Is knowledge the key to success? Righteousness?

We live in an incredible age where we can retrieve almost any piece of information we need within a few seconds.  When we look back through history and study the advancement of the accessibility of knowledge, it almost takes your breath away to think how far and how fast we have come.  Only a few centuries ago, very few people could even read and only a select few had access to written material, including the Bible.  Just one generation ago, people had to spend a lot of money to buy books or to go to college and graduate school to gain the knowledge needed to advance in their desired profession.

Today, with the internet, we have access to free knowledge any time we desire.  Those desiring to study the Bible have a plethora of programs, websites and graduate level videos and pdfs for free.  Our biggest challenge is finding the sites we trust and making the time to study. We have no excuses anymore.  For someone to say I've been a Christian for a long time but don't know much about the Bible is a cop out.  Most Bible translation or Bible study on any verse is accessible and free.

I would suggest one great site that provides graduate level study mostly for free: Bible.org On the research tab, you'll find a link: Theology questions and answers.  This has 258 theology questions with a 10 - 20 minute classroom video for each question where theology professors walk you through the question, giving you answers that are biblically based.  This is a Theology course that focuses on the authority, nature and interpretation of the Scriptures.  It is like taking a graduate level course at Dallas Theological Seminary.  It is available to anyone, for free.  No excuses for being biblically illiterate.  

All that being said, although knowledge is very important, knowledge is not everything.  Knowledge without the application can be dangerous.  As believers, it is even more incumbent upon us, now that we have no excuses for being spiritually illiterate, to put our knowledge into action. Adam chose the knowledge of good and evil and it destroyed man.  But Peter gives us the most excellent way in 2 Peter 1:5-8.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

It starts with faith in Christ and as we pursue knowledge about God, we apply it to our life and it should manifest itself in love.  We have no excuses. Everything we need to live a Godly life is available to us in this age from information to the Holy Spirit.  How will we respond?

Preparation vs Planning

The cartoon would be funny if it weren't so true and painful. We go to such great lengths to plan out our life and God rearranges it all making reality nothing like what we planned or desired. The best laid plans...

Dwight Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle I always found that plans were useless, but planning was indispensable."  

Wise words from one who was in leadership most of his life. This perspective cuts both ways.  To the planner, who has to feel as if they are in control, Dwight would say that all of your detailed plans will be useless once you are on the battle field.  And for the non-planner, the let's just wait till we get on the battle field type, Eisenhower would say you will be sorely at a disadvantage if you have not prepared appropriately. 

The principle is that daily preparation is much more important than making detailed plans. The soldiers prepare for war by training and repeating the disciplines so that on the battle ground they are able to adjust to whatever the situation calls for.  Sure there is a plan, but things change in battle and you have to be able to adapt. 

"You need a plan ... but don't become consumed by it. Winds change." --Joseph Ehrhard.  The principle is applicable to ministry also. I experienced it over and over while leading my many mission trips. I quickly learned that our planning for the trip, more times than not, was altered or totally scrapped once we were in the country.  This can be really difficult for one who is task oriented and doesn't feel as if they are successful unless they have accomplished all their well thought out plans. 

So I learned to make a broad plan but did more preparation than planning. I discovered that it was important for each person going on the mission to be prepared to share their story.  So, whenever we needed someone to preach or teach, our stories were the foundation of the teaching. We also needed to prepare our heart and get our attitudes right, understanding that we were there to learn, to build relationships and share God's love more than to change their culture or teach the people the 4 step "western" way of doing things.  Prayer and preparation were the key for us.  

Mike Breen writes about the importance of preparation for pastors in his book, Leading Kingdom Movements. "What I always teach my leaders and teams is that preparation is vital.  If you are not speaking out of the overflow of what God is already doing in your life, you're not giving anybody anything." This preparation Breen calls excavation and it is not the cramming for a sermon, but the daily spiritual disciplines of a believer.

John Wesley put it this way, "Every Christian should be prepared to preach, pray, or die at a moment's notice."  So it's not a matter of whether you've had enough time to plan, but whether yesterday you have spent time with God in the Word, and the day before that, and the day before that.  If you have been doing that long enough, if you have been abiding in Christ, you'll have plenty of material to draw from.  And if you have been putting your faith into action, serving, going and ministering to people outside of the church, you'll have plenty of stories to tell. 

