Lessons in Leadership

A Joshua Generation - CFNI Spring Graduation 2010

2010-11-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

Sorting through some files on my computer today, I came across this video recording of the message I preached at the Christ for the Nations Institute Spring Graduation Ceremony earlier this year entitled, "A Joshua Generation." I am so thankful for the opportunities God has given me to minister there. Nothing gets my "juices" going like a chance to share my heart with a bunch of young "leaders in the making...!"

I attended CFNI myself in 1978 and my life was profoundly impacted, particularly in the areas of worship and missions. Experiencing the manifest presence of God day after day in chapel service and sitting in classes taught by John Garlock, the World Missions teacher, changed me forever.

During this message I share some leadership insights concerning the "forgotten baptism" in Scripture - the baptism into leadership - based on the lives of Moses and Joshua.

Watch Real-Time Decisions for Christ from Around the World...!

2010-04-23T18:21:00.001-07:00

My friend, Eric Celier, and his team over at Jesus.net have put together this real-time display of people who have just given their heart to the Lord Jesus somewhere around the world via one of their websites in various languages. If you have the free Google-Earth software installed, the second window below will display an even cooler 3-D version...!

How to Build a Team - Lessons in Leadership from the Life of Jesus

2010-03-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Part one of my new series entitled, "How to Build A Team - Lessons In Leadership From the Life of Jesus" from our Word and Spirit telecast.

Part two of "How to Build A Team - Lessons In Leadership From the Life of Jesus."

Part three of "How to Build A Team - Lessons In Leadership From the Life of Jesus."

Part four of "How to Build A Team - Lessons In Leadership From the Life of Jesus."

Part five of "How to Build A Team - Lessons In Leadership From the Life of Jesus."

Is Preaching Against Homosexuality a Hate Crime? - Richard Hammer's legal advice

2010-03-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

Why Christian Media Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better - Phil Cooke

2010-01-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

If you are interesting in Christian media, you must read a very interesting post by Phil Cooke highlighting a couple of sea changes taking place right now in Christian media. Here's the "skinny" on his perspective...

"...from a demographic perspective, the donors who built the major media ministries of the last few decades are disappearing, and being replaced by a new group that doesn't share the same values and priorities. My opinion is that we have 8-12 years left with the donors that built the major Christian ministries we see today...

...The former donor base that was focused on giving for expansion - particularly building projects - is now being replaced by a generation more interested in great causes...The question that hasn't been answered yet is how to convert them from passionate supporters to actual givers. On that subject, the jury is still out. After all, this is the generation that grew up on Napster, and believes everything online should be free. It will take some time to change those expectations.Most media ministries have never had to listen, and they struggle with change.

With that in mind, here's what I predict: As donors stop giving to the same old traditional Christian TV appeals, here's what will happen:

1. Many of those ministries will panic and start doing "emergency appeals."

2. They'll bring in the fundraising "A Team..."

3. Some will close their doors.

4. A fortunate few will see the shift coming and respond accordingly.

...Brace yourself. Whatever you like or dislike about religious media, it's about to get worse. Most of the media ministries you see today are already struggling, but too many refuse to see the reality of the change they need to make."

I think Phil is right on...as usual! If you are interested in how media and Christianity intersect, I highly encourage you to read his blog at www.philcooke.com and to buy his latest book, The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn't Care Less About Religious Media.

Dealing With Dead Horses

2009-10-03T13:35:00.001-07:00

Every leader sometimes finds himself or herself trying to resurrect something that is either dying or already dead. Here are a few choice insights on dealing with "dead horses" from our Hillcrest Church Children's Pastor, Susan Rutledge:

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."

4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride horses.

6. Increasing the standards to ride horses.

7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.

8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.

9. Comparing the state of horses in today's environment.

10. Changing the requirements to specify that "Horses shall not die."

11. Hiring contractors to ride the dead horse.

12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.

13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to ride."

14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.

15. Doing a study to see if the horse can be ridden cheaper if outsourced.

16. Purchasing a product to revitalize the dead horse.

17. Declaring the dead horse is "better, faster and cheaper".

18. Forming a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.

19. Revisiting the performance requirements for horses.

20. Saying this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.

21. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Personally, I think the best way to deal with a "dead horse" is the same way Pastor Syvelle Phillips taught me to deal with a "sacred cow" … namely, you shoot it from as far away as possible with a high-powered rifle, then walk up wringing your hands over its untimely demise…! J!

The Need for Margin

2009-09-14T13:54:00.001-07:00

As part of a homework assignment from the King's Seminary, I have been reading a great book this morning entitled, "The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits" by Dr. Richard Swenson.

I shared a few short quotes on Twitter, but here are a couple worth passing on that just won't fit within 140 characters…!

How did Jesus care for people? He focused on the person standing in front of Him at the time…

…If Jesus had chosen to live in modern America instead of ancient Israel, how would He act? Would He have consulted a pocket calendar? Would He have worn a watch? Would He have carried a beeper? Can you imagine Him being paged out of the Last Supper?...

…When I look deeper at the life of Christ, I also notice that there is no indication that He worked twenty-four hour ministry days. He went to sleep each night without having healed every disease in Israel – and He apparently slept well. Neither did He minister to everybody who needed it. Neither did He visit or teach everybody who needed it. There were many needs that He simply chose not to meet…

...Is this to imply that He was lazy or didn't care? Of course not. But it is to imply that He understood what it meant to be human…and His fully human side understood what it meant to have limits. Jesus understood what it meant to prioritize and to balance in light of those limits and how to focus on the truly important. We can learn a lesson from Jesus – it's okay to have limits. It is okay not to be all things to all people all of the time all by ourselves…

…Margin is the space between our load and our limits…

…Margin allows availability for the purposes of God. When God taps us on the shoulder and asks us to do something, he doesn't expect to get a busy signal…

…"In the spiritual life," explains the theologian Henri Nouwen, "the word discipline means 'the effort to create some space in which God can act.' Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from filling up…to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on."

Convincing Modern Man He Needs to Change – Phil Cooke

2009-07-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

In his recent blog post entitled, "Convincing Modern Man He Needs to Change," Phil Cooke gives a very thought-provoking quote from C.S. Lewis,

"When the apostles preached, they could assume even in their Pagan hearers a real consciousness of deserving the divine anger… It was against this background that the gospel appeared as good news. It brought news of possible healing to men who knew they were mortally ill. But all this has changed. Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis - in itself very bad news - before it can win a hearing for the cure."

Pastor Dan Scott – The Pathological Metamorphosis of the American Church

2009-07-24T11:01:00.001-07:00

Pastor Dan Scott from Christ Church in Nashville, Tennessee gave an interesting quote from a recent message by Church on the Way Worship Pastor Dr. Tom McDonald in a post on his blog this week entitled, "The Pathological Metamorphosis of the American Church:"

"Something serious occurs to our worship and music whenever we change them from sacramental instruments that we employ to connect the human heart with God, into mere tools for church growth."

The Last TV Evangelist - Phil Cooke

2009-06-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

I love Phil Cooke's books and have read or am currently in the process of reading every one of them, including Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don't. His lastest book is entitled The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn't Care Less About Religious Media. In my view, it is a must-read for anyone in Christian ministry who uses the media in any form. For that matter, if you simply have a heart to reach people with the good news about Jesus in any way, you need to read this book...! Below is a link to his recent interview on the 700 Club. If you are not yet convinced that you need to read his book, I urge you to take a moment to at least view this video clip. Check out his blog at http://www.philcooke.com/ and his free video podcast on Itunes, "The Change Revolution."

The Life and Ministry of Pastor's Wives - Teresa Brand & Lois Evans, Word & Spirit Telecast, 05-05-09

2009-05-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Teresa recently interviewed Dr. Lois Evans of Oakcliff Bible Fellowship where her husband, Dr. Tony Evans, is the Senior Pastor, and the Urban Alternative. They discussed the life, role, ministry, and challenges faced by pastor's wives. Dr. Evans leads a ministry to Senior Pastor's Wives which puts on an annual "First Ladies Conference." This is Teresa's favorite ministry event every year.

WME History Makers conference audio now available free on the web

2009-05-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

The sermon audio from the WME Conference is now available free on the internet via an ITunes podcast. Session Five with Rick Bezet was especially good - a "must-listen" for every pastor...!

New Testament Apostolic Ministry (Dale Yerton), Word and Spirit TV

2009-03-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had the privilege of hosting Dale Yerton and Ted Flynn from the WME network of ministries on my daily telecast, Word and Spirit. During our conversation, Dale shared some great insights concerning the present-day function of New Testament apostolic gifiting.

Starbucks and Church Marketing

2008-11-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Todd Rhoades over at Monday Morning Insight for pointing the way to this very funny video entitled, "What if Starbucks marketed like the church?" at BeyondRelevance.com.

If you found this video thought-provoking, I encourage you to check out Richard Reising's post entitled, "re-Branding on Momentum." Here are a few quotes,

It seems like churches these days have seen the power of marketing and branding just enough to jump onto the band wagon. Churches everywhere are sliding onto the re-branding table and looking for a quick-fix for their "growing" concerns. A few recent conversations have illustrated the often missing link in a church's preparedness to go under the knife for a branding make-over.

...please note that true "branding" goes much deeper than skin deep. True branding is a plum-line from the core of who you are to the people God has called you to reach. It is a promise you deliver on in all that you do and is seen on the surface as your communication, design, image or brand.

...surface re-branding...is an epidemic. It is the concept that if we are not attracting people, it is because we do not have the right name or image, and therefore, we need to change it and re-design our look. With all the love I can muster, if you are not growing what you have, it is not because of your logo. If you are not connecting with people that come through your doors in a way that causes them to come back and bring others, no amount of design can create a long term fix. If you do have momentum however, the right brand can be a catalyst to new levels of growth...

...re-branding should only take place after momentum has been generated. To simply re-brand a church when it has not found its traction is generally just an indication to your community that you’ve tried everything else without success and in your last attempt, you’re changing your style and/or name in order to reinvent yourself...

Here’s the deal: if you aren’t currently connecting with people right where they’re at, no amount of branding/design can solve your problem. Re-branding without momentum is kind of like dressing up for your prom and forgetting to court a date...

...Design cannot obtain what a disconnected ministry cannot reach.

Well said!

On Schuller, Succession, Scripture, and Sin

2008-10-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

According to articles in the L.A. Times newspaper entitled, "Schullers' Rift Centers Around Hour of Power" and "Rev. Robert H. Schuller Ousts His Son as 'Hour of Power' Preacher," the son has been sidelined and the father has taken the reins of leadership at the ministry he founded back into his own hands. According to a letter from the father on the Crystal Cathedral website, the move stems in part from a desire by the father to use the television platform he built to highlight some of America's best known preachers, including Bill Hybels and Kirbyjon Caldwell.

I encourage you to join me in prayer for this congregation, one of the most influential in America, and all its leadership, including its pastors, as they walk through these difficult days. I do not have any personal knowledge of any of the dynamics involved, but two very interesting statements in the L.A Times articles stood out to me. One is an assessment by the journalist and the other a direct quote from the father.

As the author of the Times' article put it,

Schuller built his worldwide ministry over a half century on the psychology of positive thinking and appealing to people turned off by the formality of traditional faiths. In contrast, his son's sermons have been full of direct references to the Bible.

He then quotes the father as saying,

"I was called to start a mission, not a church," Schuller told his audience Sunday. "There is a difference. . . . You don't try to preach . . . what is sin and what isn't sin. A mission is a place where you ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love. We're a mission first, a church second."

That concerns were expressed concerning the son's more frequent use of Scripture in preaching strikes me as particularly noteworthy given the fact that back in April of last year news articles in the Christian press were highlighting an unusual move of God that had begun under the son's ministry at the Crystal Cathedral. Over 500 people spontaneously came forward to give their lives to Christ and follow the Lord in water baptism during a single Sunday morning service! (Click here to Christianity Today magazine's account of those events.)

I have great respect for the work the father has done and was powerfully impacted a few years ago when I read his autobiography, "My Journey: From an Iowa Farm to a Cathedral of Dreams," particularly his account of sensing the call of God to spiritual leadership as a young farm boy. I must say, though, that I was intrigued by the fact that he apparently believes evangelism and "mission" should not include any preaching against sin.

He is a good and great man and I do not have any doubt that his concerns are well intentioned, but his paradigm strikes me as markedly different from that which graces the pages of the New Testament, whether Gospels, Epistles, or the Book of Acts. According to the latter, Paul's presentation of the Gospel to Governor Felix, aimed at bringing him to faith in Jesus Christ, included themes like righteousness, self-control, and divine judgment. That approach brought such deep conviction to Felix's heart that he was "afraid." He was not willing to give his heart to the Lord and wanted to put off hearing any more preaching like that until he was ready to be converted.

24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” (Acts 24:24-25 NIV)

According to Jesus, salvation requires both turning away from sin and faith toward God,

"14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”" (Mark 1:14-15 NIV)

Preaching and teaching against sin is not only part of the discipleship process, but passages such as these indicate that it is also a necessary and biblical part of evangelism. Preaching repentance involves preaching against sin, not to condemn the sinner, but in order to bring them to a place where they understand their need of a Saviour.

God and the Financial Crash

2008-10-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Some interesting and thought-provoking articles are popping up on the web regarding the current financial crisis and its impact upon or connection with Christian faith. Here are a few I recently found. Email me links to ones you have discovered and I will add them to this list:

Jesus and the Great Depression: Christianity paid a high price during the 1930's. What Will Happen Now? (Timothy Morgan at Christianity Today magazine discusses scholarly research concerning the impact of the Great Depression on Christian churches, including which kind of churches grew as a result of that crisis and which did not.)

Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess (David van Biema at Time magazine thinks unbalanced extremes in prosperity teachings may have led some gullible Chrisitans to think God was giving them the chance to buy homes they could not afford.)

In Crisis, Wall Street Turns to Prayer (Tony Carnes at Christianity Today magazine details how the crisis is driving many in the financial sector to their knees. Let's pray this sparks revival...!)

The Church in Times of Economic Crisis

2008-10-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

In his very interesting article on Christianity Today's website entitled, "Jesus and the Great Depression," Timothy Morgan cites research into the impact that severe economic crisis in the 1930's had upon Christian churches. Here are a couple of key quotes,

The depression had a devastating effect on the Churches as well as on the nation. In the optimistic flush of the ‘20’s many congregations had built new edifices far too large and expensive. When the depression hit, they found themselves unable to pay. Most carried their huge debts; a few rejected their obligation, thus bringing shame on the Christian Church.

...
While the larger Protestant denominations were busy with their reappraisal and their ministering to the spiritual needs of the nation, there was one segment of Protestantism that profited greatly by the depression. This was the group of Churches usually called "sects." They stressed the radical, emotional conversion of the sinner and the new life lived in all holiness. They stressed the presence of the operation of God’s Holy Spirit and the rebirth through him; thus, they were called Pentecostals. Some of them spoke with strange, unintelligible utterances, most practiced faith healing, and all advocated a rigorous moral life. Among these were such groups as the Nazarenes, the Assemblies of God, and the Holiness or Pentecostal Churches.
...

Though the Protestant Churches did not experience a large increase in membership, except for the extreme sectarian groups, they too went through a profound and invaluable experience as a result of the depression. For too long they had preached and taught a rather shallow message which was a watering down of the full insights of the gospel. No age perfectly comprehends God’s message of judgment and redemption, but some ages become so smug in their interpretation of that message that they fail to stand under it. They often pick that side of it which justifies their own wellbeing and earthly possessions.

Though liberal theology and the social gospel contained many valuable elements necessary for their age, they also played into the hands of the age by their emphasis. People of the ‘20’s were convinced that Christianity meant literally following the Golden Rule -- doing to others as one would wish to be treated; that it stood for the gradual building of the Kingdom on earth by men of good will if only men would exert enough good will; and that through friendliness and kindness that Kingdom was slowly being built in America.

Suddenly the Protestant Churches were confronted with the stark reality of the failure of their dreams. Under all the supposed goodness and friendliness of the prosperous ‘20’s were to be found greed and pride. Man suddenly was shown to be no higher on the moral scale, no less selfish than his medieval brethren. In place of a new stage in the Kingdom of God men had arrived at a shattered economy. The consequence was a new look at some old Protestant doctrines that had been largely ignored -- sin, faith, and justification were once more relevant.

Morgan asks his readers to email him their personal stories of walking out their faith in the midst of the Great Depression and has promised to post some of them along with his article. That should make for interesting and inspiring reading.

My own maternal grandparents came to a personal faith in Jesus through a tent revival held by a Pentecostal evangelist in the rural county where they lived. Grandpa never tired of telling how God supernaturally met their needs in answer to fervant, believing prayer. What the Lord did then, He will do today!

T.D. Jakes "Divine Impulses" Washington Post Video Interview

2008-09-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Palin and the Pentecostals

2008-09-15T18:44:00.001-07:00

From time to time, I see things in the press that move me to write out a few of my thoughts in response. The recent attacks on Governor Sarah Palin's Pentecostal heritage are a case in point. I have posted three such items on my Hillcrest Church Blog:

Click on any of the titles to be taken directly to that post.

I would love your thoughts!

Right on, R.T.!!

2008-08-27T05:15:00.000-07:00

I never watched or visited a single service from the Lakeland, Florida meetings. The second-hand testimony I received from people varied quite dramatically in its perception of whether or not God was at work there. While I made a private, personal decision to not make our church facility available to persons in our Metroplex who wanted to use it for public, Lakeland related meetings, my words are in no way intended to be an, "I told you so...!" I never took any public stance on the matter. Furthermore, I certainly have no desire to "throw stones" at Todd Bentley. I have never met him. My heart breaks for him, for his wife, and for those who so strongly believed God was powerfully at work in Lakeland and who are now processing deep disappointment, confusion, even disillusionment.

