The power over worry and anxiety

Photo by John Hain Pixaby.com

During the early morning hours I often find myself thinking the most pessimistic thoughts. I’m not sure exactly why it is, but it's in the waking up period as I contemplate what I have to do that I seem to have the most anxiety. The self talk focuses on the negative and I have to fight the mental battle to stay positive. Once I'm up and going, I don't seem to have a problem.

One way I’ve discovered to overcome the early morning anxiety is to remember what my purpose is, what I was created by God to do.  I remind myself with a statement asking God to go with me and declaring my faith and trust in Him. Meditating on that statement and spending time in prayer helps me overcome my worry.

David Guinn recently posted what the men and women of the Bible might have said as they readied themselves to take on the day.  We can use these examples to help us with our personal declaration. When we start each day off on a positive note, it helps relieve our anxieties and makes our day much more productive.

● Moses would say, "Lord, if You don't go with us or before us, we are not going anywhere."

● Abraham would say, "The Lord will provide."

● Jacob would say, "I won't let go of You unless You bless me."

● Joshua would say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

● Samuel would say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening."

● Nehemiah would say, "The joy of the Lord is my strength."

● David would say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." and "This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it."

● Solomon would say, "Trust in the Lord, oh my soul, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path."

● Isaiah would say, "Arise and shine for my Glory has come." and "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."

● Jeremiah would say, "The Lord has plans to prosper me and not to harm or fail me."

● Jabez would say, "Oh, that you may bless me and enlarge my territory."

● Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would say, "We will not bow down to any image but will serve the Lord."

● Ezekiel would say, "Any dry bones in my life, live again."

Choose your daily statement of faith. Meditate on it! Speak it over your life every morning! What is your daily declaration? Mine would be, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!"

Is your church growing an audience or building an army?

One of the greatest hinderances to the expansion of God's Kingdom is the failure of churches to develop new leaders, pastors and missionaries. We have been pretty good at gathering an audience to worship services and even into bible studies and small groups but are very poor in discipling leaders who reproduce other leaders. When asked in a recent leadership study, 92% of the 2,000 pastors surveyed said developing leaders was critical to the health and development of the church.  Yet only one in four churches said they had any plan to develop leaders.

For many pastors, missionaries and leaders, their path to the ministry was that they participated in ministry and were inspired, felt a call by God or conviction to serve full time and "surrendered" to the ministry.  They were the bi-product of ministry.  For me, I was offered an opportunity to get paid for what I loved to do in an area of ministry (sports). As I developed my faith and leadership skills another door of ministry would open and I simply walked through it.

But for me, and many others, there was never an intentional effort from my church to develop me or anyone else for ministry beyond the specific needs of their church. And even when we needed a paid staff position, we never looked to the members who were being developed because none were. No, the staff just sent out a search comittee to interview candidates outside the church and hired the best one. I was the exception, one of the few members who went from volunteer to a ministry position.

I was fortunate to have had a mentor that spent countless hours pouring into me, but I was never exhorted to develop others or pursue a calling outside of my ministry at this church. I learned by osmosis and when I led our Singles ministry, I developed leaders in our Singles ministry because I needed young adults leaders to attract and disciple other young adults. I didn't really know what I was doing or had any plan. I discipled out of a need and did what my mentor had done with me. I had the pleasure of investing my life into many young leaders and continue to this day.

In most churches that I am familiar with, the pastor or the staff does all the leading and most all of the ministry in the church.  Yet, there is really only one job description in the Bible for pastors.  Ephesians 4:12 tells us that we are to equip the saints for ministry. And even when a church makes an effort to do just that, equipping the saints consists of teaching and training. We tend to either dump ministry upon volunteers (tell and command), or delegate (teach and train).  But there is a higher level that gets neglected because of a lack of time or incentive to develop leaders (mentoring, modeling and coaching).

There is little immediate benefit in developing so for most pastors, the weight of the desire and or need to grow the church, to get bodies into seats, money in the plate and volunteers into ministry positions takes precedence. The developing takes time, investing hours into another’s life.  Yet it is critical for the long term growth of the church and the Kingdom that pastors make a priority to develop leaders. Not out of a selfish, what can this person do for my church motive but for sake of the Kingdom.  Every leader in the church should always be mentoring, encouraging and developing at least two or three people who can be sent wherever God leads them to serve, minister and multiply other leaders.

If you are in ministry in a church or non-profit, what was your path to ministry? What part did your church play in your development?  Who are you developing now?  What strategy does your church employ to develop leaders?

For a great perspective on developing leaders in your church, check out this Carey Nieuwhof podcast.

