T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L.

In high school, I had the opportunity to be involved on a debate team. At one of the events intended to help us be better at research and delivery we had a session with the title, T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L.. It was a fascinating session! It stands for “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.”

In much of the political arguments offered today we hear a lot about what people think they should get for free, college, health care, retirement, etc. It is always been interesting to me to hear a candidate actually say how they would pay for the benefits they are proposing.

The point of this blog post though isn’t political, it is spiritual. There are 2 obvious ways this applies to us:

1.     Satan offers sin, and sells it as free. Simply put, Satan says it really isn’t that bad, or it isn’t a big deal. Feel free to do whatever you want and you will be happy. Anytime we disobey our creator, savior, and friend there are consequences. These may not be immediate, Adam and Eve didn’t die instantly, but the consequences were very real. Sin destroys our peace with God and our relationships with others.

2.     The second idea would be the other side of the coin. We want to be holy, spiritual, etc. but we don’t want to put in the effort. Just like sin isn’t free, neither is holiness. I am not talking about positional holiness, we get that at the point of salvation, I am talking about practical holiness. Last night while we are vacationing at Carrie’s parents farm, I was able to stream the Lions game if my phone was in about a 3 foot area of the house. I could either choose to remain there and watch the game or I could move and the steam would freeze. This is how spiritual blessings work. We can either go to the area that God says He will bless or we can go somewhere else and not get those blessing. God doesn’t change for us, we change for Him. But too often we aren’t that motivated to stay there, we get distracted and chase after the things of this life. I hear Christians refer to the times of great spiritual blessings as past tense, or even like a fairy tale. We need to be willing give up the things of this world for the things of the next. Practical holiness isn’t free but it is worth every penny!

Nothing in life is free, so let’s get to work and accomplish something for the cause of Christ!

What the county parade and my sermon this Sunday have in common

Wednesday night, our church drove 2 floats through our county parade. The first float was for our Awana kids and the 2nd for the Teen IMPACT group. It is something we do every year as an opportunity for the kids to be in the parade and the remind the community of some of the programs that our church offers. 

This year the crowd seemed a little larger than some of the previous years, and the kids were all over the place! It was great to see so many families out and to see them having a great time. It is one of the reasons that we love living in our community so much. 

As I drove the bus down Hwy 62, I watched as people lined both sides of the street having a great time watching the parade and kids were loving all the candy. 

Sunday I am preaching from Acts 18:1-17 and as I was preparing for the message this picture and these verses really stood out to me in very personal way:

• Acts 18:9-10- Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”

"For I have many people in this city." These words have been going around and around in my thoughts since then. 

As I thought of the mass of people watching the parade, chasing candy, or just enjoying some fun time together, I was struck by the thought that God was worthy of the worship of their lives. Often I can relate far too well with Jonah, I am more concerned with my comforts and desires than the souls of the people around me. But God see them and has compassion, He loves them, He gave Himself for them. 

Lord give me eyes to see people as you see them!

Why Are We Angry Over The Wrong Issue?

This past week we have heard the results of several court cases and as predicted the response has been varied, passionate, sometimes interesting, and often missed the point.

I can't resist a blog post on these issues, but my burden isn't for the Supreme Court to honor marriage, or for the government to spend wisely, or for a flag to fly or be put away, but for the church to be reminded for why we are here.

First, let me say that I am a for guns, freedom, biblical marriage, etc. The problem is that the church today seems focused on the wrong issue.

Instead of being angry at the future of "Christian America" we need to be weeping for the souls of people. The issue we need to be focused on is that there are people who need to hear the Gospel and we are focused on arguing which flag we should fly or if we should obey / honor the court.

We often speak of how much Jesus loves us, but we have been horribly inefficient in presenting that love to a lost and dying world. The world hears us argue, defend our rights, even point people to history, but we often forget that we aren't here to be right, honored and loved. We are here to point people to Jesus. If we spent as much time telling people about Jesus as we spend debating all those issues I can't help but we think we would make a much bigger difference for eternity.

The American church needs to get its focus off the Supreme Court and get it back on what God has called us to do. As we come up to July 4th, celebrate America, but make sure that you remember God didn't ask you to be great American, he called you to make disciples.

Am I a better Christian than I am a __________?

Several years ago Tim Tebow was playing quarterback for the Broncos (ok, it was probably more than several). During that time I was having a conversation with some friends and one mentioned that they prayed that he would succeed as a QB. Honestly, I don't care if Tim is ever a starting QB again, but I it got me thinking. Maybe as Christians we are praying for the wrong things.