I reference the excellent article I read yesterday in Ministry Today magazine by Dr. R.T. Kendall on the Lakeland phenomenon, written before recent revelations concerning Todd's personal life, because I believe it raises important biblical issues. I know R.T. well enough personally to be absolutely certain that the opening sentence of his piece truly reflects the attitude of his heart,

I can think of nothing worse than for God to be powerfully at work and I miss it—all because I was biased and devoid of discernment.

Over the past five years, the Lord has granted me the inestimable privilege of spending many hours with R.T. in private conversations. I have never met an individual so utterly Scriptural in his life focus and work, yet so completely open to any genuine work of God's Spirit, even those that are way out of his personal comfort zone.

R.T. has paid a high price for his openness to what he believed were moves of God that have been couched in controversy. That is part of what causes me to so appreciate his candid description of his own, inner "process" of evaluating what was going on down in Lakeland. He tried very hard to remain open to what was happening, yet was forced to acknowledge his growing unease in the face of what he increasingly believed were significant deviations from biblical principle. His ultimate conclusion is stated in his closing sentences,

It comes to this: Is the Bible true? Because I believe the Bible, I can testify: The jury of my mind on Lakeland is in.

Leave Lakeland alone.

I urge you to read his article and to prayerfully reflect on his specific concerns, including the following:

He never heard the revival's primary leader publically deliver a clear presentation of the Gospel.
He was deeply troubled by seeing the precious person of the Holy Spirit referred to as the "Bam! Bam!" during baptisms.
He sensed no deepened fear of God and conviction of sin resulting from the meetings.
He was taken aback by the leader's testimony that during visits to the Third Heaven he claimed to have been told that he should not preach Jesus (because everybody already knows about Him) but rather angels (which people know little about).

Thanks, R.T., for having the courage to communicate your convictions and to point the Body of Christ back to the Word of God...!

Happy Birthday, America...! (And a few theological reflections on the Revolution...)

2008-07-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

After having lived on three different continents, and having visted many countries around the world, as much as I love cultural and linguistic diversity, I still have a deep love for the U.S.A. and a deep gratitude in my heart toward the Lord for the privilege of being born here. America is certanly not a perfect nation, but I believe it has been a blessed nation, in spite of our sins and our shortcomings. On this July 4th, I encourage you to pause for a moment and thank God for the U.S.A., asking God for His continued help and favor upon it.

Historian Mark Noll has written an interesting article in Christianity Today answering the question: "Was the Revolutionary War Justified?" (from a theological point of view.)

Happy Birthday, America, and may God bless all who live here...!

Grassley Houses and Kenneth Copeland's Jet

2008-06-16T07:28:00.001-07:00

On a lighter note, concerning the Grassley investigations of television ministries, Doug Wead puts things in perspective in his blog post about ministers and their travel choices entitled, "Kenneth Copeland's Jet." He examines some of Grassley's own ties to a "mansion on the Potomac" in his post entitled, "People Who Live in Grassley Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones."

A Parable of Three Sermons on the Mount by Vinson Synan

2008-06-16T06:25:00.001-07:00

During his extended article on the historical and theological roots of the Word of Faith movement, scholar Vinson Synan gives the following "parable" which explains the appeal of the prosperity message around the world. I encourage you to take the time to read his article in full by clicking here. Among other things, it highlights the historical differences between Protestants and Catholics regarding the theology of money, poverty, and prosperity.

A Parable of the Three Sermons on the Mount

Many have wondered why the prosperity message is so popular among the impoverished masses that flock to hear it. To answer, one might imagine the idea of three sermons preached on a “smoky mountain” like many such trash dumps outside large, Third World cities where people fight with rats to salvage food and waste products to survive the grinding poverty in which they seem to be hopelessly trapped. One day, three preachers came to minister to these people: one a traditional Christian teacher, one a social gospel teacher and the other a Pentecostal preacher with a salvation, healing and prosperity gospel.

The first, a traditional Christian, knowing Jesus said, “The poor will be with you always,” gave a message that has been heard for centuries. “Take comfort in your faith. Suffering builds character, and the Lord suffered, too. He will comfort you. In heaven you will have many mansions, but in the meantime, we will give you as much help as possible and try to console you.” Critics call this a “pie in the sky” message.
The second, a “social gospel” teacher spoke out. The gist of his message was, “The reason you are poor is the unjust distribution of wealth, the greediness of the rich and their domination of the government and power structures of society. If we can pass laws to change the situation by taking from the rich and giving to the poor, we can eventually help you. Help us to pass just laws, or if that fails, form a revolution where you will eventually rule, and then the wealth will be equally distributed. Have patience, the government will eventually change your situation.”

The third speaker was a Pentecostal or Charismatic evangelist who said in essence, “If you will believe the gospel, the Lord will immediately break the power of sin in your life and you can be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues, cast out devils and evangelize the world. You can be instantly set free from your addictions to alcohol, tobacco, sexual promiscuity and drugs, and Jesus will make you into a healthy, honest member of society. God is not against you. There is no virtue in being poor just for the sake of being poor. So God will also bless you materially as you work hard, live honestly, save your money and give a portion of your own income to others.”

I will let the reader decide why many of the masses would listen to the last preacher and run down the smoky mountain as soon as possible to the nearest Pentecostal church or evangelistic crusade to find salvation and deliverance. These are the multitudes that fill the Reinhard Bonnke crusades and are crowding into Pentecostal churches, large and small, around the world. It may be that these people are now poor, but they do not intend to stay poor. They believe in a powerful Jesus who can break the bonds of sin, sickness, demonic oppression and poverty. It is indeed a very attractive message to the poor.

Jack Hayford on Pastoral Leadership, Etc.

2008-01-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

While I was working at my laptop earlier today, I saw an interview on TBN between Matt Crouch and Jack Hayford that every pastor and church leader needs to watch. Pastor Jack says some great and very needful things about pastoral leadership, genuine ministry, and church growth. Click here to watch the program online from the TBN archives.

Black Pentecostal Voting Patterns - Eugene Rivers (NBC)

2008-01-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

I just stumbled onto this interesting clip from the NBC Nightly News of an interview with Rev. Eugene Rivers regarding the way many African American Pentecostals vote for liberal candidates in contrast to their Causasian counterparts. I wish I could have seen the rest of this interview, dated December 18th. Thanks to Carl Thomas of http://www.revivalblog.com/ for pointing the way to this.

Over at the futureag blog, there is some interesting conversation going on in response to River's statements.

Here are a series of videos from BET that tell the life story of this unusual man...parts IV & V are specially good, but after you watch them, you will probably want to watch the others...!

Elusive Excellence

2008-01-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Skye Jethani for pointing the way to an article on the perils of pursuing perfection in ministry by Daniel Schantz entitled, Recovering from Excellence. Schantz writes,

To aim for excellence seems like a good thing, but it harbors some subtle dangers...The term excellence is often spoken by church leaders in condescending tones, as if to say, “Others may be content with being average slobs, but not us. We must have only the best.” This can be a slap in the face to members who don’t have the capacity or means to be excellent—the “good,” the “fair,” the “poor.” Can only good-looking, gifted singers serve on the worship team? Must church buildings resemble palaces in order to be useful? Do all preachers have to be Madison Avenue models, professional comedians, celebrities, best-selling authors, and able to speak five languages? The gospel was targeted to the poor, not just to the exceptional.

His words brought to mind a conversation I had once with a friend who pastors a congregation in the same area as one of America's most famous churches, one that I happen to admire, by the way. He recounted how a person with significant musical talent had begun attending the church he serves after having been told by the leadership at the other congregation that they would never be allowed to participate in its music ministry. The reason given? Their minor physical deformity did not fit the image they needed to project from their platform in order to appeal to seekers. Somehow that doesn't sound much like Jesus to me. What do you think?

Pastors and Politics

2008-01-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Out of Ur blog by Leadership Journal has an informative post entitled Politics from the Pulpit, reviewing the legal limits imposed upon American pastors expressing their opinions regarding the political issues and candidates.

Following up on Willowcreek's Repentance

2007-10-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

There is a great, thought-provoking article on Christianity Today's website entitled, "Am I Growing Yet?" by Mark Galli. It is good follow-up reading to the links I have referenced in my post, "The Wake Up Call of His Life" - Bill Hybels on discipleship failures at Willowcreek."

"The Wake Up Call of His Life" - Bill Hybels on discipleship failures at Willowcreek

2007-10-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

If you have not yet done so, I urge you to click here and watch Bill Hybels at the last Willowcreek Church Leadership Summit share how their congregation's leadership has recently been confronted with their inneffectiveness at turning seekers into fully commited followers of Jesus Christ. I also urge you to click here to watch Greg Hawkins' comments on the process the Willowcreek leadership went through that led them to that conclusion.

While the congregation I lead (Hillcrest Church) is not a "seeker-driven" church like Willowcreek, I have great respect for Bill Hybels. I am convinced his passion for bringing people to Christ is authentic. Knowing the criticism he and his team have received over the years for some of their innovations, I honor him for the tremendous courage it must have taken to publically acknowledge the results of their research. I urge you as a leader to watch these two video clips and then ask yourself the hard question, "Regardless of whether or not the church I serve is the same style as Willowcreek, do their conclusions apply to us, too?" Chances are they do, at least to some degree, as is the case in certain ways here at Hillcrest Church.

In the final analysis, the command Jesus has given to us to make disciples requires effecting profound life-change in people. May God give us the insight we need in order to know the truth about how well our ministries accomplish that goal, and may He grant us the wisdom we need in order to become much better better at doing it...!

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into, thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually; when the data actually cameback it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. … We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own." —Willow Creek Community Church senior pastor Bill Hybels [revealnow.com, 10/19/07]

Missional Leadership from Across the Pond

2007-10-03T05:24:00.000-07:00

It is hard to imagine that a full six weeks or so have gone by since I last posted on this blog. Between parenting, pastoring, and pursuing my studies at the King's Seminary, more time has passed than I would have liked.

Here is a link to a new podcast on missional leadership that I encourage you to check out. It is updated regularly throughout the school year by leaders at Mattersey Hall, a Bible College and Seminary in the U.K. which not only offers a Master's level program in Missional Leadership, but also the only fully accredited Pentecostal or Charismatic Phd. program in the world.

After I spoke there in chapel a while back, they asked me if I would be willing to record a couple of these "off the cuff." Here is one dealing with how the four basic leadership styles (Commander, Performer, Scholar, and Parent) each need something very different when leaving a place of long-term ministry. (I hope the striped shirt shows up better on your monitor than it does on mine...! Smile!)

I would love to have your thoughts on my thoughts...!
I will be back online again, soon!

Decision making paradigms and "A/G Leadership Interrupted"

2007-08-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled onto an article by Rich Tatum of PneumaBlogger renown over at BlogRodent that touches on ways we leaders can improve the process we go through when we make and announce major ministry decisions. It deals with the recent, abrupt resignation of Thomas Trask from the senior spot in the American branch of the Assemblies of God denomination.

If you read Rich’s post all the way to the end, past his speculation regarding what political maneuvering or other considerations may or may not have prompted Trask’s recent step, which is not of interest to me personally since I am not A/G and have no plans to be, you will find he expresses some interesting thoughts about the way the Apostle Paul and his peers interacted regarding a critical ministry decision in the Book of Acts. Given the number of times in my life that I have seen Christian leaders announce very drastic ministry changes with a simple, "I feel this to be the leading of the Holy Spirit," I urge you to think about what Rich says.

Let me hasten to add that, although I have never met the ex-General Superintendent, I have heard wonderful things about him over the years. He may well have extensively and confidentially processed his pending action among a closed circle of peers before announcing it officially, along the lines of the "Pauline model" Rich has sketched out. Be that as it may, for me the greatest personal "take-away" is that each of us who serve as a spiritual leader needs to continually keep in mind just how far-reaching the consequences of our personal decisions are in the lives and ministries of those we serve.

In another vein entirely, reading this and Rich’s other posts about the recent General Council of the Assemblies of God caused me to remember the fact that blog posts on the internet had also substantively impacted the agenda this year at the national convention of the Southern Baptists, another leading evangelical denomination in America. For instance, check out the FutureAG blog hosted by such leaders as Mark Batterson, Paul Stewart, Brad Leach, Jeff Leake, and Tony Farina, especially the bullet point notes of Bryan Jarrett's presentation at the 2005 General Council, and the archives of SBCOutpost.com.

In my view, the astonishing influence of the internet on very weighty deliberations in these two denominations this year highlights the drastically different ways younger people process organizational decisions as compared to their elders. For more of my thoughts on this sea-change in what is perceived to be acceptable process that we all must come to grip with as we lead church groups in conducting their affairs, including the growing desire for greater openness and public debate in all levels of organizational life, see my earlier post entitled, “Generation Gap.”

I would love to hear your thoughts...!

Billy Graham on 20/20 - Pastor to Power

2007-08-08T12:15:00.001-07:00

This Friday, August 10, 2007, the ABC News program 20/20 is airing a special entitled, "Billy Graham: Pastor to Power." For a preview following a brief, obligatory commercial, click here.

John Piper on Hometown Bridge Collapse

2007-08-03T08:54:00.001-07:00

As pastors, one of the things God calls upon us to do is help our people interpret and respond to the tragedies of life. John Piper is the celebrated authorof books like, "Let the Nations Be Glad." He is also the lead pastor of a church in Minneapolis that is very close to the bridge that fell into the Mississippi River a few days ago. His blog post entitled, Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed is a classic example of how spiritual leaders function in such situations.

He writes,

The word “bridge” does not occur in the Bible. There may be two reasons. One is that God doesn’t build bridges, he divides seas. The other is that usually his people must pass through the deadly currents of suffering and death, not simply ride over them. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:2). They may drown you. But I will be with you in life and death.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-38)
Killed all day long. But not separated from Christ. We go through the river. Not over it. He went before us, crucified. He came out on the other side. He knows the way through. With him we will make it. That is the message we have for the precious sinners in the Twin Cities. He died for your sins. He rose again. He saves all who trust him. We die, but because of him, we do not die.
Jesus said, "I am the resurrectionand the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25)

His post also illustrates how God uses His Word to speak the specific truths we need to hear at exactly the right moment. He opened his article with the words,

At about 6 PM tonight the bridge of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. I am writing this about three hours after the bridge fell. The bridge is located within sight of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Most of us who minister at the church cross this bridge several times a week. At this point I don’t know if any staff was on the bridge. Desiring God offices are about a mile from the bridge.
...
Tonight for our family devotions our appointed reading was Luke 13:1-9. It was not my choice. This is surely no coincidence. O that all of the Twin Cities, in shock at this major calamity, would hear what Jesus has to say about it from Luke 13:1-5. People came to Jesus with heart-wrenching news about the slaughter of worshipers by Pilate. Here is what he said.
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Jesus implies that those who brought him this news thought he would say that those who died, deserved to die, and that those who didn’t die did not deserve to die. That is not what he said. He said, everyone deserves to die. And if you and I don’t repent, we too will perish. This is a stunning response. It only makes sense from a view of reality that is radically oriented on God.

May God help us of us live lives, "radically oriented on God," so that we can lead the people we serve to Him in their times of greatest need...!

Fire in Grady's Bones

2007-07-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I had heard it all, J. Lee Grady over at Charisma Magazine tells a story that blows my mind in his column entitled, "The Deadly Virus of Celebrity Christianity." In his "Fire In My Bones" column dated, July 27, 2007, he writes,

One friend of mine in Texas recently inquired to see if a prominent preacher could speak at her conference. The minister’s assistant faxed back a list of requirements that had to be met in order to book a speaking engagement. The demands included:
a five-figure honorarium
a $10,000 gasoline deposit for the private plane
a manicurist and hairstylist for the speaker
a suite in a five-star hotel
a luxury car from the airport to the hotel (2004 model or newer)
room-temperature Perrier
This really makes me wonder how the apostle Paul, Timothy or Priscilla managed ministering to so many people in Ephesus, Corinth and Thessalonica. How did they survive without a manicurist if they broke a nail while laying hands on the sick?

Amen, Mr. Grady...!

Leading through change via the RASCI model

2007-07-23T06:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I preached a sermon at the church I serve entitled, "Following Jesus through Change." Some of the insights I shared are very helpful to me as a leader. An important part of what you and I do is influence people around us to implement some degree and type of change.

All change involves decisions. One of the most helpful tools I have enountered for leading people through this process is the RASCI matrix. It is a simple acrostic that helps leaders quickly identify every individual in a group who needs to be involved in the decision-making dynamic. I do not not know who originally developed it, but I follow it as a mental checklist when processing people through change:

R - These individuals are RESPONSIBLE for the decision. Ultimately, the power to make the decision and the responsiblity for its consequences rests with them. They are usually vested with some form of legal and titular authority that defines their role.

A - These people do not have the official authority to make the decision, but they must AGREE with the decision or the proposed change will fail. They have the power to veto the decision. In the U.S. government, for instance, our Congress has the power to make laws, not our President, but he has the power to veto certain laws under certain circumstances. While he signs many laws he would not have crafted or promoted, it is usually very unproductive for Congress to send him a bill they know he will veto. (Some models link the words, "Approve," or "Accountable," with the letter "A" in the RASCI acrostic.)