Learning from the Spurs Way

"We don't talk about MVP awards. We don't talk about any awards," Gregg Popovich said, when asked if Kawhi Leonard should be MVP. The buzz was all about Kawhi and his amazing late game heroics in the Spurs come-from-behind victory over the Houston Rockets. "We don't talk about championships. We just play the game. Everybody tries to do what they can to make the team better, and whatever records or awards or wins that come, that's the way it is," Coach Pop exclaimed to reporters.

The San Antonio Spurs do things differently in the NBA. While most of the teams pride themselves in having flashy players and promote their players as MVP candidates, the Spurs intentionally keep out of the limelight and focus on one thing: playing their best.  Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs soft spoken forward certainly has risen to become one of the top players in the league and a Most Valuable Player candidate this year.  But you won't hear coach Gregg Popovich promoting any Spur for MVP.

What is refreshing in this world that keeps detailed statistics of most everything and celebrates records of every sort, comparing individuals and teams, the Spurs don't care about any of it. They focus on each player doing their best for the good of the team. Their attitude is that we can't control all outcomes. The only real thing we can control is our effort. When we focus on effort and execution, then we can let go of our need to control the outcome.

I'm reminded of the scripture in Colossians 3:23, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. When we focus on doing our best for Jesus, we can always be content with the outcome even if we come in second. Sure we want to win but our world doesn't fall apart when we don't.

Our true measuring stick should be our own capacity to excel. There will be others who are naturally better and we will not win every contest or challenge in life. But if we do our best for God, we can always hold our heads high and be encouraged to press on.  The awards may or may not come on this earth, but far greater awaits us in heaven.

Study shows Christians influence in the U.S. declining rapidly. Is the church responsible?

A new survey released last week revealed just 10 percent of Americans truly have a biblical worldview, despite four times that amount believing that they do. *The American Culture and Faith Institute, headed by pollster George Barna, interviewed approximately 6,000 people from the general population and in church leadership in early February.
The ACFI survey determined that only 10 percent of the 6,000 surveyed answered the 40 question survey regarding biblical principles and lifestyle in a way consistent with a biblical worldview (way of understanding the world).

Using 40 questions on both belief and behavior, 20 on each, the researchers determined that someone with a biblical worldview answered positively 80% or 16 out of 20 questions in both belief and behavior categories.  A large percentage of those who claimed to have a Biblical world view answered questions that would not be consistent with the Bible.

For example, among the views adopted are a belief that people are basically good (74 percent) and having faith matters more than what faith a person has (66 percent). Other indicators that are consistent with a biblical worldview include a belief that moral truths are unchanging and absolute; that God created man in a miraculous event (not through evolution); and the Bible is totally accurate in all the life principles it teaches.

The survey indicated that the younger an adult is, the less likely they are to have a biblical worldview. Among adults 18 to 29 years old – commonly referred to as Millennials – just 4% were described as having and living out a biblical worldview. The number rose to 7% among those in the 30-to-49 age bracket; doubled to 15% among the 50-to-64 year olds; and peaked at 17% among those 65 or older.

The study gives a bleak view of the future of Christianity in America and indicates that our churches are failing to disciple. We may be drawing crowds but the big question is how many of those that are attending church are really being discipled?  Can you disciple a person who comes to an hour service an average of twice a month?

One of the problems Christians face is the declining belief that we are responsible for sharing our faith. (1 Peter 3:15).  As many as 25% of the most theologically conservative pastors did not embrace this statement.  Perhaps we are being silenced by the wave of culture which demands that faith is only personal and must be kept to oneself while trumpeting their secular worldview to anyone.

The truth is that the secular world is discipling 24/7 through education, government, media, arts and business.  The two mountains of influence that Christians have, religion and family are having less and less of an impact while education, government, media and arts (film and entertainment) are increasing rapidly. This is nothing new but perhaps this is the greatest challenge the church faces today because we have been swimming up stream in a rapid current for many years and falling further and further behind. This survey helps us take our heads out of the water long enough to see just where we are in the river of culture.

I’d love to hear from pastors and laymen.  As a pastor and follower of Christ, what can you do to counter the secular current of ideas and worldview?

*The American Culture & Faith Institute is a division of United in Purpose, a non-partisan, non-profit organization. The mission of United in Purpose is to educate, motivate and activate conservative Christians to engage in cultural transformation, in ways that are consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The organization does not support or promote individual political candidates or parties.