Tuesday I drove about 3 hours to a funeral of a pastor friend. Pastor Loren had been a pastor for over 39 years (11 years at his current church). He always pastored in a bi-vocational role. Whether working construction, farming or driving a school bus, he took various jobs so that he could afford to pastor in small country churches. He was a pastor that at 69 years old, finished well.

In the 4 years that I knew Loren, I learned something, he was a better Christian than he was a pastor. This is by no means a slight to his pastoral abilities, but he wasn't defined by his Sunday occupation.

Several years ago, after my Tebow conversation,  I started a list of names of various people that I know who are in ministry. Some are previous pastors of mine and some are friends, but the list is all people that I know personally. Usually about once a month I open this list and pray for these people. The prayer I pray is simple. "Lord, help them to be a better Christian then they are a (fill in their occupation)."

I don't pray for Tim Tebow to be a great QB, I pray that he would be a great Christian. As I search my own heart I see this area as a need for myself as well. One of the dangers of ministry is to identify spiritual success with ministerial success. We take group success as personal growth, when the two aren't necessarily connected. With all of the effort we put in to being good at our occupational field are we missing out on investing in the one area that really matters?

No matter what your occupation, no matter what your pay grade or seniority status,  strive to be a better Christian than you are a ___________!

The Only Constant Seems to Be Change!

In a few days our church will begin the process of making changes to our existing service times. As I have been working to make the transition as smooth as possible I have had the privilege to speak with several people (both in our church and churches around the country) about church changes in general. As these conversations progressed I noticed some things that were an encouragement to me.

Anytime an organization makes changes, there are going to be several expected (and valid) responses. From the disdain to the overboard excited, these responses demonstrate that the organization is made up people who have a love for it and want it to succeed. We also realize that no matter how small the changes are, they directly impact someone. If changes are to succeed and become the new normal, we must keep them in proper perspective.  With that in mind I have written down some of the statements that have been key to me over the past few months.

5 things to remember when your church makes changes:

1. God didn't bless your church in the past because of its schedule and he won't bless it in the future because of your schedule either.
1. God blesses us based on His good will and love for us, not based on our worthiness. He also doesn't bless our churches because of our service times. Service times are a practical function of your community. What you do during that service is what makes that time significant.
2. The purpose of your churches ministry is to help people learn about God. Sometimes that goal is better accomplished through changes, sometimes those changes are small, and sometimes they need to be dramatic.
1. Over the lifespan of any organization the community around it will change. A successful organization will be adept at making its ministry fit the needs of its present community. This is often done through small changes here and there, but sometimes it needs a dramatic overhaul to get realigned. The fear shouldn't be the changes, the fear should be an organization that doesn't impact and interact with its community. 
3. The goal of the church isn't to be relevant. The Gospel is already relevant and always will be. The goal of the church is to glorify God by getting the Gospel to the world, and prepare its people to be better messengers (in both word and actions).
1. The church structure sometimes gets way too much credit and blame. If we have a Gospel that is sufficient for all needs of faith and practice, then the goal of the church is to make us better handlers of it.
4. The process of change is as important as the change itself. The process reveals flaws and defects which should be corrected. If we skip the process we are only making the change less effective.
1. The process of looking hard at what we do, why we do it, and how we can make it better is beneficial to the overall health of an organization. It is the road map that lays out the destination in clear terms and guides to getting there effectively. Skipping steps in the process often means that the process will have to be repeated earlier and more often than necessary. 
5. The best thing a church can do is to structure itself in a way that people see less of the church and more of Christ.
1. Ironically, we often want the world to notice our churches, our buildings, our programs. If all they see is us and they don't see Christ, we are giving them a lousy photograph. We are to be a reflection of Christ, we want our ministries to be organized in such a way that we don't distract from the message of Christ. 

Seasons of change can bring great blessing if we approach them with the proper perspective!

Community= Church or at least it should!

Community- def.- Similarity or identity. Sharing, participation and fellowship.

Community ... it can be hard to define. Community is a popular concept in our culture right now. But what does community mean?

Everyone has the desire to belong, to be a part of something. People need a place where they are able to grow, learn, make mistakes, minister, encourage others and find support. The question then is where is there a place like that?

Honestly, far too often, that isn’t a description of the church, but it should be. A healthy church is one that establishes a safe and loving community. It is a place where sinners find help, not condescension, and where people hold people accountable, not from some lofty perch above, but from right beside them.

A buzz word in the church today is authenticity. If we wish to have authentic ministry, we have to be willing to deal with the tough issues. Not the issues out somewhere in the world, the issues right here in our churches, right here in our own lives. We are all struggling sinners in need of a community of Christians who are devoted to helping each other become more and more like Christ.