S - These people must be willing to SUPPORT the decision. They do not have the power of a legal veto, but without their backing, the proposed change will not be able to be implemented succesfully. In a sales context, customers fall into this category. They may not have any formal right of input into the decision making process, but any refusal by them to embrace its outcome will have devastating results. Witness the failed rollout a few years ago of a "New" kind of Coca-cola.

C - These people expect to be given the right to CONTRIBUTE to the decision. Usually this means that they need to be given a chance to share their thoughts and concerns and to feel like they have been "heard." The decision does not necessarily have to directly reflect their desired outcome for them to support it. Sometimes they will agree to back the proposed change anyway as long as they believe their ideas have been given genuine consideration during the decision-making process. (Some models link the word, "Consult," with the the letter "C" in the RASCI acrostic.)

I - These people need to be INFORMED promptly once the decision has been made. It is best to to do this before the change is actually implemented because it will impact them directly on either a personal or a professional level. If the people who are responsible for the decision fail to inform this group of people, very negative consequences can develop within the organization.

If you would like to know more of my thoughts on following Jesus through change, check out my written notes on my Sermon Seeds blog. The audio can be downloaded or listened to online via our Hillcrest Church website on the Sermon Audio page.

Emotional Prejudice and Spiritual Gifts

2007-06-07T08:24:00.001-07:00

The International Missions Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention recently decided to no longer appoint missionaries who pray in tongues privately. This has generated a lot of discussion in the blogosphere. One of the more interesting posts I have read is by Pastor Dwight McKissic entitled, "The IMB tongues policty: “Emotional Prejudice” or Exegetical Precision?" In his view, much of the current controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention regarding whether or not the exercise of a "private prayer language" (PPL) is proper for Baptist believers has much more to do with social prejudice and emotional backlash than with serious study of the Scriptures.

The mystery is, how could a convention that is usually biblio-centric and exegetically accurate reject plain, clear, scriptural, authoritive, inerrant and infallible biblical truth regarding the Spirit’s gifting of some believers to pray in tongues in private according to the sovereign will of God (I Corinthians 12:7,10, 30; 14:2, 4, 5, 13-15)? Just as the SBC initially adopted unbiblical views on slavery, segregation and abortion, then later recanted, I believe the SBC will eventually adopt a biblical position on tongues or drop restrictions regarding private praying in tongues for staff as did Campus Crusade for Christ who once held similar strict cessationist, anti-tongues policies for staff and students.
...
Why is there such strong “emotional prejudice” or “charisphobia” driving this policy? In conclusion, I offer three reasons: (1) Tongues historically has been associated with Pentecostals and charismatics. Certainly there has been a lot of abuse and misuse of the gift of tongues, by some in the Pentecostal movement. There was an abuse and misuse of tongues in the Corinthian church. Paul did not use the abuse of tongues as a rationale to disallow or rule out tongues, he simply regulated the use of the gift of tongues rather than forbid praying tongues.
Because of an “emotional prejudice” toward Pentecostals or charismatics, many Southern Baptist reject any practice or belief no matter how biblical that has any remote association with Pentecostals. Let’s throw out the bathwater of misuse and abuse but let’s keep the baby.
(2) Tongues have been historically associated with poor and uneducated people. This is true. However, I’m aware of highly educated and wealthy people, many who are Southern Baptist and other Bible believing Baptists who pray in tongues in private. The IMB tongues policy is driven by an “emotional prejudice” toward poor and uneducated people. The posture is certainly elitist and arrogant.
(3) Tongue speakers have often held viewpoints that they were spiritually superior to others without this gift or they have expressed a Pentecostal viewpoint of “the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues” as an absolute normative or universal experience and as an experience subsequent to salvation. Baptists recognize that these viewpoints do not have a biblical basis. Paul makes it clear that all believers do not have the gift of tongues (I Corinthians 12:30 and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs simultaneous with salvation (I Corinthians 12:13). Baptists recognize that all who are genuinely born again have been baptized by the Holy Spirit at salvation, but all do not speak in tongues (I Corinthians 12:30). But because many Pentecostals have taught an erroneous viewpoint of tongues and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit along with being elitist and arrogant at times, many Southern Baptist respond in kind with an “emotional prejudice,” “charisphobia” and an elitist and arrogant attitude as well.
I pray that God will forgive us as Southern Baptists for rejecting the truth about tongues as taught in the Bible and for rejecting missionaries who speak in tongues in private prayer. As a fellow Southern Baptist I confess our unbelief, “emotional prejudice,” “charisphobia” and arrogance and ask the Lord’s forgiveness.

One comment posted by a reader named BaptistBlog adds to that analysis,

Tongues is commonly associated with the poor, and evidence of charismatic advances in the Third World is regularly cited as a cause for the kind of prohibitive policies aggressively implemented and vigorously defended by our more elite cessationist kinsmen. They won’t say it, but here’s what they mean:

Tongues will drive the Southern Baptist Convention away from her “solid roots” in Anglo-American culture to become like those wild tribal peoples who don’t know any better than to mutter gibberish to idols.

While I certainly do not have any desire to comment on the internal politics of a denomination of which I am not a part, and for which I have tremendous respect, coming as I do from a classical Pentecostal background, I was struck by McKissic's analysis of the role the desire for social respectibility and upward mobility may have played in shaping the posture some of his peers have adopted toward the gift of spiritual language.

Pentecostal and Charismatic pastors are susceptible to falling into the same trap. They may feel compelled to "hide," "disguise," or "demphasize" the role of supernatural spiritual gifts in the life of their congregation in order to "market" their ministry to a broader audience. Somehow they come to believe that even biblically balanced charismatic activity in their public worship services will narrow the appeal of the church they lead and thereby hinder its growth.

A lot of ink (and electrons, too!) have been used over the years dissecting, discussing, and debating exactly what the phrase, "Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers...(1 Cor 14:22)" means. One thing seems obvious in the verses that follow: The Apostle Paul believed both tongues and prophecy are powerfully effective evangelistic aids when they occur within proper parameters in public worship services,

"22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. … 24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”" (1 Corinthians 14:22-25, NIV)

My own roots and life experience compell me to acknowledge that some segments of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have failed to observe fully biblical paradigms in the operation of spiritual gifts. I am deeply saddened, though, when I see some of my colleagues with similar backgrounds backing away from an integral part of the spiritual life of the church in the New Testament. The reality of supernatural experience was a key reason why our wing of the Christian church experienced such unprecendented global expansion throughout the last century. As we lead our people forward in this 21st century, let's be sure to lead them into all of God's truth and into all of the Spirit's fullness!

Church Hopping Blog - What Agnostics Think About Church

2007-05-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Chris Glazier at MinistryToday magazine for pointing the way to a website called, "Church Hopping." It is written by two self-proclaimed agnostics who are visiting churches around Cincinnati incognito and then posting their thoughts about what they saw and heard. They are using a specific template of questions that includes ranking the church on a scale of 1 - 10 from "1: I was so uncomfortable and/or offended that I did not stay to the end of services." to "10: This church was welcoming and thought-provoking. I would recommend that others experience this church."

As a pastor, I found it very interesting to read their posts, especially since I was familiar with at least one of the congregations they rated. I wish they were in the Dallas area so that they could visit our church anonymously and send us their thoughts. Things sometimes look very different to someone who is from "outside" the Christian community...!

Updated and Corrected Turkish Martyrs Report

2007-05-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

I just came across information on the web indicating that the report I posted earlier, while substantively true, may contain some inaccuracies. I'll post more information as it becomes available. For now, Christianity Today's website has an article here giving a more irenic report on what happened.

They loved not their lives unto the death - Persecution of Christians in Turkey

2007-04-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

The British Christian Today website is carrying an item (click here) about three Christian missionaries in Turkey who were martryed on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, severe persecution of Christians is alive and well around the world today.
"32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them..." (Hebrews 11:32-38, NIV)
For more information on the persecuted church, check out www.persecution.org and www.opendoors.org.

Breakout Churches

2007-04-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

If you are like me, you are always looking for a great book, particularly one that communicates information you find helpful that you have not seen before. On a couple of recent flights from Dallas to London to Amsterdam back to London on to Prague, I read Breakout Churches: Discover How To Make The Leap by Thom Rainer. It takes several of the principles from the business bestseller, "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't" and applies them to churches that have gone from plateaued or declining membership to significant growth over a period of several years.

Based on extensive research and analysis of several tens of thousands of congregations, Breakout Churches details how several congregations of different sizes, movements, and regions of the country experienced lasting turnaround. Director of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Rainer's obvious passion is to see churches increase numerically through conversion, not transfer, growth.

Every one of the churches he profiled broke out of their previous pattern without changing senior pastors. Perhaps above all else, Rainer's work points toward the necessity of a leader's willingness to not only persevere, but to also undergo deep, personal change in their life and methodology. Many other factors contributed to the tremendous, positive change each church experienced, but nothing was more important than the Senior Pastor's profound personal transformation.

Don Imus & Bishop G.E. Patterson

2007-04-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Frank Lockwood, the Bible Belt Blogger who in his day job is Religion Editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (since leaving the Lexington Times-Herald in Lexington, Kentucky) just ran an interesting piece connecting radio talk show host Don Imus with Bishop G.E. Patterson. Imus, who was fired a few days ago for making racist comments on-air, had apparently recently devoted a substantial portion of his show to commemorating the passing of Bishop G.E. Patterson who presided over the nation's primary African-American classical Pentecostal denomination, the Church of God in Christ.

Lockwood writes,

On March 20, the leader of the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination passed away in Memphis. The death was ignored by most members of the mainstream media's millionaire news readers -- people who wouldn't know the difference between the late G.E. Patterson's Church of God in Christ, the Churches of Christ, the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) and the Church of God of Prophecy. As far as I know, Patterson's demise wasn't big news on Fox & Friends, CNN, the Today Show or Good Morning America. But there was one news outlet that owned the story: MSNBC.
Shock jock Don Imus thought Patterson's passing was a really big deal and he devoted a lot of time to honoring the memory of the Pentecostal pastor. Patterson's widow appeared on Imus' program soon after the preacher's death, and Imus spoke movingly about the bishop's contribution to America's spiritual life. Imus played excerpts of Patterson's sermons -- including a clip (if I recall correctly) that called for the church to reach out to all of God's children regardless of color.

What a strange thing that someone who would make such ugly comments about a girl's basketball team would be so moved by the death of a very old-fashioned Pentecostal preacher...! It makes me wonder if Imus is yet another celebrity who has spiritual roots in his background we know little or nothing about ... and if Imus is one of those silent, successful, even famous, viewers in Christian television's global audience who are deeply touched by some things they see that we would never imagine would be capable of impacting their souls.

Here is one of many clips available on Youtube. This one is a blend of several excerpts that show the evolution of Bishop Patterson's preaching style over the years.

Here is a clip showing some eulogies, including footage of him in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and from celebrities like Jesse Jackson.

Click here to listen to live streaming from the radio station owned by the church he pastored in Memphis, Tennessee.

Charles Spurgeon on Church Growth

2007-03-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Justin Taylor has a great excerpt on his Theologica - Between Two Worlds blog from Charles Spurgeon, who built the world's first "megachurch" in London, England over a century ago, giving Spurgeon's recipe for growing a large church. Like all of Spurgeon's writings, the English is a bit antiquated and flowery compared to the way we speak today, but it's worth reading.

Here's a taste (there's more on Justin's site):

My good ministering brother, have you got an empty church? Do you want to fill it? I will give you a good recipe, and if you will follow it, you will, in all probability, have your chapel full to the doors.Burn all your manuscripts, that is No. 1. Give up your notes, that is No. 2. Read your Bible and preach it as you find it in the simplicity of its language. ... Begin to tell the people what you have felt in your own heart, and beseech the Holy Spirit to make your heart as hot as a furnace for zeal. Then go out and talk to the people. Speak to them like their brother. Be a man amongst men. Tell them what you have felt and what you know, and tell it heartily with a good, bold face; and, my dear friend, I do not care who you are, you will get a congregation.But if you say, "Now, to get a congregation, I must buy an organ."That will not serve you a bit."But we must have a good choir."I would not care to have a congregation that comes through a good choir."No," says another," but really I must a little alter my style of preaching."My dear friend, it is not the style of preaching, it is the style of feeling... Preach out of your hearts just what you feel to be true, and the old soul-stirring words of the gospel will soon draw a congregation.

Death by Ministry

2007-03-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Last May, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church had a provocative post on the Resurgence blog dealing with pastoral burnout entitled, "Death by Ministry." After listing some sobering statistics on burnout in the ministry and symptoms to look for (some of which I had never considered before), he provides a list of preventions and solutions:

Fill your plate.
Exercise.
Do not allow technology to be your Lord.
Sabbath.
Pick a release valve.
Work on your life, not just in it.
Leave margin.
Spend most of your time training leaders.
Work from conviction, not guilt.

His most recent post (Of Brokennes and Buddies) shares some of his own battle with burnout in the face of church growth at the rate of 1,000 plus per month. (Can you imagine that kind of stress?!?!!!!) Whatever your opinions may be of Mark's theology or even his personality, our brother is obviously impacting a great many people in one of America's least churched cities. Why not take a moment to breathe a prayer for him and his family during this time? Whether our church is larger or small, any one of us could be where he is right now, and probably will be at some point in our lives and ministries.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2 NIV)
If you have never heard of Mark Driscoll, there are many articles about him on the web, including one from Christianity Today magazine entitled, "Men Are From Mars Hill." You may find his opinions enlightening, you may find them strange, you may even find them offensive, but if you are like me, you will usually find them thought-provoking! Here are a couple of quotes from the CT article to show you what I mean...

You say there are particular theologies attached to traditional, contemporary, and emerging churches? What are they, and what are Mars Hill's distinctives?

Traditional churches have either leaned toward being fundamentalist and separated from culture, which has led to legalism and irrelevance; or they have leaned toward being liberally synchronized with culture, which leads to compromise and irrelevance. Either way, many traditional churches are irrelevant, whether they lean to the Left or the Right theologically and politically. Most contemporary churches are not very theological beyond a few evangelical basics, because they are guided more by pragmatism and programming than theology. At Mars Hill Church, we are driven by Reformed theological convictions and emerging missional methods. I like to say we are theologically conservative and culturally liberal.

What are some of the major blind spots of megachurches?

The major blind spot of megachurches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms. Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types to sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a seafoam green chair drinking herbal tea—the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons. A friend of mine calls them "evangellyfish" with no spiritual vertebrae. Statistically, traditional churches are in steep decline, contemporary churches will dominate in the foreseeable future, and emerging churches are just beginning to sort out what the future holds for them.

Are young people becoming more sympathetic to Reformed theology?

The two hot theologies today are Reformed and emerging. Reformed theology offers certainty, with a masculine God who names our sin, crushes Jesus on the Cross for it, and sends us to hell if we fail to repent. Emerging theology offers obscurity, with a neutered God who would not say an unkind word to us, did not crush Jesus for our sins, and would not send anyone to hell. I came to Reformed theology by preaching through books of the Bible such as Exodus, Romans, John, and Revelation, along with continually repenting of my sin. I am,however, a boxers, not briefs, Reformed guy. I am pretty laid back about it and not uptight and tidy like many Reformed guys.

What do you think needs to be the relationship between church and culture?

The difficulty is that there are actually three ways that faithful Christians and churches must respond to culture:

Reject—Some aspects of a culture are simply sinful and should be rejected by God's people. In our day this would include sexual sins (fornication, pornography, homosexuality, adultery), illegal drug use, and the pluralistic notion that every religion is an equally valid path to salvation.
Receive—Some aspects of a culture are the result of common grace and should be received by God's people. Examples in our day would include stewarding and enjoying creation, building community, and acts of mercy for the poor, widows, orphans, sick, and elderly.

Redeem—Some aspects of a culture are, in and of themselves, morally neutral but are used for evil, and can be redeemed for good. Examples in our day include using media portals (e.g., internet, podcast, vodcast) for the gospel, celebrating sex within heterosexual marriage, and spending money and using power in such a way that honors Jesus and demonstrates his love for people.

Podcasts I listen to...

2007-03-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

I frequently use the free itunes software to download and listen to audio and video podcasts from a variety of churches, ministries, and news organizations. (Please note that you do not have to have an ipod to do this. The software also lets you do it on your computer.)

If you would like to check out the podcasts I subscribe to, just click here and do the following steps (If you have not yet installed the itunes software, then click here first...!):

When the window opens up, a bunch of text will appear on your screen that you do not have to try to understand. Just save the page to your harddrive somewhere via the "Page" then "Save As" on your browser menus.
Then, open up the itunes software and choose the "File" then "Import" menu selections from inside itunes and click on the name of the file you just saved and voilà...you will be subscribed to all the podcasts that I am subscribed to...!
Depending on what settings you have selected under the "Edit" and "Preferences" menu selections in the itunes software, your computer will start downloading all the podcasts I either listen to regularly or am checking out at the moment. It is easy to delete the ones you don't like and only keep the ones you do like.

Enjoy...! And, let me know what great podcasts you find on the web, too!

Stuart Briscoe on Preaching Today

2007-03-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a great link to an audio interview with Stuart Briscoe on what preaching means today. If you do not yet have the free ITunes software installed on your computer that makes listening to podcasts easy (whether on your computer or by transferring them to an ipod), you can download it by clicking here.

Millions of Muslims Coming to Christ...!

2007-03-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

While browsing the web this morning, I noticed an item entitled, Six Million Muslims A Year Coming to Christ on a blog by a Vineyard leader called, "Charismatica." The post points the way to a video on YouTube containing a clip from an interview with a Muslim leader stating admitting that statistic, which works out to about 667 Muslims coming to Christ per day. (The broadcast begins in Arabic, then after a moment, English subtitles pop up.) Interesting...! Here is a link to a partial transcript.