So set your goal, make your broad plan to accomplish your goal, then prepare, prepare, prepare.  And in carrying out your plan, always remember that the most important thing is to accomplish your goal, not to carry out all plans.  

The unique way of the Holy Spirit

I did something this week that I have never done before.  I actually led 58 men in worship.  Now, if you know me, you are probably laughing at the thought of me singing and leading worship. I am not musically inclined at all, my voice is weak and I'm not sure what compelled me to teach these men in the Dominguez prison the song 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redmond . I don't lead worship.  If I could have brought in my iPhone, I would have just played it for them, but iPhones are not allowed in prison.  Yet it had been on my heart for several weeks to teach the guys this song and on this day I put aside my pride and began with the chorus, Bless The Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship his holy name, and the guys actually sang with me. 

I was surprised when some joined me in singing and I asked, "you know the song?"  They were saying something about Spanish.  "I don't have it in Spanish", I said. "No", they countered, "we only have it in Spanish".  One of the inmates, a young man named German from Honduras who leads worship occasionally in Spanish, took out a sheet of paper and began to sing it in Spanish.  He was way off the melody.  So I stopped him and said, "lets sing it together in English and you'll learn the melody."  

We had a sweet time of worship as I taught the guys to sing it in English and Spanish.  Afterward, German came up to me and said, "I see how the Holy Spirit is working in here.  I wanted to learn that song but didn't have the melody, only the words.  God provided you to help me learn it".  This was just another simple way that God answers our needs, even in prison, when we devote ourselves to Him and His purposes.  Now I know why I was prompted to do something out of my comfort zone, and in His perfect timing used me, even in my weakness to bless someone else.

Grace Killers Among Us

The recent death of Pastor Fred Phelps and the resignation of Bill Gothard while being investigated on charges of sexual harassment brought to my mind Charles Swindoll's definition of a "grace killer" in his classic book Grace Awakening.

Swindoll doesn't mince words in his book, as he sounded the alarm in Grace Awakening,  "There are killers on the loose today.  The problem is that you can't tell by looking.  They don't wear little buttons that give away their identity, nor do they carry signs warning everybody to stay away.  On the contrary, a lot of them carry Bibles and appear to be clean-living, nice-looking, law-abiding citizens.  Most of them spend a lot of time in churches, some in places of religious leadership.  Many are so respected in the community, their neighbors would never guess they are living next-door to killers.  

They kill freedom, spontaneity, and creativity; they kill joy as well as productivity.  They kill with their words and their pens and their looks.  They kill with their attitudes far more often than their behavior.  There is hardly a church or Christian organization, school or missionary group or media ministry where such danger does not lurk.  The amazing thing is that they get away with it, day in and day out, without being confronted or exposed.  Strangely, the same ministries that would not tolerate heresy for ten minutes will step aside and allow these killers all the space they need to maneuver and manipulate others in the most insidious manner imaginable.  Their intolerance is tolerated.  Their judgmental spirits remain un-judged.  Their bullying tactics continue unchecked, and their narrow-mindedness is explained away or quickly defended.  The bondage that results would be criminal were it not so subtle and wrapped in such spiritual-sounding garb.

This day - this very moment - millions who should be free, productive individuals are living in shame, fear, and intimidation. The tragedy is they think it is the way they should be.  They have never known the truth that could set them free.  They are victimized, existing as if they are living on death row instead of enjoying the beauty and fresh air of the abundant life Christ modeled and made possible for all of his followers to claim.  Unfortunately, most don't have a clue about what they are missing."

Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, is easily identified as a grace killer among other things, because of his church's protests and picketing at funeral services including those of the military.  His anger was usually directed at homosexuals preaching that the deaths of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was God's punishment for society's tolerance of homosexuality.  

Gothard's focus on the law over grace set him up as a "grace killer". He developed a program with a lengthy set of strict rules and hierarchy in which to live by. Thousands of people followed Gothard and his extremely rigid code of conduct for marriage and raising children which he claimed was taken from the Bible. It was ironic that someone who never married and never had children could be such an expert on marriage and raising children.  While many swore by the school of Gothard, many others couldn't handle the control, manipulation, guilt and weight that was the result of his ordered life. 