This is why church isn’t just a service. It is a family. So when you wake up this Sunday and get ready for church, begin praying for your community of believers. Pray that Word of God would be more than preached, pray that it would be practiced. Pray that needs would be met and then go and meet some needs. This Sunday be more than a spectator, be a part of the community of believers.

What Northland Means to Me

It is hard to quantify how much of an impact Northland has had on my life, but this is my attempt at it.

I was first introduced to Northland through the camp ministry. I attended summer camp there for most of my teen years. I was saved at basketball camp when I was 14 years old. The youth pastor who had the biggest impact on me was a Northland grad (Chris Juvinall) and my Associate Pastor (Jerry Hairgrove) moved to staff on Northland while I was in High school.

I have 2 degrees from Northland, served on camp staff both as a counselor and program staff. I met my wife there, attended a local church there for 5 years. But when I think of the impact that Northland had on me, I tend to focus on the people there.

Watching people love their jobs, love people, love the Lord and enjoy life.

From Doug and Jan Bennett who took me into their campus family (no relation but since we had the same last name they thought it would be a good fit), and were a constant encouragement to me.

To Jim Bennett, who was always the smartest person in the room, but never acted like it.

To the Kimbrough’s, I can’t express how much I learned from them. He was my pastor, teacher, example, but often he was simply an encouraging friend. If you attended Northland but never got to pray with him, you missed out. Mrs. Kimbrough was a gracious, loving encourager. One of the things I miss about going to Grace is hearing her sing.

To the Janke’s. What an impact they have had on my ministry. From having him for Apologetics (and a ton of other classes, but this was my all-time favorite class), to being my Pastor, to small group study in their home, they opened their lives to my family and my ministry is vastly better for it. Praying with them, learning from them and with them. The way he valued his family set an awesome example for my marriage.

To the Hairgrove’s, these people love serving. I was shown an example of people who graciously loved people, worked hard and laughed a lot. The joy they had still impresses me and encourages me.

To the coaches, Coach Scott for taking time to invest in someone who didn’t play basketball at college. The Herron’s, learning competitiveness in the proper context, for valuing hard work, and team work. For teaching me to understand a game I love and giving me the tools to teach others to love it as well. For pointing us to Christ and encouraging us to share the Gospel with our opponents.

Northland taught me the value of discipleship. My life was touched by the lives of many of the staff and faculty. From sitting in the sauna with Doc O, breakfast with the Kimbrough family, late night practices, the logistics of Springfest, camp, lunch bunch with the staff and classes, I was impacted to make more of Christ in my life. The list of ways Northland impacted me could go on and on, but let me conclude by saying that God used an out of the way place, started by a humble man of God, to do a massive work in my life. Words can’t express how thankful I am for Northland.

How to Make the Hardest Message Your Pastor will Preach Easier

Today I went to the hospital to meet with a member of our church, that at this time, looks like his time on earth is coming to an end. Since the Lord moved my family here to minister, I have preached more funerals than I want to claim. Funerals are by far the hardest messages to preach, at least for me. What do you say to the loved ones that sit there grieving? What words can adequately express their pain, loss, fears and grief?

If you want to make your pastor's message at your funeral easier, I have two suggestions:

1. Know Christ as your Savior and live like He is Lord.

As hard as preaching the funeral of friend or family member is, it is immeasurably harder to preach the funeral of a lost person. I take the opportunity to preach Christ, but as I am preaching to the living I can't help think of the eternal condition of the deceased. If you know Christ, boldly live like it, stand firm, be quick to obey the Word and encourage others to obey it. So when the Pastor stands to preach your funeral, he can rest in confidence that the Word of God had taken root in your life and that your eternal state was settled.

2. Get to know your pastor and allow him to be apart of your life.

Another thing that is hard at funerals is speak of the details of a life you don't know. Make it a point to get to know your Pastor! Share stories about your life with him, tell him your history, introduce your family, share your success and your failures with him. Let him into your personal life so when he stands to do your funeral, he speaks as more than just your pastor, he speaks as your friend.

Funerals are hard, preaching funerals is hard, but preaching the funeral of a member of the body of Christ who was my friend, makes preaching the hardest message a lot easier!

My Struggle With Silence

As a Dad with three young boys, I love silence. I don't hear it much but I love silence, well at least most of the time. During our extended afternoon communion service yesterday I noticed something that showed it self again today as I was praying, it was too quiet.