In a similar vein, a friend of mine was flying across Pakistan a few years ago when he came across an article in an English language paper with the headline, "Warning! Our Children Are Becoming Christians!" It was a translated excerpt from an article in a Saudi Arabian paper saying that while rich Saudis were out jet-setting around the world spending their petrodollars, the foreign nannies they had imported were singing their children to sleep with sweet worship choruses about Jesus, and their kids were converting to Christianity at an alarming rate...

Just like Jesus promised,

"...this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)

Dr. David Shibley's "Open Letter to Southern Baptist Leaders"

2007-03-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

Earlier, Dr. David Shibley's blog was carrying the text of his, "Open Letter to Southern Baptist Leaders" regarding the IMB Trustee's decision to no longer appoint missionaries who practice a private prayer language. It is now on the Charisma magazine's website. As a charismatic alumnus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, his perspective is well worth reading.

His blog also contains other interesting posts, including his TOP 10 THINGS I AM LEARNING FROM FRONTLINE SHEPHERDS WORLDWIDE, and his 10 HOPES FOR FULFILLING THE GREAT COMMISSION.

Generation Gap 2007

2007-03-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

The stunning rise in influence of bloggers on public opinion is nowhere more evident than in the ongoing controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention over the decision taken last year by their International Missions Board to ban the appointment of missionaries who exercise private prayer languages according to 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. (Marty Duren's SBC Outpost blog with over 600,000 hits is one notable example of this phenomenon.)

Without going into the details of that controversy, or the events that first attracted my attention to it, namely, the furor over local Pastor and SWBTS Trustee Dwight McKissic's sermon on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in chapel at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary over in Fort Worth last summer, I must say that I found SBC President Morris Chapman's recent words on the apparent generation gap in their movement quite thought provoking. In his post entitled, "Are We Watering Down the Gospel and Weakening Our Collective Witness?", Dr. Chapman writes,

No doubt, times are changing.The older and younger generations are separated by the greatest gulf in history due in no small part to "Al Gore's" invention of the Internet. For the first time in history, the man on the street has equal access to the public through a brand new vehicle of communication … Access to the masses is no longer the reserved domain for leaders only … The Internet has provided a means and a medium by which the previously unheard can be heard. Such freedom without implementing certain disciplines can be intoxicating and a person can easily feel the license to say things he/she would never say in any other circumstances.The very opposite is true with my generation. Rather than being intoxicated with public discourse as a means for registering differences, my generation is tempted to do everything quietly, away from public view, with pre-set agendas, persuasive phone calls, and whispers in an attempt to control an otherwise neutral environment by whatever means is necessary to achieve a political end.
The contrast is revealing. The older generation prefers to work with others one-on-one in an effort to influence them to embrace a particular opinion. The younger generations, due to the advent of the computer and Internet, prefer to speak openly, candidly, and publicly, often about personal opinions as well as private and/or corporate deliberations and decisions. The older generation has been inclined to persuade others by applying political pressures. The younger generations have been inclined to persuade others by informing the public and implying shame. Neither approach has room to boast as long as their accusations against each other have the common goal of demanding a specific answer without wise and careful deliberations in a context free from threats, intimidation, and rewards to the so-called "faithful." … Will the generation comprising the over 65 crowd, men and women who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and slowly ascended into a role of leadership, ever connect with the new generations spawned by the Internet? To date, I think no one knows the answer. Sufficient time has not passed to make such judgments. It will be a tragedy for all generations if it doesn't happen.
Sooner or later, all the lions of leadership walk haltingly off the scene and are left with little more than an occasional toothless roar that is barely heard and hardly noticed by the pride that he led with such majestic carriage. It will happen to us all regardless of our age at the present time. Younger generations are less conscious of that day because it seems so distant to them compared to older individuals. God designed it that way so that as the older generation begins to walk more cautiously and with increasing maturity, younger generations will bring vision, vitality, enthusiasm, energy, creativity, and innovation to any discussion, any project. Both the older and younger generations bring more to the table than my abbreviated list and both should engage in solutions to make the world better and our Convention more effective for the sake of Christ's Kingdom. To treat each other with contempt and disdain no doubt saddens the heart of God. We should talk with each other, not to or about each other. We should talk about issues, period!

I have never met Dr. Chapman, and quite honestly know very little about him, but I found his analysis of the immense difference in communication and leadership styles between older and younger Christian leaders at this point in time both fascinating and resonant with the ring of truth. Quite honestly, I bear scars in my own soul resulting from wounds suffered in past conflicts which were aggravated by the diametrically opposed approaches to dealing with the issues of leadership transition and congregational life he describes. Whichever side of the generational divide you find yourself on, taking the time to read the full text of his article and reflect upon his words will better prepare you to lead God’s people into this new millennium.

Away with Senior Pastors

2007-02-28T07:59:00.001-08:00

The Out of Ur leadership blog has a two-part post (Part I, Part II) evaluating recent ruminations by David Fitch which he entitled, "Some Reasons Why the Lone 'Senior Pastor' Might Not Make Sense Anymore."

Fitch writes,

"...we must dump the CEO- pastor-leader that the church has too often modeled from the secular business..."the CEO-pastor-leader" is a construction that only makes sense in the Cartesian worlds where man is in control..., where leadership is technique driven..., and people are units in a sociological structure devoid of the organic nature that we see characterizes the gifted nature of the Body of Christ. (1 Cor 12: 4-31)."

Harsh words, and like some other elements of the post-modernist, emerging church movement, it sounds to my ears more like a reaction to excess or sterile tradition than a positive response to the simple teachings of the Word of God. And, yet, whatever a person thinks about his conclusion, one must grapple with the reasons he gives:

1.) Because it doesn't make sense to build a church around a personality.
2.) Because there are no supermen (women).
3.) Because isolated pastors can become blinded to their own lacks and get tunnel vision and become egomanical.
4.) Because pastors cannot lead alone.
5.) Because pastors benefit from being bi-vocational.
6.) Because it models the diversity and interrelatedness of the Body.
7.) Because it keeps pastors from becoming fake images which inevitably leads to moral failure and/or disappointment.
9.) Because it is hard for pastors to foster servanthood when they are put on a pedestal separated from the people.
10.) In summary, because the senior pastor position is an impossible position to live up to.

It's harvest time...!

2007-02-15T10:23:00.001-08:00

Last week, I spent three days in Peru, ministering at a pastor’s conference in Lima. Having lived there during my early teen years, it brought back a flood of memories. I’ve posted some photos and thoughts about all of that on my Hillcrest Church blog. In the next few days, I’ll post some of the lessons in leadership from the life of Moses I shared at that event.

I’ve spent the first three days of this week in one of my M.Div. classes (Growing the Local Church) at the King’s Seminary at Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California. It was taught by Senior Pastor Jim Tolle. Their Spanish church has grown very rapidly and is now the largest in the United States, with some 12,000 Hispanics in attendance every Sunday.

Interestingly, the strategy God gave Pastor Tolle in the beginning was to specifically target illegal immigrants, welcoming them to the U.S.A. and to the Church on the Way in the name of the Lord. Apparently, this approach is very uncommon among other Spanish language churches in this country, but it has resulted in incredible fruit. Now, their goal is to plant fifty churches in the next five years. Even with that level of outreach, it still looks like they will need to move their public meetings to one of the area’s sports stadiums!

Hearing their story drove home to my heart in a fresh way something I heard said several years ago: “It is God’s job to ripen the harvest. It is our job to reap the harvest. Too many times we try to reap where we want to reap instead of reaping where the Holy Spirit has already ripened!”

Jesus put it this way while passing through Samaria with His disciples,

"³⁵As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time! ³⁶“The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. " (John 4:34-37, The Message)

May God give us all eyes to see the fields that His Spirit has already ripened around us…!

The Ten Deadly Sins of Preaching

2007-02-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

The Out of Ur blog is carrying Skye Jethani's notes from John Ortberg's session at the National Pastor's Convention entitled, The Ten Deadly Sins of Preaching.

Here is the short version:

1. The temptation to be inauthentic.
2. The temptation to live for recognition.
3. The temptation to live in fear.
4. The temptation to compare.
5. The temptation to exaggerate.
6. The temptation to feel chronically inadequate.
7. The temptation of pride
8. The temptation to manipulate.
9. The temptation of envy.
10. The temptation of anger.

Good stuff!

Goal setting - God's way or our way?

2007-02-02T08:21:00.001-08:00

Have you ever read or heard words from someone and instantly said to your self, "That is what I have always believed! I just didn't know how to say it!"? That's the way I felt when I read Jack Hayford's article, "Why I Don't Set Goals" on the Building Church Leaders website.

I want to blog on his article so bad "I can taste it," because I believe it speaks to a much, much larger component of true, spiritual leadership. I don't have time right now. I'll just post the link for you and we can discuss it later.

Be SURE to read his words...and let me know your thoughts by clicking on the "Post a comment" link below.

Relevance

2007-01-26T15:55:00.000-08:00

The folks over at Catalyst have an mp3 on file you can download here of an interview with George Barna where he describes why he wrote his book, Revolution. (I found it interesting to hear the man’s actual voice, instead of the one that my mind had created that played in my head any time I read his words. Have you ever been surprised to hear what someone really sounds like…?)

In the interview, Barna describes the frustration he felt after having trained so many church leaders in America for over a decade, while simultaneously coming to the conclusion that very little real life change was taking place as a result. His research revealed many people were leaving the church in order to draw closer to Christ and follow him more fully. He states, “Their call to action was not to go to church, but to be the church.” (Another articulation of this same idea can be found in a short video clip of Mark Driscoll discussing the difference between seeker churches and missional churches. It is taken from a series of short videos that were produced by the speaker lineup at a conference hosted by John Piper dealing with the relevance of Christianity in a post-modern world. I encourage you to check out the others by clicking here.) A lot has been written about Barna’s own personal journey since Revolution came out, some of it quite vindictive, in my view, accusing him of finding what he wanted to find instead of objectively looking at the data he uncovered.

While I am quite convinced that the church of Jesus Christ is and will always be triumphant in any and every culture, I do think his message needs to be heard by all of us who help lead God’s people today. Our answers to his questions must go well beyond simple matters of style. As my good friend, Ken Janke, often points out, what many people want more than anything else from the church today is authenticity. That is far more important to them than cultural relevance!

Witness the iconic stature of Mother Teresa. She never would have won an award for being “hip” or “cool,” yet her influence cut across the entire social spectrum of most every nation on the planet. Why? Because people believed she was real. In their eyes, what she did revealed who she was. Her credibility resulted from her authenticity. Even when people did not agree with what she said, they were willing to listen to her say it, and sometimes her words pierced their hearts. While this phenomenon has probably been true throughout human history, it is particularly the case in our western world. Before post-moderns ever get to the question, “Is it true?” they first ask, “Is it real?” No one I know seriously questions whether or not the diminutive nun from Albania believed and practiced what she preached.

As I read and listen to Barna and Driscoll and Hybels and Stanley and Batterson and a Tall Skinny Kiwi and a host of others like them, I hear God calling the church to a more intentional, active, and winsome engagement with those who do not know Jesus than ever before. In response, my own heart cries out to Him, asking for help for myself and the people I serve, that we might follow Him so closely that people will see right through the outward trappings of the clothing we wear and the music in our worship services and the technological means we acquire and the verbiage we use and everything else that makes up human culture, as beautiful and important and relevant as it is, and see straight into our very hearts to find the Jesus they so desperately need, living there. When that happens, it is amazing how effective He is at drawing them to Himself!

Ben Witherington - Here Come the Pentecostals

2007-01-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

Dr. Ben Witherington III is the Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. His blog posts are often thought-provoking, such as his musings on capital punishment after reading John Grisham's, "The Innocent Man."

His "Here Come the Pentecostals" is an interesting account of his own personal journey, coupled with some theological reflections about what he thinks penteocostals have got right...and wrong, particularly what he sees as an endemic fixation with material prosperity.

Here's his take on "cessationism":

The cessationists argue that God ran out of juice. He used to give people these sorts of gifts in the apostolic age, but once that era was over, and once the canon showed up, such extraordinary spiritual gifts ceased. The chief proof text for this view is, believe it or not, 1 Cor. 13.8-12 which reads "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies they will cease; where there are tongues they will be stilled; where there is knowledge it will pass away. For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult I put childish ways behind me." Of course that is not all this paragraph says. It goes on to say 'Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see to face to face." What is Paul talking about? When will we see face to face, and know as we are known? Well for sure it was not when the second century A.D. began, nor when the Scriptures were canonized in the fourth century. The cessationists have tended to argue: 1)the word 'perfection' refers to the coming of the canon. When the NT showed up we didn't need these extraordinary spiritual gifts any more. Of course the major problem with that exegesis is that no one in Corinth in the A.D. 50s could possibly have understood Paul to mean 'the NT canon' by the word 'perfection'. And in fact this is not what Paul meant-- he's referring to the eschaton when we see Jesus face to face, when perfection really comes in the person of the Lord, when we finally know Him as we are known. Then indeed we will not need prophecy or tongues, and then indeed our knowledge will cease to be partial. Indeed, then faith will become sight, and hope will be realized, and love will be perfected and go on. There is no chance that the word 'perfection' means the canon here. The context is eschatological, and Paul is looking forward to what will be the case when Jesus returns. This is so very clear in 1 Cor. 15, the resurrection chapter, as well. 2) And of course if you are a student of Church History you know perfectly well the Holy Spirit has not run out of unction to function. Those spiritual gifts have been being poured out in every century since the second century until now. In America of course the Azuza Street Revival in 1905 was a landmark event for Pentecostals. Their growth has been pretty steady since then. We might as well just accept it and come to grips with it, even if its not our cup of tea.

Well worth the reading.

Post-Abortion Syndrome - New York Times

2007-01-22T05:53:00.000-08:00

I noticed on the New York Times website a few minutes ago that the number one, most frequently emailed article today is a cover piece from their magazine entitled, “Is There A Post-Abortion Syndrome?” It is not only an interesting, well-written piece (though my own bias on the subject is different from the author's), but I was struck by the fact that it is causing so much of a buzz among the readership of the New York Times, which, though arguably the greatest paper in America from a journalistic perspective, particularly with the recent decline of the Washington Post, is renowned as a bastion of eastern liberalism.

As a pastor, the key takeaway for me is the need to remember that a lot of people in the congregation I serve, and in my sphere of influence in the broader community, carry a lot of guilt for a lot of things, and are in desperate need of a clear sense of forgiveness and "atonement," as the author puts it. Prayers, songs, sermons, dramatic sketches, small groups, etc., that provide a vehicle for expressing repentance, contrition, and the acceptance of forgiveness, are really important and should always play a central part in our worship services.

When I think about it, this was surely one of the great values of historical, structured liturgies in the church across the ages. I recognize, of course, and strongly believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and am in no way taking away from that reality or the truth that once our sins are forgiven, they are forgiven forever. In the sight of God, there is no need to ever express sorrow for them again. That said, I am quite sure it would shock most all of us as clergy if we really knew everything that had taking place during the proceeding week in the life of every single person in the audience we address as we stand in the pulpit on any given Sunday!

Let us constantly, and continually, lead them to the cross, where there is full and complete pardon for any and every sin!

NIV vs ESV, continued...

2007-01-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

Rick Mansfield left a great comment on my post, "Which translation? NIV or ESV?" I have not yet had the time to read all three of the articles he recommended, but his post on his own blog entitled, "Literal Is Not More Accurate If It's Unintelligible," is well worth reading, for anyone who is interested in the subject of Bible translations.

I had no idea there was so much discussion going on in the blogsphere on the subject of the ESV or that Driscoll's writing was so widely noticed. As I wrote in my comment to Rick's post on this blog, "I have always been amazed at how God so powerfully uses some of the most awkward and pitiful translations to impact people's lives what that is all there is available! ... What a mighty God we serve...!"

Christianity with a taste of Europe

2007-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

One of the marvels of the internet is how it makes the world so accessible. To get a taste of what evangelical Christianity is like on "the other side of the pond," check out the Christian Today website. (Note: This is NOT the same thing as the U.S. based, Christianity Today website, which is another great online resource.) The British site includes news and articles from a thoroughly Continental perspective.

Another great way to expand your horizons beyond the borders of the U.S. is to check out Christian radio and TV in Europe. Here are links to both of the major Christian radio networks in Britain, UCB and Premier. If you understand French, listen to Radio Phare FM, run by a very dear friend of mine, Pastor Claude Greder of La Porte Ouverte church in Mulhouse, France, and their TV broadcasts.

To get a taste of what British Christian television is like, check out the live, online broadcasts of the God Channel and Premier Christian TV.

Enjoy...!

Which translation? NIV? ESV?

2007-01-18T19:35:00.000-08:00

Mark Driscoll out at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has an interesting post on the Resurgence blog regarding the recent decision he and the elders of that church made to move away from the New International Version (NIV) toward the English Standard Version (ESV), entitled, "Pastoral Reflections on Bible Translations." It's rather lengthy, but well worth reading if you can squeeze in the time, and can be downloaded in pdf format if you would like to print it out.

The first four pages are more of an introduction to the doctrine of inspiration and a study of textual transmission and reliability, than a specific answer to the question of why they switched to the ESV. Beginning with page five (online), he lays a foundation for understanding the difference between word-for-word and dynamic equivilence approaches to translating the Scriptures. He obviously has a healthy appreciation for why both approaches can be a source of blessing to the Body of Christ. He then makes a very strong case, it seems to me, both theologically and practically, for using a word-for-word translation like the ESV instead one based on dynamic equivilence for most public preaching and teaching.

