else, train them, coach them and check up on them. In other words, we’re basically admitting we’d rather not do the hard work that could ultimately lead to better results.

Just so you know, I’m a recovering perfectionist. This is something God is continuing to work out in me. The crazy thing about this mindset is that it directly conflicts with my ministry calling. Here’s what I believe my primary calling is in my life:

“[My] responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13 NLT).

For me to fulfill that calling, there’s really no room for “I can do it better.” In order for me to do what God is calling me to do, I have to equip God’s people to do his work. Which, not to state the obvious, must suggest that God thinks …

They can do it better.