These two are obvious targets but there are probably grace killers in your church as well that are not as easy to spot. Your pastor may even be one. Heck, you and I could be grace-killers without even realizing it.  

We need to first recognize when we personally begin to slide into the grace killing mindset.  Only by dying to self and letting go of the need to control others for our own personal gain will we avoid becoming grace-killers.  

What other actions do you find to be characteristic of grace killers?  If you are a pastor, how do you deal with those grace killers in your church?  How did Paul and Peter handle the grace killers in the early church?

The Foundation of All Discipleship

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  John 15:5

Yesterday during our Missional Association church planters luncheon I was reminded in a very strong way that the essence of all we do as pastors and Christ followers is rooted in this verse.  If all we do and who we are, is not abiding in Christ, our works, our ministry, our life is nothing.  Our day, our Christian walk must start out with this basic principle, abide in Christ.  

When we reproduce disciples, do we reproduce ourselves?  Or do we reproduce Christ?  Do we reproduce workers?  Or do we reproduce others who also abide in Christ?

When making disciples we must live and lay down this foundational truth found in Jesus' words of John 15. It is such a simple truth that we often overlook the significance of it in our lives.  In our busy days with so much to do and so much to teach, we breeze past it.  Yet everything rests on this principle of abiding in Him, all doctrine, every aspect of the Christian life. We cannot undervalue this aspect of the Christian life and cannot focus on it too much.  

What does abiding in Christ look like in your life?  

I've posted two other blog posts about discipleship and bearing fruit that speak to this.

The Art of Discipleship  

True Fruit 

The most important message to pastors and church planters

There's a lot of information to be processed and strategies to develop when planting and pastoring a church.   Much of it is important but if you neglect this, you will miss out on what God wants to accomplish in your life and church.
Frank Viola's message is the single most important aspect of a Christian leader's life. 

Click on the link to hear the message Audio message

For the written shortened transcript click The transcript

I'd love to read your thoughts on Viola's message.  

What does Jesus' statement "pick up your cross and follow me" mean to you?

What are some of the crosses has God given you to carry?

The One Thing That Hinders My Mission Is The Church!

Recently a missionary friend confided to me that the only thing that was keeping him and his wife from reaching the lost and doing what they felt God had called them to do was the church!  This couple had recently retired and moved across the ocean to minister in an area of the world where the Gospel had once been vibrant but now had become dark and spiritually void. 

They had partnered with a small evangelical church which had invited them to be missionaries in their community to reach the lost. They didn't come with a plan or agenda, they were coming with open hands curious to see what God had in store for them.  Within a few days, God had flung the doors wide open and given them wonderful opportunities.  They were meeting people, building relationships with the lost. God had provided a place to live that included a ministry downtown and several great opportunities to make an impact for Christ in this community. 

However, the one stumbling block to their ministry seemed to be the church in which they had partnered.  Instead of helping, the church began to control and say "no" to almost every idea they had for ministry.  They either could not do something because of "doctrinal" issues or "methods" that were contrary to the church's teaching or tradition.

  

In the mist of God's miracles and this incredible energy and excitement for sharing the Gospel, there was this wet blanket being thrown over them by the church.  It was taking the wind out of their sails and discouraging them at every turn. Here in this incredibly dark region of the world with so many people living without Christ, the leaders of this small church were debating doctrine and arguing over what method they should be using to reach the lost.  It's like a group in a life boat in a sea of drowning people arguing over which type of life-saving device they should use.  

It breaks my heart to hear anyone say that the one thing that stands in the way of being the church is the church itself!  And yet unfortunately many churches that desire to be salt and light to their neighbors morph into institutions that impede the efforts to reach the lost.  They are extinguishers of the gospel fire, instead of the lighter fluid. 

Liz Wiseman writes in her wonderful book Multipliers that many leaders can become accidental diminishers.  Here is a link to the chart of the different types of leaders who unintentionally shutdown the productivity of those they lead. view chart.  Similarly, pastors and leaders of the churches become diminishers also when they get caught up in doctrinal squabbles.  They can also shut down creativity by limiting the ways they do ministry.  

These are just two of the ways the church acts as a deterrent rather than a catalyst for ministry. What might be some other ways you can think of that the church may be accidental diminishers, deterring what they are trying to accomplish?