His theological line of reasoning is based on these main points:

1. The ESV upholds the truth that Scripture is the very words of God, not just the thoughts of God.
2. The ESV upholds that what is said must be known before what is meant can be determined.
3. The ESV upholds the truth that words carry meaning.
4. The ESV upholds the theological nomenclature of Scripture.
5. The ESV upholds the truth that while Scripture is meant for all people, it cannot be communicated in such a way that all people receive it.
5. The ESV upholds the truth that while Scripture is meant for all people, it cannot be communicated in such a way that all people receive it.

He states his pragmatic reasons as follows:

"1. Our pulpit is theologically oriented.
2. Our pulpit exists to teach people what they may otherwise not know.
3. Our pulpit is in the most educated and literate city in America.
3. Our pulpit is in the most educated and literate city in America.
5. Our pulpit is precedent-setting for the life and doctrine of our people.
6. Our pulpit is plugged in."

While I am certainly not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, I served as a career missionary before becoming Senior Pastor of Hillcrest Church here in Dallas, and have preached in three different languages, so the challenge of translation is not a new one to me. I know from personal, "hands-on" experience that sometimes the only possible way to intelligibly translate some statements is via dynamic equivilence, but I have found myself on my own personal journey back towards a preference for the word-for-word approach to translating the Scriptures.

When I first came to Dallas and set about preaching regularly again in English, in an effort to use the translation that I felt would be the easiest for everyone in my audience to understand, I began using the New Living Translation in the pulpit. Some of its readings are quite powerful, such as the way it renders the traditional "Blessed are the poor in spirit" in Matthew 5:3," God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs." It seems to me that the NLT has rendered the essence of that verse in such a way that anyone, even a first-time Bible reader, can instantly understand what it means.

Having said all of that, however, the more I preached out of the NLT and the more I came to appreciate the way it stated certain things, the more I became increasingly uneasy with the fact that it's dynamic equivilence approach seemingly causes it to stray quite far away from some important things contained in the original. That growing concern led me to go back to the NIV. Now, after preaching a couple of years from the NIV, I sense myself growing increasingly frustrated with some of the instances where its translators laid aside a word-for-word approach and adopted dynamic equivilence. I still use the NIV, but find I sometimes need to quote other translations in order to clear up some things that I think it could have stated more forthrightly, and I am not entirely satisfied with it.

Reading Driscoll's article has caused me to decide to take a serious look at the ESV in the near future. For me, the bottom line is that a good translation needs to be accessible (after all, the Bible is God's revelation...!) But, it also needs to be accurate. So, the saga continues... I'll keep you posted.

Free graduate level courses through Covenant Theologial Seminary

2006-12-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

For many people in pastoral ministry, especially in charismatic or pentecostal contexts, and particularly overseas in developing nations, the cost and logistical implications of pursuing a high quality, formal, graduate-level theological education renders this utterly impossible. Although the wonderful congregation I now serve as Senior Pastor is very graciously making it possible for me to pursue my Master of Divinity at the the seminary Dr. Jack Hayford founded in Van Nuys, California (The King's Seminary), I could have never done this during the years that Teresa and I lived in France as career missionaries.

For people who are unable to finance a seminary degree, I have recently discovered one way on the internet to study the Scriptures on a true graduate level at no cost whatsoever. The Covenant Theological Seminary (If you are unfamiliar with the Presbyterian Church of America, think Francis Shaeffer) in Saint Louis, Missouri offers an amazing selection of actual course audio recordings, lecture transcripts, syllabi, and course study guides on the internet via their free, Covenant Worldwide program.

By listening to these lectures, reading the texts listed in the syllabi, following along in the study guides, etc., you potentially receive a significant portion of the same benefit as if you were actually enrolled in their program. (Note: You would NOT receive course credit this way, any formal degree, be actually enrolled in the classes, or have any interaction with the professor, other students, etc.! This would be strictly for personal and ministerial enrichment...!)

Since I am currently preaching my way through the life of Christ as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, I downloaded the first lecture this morning, The Historicity of the Gospels, from the Life and Teachings of Jesus taught by Dr. Daniel Doriani and found the quality of material covered and the presentation to be very, very good. (Click here to download/listen to the lecture audio file in mp3 format; click here to download/view the study guide in pdf format; click here to read the written transcript of the lecture online; click here to read/download the written transcript of the lecture in pdf format; you can also sign up to receive the entire course via podcast, for more information, click here.)

I do not know the people at Covenant, but, being a former missionary who still has much contact with indigenous church leaders in various countries around the world, many of whom read this blog, I am deeply moved by their generosity! I think it would be very difficult to find another fully accredited, reputable seminary that so freely shares the priceless gift of godly learning on a "Whosoever will, let him come..." basis. (If you know of other accredited seminaries that share their actual audio lectures, etc., online, please let me know and I will post that information, too.)

May God bless Covenant...!

What a hoot... MeChurch ... NOT...!

2006-12-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time...! Enjoy...!

Thanks to Matt Green of Ministry Today for pointing the way to this video clip on YouTube in his Wednesday Fun post.

Real-Time World Conversions Map...!

2006-12-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

One of the most fascinating new uses of technology in ministry that I have seen recently is something my friend, Samuel Balverde, over at France Advance and Top Chrétien is working on right now. Their various sites, including the wildly successful Looking for God witnessing portal, are now available in several languages and are seeing over four hundred people a day registering decisions for Christ. (For more information about their various ministries, read this post from my Hillcrest Church pastoral blog.)

Their new beta technology feeds the results of those first-time commitments to Jesus into the Joy in Heaven mapping engine which displays satellite maps showing where the latest decision for Christ has just been registered through their sites. Global activity, of course, depends on what time of day it is in the various time zones of the world, but in the last few two or three minutes as I have written this post, I have seen decisions registered in Nairobi, Kenya; Wichita, Kansas; and a little village in Austria...!

As we prepare to go into our annual 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting at Hillcrest Church, this is going to be a wonderful tool to mobilize people to intercession during our evening corporate prayer meetings. As you watch the map, right before your very eyes, it shifts to a new place in the world where someone has just prayed, asking Jesus into their hearts...and you know to pray for that person in that place...! I admit that I am a closest techno-geek, but I really do think that is a very cool and creative and "out-of-the-box" application of emerging technology...!

D.A. Carson on private prayer languages

2006-12-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

In Joel Willitts and Michael Bird’s blog, Euangelion, they have a great, though rather detailed, quote from the eminent evangelical theologian, D.A. Carson supporting the private use of a prayer language in light of 1 Corinthians 12:7.

Andrew Jones on the Hazard of Hotels

2006-12-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

Concerning the ongoing discussion among Christian leaders about the need for us to carefully guard our moral purity, Andrew Jones (aka TallSkinnyKiwi), renowned blogger in the emergent church movement in the U.K., wrote a very interesting piece entitled, Haggard and the Hazard of Hotels. Jones spells out the precautions he takes when traveling alone, including avoiding staying certain places.

He writes (typos included),

Most of the time I travel alone but i am careful here i stay. If i have a choice, I crash on a friends couch. In summer I bring my tent. I even crash on airport floors to save a few bucks and travel time. If i don't know anyone in a city, I usually stay at a youth hostel. Its really cheap and i stay in a room with 5 or more people. I have to sleep with my wallet and passport in my pocket or under my pillow but it keeps me away from hotels where i am all alone and where weird things happen.
Here’s the deal. Hotels can be treacherous places for people of God to stay at because of the spiritual residue from weird and dark things that have happened in that room. OK - some of you will think me loony here. And some of you don't believe in demons. But let me play it out. Hotels, like a particular house in New Orleans, have been the ruin of many a poor boy. Some hotels are famous for the part they had to play in the destruction of careers and downfall of movie stars. Fatty Arbuckle at St Francis Hotel, San Francisco (pictured above) comes to mind every time i walk by that hotel. And there are others.
Hotels are often places where anonymously weird, perverted, dangerous, evil things of a dark nature happen - all attracting the attention and the attachment of evil spirits. Permission is granted to those spirits in those places and I don't think that permission is withdrawn once the people are gone. That means if you end up in a hotel room where weird things have just happened, you really need to do some kung fu in that room and cleanse it out before you put your bags down and settle in for the night. Really. And someone close to you should know where you are.

Those are very interesting words coming from someone who is part of a movement whose theology many evangelicals view with suspicion, and yet they obviously evidence a very deep desire to pursue personal purity at all costs. I wonder how many of those same critics are as serious about being careful in their own, personal lives as Andrew is?

His words remind me of something I heard Cliff Barrows say at Billy Graham’s Amsterdam ’86 Conference for Itinerant Evangelists. Cliff stated that when he enters a new hotel room, the first thing he does is drape a towel over the television set and place his open Bible upon it as if it were a pulpit. Even back in the eighties, well before the proliferation of online porn, Barrows had been deeply impacted by learning how many ministers he knew had fallen into the sin of watching dirty movies as a result of spending too much time alone in hotel rooms. He was determined to avoid that trap with God’s help, so he established these specific boundaries in his own life in order to reinforce his own best intentions.

In the same vein, someone once told me about hearing the late Dr. Lester Sumrall say that when preaching out of town, he never went directly back to his hotel room alone after speaking. Instead, he always asked the host pastor, or a male staff member that pastor recommended, to go out with him for a cup of hot chocolate and chitchat before retiring. Apparently, he believed taking the time to unwind over a cup of hot chocolate before going to his room was an important safeguard to his own moral purity. He also felt the hot chocolate included certain chemicals that helped replenish the nutrients his body had burned while preaching and praying for the sick. Dr. Sumrall had discovered that, by taking the time to unwind in safe company before going to his hotel, when he did get to his room, he was tired enough to go straight to sleep instead of being so wired on adrenaline that he would be tempted to stay up flipping channels until the wee hours of the morning. Let me mention, as an aside, that Dr. Sumrall’s out of print but still available biography, My Story to His Glory, is an amazing, “must-read” for any missionary or preacher.

For me, the bottom line in all of these discussions is that true spirituality, as I once heard Dale Yerton put it, is “naturally spiritual and spiritually natural.” There is a mysterious mix of the natural and the supernatural in the ministry God accomplishes through us that enables us to become and do so much more than we could ever hope to in and of ourselves. We must be very vigilant to never, ever forget, that no matter how much God uses us, we always steward “…this treasure in vessels of clay.” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV). We are still human, still vulnerable, still utterly dependent upon the God who created us and called us.

I will never forget the story an extremely gifted, anointed worship leader shared with me over dinner after service one night at a pastor’s conference where I ministered several years ago. It had been such a joy to receive from the ministry of a true psalmist during the sessions. When I went out of my way to speak words of affirmation and appreciation to him, he told me how, not long before, he had experienced something very unusual in a similar meeting. On that occasion, when he walked out on the stage with the band behind him and a very large crowd in the room in front of him, as he took his guitar pick in his fingers and was about to strike the first note, suddenly, it was as if all knowledge of how to play the guitar completely left him! He told me that, in an instant, in spite of many years of training, practice, and experience, he could not even recall how to play the initial notes! He stood there, bewildered and embarrassed for several seconds, while the crowd began to fidget restlessly, wondering what was wrong. Then, just as quickly and completely as it had left him, his musical ability came flooding back into him in an instant. As he struck the first chord, he said the voice of the Holy Spirit whispered to his heart, “That’s just so you will never forget where all this comes from!”

May God help us all to never forget where our gifts, our reputation, our circle of influence, our network, even our character and our integrity really come from, and may we never forget how much we need His ongoing help to both serve and honor Him…!

Dr. David Shibley's New Blog

2006-12-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

Had a great chat today over Tex-Mex with my very good friend, Dr. David Shibley from Global Advance. After tasting such local delicacies as roasted avocado with chicken fajita meat at a new restaurant called Chiloso (that I really hope opens franchises soon - sort of like Chipotle taken to the next level...!) we went back to his office for a bit. During our visit, he mentioned a book that he was reading and I urged him to start a blog that he could use to share his thoughts with pastors like me.

Well, one thing led to another and in a few moments we had him up and running at davidshibley.blogspot.com. David is one of the leading spokesmen for world missions in the charismatic world today, the author of several books including A Force in the Earth and The Missions Addiction . Anything he writes will be well worth reading!

If you know pastors in developing countries, in particular, I encourage you to point them toward another of Global Advance's websites entitled www.2tim2.org. It contains resources for spiritual leaders in English, Spanish, French, and Russian. At Hillcrest Church, we believe in David and the Global Advance ministry and we support them financially on an ongoing basis. If you would like to find out more about the work they do around the world, check out their online video entitled, Touching Leaders - Changing Nations.

Jack Hayford - It Could Happen to Any One of Us

2006-12-02T11:06:00.000-08:00

In his From the General Supervisor letter to Foursquare pastors entitled It Could Happen to Any One of Us, about the recent, highly mediatized moral failure of a prominent spiritual leader, Jack Hayford wrote the following words worth remembering,

If you’re looking at anything, anytime that would not pass the judgment of your spouse, it’s inappropriate.
If you are unavailable and no one knows where you’re at for considerable time allotments, it’s dangerous and needs to change.
If you’ve created a web of lies and cover-ups, then the tentacles of sin have taken deep root.
If repentance and accountability are not clearly present in your daily routine, then you are lion bait.
If you don’t practice what God says about the need for purity of heart and head (avoid all sexual immorality), then you’re headed for a great fall.

AMEN! and God help us all...!

French Evangelicals and the Polical Process

2006-12-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

A post on Ben Witherington's blog entitled, "Evangelicals in a Post-Haggard, Post-Rumsfeld World" prompted me to take a subject I had referenced in passing in my own "Tony Campolo on Liberal Evangelicals" post and write the following,

Hi Ben!

Before becoming a pastor here in America, I served as a resident missionary to France for a number of years. It was a very interesting and eye-opening experience to pastor wonderful, Spirit-filled people who were highly committed members of the Socialist party, or who even voted for the Communist party during their elections...!

I came to discover a couple of important differences between what I perceive to be the mindset of a majority of French evangelicals as opposed to their American counterparts:

1. French believers have zero expectation that their civil government will ever be run by people who are actually born again Christians, so they do not examine the personal lives of their leaders from a biblical perspective before voting for them. It never enters a French believer’s mind that a politician’s personal life would be sufficient reason to withhold their vote from him or her.

2. French believers view the political process as inherently corrupt due to its built-in dynamic of compromise and deal-making, not to mention its potential for conflict of interest or illicit monetary gain through the trafficking of special interest lobbyists, etc. This causes them to conclude that it would be completely impossible for any believer to maintain his or her integrity and run for office with any of the major parties.

This is due, in part, to the fact that French politics are based on a parliamentary style system that renders it virtually impossible for anyone to run for office as an independent. In the mind of French Christians, no believer could ever attain the backing of any major party without having engaged in so much questionable prior activity in support of that party, or without having incurred so many "IOU's" to so many other political figures, that their integrity and freedom to act according to their conscience would have already been fatally damaged before even being put forth as a candidate.

3. Believing that the major power brokers of all major political parties have long ago compromised their personal integrity and conscience, French pastors and other spiritual leaders would view with deep suspicion any overtures from politicians trying to court the support of the church in the electoral process. Most French pastors have a very hard time understanding why their American colleagues get so excited when representatives from the White House or Congress come calling or send invitations to functions inside the Beltway. In their minds, Americans should understand that offers of political power and access are never altruistic, but always come at a price, namely, a requirement to stand by the party or candidate in question in other areas of public policy, even though those other issues may not be clearly biblical in nature or even of great importance to the church world.

4. As a result of these and other factors, French pastors tend to believe strongly that spiritual leaders, local congregations, and church movements should play the role of public conscience to the larger society and never try to forge any sort of alliance with one particular party.

In the beginning of my stay there, I questioned their perspective, given what seemed to be great gains made by the evangelical church in America regarding certain social issues in exchange for publicly supporting individual candidates and forming a de-facto alliance with one particular party. Now, I look back with dismay and think we were probably duped into believing that we could salvage our souls while selling our support.

Although I personally have strong political convictions regarding certain issues, and have voted for the same party’s candidates in every election for nearly thirty years, and though I believe there are individuals who are called by God to run for office, I have purposed in my own heart to only use my pulpit to proclaim biblical principles. I believe the best way I can shepherd all of my flock is to teach them spiritual truths, many of which do, in fact, have a direct bearing on one’s conscience and decisions when entering the voting booth, but that I should never use my position or platform to promote a particular party’s or candidate’s agenda.

In the end, the only real hope any of us have for making the world a better place, not to mention improving the state of our country, is the kind of profound spiritual renewal and transformation that comes through a deep encounter with the living God through His Son Jesus Christ. As a pastor, leading people closer to Him is the greatest contribution that I can possibly make to the political process in our nation, for the closer we are to Him, the more we will live and govern in a way that is in harmony with His character.

Great list of Charismatic/Pentecostal blogs

2006-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

I have just stumbled across a great blog by Rich Tatum called Blogrodent : Pentecostal Rumination and Review. I have just begun reading his blog and have already discovered that, among other things, he has an interesting list of links to other blogs called PneumaBlogs and a call to fellow Pentecostals and Charismatics to begin blogging.

