A Joshua Generation - CFNI Spring Graduation 2010

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.

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

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."

Dealing With Dead Horses

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 Last TV Evangelist - Phil Cooke

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."

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

Jack Hayford on Pastoral Leadership, Etc.

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.

Following up on Willowcreek's Repentance

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

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

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"

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

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

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...!

Leading through change via the RASCI model

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.

Breakout Churches

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.

Charles Spurgeon on Church Growth

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

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:

1. Fill your plate.
2. Exercise.
3. Do not allow technology to be your Lord.
4. Sabbath.
5. Pick a release valve.
6. Work on your life, not just in it.
7. Leave margin.
8. Spend most of your time training leaders.
9. 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.

Generation Gap 2007

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

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...!

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,

"³⁵ As 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

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!