When I get silent before God, I am not real patient. As a type A guy, who is a fast talker and quick thinker, silence in conversation often makes me feel uneasy. I have learned over the years to be patient with others during conversation and so I don't get bothered much by pauses in personal conversations.  But as we had a corporate prayer yesterday I was reminded that I haven't mastered the ability to master listening in my prayer time. As the auditorium fell silent, I felt my mind asking for a sound, really any distraction. Even this morning as I was praying (the Lord was gracious this weekend, I have a massive cold, but the Lord allowed me the strength to preach a funeral, a wedding and Sunday Services, and sing two specials, but this morning my voice is gone, but it held out and I am praising God for that!) my mind seemed to desire an interruption, something to break the silence.

This struggle reveals an area of my life that I lack patience in. I am too often in a hurry when I speak to God. I want to praise Him, or maybe even plead with Him, but after I done with that I don't wait for response. I don't wait for God to answer.

As I write this post, I want to you to know that Pastors struggle with basic growth issues, just like every other redeemed sinner does. I am massive list person, so today I added to my list "prayer time" followed by "sit for 5 minutes in silence and let God speak". I can't tell you how hard that was! I had to keep clearing my mind of the days events and meetings, but God still was kind to me. He reminded me of people who needed prayer, He reminded me of grace that I had been given, He reminded me of grace that I needed for today.  Today it was a gentle quietness from God, somedays I need the stern quietness of God to rebuke my sinful heart.

In a day of noise, music, commercials, media, social networking and more, let me encourage you to make time to stop. Simply stop and be quiet before a holy God who wants to speak to you. If you were still what would God say to you? This question is worth answering!

"truth" is timeless; "right" is not

The title of this post is a chapter title from a a book entitled Worship Like It Matters by a Brett Habing that I just finished reading. I was interested to read the book mostly because for several years Brett was a professor where I attended college, and her was the music director at my church during those years. So I already knew his character and faithfulness to the Lord, and now I would get to read a book that was about a topic he thought was important enough to write a book about. (it was a good read, you should pick up a copy)

I want to highlight one of the sections he wrote about. In order to do that I am going to quote a section of the book and then make some applications.

"The Gospel is truth that will never change or lose its power. It transcends all time and culture yet maintains the diverse beauty of God's workmanship. The Gospel doesn't remain despite change; it remains within change, and it never loses its efficacy or integrity. Does that sound like you. or do you feel your way is constantly attacked and threatened? If you hold zealously to tradition, change will threaten you, even if you are no longer right. Your intransigence may eventually cause you to be in the wrong." (pg. 41-42, emphasis his)

I love the thought he presents here. The Gospel remains within change. The world, the church, families, nations, etc all change, and the Word of God remains constant, powerful and applicable. We tend to have 2 major groups within the church: first group wants change (traditions are meant to be broken) and the second resists change (we have never done it that way before).

Personally I don't think either of those opinions really portrays what the church should look like. It is our job to communicate the Gospel to a lost and dying world in a way that the world understands and in a way that demonstrates that we serve a holy God.

We often establish tools and routines to benefit our church and ministries, and after a while they cease to become tools and they become mandates. "We have to do it because we have been doing that for years." Be encouraged that we have tools for a reason, and sometimes we might even find that there is a better tool out there to do the same job. Don't fear new tools, don't despise the old ones, simply be willing to use the best tool for the job wether it is an old one or a new one. Because regardless of the changes that surround it, the Gospel remains powerful and effective.

I am excited to hear and read of many churches, even ones locally that are shaping their churches to be God honoring and effective in our present world. There is much being done for Christ and I am excited about the future.

Adjusting Expectations

Tonight I was reminded of unfulfilled expectations. Titus (my middle son) ordered a video game from Amazon. I have a prime account and so things normally get here pretty quick, unless you are kid waiting on video game! So it was scheduled to arrive tonight and for whatever reason, it didn't. More than likely it will be here tomorrow, but that is a whole day too long for him =). As he was super disappointed about the lack of delivery, Carrie tells him that next time we order something we will just tell him it will be here in 2 weeks, that way if it comes earlier it will be exciting.

As I was sitting here thinking about Titus' expectation and discouragement, I was challenged in my own life. We are so used to men failing in fulfilling promises, that we often lower our expectations. That philosophy has expanded and trickled down into our walk with God though. We don't dream big things for God, that way we aren't disappointed when He doesn't deliver. 