Rich also has a link to a great post on Google Blogoscope pointers on good blogging style. The layout of Rich's own blog is a great example of how to "spruce up" your blog with graphics, fonts, and neat little tools like showing an executive summary of posts on your home page with links to the full post that even include an estimate of how long it will take you to read that post...!

Looking at the beautiful layout of Rich's pages shame me terribly and have already added to my determination to update the look and feel of this page just as soon as I can...!

Enjoy...! It is well worth the clicks to check Rich out...!

Tony Campolo on Liberal Evangelicals

2006-11-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

The current issue of Christian Ethics Today contains an interesting article by Tony Campolo entitled, "Being an Oxymoron: A Liberal Evangelical." The title caught my eye and I found his explanation of his position very thought-provoking,

The word liberal has become a political label of ill-repute among many Evangelicals. But if by social liberal, you mean someone who believes America should guarantee medical coverage for all of its citizens; fund the public schools in poor urban and rural communities at the same level as those in rich suburban neighborhoods; be committed to progressive environmental policies; give more than four-tenths of one percent of its federal budget to help the poor of other countries; and give up its militaristic adventurism—then I embrace the label with enthusiasm.

Referencing the impact Charles Finney had on such issues as abolitionism and a woman's right to vote, he pens,

Back in those days, Evangelicals pulled their churches out of mainline denominations not because the denominations were too socially liberal on the race issue, but because they were not liberal enough.

Regarding abortion, Campolo (who clearly states his pro-life persuasion) says,

... many of the Religious Right Christians who share my pro-life sentiments tend to oppose enacting legislation that would enable poor women to give birth and keep their children. No wonder one of our critics says, “Evangelicals are people who believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.” Too often it seems like we care about protecting the unborn, but we’re not willing to provide for the born.

Toward the end of his article, Campolo writes,

The Bible speaks more about justice that it does about anything else—except for love. But in the end, justice is nothing more than love turned into social policies.

My point here is not to take position on Campolo's particular views regarding social policy, although I think the quote he gives followed by his own thoughts, "'...Evangelicals are people who believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.' Too often it seems like we care about protecting the unborn, but we're not willing to provide for the born..." should give all of us who hold a pro-life position serious pause, and merits honest reflection.

I simply want to underscore the greater sense of unease I have felt as American evangelicals have whole-heartedly endorsed one particular political party because we are so passionate about some particular planks in its platform, even when that same party strays far from our religious convictions in other areas. Might not it be better for evangelical spiritual leaders to take public stands along the lines of what Scripture says on every social and moral and economic issue, calling both parties to task when whey stray from the Judeo-Christian philosophical base upon which this nation was built, rather than align ourselves too closely with a party whose power brokers simply want to use us to elect their candidates, without necessarily sharing or promoting our convictions?

James Dobson's comments earlier this week on Larry King Live regarding one particular Republican politician seem to make the same point, saying that the man in question

...is an economic conservative. He is not a social conservative. He doesn't like to talk about marriage and about the unborn child, the sanctity of life and things like that. He wants to talk about smaller government. We believe in smaller government too, and we're economic conservatives too, but we're also social conservatives and he's not.

Years ago, I heard Teresa's mother make the statement, "Prosperity has silenced far more prophets than persecution." Could it be that the measure of acceptance by establishment, Republican power-brokers inside the Beltway in Washington that certain, high-profile evangelical leaders have experienced has tended more to silence the prophetic voice of the evangelical movement in America rather than further our values?

In the end, maybe it just comes down to each individual knowing the role God has called them to play. I have no question in my mind that for some public servants, politics is truly a vocation, but there does seem to be an inherent tension between a system of which it is commonly said, "Politics is the art of compromise," and the prophetic role of the church of Jesus Christ in the world.

Contemplating that reality gives even greater meaning to the admonition of the Apostle Paul, as rendered in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, The Message,

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. (1 Timothy 2:1)

Jack Hayford on Why Billy Graham Has Kept His Credibility and Integrity

2006-11-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

Ministry Today magazine has an excellent article in its archives entitled, "It's Not About 'Office' - It's About Character," by Jack Hayford explaining why he believes Billy Graham has managed to maintain his integrity and his credibility for so many years. Hayford develops Graham's approach to the following key areas:

Money
Sexual Morality
Sensationalism
Hyperemotionalism
Avoiding Digressions
Commitment to the Whole Church

Building Moral Fences

2006-11-13T06:47:00.000-08:00

In the wake of the recent high-profile revelation of moral failure by a key evangelical leader, many articles about the temptations leaders face have appeared in various publications and on the internet. In Leadership Journal, James MacDonald spelled out "Five Moral Fences" he has built in his own life in order to help guard against moral sin, and then urges the reader to make such parameters public in their own sphere of ministry:

I will not, under any circumstances, ride alone in a car with a female other than my wife or an immediate family member.
I do not counsel a woman in a closed room or more than once.
I do not stay alone in a hotel overnight.
I speak often and publicly of my affection for my wife, when she's present and when she's not.
Compliment the character or the conduct, not the coiffure or the clothing.

Regarding rule number three, he writes,

I did my doctoral thesis on increasing the incidents of self-disclosure of sin among men. I have heard more confessions of addiction to various forms of sexual sin than any one pastor should have to hear, and it has changed me. It has left me deeply persuaded that "there but for the grace of God (and some moral fences), go I." I know myself too well.
Lengthy, unaccountable hours with manifold temptations available is a recipe for failure. Romans 13:14 instructs us to "make no provision for the flesh." Do I sound weak? I am! And when I forget that weakness, I cease to know God's strength (1 Cor. 12:10).
When I travel, I travel with someone. When that is impossible, I stay with a friend. When that is impossible I do not go. Period. Early in my ministry, that meant there were things I missed out on. Recently our elders have agreed to help fund a travel partner for me. If an outside ministry opportunity is deemed worthwhile, and the ministry cannot afford a second airfare, our church pays for me to take another pastor or elder, or best of all, my wife!

I think his advice is very, very good. At Hillcrest Church, for example, our Elders have made it possible for me to follow a similar policy regarding solo travel, authorizing me to take another individual along with me at church expense whenever I feel the circumstances warrant it, though they do not require me to do so 100% of the time. If I wanted to borrow someone's lake house for a personal prayer retreat, for example, and Teresa could not go with me because of family obligations, I would not have to take someone else along, but I would normally take a travel partner with me when going on an extended missions trip. Earlier this year, for instance, when I ministered in the Middle East, about the only time I was alone was on the Tel Aviv - Dallas direct flight connection through Atlanta.

I wonder, though, how men in the marketplace could implement such a policy. Most corporate environments necessitate at least occasional travel, at times or to places inconvenient or even annoying to their spouses. I am well aware that many such men do, in fact, fall prey to moral sin, but I would have to stop short of saying that no Christian male should ever pursue a business career on these grounds alone. One thing is sure, though, all men, whether spiritual leaders or marketplace ministers, including me, need to avail themselves of God's grace in order to remain morally pure. A very important key to that process is developing healthy "boundaries" around our hearts and minds and schedules that we will not violate under any circumstances.

What guidelines have you come up with in your life? I encourage you to share them with other readers via the "comments" function of the this webpage.

Gordon MacDonald "Out of Ur"

2006-11-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

While thinking about certain recent events that have figured prominently in the media over the last several days, I came across Gordon MacDonald's reflections in one of the blogs I sometimes read called, Out of Ur. His musings are seasoned with evident grace and compassion for our brother in leadership whose sins have been so widely disseminated, along with his wife, their children, and their church family. He also explores several much larger issues that each of us as leaders need to come to terms with. Here are a couple of thought-provoking excerpts:

It seems to me that when people become leaders of outsized organizations and movements, when they become famous and their opinions are constantly sought by the media, we ought to begin to become cautious. The very drive that propels some leaders toward extraordinary levels of achievement is a drive that often keeps expanding even after reasonable goals and objectives have been achieved. Like a river that breaks its levy, that drive often strays into areas of excitement and risk that can be dangerous and destructive. Sometimes the drive appears to be unstoppable. This seems to have been the experience of the Older Testament David and his wandering eyes, Uzziah in his boredom, and Solomon with his insatiable hunger for wealth, wives and horses. They seem to have been questing—addictively?—for more thrills or trying to meet deeper personal needs, and the normal ways that satisfy most people became inadequate for them.
No amount of accountability seems to be adequate to contain a person living with such inner conflict. Neither can it contain a person who needs continuous adrenalin highs to trump the highs of yesterday. Maybe this is one of the geniuses of Jesus: he knew when to stop, how to refuse the cocktail of privilege, fame and applause that distorts one’s ability to think wisely and to master self.

I find that to be a very interesting observation! While growing up in a pastor's home and then travelling widely across the U.S.A. and abroad, I have often been struck by the fact that some of the most gifted spiritual leaders I have met have also been among the most driven personalities I have ever encountered. Some of them have an approach to ministry that seems to bear incredible fruit, but at a physical, emotional, relational, and organizational cost that bears no resemblance to the promise Jesus made to all who would undertake His work in His way, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Anyone who comes to grip with the reality of Christ's sacrifice for each one of us understands what fuels the kind of godly passion the earliest Moravian missionaries articulated as a desire to "win a reward for the Lamb worthy his name...", and yet, we all do well to remember that the Apostle Paul declared part of the evidence of true spirituality to be genuine "joy" and "peace." I don't claim to always walk in that dual reality, but I am completely convinced it is the plan of God for all of our lives!

In an even more sobering vein, MacDonald goes on to write,

... all sin begins with lies told to oneself. The cardinal lies of a failed leader? I give and give and give in this position; I deserve special privileges—perhaps even the privilege of living above the rules. Or, I have enough charm and enough smooth words that I can talk anything (even my innocence) into reality. Or, so much of my life is lived above the line of holiness that I can be excused this one little faux pas. Or, I have done so much for these people; now it’s their time to do something for me—like forgiving me and giving a second chance.

Yesterday, I brought a message to our people from my ongoing series on the Gospel of Luke entitled, "How to Deal With the Devil in Your Desert", dealing with Christ's temptation in the wilderness. While studying the fourth chapter again, I was struck by the way Satan so clearly tried to provoke Jesus into presuming upon the mercies of God, urging Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and take it for granted that His Heavenly Father would keep Him from experiencing the consequences of His choice.

In the same way, the enemy tries to seduce each one of us into sinning again in some area of our lives where we have experienced God's gracious forgiveness in the past. Our adversary points to the fact that God mercifully chose to not expose our misdeed, reminding us that we did not reap its deserved consequences, then insinuates, "Go ahead and sin - God will respond the same way the next time that He did the last time!" To believe that lie is to fall prey to one of the devil's oldest strategies!

As we continue to intercede for our brother whose sin has been publically exposed, let each one of us also cry out to God, asking Him to do what the biblical author prayed in Psalms 19:13,

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. (Psalms 19:13 KJV)

Blogging 101 for Pastors

2006-11-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Blogging for Pastors 101 is a great website tutorial by Cory Miller that helps pastors begin blogging. It has a simple, step-by-step process to get you up and running. It also contains some good tips on how to create a more interesting blog. If you are building a church website, I recommend you check out his Building Rockin Church Web Sites link as well.

Jack Hayford School of Pastoral Nurture

2006-11-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

Last week, I was privileged to attend the Jack Hayford School of Pastoral Nurture at the King's Seminary in Van Nuys, California. It consists of a series of four mentoring sessions in a group not to exceed fifty pastors. Each session or consultation, as they are called, lasts five days and includes some forty hours of teaching by Pastor Hayford on some aspect of pastoral leadership.

I participated in a Consultation One last spring. It dealt with a pastor's personal life, heart for people, and personal spiritual development. Consultation Two last week focused on such subjects as a preaching, ministering the fullness of the Holy Spirit to others, conducting public worship services that include charismatic utterances, worship, and the gospel of the kingdom of God. I enjoyed the first one enormously, but this second one was even better...! In coming posts, I intend to share some of the leadership principles I learned, and the practical ways they are impacting my ministry as Senior Pastor here at Hillcrest Church.

For the moment, just let me say that I highly recommend this program to any pastor that can attend...!

One last FYI ... the seminary Dr. Hayford founded, The King's Seminary, offers fully accredited graduate level credit for these sessions if you are willing to do the extra, post-modular coursework.

Pray for the young people at New Life Church

2006-11-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Several months ago, Teresa and I were able to attend weekend services at New Life Church while we were in Colorado. We were deeply touched during our visit by the very large number of young people and career adults, including young families, that were flocking to the church.

Today, as events have unfolded and the news stories continue to flood all forms of media, I keep thinking about those young, tender, bright-eyed, passionate, "babes in Christ." My heart is very, very heavy today as I remember what we saw. If you read this post, would you please pause for a moment and pray for them as well? Thanks!

Sallman's Head of Christ

2006-10-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen this painting? When I recently saw an article about its origins in Christian History magazine, it caught my eye. When I was a little boy, my parents gave me a children’s Bible with pictures in it, including this one of Jesus.

My earliest memories of thoughts about the Lord always included this image of Him in my mind. When I prayed, I would often imagine this was the person that I was talking to. To me, this is what He looked like, this was the “real” Jesus.

I must admit, though, that it created a bit of a conflict in my young mind when I heard preachers say that truly devout Christians should not wear a beard or have long hair like those hippies that were beginning to pop up everywhere outside my church world in the sixties and early seventies. The picture in my Bible seemed to prove that Jesus was an exception to some of their hard and fast rules.

Processing that apparent contradiction was the first of many steps in my life-long journey to understand and believe the things God's Word says about Him, even at the expense of some things I had been told about Him by some very well meaning, Christ-loving people. An important part of that dynamic was coming to realize there might be a difference between some things I had been told about the Bible and things the Bible actually said, that is to say, between some things I thought were in the Bible and those that really were in the Bible...!

As I have traveled around the world, I have been amazed to discover how many Christians are walking down a similar pathway. For some, the journey began when they came to understand that the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is just as real and available now as it was 2,000 years ago, in spite of the fact that they had been taught that miracles simply do not happen today. For others, it started when they discovered there were many sincere, devoted followers of Jesus who were quite happily a part of denominations they had always been taught to view with distrust, suspicion, or even disdain. For still more, the turning point came when they realized there were people who really did know and love God, but who had never been baptized with the formula they had been taught was necessary for salvation. And on and on the list could go...

Embarking on such a search for truth can be a very difficult thing to do, especially if your study of Scripture leads you to different conclusions than those held by some of the godliest people you have ever known. This is particularly true if you come to disagree on certain points with the very people who led you to the Lord, or first taught you about Him, or were instrumental in helping you step out in faith to pursue your destiny, and yet, Jesus calls each of us to be willing to do this very thing,

"32 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:32-39, NIV)

As they would say in the Czech Republic, where Teresa and I have often been privileged to minister, “That is strong coffee...!” I am so glad Christ promised in that last sentence to reward us with vibrant, true spiritual life if following Him ever costs us friendships we hold dear. Thankfully, God created humans with the ability to form relationships and He places a very high value on them. He does not lightly call us to sever them, but works very hard to redeem them, even to the point of promising to save all our “house” if we place our faith in Jesus.

Allowing God to take you places you have never been, places far beyond where anyone around you has ever been, can not only be costly on a relational level, but it can also be spiritually dangerous unless you sail such uncharted seas with the Bible in in your hand as a compass. The infallible Word of God will never lead you away from God or His truth, but will always take you deeper in your knowledge of Him. As we follow on to know the Lord more fully, let’s be like the Berean Christians who heard the Apostle Paul preach and “...received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

Let the walls come down!

2006-10-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a great article in the New York Times about a black minister and an Hispanic minister who are working to overcome the new racial divide between Afro-Americans and Hispanics. (Note: You may have to register on the New York Time's website in order to view the article, but it is free.)

Hybels on leadership styles

2006-10-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

On the BuildingChurchLeader's website, there is a great article by Bill Hybels taken from the Winter 1998 copy of Leadership Journal magazine where he identifies different leadership styles and the situations where they are most effective. He cites Certain Trumpets by Gary Wills when he writes,

Wills describes the enormous impact of great leaders whose particular leadership style meshed perfectly with a certain need in society.

For example, when people are being oppressed and want to break free from that yoke, the situation calls for a radical, transforming leader.

In a complex, pluralistic democracy, with thousands of constituencies that must be drawn together to form a government, a political or electoral leader is necessary.

In war time, a military style of leadership works best.

During an ideologically intense social struggle, an intellectual leader might fit the bill.

Wills effectively argues that there are many different styles of leadership, and certain styles fit certain leadership needs better than others.

Hybels then lays out the following ten different leadership styles he has identified with comments about how each functions most effectively:

1. Visionary leader
2. Directional leader
3. Strategic leader
4. Managing leader
5. Motivational leader
6. Shepherding leader
7. Team-building leader
8. Entrepreneurial leader
9. Re-engineering leader
10. Bridge-building leader

He concludes, "Whatever your style, recognize it, celebrate it, and step up to the plate and lead."

Preaching and personality

2006-10-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

In his article entitled, "How Sermon Writing Can Harm Your Soul: Facing up to the preacher's peculiar impurity" on Preachingtoday.com, Lee Eclov refers to Phillip Brook's classic statement, "Preaching is truth passed through personality," then goes on to write,

Anything true and beautiful passing through my personality is liable to become impure. No doubt about that! My sinful attitudes and my foolish pride can stick to God's word like bacteria on fresh fruit.

But there is also something impure about preaching where truth has not passed through personality. I suppose that every sermon inevitably carries the personality of the preacher, but I'm here to tell you that there are sermons where truth has not passed through this preacher's personality. And such sermons were impure. They may be true, but they're not actually sermons.

Recently, I was reminded again of the fact that God deliberately inspired four different Gospels to place in the New Testament canon precisely because different people would be reached by different portrayals of the same Savior. May God help us all to allow the Word to be made flesh again through our unique, individual lives before it comes out of our lips...!

Assessing character

2006-10-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

In her guest column for leadershipjournal.net dealing with how to assess character, Angie Ward states, "Here's another thing about character: It is revealed not in skills, but in community." She describes how a church leader she knew was never willing to become involved in a small group at the church where he served. After leaving that post for another, he later succumbed to multiple addictions and has since left the ministry entirely.

One of the "rules of thumb" that I have developed in my own heart and mind since coming to Hillcrest Church as Senior Pastor is to make a mental note anytime someone in our leadership seems lukewarm about a particular individual taking on some new role in the life of our church. Sometimes, the leader's reluctance is simply the consequence of a difference in personality or leadership style, or the lingering effects of a past interpersonal conflict, or "turf battle," but, more often than not, it has turned out to be a warning sign of a more significant issue. As leaders, we do well to remember that our team members often interact with people in our congregation in far different contexts than we do, and they know things about them that we do not.

As a husband, I long ago learned to take very seriously my wife's hesitation regarding certain people, particularly other women! Teresa is a very warm, loving person, so any time she is clearly unimpressed or turned off by someone's manner or skeptical about their character, I immediately take her feelings as a warning straight from the heart of God. We just celebrated twenty-one years of marriage last week, and in all that time, I don't think she has ever "missed" it once!

In the same way, I am learning to rely more heavily on the other members of my ministry team to "see" things in people that I may not. Hillary Clinton has famously said, "It takes a village to raise a child." I am coming to the conclusion that, "It takes a team to know a person!"

God is Back...!

2006-10-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

CBS ran a piece on their website yesterday saying that a Baylor survey concluded that 82% of Americans are Christians, but that they are expressing their faith in very different ways than 40 or 70 years ago. While Barna's book, "Revolution," portrays Americans as increasingly withdrawn from traditional church, Baylor's survey said half of all Americans attend church at least once a month and describe themselves as "Bible believing." I wonder if those Barna portrays have really stopped attending church altogether, or if they just attend less frequently as part of their highly individualized approach to Christian faith.

I was also struck by the fact that half of our nation's population does not believe the Bible is authoritative. Communicating Christ effectively to them requires far more than just "repackaging" our communication style to make it more media rich. My experience as a resident missionary in France centered around touching this very kind of person and I quickly learned one very important lesson - convincing a total non believer of the truth of the Gospel is only accomplished via a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. The good news is, God wants to touch people far more than we do and He will work powerfully in their hearts if we will commit ourselves to communicating His message to them!

Evangelicals: Where we are and how we got here...

2006-09-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Here is an excellent article from Christianity Today tracing the historical rise of American evangelicalism and the reasons behind it. As the byline puts it, "50 years ago, evangelicals were a sideshow of American culture. Since then, it's been a long, strange trip. Here's a look at the influences that shaped the movement."

Should we fret the back door...?

2006-09-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

Browsing the web today, I came across a thought-provoking article bearing this title on the LeadershipJournal.net website. The author is a pastor who leads a thriving church in Leawood, Kansas. I think every shepherd can identify with his words when he writes,

I carry a fair amount of guilt about our back door. I think to myself, If I were a better pastor, they would still be here; or, If I had done a better job of discipling them, they would not have fallen away; or, If I hadn't preached on that controversial issue, they would not have left angry. Each one who departs leaves me with a distinct sense of failure.

He goes on to write something we pastors may not think about too
often,

This is an issue Jesus wrestled with. In John 6:66 we read, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." We know that thousands came to hear Jesus preach, and to eat of the fish and the loaves, yet how few there were that actually pursued the life of discipleship.

Some who heard him were quite critical of Jesus' ministry, accusing him of operating by the power of the Devil! Even his disciples questioned what he was doing. And one of the Twelve became so disillusioned that he betrayed the Lord to his enemies.

Jesus, too, had a "revolving back door" in his ministry.

Many scholars believe that the Parable of the Sower and the Soils reflects Jesus' own self-assessment of his ministry.

He then concludes,

Here's the takeaway: you will never completely close the back door of your church. When people leave, it hurts. Learn all you can from those who leave. Listen to hear if there is something important God would say to you through them.

Reach out to them, apologizing when needed, offering clarification and love when this is what's called for. But remember that when Jesus, God's Word made flesh, preached the gospel on this earth, most of his hearers did not accept his message. Some accused him of having a demon. One of his key leaders even betrayed him.

Jesus knew that God's kingdom would not expand by "pleasing all of the people all of the time." Instead the Kingdom expands as the relative minority of people who hear the gospel, live it, and in turn, give it away. Our task is to keep scattering the seed.

That sounds like good advice to me...! What do you think?

Typos and other challenges

2006-09-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Please forgive the many typos and other errors in some of my posts. The software that www.blogspot.com uses is not very handy for typing in text. I am working on a way to do my writing in Microsoft Word, then post it to this blog, and I think I about have it figured out. That should make things much, much better. In the meantime, thanks for your patience...!

Consumer Christianity - Too Many Choices?

2006-09-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

I continue to be amazed about how many parallels there are between the life of a local church and that of a family. Pastoring, in fact, sometimes seems a lot like parenting. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy and Titus to careful consider the state of a candidate's family life when they looked for potential spiritual leaders. He did not say that elders and deacons had to be successful business men, but he did say they had to be sucessful family men.
Entrepeneurial acumen certainly does not disqualify one from spiritual leadership and can be very valuable when applied to the life of a local church. According to Paul, though, it should not be the grounds for considering or selecting someone for such a role.

I think the reason is very simple: while businesses and churches have many things in common, a local church is much more like a family than a company. In a business, people are a means to an end; in a family, people are the end. In a business, people are sacrificed if necessary for the sake of the bottom line; in a family, people are the bottom line. Jesus did not die for ministry buildings, projects, or institutions, but for people. Hirelings lead task oriented ministries; shepherds lead people oriented ministries. Moses was not only called to go to the Promised Land, he was called to lead a particular group of sometimes rebellious people to the Promised Land. His level of commitment to them and his love for them was much like that of a father to his children. As pastors, if we ever sacrifice our sheep on the altar of our vision, then our ministry has become our god and we are a hireling, not a shepherd.

In every other gathering of human beings, people are brought together on the basis of some degree of shared interest or commonality, be it a love of football, similar political persuasions, common educational goals or something else, but in a family, people are forever bound together by simple DNA, no matter how divergent their values or diverse their personalities. Though their interpersonal conflicts may cause them to want to flee from each other, even if they go years without speaking or making contact, it is amazing how inevitably some occasion such as a wedding or a funeral or the discovery of a congenital family trait by some obscure biologist will thrust family members together once again.

God designed the biological family this way for many very good reasons. One of the most important must certainly be the perfection of our character. We can easily sever every other difficult human relationship without ever learning the lessons on interpersonal relationships from it that we should, but not our biological family ties. As one wag put it, "You can pick your friends, but you're stuck with your kinfolk!" Have you ever noticed how rare it is for siblings to be just like each other in temperament? This is not an accident! God intentionally places very diverse personalities in the same nuclear family for the simple reason that this forces every member to grow relationally. As we succeed in our families, working through conflicts and walking out forgiveness and forebearance, we learn valuable keys to success in every sphere of human relationships in broader society.

In this vein, I came across an interesting article a few minutes ago on Christianity Today's website (click here). It addresses some of the downfalls in adopting a purely "marketing" approach to local church leadership, especially focusing on meeting people's felt needs without ever calling them to a long-term, "come what may," commitment to a particular congregation. At first read, I think most any pastor who has seen someone lightly leave the flock they lead might read the article and identify with the frustrations felt in the conversation which opens up the piece. I encourage you, though, to take the time to ask yourself the question, "In the church I serve, how intentional are we about promoting the kind of interpresonal bonding between members that would motivate them to stay with this community of faith no matter what?" If we fail to do this, we rob our people of God's perspective on the local church and they will not grow unto the spiritually mature individuals He intends them to be.

What do you think?

Generous Giving Stewardship website

2006-09-17T04:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a great website with lots of material on stewardship: http://www.generousgiving.org/

UPI says prosperity theology is booming

2006-09-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

The United Press International news wire put out a brief item today entitled, 'Prosperity Theology' is Booming, stating that three out of the four largest churches in America preach this theology. They also reference a Time magazine poll that found 61 percent of Americans say they believe God wants people to be prosperous, although only 17 percent consider themselves to be part of the prosperity theology movement.

Should we do away with theologians?

2006-09-08T05:41:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting read from C. Peter Wagner entitled, "Goodbye Theologians!" I chuckled when I read that a student at Fuller Seminary had a research paper rejected by a professor because he had quoted Jack Hayford in it, saying Hayford was not "theological."

What the Bible says about fighting terrorism

2006-09-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

As spiritual leaders, we are sometimes called upon by those we lead to provide a biblical lens throught which to view some significant current event. Here is a thought-provoking look at an Old Testament passage that its author believes provides some insight for an ethical approach to fighting terrorism. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13938178/site/newsweek/

Praise for Billy Graham's preaching from a rabbi who doesn't believe in Jesus...

2006-09-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Thankfully, it is a rainy Labor Day here in Dallas after so much drought. I have finally finished my homework for a course I was taking and am doing a little reading on the Internet. I'll post a few links that I have found interesting. Here is a column by one of the best known rabbis in America who begins by saying, "I'm a rabbi and I like Billy Graham. I don't agree with him about Jesus, but I like him anyway...when he dies, there will never be another preacher like him." Worth reading for all of us who are called to communicate the Gospel: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8147174/site/newsweek/

Keep walking...!

2006-08-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

One of the email lists that I am on and that I actually read regularly is sent out by a pastor in Australia named Phil Pringle. (You can sign up for them for free here.) It always contains some brief, pithy, pungent nugget about leadership and ministry. He is an accomplished artist with many paintings, etc., to his credit, but also, apparently a cartoonist. Click here to see the animation that goes with this cartoon and enjoy a good laugh about what it sometimes means to be a leader...! Enjoy!

Mark

What do you think?

2006-08-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

Following is a post containing some very rough notes I have made about how to evaluate prophetic words. I beg your indulgence in advance for the poor wording of certain phrases, etc. I do not have time to rewrite them, but have included them in my blog in the hope that it can stimulate some interaction between those who are reading these lines, and that we can learn from each other. So, if you have questions or comments about this subject, or experiences to relate, please share them by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of the post.

How Do I Know It's God? (Revised 12/5/2006)

2006-08-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a few "rough" notes that I have made about the question of the evaluation of prophetic words. I would l love to hear your thoughts and comments. Just click on the "comments" link at the end of the post...

I have heard many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of prophetic words given by various people in a wide variety of settings over my lifetime. A small minority of the time, I had a crystal-clear sense that the word was, indeed, from God. A small minority of the time, I felt certain that the word was not from God. To be perfectly honest with you, the rest of the time, I did not have a rock-solid conviction either way, when I first heard what was spoken.

Quite often, my “gut” reaction ranged somewhere from, “Hmm, that sounds and feels a little suspicious…” to, “Hmm, that did not minister anything to me, personally, but, maybe it did to someone else…” to, “Wow! I sure hope that is God! Won’t it be wonderful if it is…!” to, “I don’t have a clue whether or not that was truly inspired of the Holy Spirit.”

I think there are probably several reasons why my “discerner” is not more dogmatic.

1. I am sometimes more spiritually sensitive than at other times. When I heard the word, my heart and spirit may not have been completely focused on the Lord for a whole variety of reasons. Perhaps I had allowed what I had been thinking about on my way to church or the things that had happened earlier in the day or broader concerns that I was carrying in my own life or simply the fact that I was attending a conference where I knew I would not be leading the service or some other thing, to keep me from fully entering into God’s manifest presence through the communion of the Holy Spirit. The more "full" I am of the Spirit at the moment I hear the word, the more likely I am to clearly and accurately discern whether or not any or all of it is of truly from the Lord.

2. Some words that I have heard were addressed to someone else and not for me. Perhaps they were for some individual in the service, but not the congregation collectively. When this happens, I may have a clear sense that the word is for a third party, sometimes I do not know for sure, but think it could be because overall it sounds and feels "right." When you think about this possible scenario, you quickly understand that it is really not all that surprising that God would not always bother to let me know if a word for someone else is authentic or not. After all, if the word is for someone else's life individually, it may be that God doesn't think what He is saying to them is really any of my business. If, for instance, He is dealing with some specific, secret sin in their life that He wants to give them an opportunity to repent of without exposing them openly, then He would quite deliberately not let me know who He is talking to about that particular subject. He might then give me only a general sense of conviction that the word is from Him so that I would allow it to be given in the service if we are following the "gating" or "evaluation" procedure mentioned below, or reassure me of its authenticity if there is something about the time or way that it is given that is less than ideal.

3. In a healthy, New Testament church, for greater safety and security, God sometimes intentionally leads us collectively instead of individually, by giving a clear confirmation through establishing a consensus. When this is happening, God deliberately initiates the process of giving revelation through someone other than the leader. Some pastors have a very hard time believing or accepting this, but God really does reserve the right to speak through other people, even when we are present...! (Smile!)

4. God has clearly said that, on our best days, we only, “…know in part and prophesy in part…” until “…that which is perfect is come…,” i.e., until we stand face to face with Him! It is the height of arrogance for any of us to think that we are above that Scripture and that we will always "fully" know everything about every prophetic word.

In any case, it is not automatic that a Christian always knows the voice of God. Full grown sheep do, but not necessarily little lambs…!

“1 ¶ “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.”” (John 10:1-5 NIV)

Little lambs grow to know their shepherd’s voice by constant, continual exposure to it, that is to say, by hearing it over and over again. We also increases our degree of certainty in distinguishing God’s voice through communing with God in prayer and worship; exposure to healthy New Testament church life with fully functioning prophetic ministry; and exercising our gifts in an environment where we receive clear feedback from other, more spiritually mature individuals when we give words. I remember vividly the first time that I ever delivered a "message" in tongues to a congregation. It was then interpreted according to the Biblical pattern. After the service, a very spiritually mature person that I knew quite well made their way to me privately and said, "Mark, that message was clearly from the Lord!" Their honest affirmation of my gift greatly encouraged me and increased my faith, giving me much more confidence when I felt God leading me to minister in that way.

“11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV)

Here is a mental list of questions that I ask in those “in-between” instances when my "gut" alone does not give me a rock-solid conviction about a word I have just heard:

1. BIBLICAL - “It is Scriptural?”

Obviously, if someone says something that is not biblical, we know that is not of God. However, given the very real presence of the human element in all prophecy, in some instances, there can be someone who feels a genuine, Holy Spirit impulse to minister an exhortation to faith, for example, and tries to quote a Scripture to illustrate the point, but does not remember it perfectly or perhaps takes it out of context. They may use the verse in a way that they heard it used by others, even though upon close examination, their exegesis was faulty. The verse they quoted was misapplied, but the spiritual principle they were setting forth was valid. In this instance, the thought they were trying to convey may well have been given to them by God, but their articulation of it was faulty. The Holy Spirit certainly did not inspire them to misquote Scripture, but, in some instances, there may have been some element of what they said that was, “right on.” (See notes below on "Is it partial?")

2. SPIRITUAL – “Does it seem supernatural?”

The point here is not how “spooky” or “mystical” it is…! Genuine prophecy does not have to be given in some kind of weird voice! It can be given in a very natural way and yet still be very supernatural in origin. The style of the delivery has much more to do with an individual's personality and church background than with the level of inspiration they are experiencing. The issue I am addressing when I ask this question is that true prophecy is not merely the result of human reflection, but of divine inspiration. Words always gets my attention more quickly when I know the person giving the word has no earthly way of knowing why they are saying what they are saying, how relevant their words are to my context, or why they are so timely. This does not mean that God cannot use someone who knows all about what is going on in my life to speak to me. But, it certainly causes me to perk up my ears more when He uses someone who knows nothing about me. On the other hand, just because a word is clearly supernatural does not automatically mean it is of God. The Apostle Paul understood this reality and opened his great discourse on the nature and proper exercise of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 by delineating how one can know if something “spiritual,” i.e., supernatural, is of God and not the devil. John speaks to this same subject in his epistle.

3. CREDIBLE - Does it come from a credible person?

It appears to me that 1 Corinthians 12 & 14 seem to presuppose that credible people should be given the opportunity to share what they feel God has given them in public worship services and that utterances should be judged after they are given utterance is given publicly, not before. “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (vs. 29)” It does not say that their word should necessarily be evaluated before it is spoken publicly. Having said that, I do think it is very wise to have some mechanism or procedure in place so that the gist of words given by people who do not have an established track record in a local church are first weighed by the leadership of that church before they are put out for public consumption. It is far easier to avoid some problems than it is to solve them once they have been created, and a lot of damage can be done to individual lives and that of a church through words that are not of God!

At the same time, verses 30 and 31 seem to indicate that even those who are not already recognized to be prophets should also be given opportunities to share and that those recognized for their gifting should cease prophesying in order for that to happen. “And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.”

In practice, this passage sometimes leads me to give credible people a chance to share even if I do not have a strong, specific inner witness that what they are about to say is for sure of God. I do this so that the body can evaluate that word collectively. (I would, of course, never ever allow someone to speak if I had a clear sense that what they were about to say was not of God…!) I would be much less quick to let someone share that is not already known to be credible unless I had a strong sense that what they were wanting to share was definitely from the Lord.