Ok, so maybe we don't exactly say it like that, but we live like it. We don't pray like we are praying to a God who LOVES to give good gifts to His children. We pray like we are trying squeeze a raise out of Ebenezer Scrooge. But it isn't just our prayer life that gets beaten down by this mentality. It is our witnessing (what if they get mad?, or what if they ask me a question I can't answer?), our giving (what if I can't pay the bills?, or what if I need that money for me?), our worship (what if serving God doesn't make me as happy as I thought it would?, or what if don't understand part of it?), our service (what if people don't like how I run this particular ministry?, or what if I mess up and miss someone or something?). I could go on and on, but I think you get my point. 

When was the last time that you asked something big from God. Not a pay raise, not a new car type prayer, but a real request for God to do something big. Like praying that God will bring revival to your family, your church, and your community. Or praying that God would use you to lead 10 people to the Lord in the next year, or that God would allow you to support a missionary directly, or that God provide you an opportunity to take a missions trip, etc. When we pray big things of God, we can pray them with excitement, courage, passion and confidence. Why? Because we pray them to a big God who is worthy of the worship that big things give. 

When it comes to our expectations of God, let's make them realistic, make them big!

Why I would Preach the Funeral of a Gay Person

Over the past few days controversy has stormed in our small town and surrounding areas. The charge was made that 2 local pastors, of whom I am not personally familiar, refused to do the graveside service of a gay man. Most of the original article that stirred the waters has since been found to be mostly untrue, but the issue is out there and needs to be addressed.

Just a few minutes ago our local paper called and they are doing a survey of pastors in our area, we have 70 plus churches in the area. They wanted to know my position and what I would do if I was asked to do the funeral. So here was my response:

How I choose who I will do a funeral for:

• Are they a person? (I don't do animal funerals, unless it is our pet and my kids want one)
• Will I have the freedom to preach the Gospel?
• Is the purpose of the funeral to glorify God, or glorify man or sin?
• I don't do funerals where the family wants to glorify sin over God.

If I choose to not preach a funeral because a particular sin is evidenced in the deceased persons life, which lists of sins would I have to use? I have never preached a funeral for a perfect person before. I have preached the funerals of some godly men, and I have preached the funerals of drug addicts who committed suicide, but they were all sinners. 

As with every funeral our church hosts, I give the same guidelines, we don't glorify the sins of men, we glorify the glory and graciousness of God. It is my desire to minister the Gospel of Jesus to people who are hurting and need him. I can't imagine a more needy place than a funeral of a sinner.

The Language of Gratefulness

Of all the issues that the modern church in America is facing, I tend to think one of the biggest is the lack of personal and collective gratefulness. It seems that everyone loves to complain and the church is no exception. We complain about our jobs, house, taxes, spouses, friends, church programs, calendars, struggles, finances and we even tend to complain about other people who complain a little too much.

With so much conversation fixed on complaining, have you ever wondered what a week would sound like if you never heard one complaint? Since it is impossible to control the speech of others, this gives us an easy out. But maybe we need to ask the question a little differently. What would a week sound like if I never complained? How radically different would your conversations be?

One quick note before we get too far down this road. Not complaining and being grateful aren't the same things. Not complaining is a good start, but it isn't the ultimate goal (glorifying God is).

Here are three starting points for a grateful heart and ultimately a grateful life:

1. Intentionally choose gratefulness
• Gratefulness isn't our default setting. We are prone to be proud, believing that we deserve better and more. This is are default setting. So if we are going to live a life of gratefulness it will have be done intentionally. When Paul wrote "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" he wasn't saying to be thankful for the good times. His life was full of disappointments, hardships and struggles. He was saying choose to be thankful no matter then circumstance you face.
2. Intentionally communicate gratefulness
• If we make a choice to be grateful, but we don't express that gratefulness we are missing a major aspect of it. Christians should be the examples of grateful speech. When I talk about grateful speech it needs to exceed the simple sayings of  "please" and "thank you." We need to be able to verbally be grateful for other people's service, for areas of growth, for difficult times that God uses to refine us, for circumstances that don't work as we expected them to. When was the last time you told someone how grateful you were for their ministry? or for a trial God was leading you through? Make a commitment to speak words of gratefulness.
3. Intentionally limit ungratefulness
• Remember the saying "a bad apple spoils the whole bunch"? We can make an intentional choice to be grateful and to speak that gratefulness to others, but if we are surrounded by others who are constantly ungrateful the effect will be minimal. I am not suggesting that you only have friends that do not complain, that would be an impossibility. I am saying that if we constantly listen to complaining, our heart will join the conversation. Lead the conversation to truth and gratefulness, and if you can't do that, join a conversation you can. 

May our lips be full of gratefulness because our heart is full. May the Gospel so change our heart that we no longer live in pride, but may we be Christians who are defined by gratefulness.