Another very important factor when evaluating someone’s credibility is their relationship and attitude toward spiritual authority and toward our “house.” It is a very serious mistake to let anyone address the congregation publicly under any pretext if they are in rebellion against the spiritual authority of the “house.” Even if their gifting is genuine, it is far too likely that in that context their attitude will color any word that they give.

4. BENEFICIAL / HELPFUL - Was it given with a right spirit? Will it edify? Is it right for this time and context?

This does not necessarily indicate whether or not the inspiration was genuine, but it can dramatically impact whether or not the word will edify the body. In a larger sense, this question is linked to another important question, “Does it edify?”

The reality is that truly inspired utterances are sometimes given with a total lack of spiritual etiquette. This is a lot of what 1 Corinthians 14 is all about. Genuine words can even be given in flagrant violation of some of the commands Paul laid down for the Corinthian church, which was in state of crisis and needed close regulation. When addressing their excesses and imbalances, Paul did not say that the gifts that were functioning in their midst in an unhealthy way were not authentic. He had much more to say about the manner of those gifts than their character or nature. Gifts that functioned outside these paraments, though sometimes genuine, would not result in maximum edification.

This still happens today. I have been in services, for instance, where I was convinced that the fourth word given was truly inspired of the Lord, even though Paul limited such utterances in Corinth to only three. Paul did not say that a fourth word could not be inspired. Rather, he said that a fourth word would be excessive, and not edify the body. In some services, that was exactly what happened - a fourth word came that was genuine, but many people in the audience rejected it out of hand because three other words had already been given. The audience was familiar with Paul's words and were instinctively prejudiced against the fourth one.

This question of, “Does it edify?’ is also very important when considering the potential impact of a particular word on the flow of a particular service. There are times when I do not release certain people to give their words in a particular service, even though I would release them to give that word in another service, simply because that word does not seem to “fit” with what I sense God is doing at that moment in the service or at that juncture in our body.

Some people go so far as to say that all New Testament words must only be positive “…edify, exhort, and comfort… (vs. 3) ” and never be corrective, but I do not believe that is the point of 1 Corinthians 14:3. There is more than one instance in the Book of Acts of individuals speaking prophetically to someone and actually pronouncing God’s judgment upon them (cf. Ananias and Sapphira, the sorcerer who was struck blind, etc.) The point of the passage is simply to underscore the need for interpretation of “messages” in tongues in a public gathering (see preceding verse.) Interestingly, the NIV uses the words, “strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.” Sometimes, godly correction is what is needed in order for a person to be stronger spiritually and thus be edified, literally, “built up.”

5. COMMUNAL - How do other spiritual leaders feel about this word? Is there a consensus regarding this word?

Sometimes, the context itself requires that we “go it alone,” but, those instances are rather rare in a healthy, mature New Testament local church. 1 Corinthians 14 indicates that when we share words from God for a particular body to that body, we can expect the Holy Spirit to bear witness with multiple members of that body, particularly among those that are the most spiritually mature and in positions of leadership.

6. CONTINUAL – How does it relate to the things the Spirit has already said?

Does this word coincide or build upon prior words? Has this same thought been expressed by more than one person in more than one context? Words that come multiple times from different sources carry more weight in my mind than words that come a single time from a single source. Paul seemed to share this view:

“22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22-24 NIV)

This does not mean that all true words are spoken multiple times, but, when they are received multiple times from multiple sources in multiple places, it adds to the certainty about their authenticity and gives them added power. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the revelation of God in the New Testament contains some 1,100 references to verses in the Old Testament as the Holy Spirit deliberately linked what He was saying in the New Testament era to what He had already said in the Old Testament era.

7. PARTIAL - Is part of that word inspired, but not all of that word?

It is entirely possible, and in fact, rather common, for someone to begin “in the spirit” and wind up speaking out of their own understanding. This is particularly true if the person giving the word tries to interpret or apply that word…! One of the easiest mistakes to make is to speak forth what God says by the Spirit, and then try to explain what he meant through our own thought processes and deductions. A dear senior spiritual statesman friend of mine once told me, “Every time in my life I have heard the voice of God telling me to do something, the next voice I heard was the voice of the devil telling me how and when to do it!”

Further Observations

· Because I am aware of the very real presence of the human element in all prophecy, I think it is best to try to focus on the “bottom line” of a word instead of every detail or phrase in that word. I normally do not write words down or try to record them with a tape recorder, etc., but simply trust God that anything that is spoken to me that truly is from God will carry a weighty enough anointing that it will easily lodge in my heart and spirit and I will not have any difficulty recalling it later.

· God wants the message to get through and will keep trying if we miss it in a service and unintentionally quench the spirit. This applies to both the speaker and the evaluator. This is a great comfort to me when leading church services. I would never knowingly quench the Spirit, but I am quite sure there are sometimes that I drop the ball and miss a moment the Holy Spirit was trying to set up.

· Not every genuine prophetic word is meant to be shared publicly. Be very slow to share personal words with anyone besides the person they are addressed to.

· We need to create opportunities for people to exercise their gifts in an atmosphere where they can fail and not be severely criticized, but, rather, learn from their failures and move on into mature spiritual gift ministry. This “practice” venue should not be the main worship service!

· Spiritual maturity in a local church includes coming to the place where someone can sincerely miss it in a public worship service, and the body will know it and be able to move one with what God is doing without any serious disruption or trauma.

[Prophecy]

Leadership book excerpts

2006-08-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this link to find free excerpts from some top leadership books: http://leadershipnow.com/leadershop/readingroom.html

Global trends in Christianity

2006-08-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

During the WME World Ministries Conference we had the privilege of hosting here at Hillcrest a while back, Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, gave an excellent overview of the most significant global trends in Christianity. You can listen to his message via our website by clicking on the following link:

http://www.hillcrestchurch.org/index.cfm/PageID/692/index.html

Recently, I came across the transcript of an interview Rick Warren gave at a symposium hosted by the Pew Charitable Trust. It's title is a bit misleading because it is about much more than the mega-church phenomenom. During the interview, Rick gives his overview of where the global church is today. You can read the full transcript by clicking on the following link:

http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=80

Even Jesus chose a Judas...!

2006-08-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

When I was attending Bible college back in 1979, one day the guest speaker in our chapel service made the statement, "Even Jesus chose a Judas!" That phrase somehow lodged in my memory. Later, before I ever came to Dallas, while I was meditating one day on the importance of putting together the right leadership team, remembering that statement prompted me to write the following article.

God has surrounded me with a wonderful group of leaders here at Hillcrest Church. Thankfully, this dynamic is not one that I am dealing with right now, but the principle I wrote about is one every spiritual leader needs to remember...

Even Jesus Chose a Judas...!

Every ministry, business, organization, and congregation needs the right team members in order to reach its God-given goals. Jesus understood this and chose twelve close co-workers early in His ministry. Each one of them was meant to wear the mantle of apostolic leadership and play a significant role in the evolution of the Church. One of the people He selected failed to live up to his potential, turned against Christ, and betrayed Him!

Given this outcome, it might appear that the Lord committed a serious error in judgment when He invited Judas Iscariot to join His ministry staff. Scripture paints a different picture, noting that Jesus made His choice after praying all night long, apparently under the express leading of the Holy Spirit.

Each one of us sometimes experiences the same dynamic in our own sphere of leadership. Hiring a particular person may seem so providential, yet their presence on our team ends up creating more problems than it solves. Serious, hidden sins may surface in their life that disqualify them from leadership. Their lack of relational skills may become a source of conflict with the rest of our team. They may prove incapable of performing the tasks that we need them to do in order to implement our vision. They may even be unwilling to work.

Realizing that Jesus chose Judas helps us understand an important truth: God is just as concerned with giving our team members the opportunity to mature spiritually and fulfill their divine destiny as He is in helping us accomplish our ministry assignment in the most efficient, pain-free manner possible. Our team members are more than just a means to an end. When I was pastoring in Paris, one day the Holy Spirit said to me, “If you sacrifice your sheep on the altar of your vision, then your ministry has become your god and you are a hireling, not a shepherd!” When God gives us people to help us with our ministry, He also expects us to minister to them.

Remembering that Jesus chose a Judas frees us from the unrealistic expectation that everyone we invite to be a part of our team will turn out to be the person we expect them to be. It also helps us understand why we need to create a work environment characterized by liberty and accountability.

Encouraging our team members to creatively initiate ways of implementing our vision provides them with the freedom they need in order to develop to their full potential. This shows respect for God’s calling upon their lives, inspires loyalty, and reduces staff turnover. After all, most people prefer to work where they are valued and have ample opportunity for advancement, even if they could make more money elsewhere at the price of feeling personally stymied or unappreciated.

Requiring periodic, systematic accountability from our staff gives us frequent opportunities to change their job assignment to something more in keeping with their primary giftings, should they prove unable to perform the way we need them to. It also furnishes us with a clear rationale for firing them if necessary. As unpleasant a task as that may be, the will to remove unqualified or unfit people from positions they have held for an extended period of time is one mark of an effective, righteous leader. In both the Old and New Testaments, God demonstrated His willingness to sacrifice certain individuals for the corporate good of His people when those same individuals were hindering the unfolding of His plan.

God wants to help us choose the right people for our ministry team. If we let Him lead us, personal or moral failure among our inner circle will be the exception rather than the rule. Should one of those we have prayerfully chosen turn out to be a Judas, God will have a Paul waiting in the wings to take their place!

Expository Preaching

2006-08-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

At Hillcrest Church, God is calling our leadership to focus on three specific goals:

1. Getting our people into God's manifest presence.

2. Getting our people into God's Word.

3. Getting our people into God's harvest.

We pursue goal number one through emphasizing prayer and anointed worship. Prayer has long been a part of our corporate DNA, in fact, there was a 24/7 prayer center on our property before there were any church buildings. Recently, the Lord has been taking us into a new dimension of worship and we are experiencing a much greater manifestation of His presence. Lives are being profoundly impacted. We are called to be a word and spirit church so this development is essential to our future.

We are gearing up to pursue goal number three by focusing on a specific neighborhood not far from our church campus. This is the result of what we believe to be specific direction from the Lord. We believe He is leading us to target our individual and corporate Jerusalems and Samarias. We define Jerusalem as a 2 1/2 mile radius around our campus, our homes, and our workplaces. For us, Samaria represents those segments of our city's population that are geographically near to us, but either culturally, racially, socially, ethnically, linguistically, or morally far from us. Our "Samaritans" are those who live in proximity to us but that we will never reach accidentally. We must deliberately cross significant barriers to reach out to them.

I believe an important key to reaching goal number two here at Hillcrest is emphasizing expository preaching and teaching. To that end, I am about to begin my first extended series of sermons of this type, a study of the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke, followed by a study of the Book of Acts.

If you are unfamiliar with this type of preaching and would like to know more about it, I encourage you to check out the website, www.wacriswell.org. It is dedicated to the memory of Dr. W.A. Criswell, one of the twentieth century's greatest expositors. Several thousand of his audio and video sermons, along with written transcripts, are available there, free of charge. They include his famous address to the Southern Baptist Convention entitled, "Whether We Live or Die" and his sermon on his favorite text. I particularly enjoyed his series on the life of David.

Dr. Criswell pastored First Baptist Church here in Dallas for some fifty years. Not long after he succeeded the famed Dr. George Truett in that pulpit, Dr. Criswell announced that he was going to preach his way through the Bible, beginning with the Book of Genesis. Some of the deacons came to him telling him that he would destroy the church by preaching through the Bible, that no one was interested in simply hearing God's word, but he persevered. His plan was simple, preach on Sunday mornings out of the text that lay before him, then take up Sunday evening wherever he had left off that morning, then take up Wednesday evening wherever he left off Sunday night, etc.. As I understand, it took him eighteen years to finish the task. During that time, First Baptist Dallas grew to be the largest church in the world, with over eighteen thousand members. Few cities have been so profoundly impacted by a single congregation as Dallas.

That amazing story is certainly a tribute to Dr. Criswell's unusual giftings, but it also underscores an important principle. God's Word is more powerful than any two-edged sword. Nothing else impacts human hearts like it and we must build our lives and ministries upon it. This is particularly incumbent upon those of us who passionately pursue the manifest presence of God and appreciate the powerful, present-day work of the Holy Spirt. The Spirit is not above the Word and the Word is no hinderance to the work of the Spirit. To the contrary, the greatest release of supernatural power comes when God's Word is proclaimed in the power of the Spirit, preparing the hearts of people to personally encounter the God of the Word through the work of the Spirit. We do not have to sacrifice or neglect one in order to have the other, rather, each enhances the other and Christian maturity flows from that balance.

Let's pursue both...!

Websites worth visiting

2006-08-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a rather random sampling of some of the websites I have visited recently that are interesting, from a leadership point of view. I'll add a list of podcasts/vodcasts soon.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/ - "Following God's call in a new world. Conversations hosted by Christianity Today."

www.lifechurch.tv - Oklahoma based congregation that is using media very effectively to open many satellite campuses. They also offer free media content for churches.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/ - Seattle congregation with lots of great audio and video downloads.

http://www.mmiblog.com/ - Home page / web portal for pastors and church leaders.
www.mondaymorninginsight.com - I think this is a newer version of the same thing.

www.mosaic.org - Erwin McManus leads this church in California and is an exceptionally effective communicator. Lots of audio and video downloads.

www.therevealer.org - "A daily review of religion and the press."

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage - A totally different take (in English) on events in the Middle East.

http://www.churchmarketingstinks.com/ - "The blog to frustrate, educate, and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ."

www.seminarylibrary.com - "...provides a remote library viewer to thousands of searchable, digitized, hi-resolution books."

http://www.breitbart.com/ - All the latest news wires from one, convenient webpage.

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/ - Summarizes the major events of the week with news from around the world.

http://enewhope.typepad.com/ - Pastor Wayne Cordeiro's blog for leaders.

www.christiantoday.com - British christian home page / web portal.

www.blueletterbible.org - Bible portal with several versions, dictionaries, and commentaries.

www.biblegateway.com - Another Bible portal with many resources.

Pastoring the Powerful (Lloyd Ogilvie)

2006-08-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

As God increases our ability to influence others, and we demonstrate our faithful stewardship of that influence, He often positions us to influence those who have significant influence.

Click on the title of this post or the following weblink to read an excellent interview touching on that aspect of leadership with Lloyd Ogilvie, Chaplain of the United States Senate, entitled, "Pastoring the Powerful," from Christianity Today's website.

Who am I?

2006-08-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

I am not at all fond of promotional bios, but the quickest way I can think of at this point to tell you a bit more about myself is to insert a bit of text from the document my administrative assistant sends ahead to places where I am scheduled to speak outside our congregation...

Raised in Illinois and Peru, South America by ministry parents, Mark had a profound salvation experience as a young boy, soon followed by Holy Spirit baptism and a call to preach the Gospel. During the first decade of his ministry, as an itinerant evangelist and Bible college instructor he was heavily involved in short-term missions outreaches. In 1991, Mark and his wife, Teresa, moved to France where he served as co-pastor of a church in Paris and ministered across the Continent. For the next twelve years, they focused together on encouraging, exhorting, networking, and equipping spiritual leaders and their families world-wide through mentoring relationships; the ministry of God’s Word; and hosting conferences addressing leader’s specific needs. During this time, they founded Harvest Leadership Institute, whose vision is “To touch the world through touching people God has called to spiritual leadership.” In March of 2003, Mark became the Senior Pastor of Hillcrest Church in Dallas, Texas.

Why blog about leadership?

2006-08-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

It is often said that leadership is the key to every important advance in human society and accomplishment. This is particularly true when it comes to furthering God's agenda on earth. More than anything else, He longs to be reconciled with every single estranged member of His human family through the provision He has made in the death of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Raising up godly, highly skilled leaders is the single most important key to the realization of that goal. For reasons known only to Him, God has chosen to limit most of His interactions with human beings to human means - people like you and me. He chooses to use people to touch other people, to care for other people, to speak to other people, and to lead other people. If we will respond to his attempts to draw us into an intimate, life-giving relationship with Himself, He will use us to influence others in a positive way beyond anything we could have ever dreamed.

The example of Jesus illustrates this. While He lived on earth, by walking in intimate relationship with His Father, He mentored His leadership team so effectively that they continued furthering His vision and living by His values long after He had returned to heaven. His highest goal continued to be their highest goal - bringing as many individuals into a personal relationship with God as they possibly could.

By any standard, their efforts were remarkably successful. In their own lifetimes, they spread the good news about Christ's life and the meaning of His death and resurrection throughout an amazingly wide land area with precious few resources at their disposal. They also mentored others the way Jesus had mentored them. They did it so well that those they mentored in turn did the same with yet another generation of people, who then did the same with still others, and the greatest leadership replication dynamic ever known was set in motion. It spread throughout the entire world and has continued unbroken during every moment in history down to this present time.

You and I and millions of others like us are part of this unbroken chain. Together we can mobilize others and reap the harvest Jesus spoke of in John 4:35, "Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." As we follow Jesus, we become like Him. We begin to value what He values, think like He thinks, talk like He talks, act like He acts, live like He lives, and lead like He leads.

This blog will be dedicated to sharing some of the lessons I have learned from following Jesus and allowing Him to help me lead others. I am neither a perfect pupil nor a great leader! My failures often seem to outnumber my successes, and yet, I must say there is nothing I have ever experienced that quite compares with the joy of helping others come into the kingdom of God and then discover their destiny in His great, big scheme of things.

Come, join me on the journey, and let's learn from each other...!