Life Giving vs. Life Saving

We all have been told when talking about finances that saving is critically important. Yes, in the world's economy, we must save a certain percentage of our income for the future.  When it comes to Gods economy, we take this same mindset when considering our spiritual lives as well.  But nowhere does God tell us to save our lives. He tells us to give it away, Luke 6:38

Our natural tendacy is to save, protect and preserve our life.  So when God leads us to give our life away, we tend to avoid any risk so as not to experience rejection, failure or anything that might bring us physical or emotional pain.  Go on a mission trip overseas?  No way, it's too dangerous!  Share the Gospel with a neighbor? No, I'm afraid I might be thought of as a zealot. Get involved helping a friend whose son is on drugs and spinning out of control? No, I don't want to get involved in that drama. No telling what might happen. Spend a day working and sweating in an impoverished neighborhood?  Nope, I'd rather watch my favorite football team and rest up for church on Sunday. 

I love how Paul describes his life in his second letter to Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." He had spent his life serving God, enduring all manner of hardships, from beatings and stonings, to imprisonment to shipwreck.  There was no consideration to save his life. God had saved him so that he could spend his life on something much greater than himself. 

When I get to the finish line and come face to face with Jesus, I'm surely not going to talk about how I saved my life.  I'm not showing him my wonderful collection of rare coins I saved or my cool baseball card collection. No, I think Jesus will be much more impressed with the battle scars from sharing my faith, and the blood, sweat and tears shed from taking risks and obeying Christ when he was leading me to give my life away. Then I can say as Paul did, "I've fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith." 

I was created so that I may be spent.

When seeking a miracle from God; Pray. Believe. Pursue.

Ben Chapman's church plant is growing and flourishing. Luminous church located in San Antonio near the University of Texas at San Antonio caters to college students and young adults and meets in a movie theatre off of I10.

When the the two year contract for their use of the theatre was not renewed, Ben and his church faced a dilemma. They needed a church space large enough for 200+ people close to UTSA, because of their campus ministry. Available properties in this area are rare and expensive. Ben says that the theatre wasn't a good option anyway since they had upgraded their seating to the new high backed recliner chairs. He explained laughing, "they may be great while watching a movie but try preaching to a crowd of people practically lying on their backs. So we were contemplating moving when the theatre management informed us they would not be renewing our contract."

Ben Chapman encourages risk

So Ben and his congregation had no option but to move and prayed for a miracle. A church filled with college aged adults is not going to be able to afford the type of space they needed.  Yet, they believed God would come through some way, somehow and started the search. 

Ben was led to a property within the 15 mile radius of UTSA which they had set as their target. He explained to the owner their predicament and the owner replied, "yes I know, I'm a member of your church!  I just recently started attending." When he told Ben what he was asking to lease the property, Ben's spirit sank.  No way could they afford it.  He explained to the owner that the space was perfect and everything lined up except the price and left feeling as if that door which seemed like a miracle had been closed. 

A few days later the owner called back with a new offer, exactly the amount that the church had set as "affordable". Ben had not told the owner their price thinking it was too low. God however, using the faith and generosity of another believer, delivered the miracle. Luminous Church is moving in March and praising God for a miracle! A great reminder for us all when seeking a miracle; pray big, believe, and then pursue your dream! 

For more stories of God's miraculous movements go to Miracles on the Mission Field.

The biggest obstacle to accomplishing your goals

I was in a men's small group discussion about our new year's resolutions. We were asked to come up with and share one word for the year, a word that would sum up our personal goals and pursuits for the next few months. There were many great words like focus, family, faith, service, availability but as we went around the group sharing, there seemed to be a common struggle that everyone was addressing. The biggest obstacle to achieving our goals was busyness. Almost every man wanted more time to read his Bible, pray, serve, spend time with family and the excuse was that there just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do what we all deemed "vital" to our joy, health and quality of life.

Everyone seems to be busy now days. Even my 89 year old dad complains about not having enough time to get done what needs to be done each day.  But busyness is not the problem.  How we manage our time is the issue. I know that It's become even harder in today's high tech, faced paced world to carve out time for God.  It's ironic because we thought all these hi tech gadgets would give us more time. Instead it seems to be just the opposite. We can easily get pulled away from the very important activities by the tyranny of the urgent.  Our co-workers and friends have instant access to us by way of smart phones and we become slaves to our computers. But we don't have to be controlled by all of this. It's just a matter of the will and priorities. 

We can use those same tools that make us busy to manage our time and accomplish the vital. There are countless Bible reading apps and programs for your smart devices that will help you be consistent in a devotional time.  You can listen to the audio Bible, podcasts, or Bible studies in your car to and from work each day. You can set a timer to go off periodically on your phone to remind you to stop and say a prayer.  Yes, we can overcome our busy, out of kilter life if we so choose. Busyness should not be an excuse. We have the ability and time to do whatever we really need to do if we set our priorities and make time for them. 

Jesus set the example of one who had to accomplish his father's will in an incredibly short amount of time.  And yet Jesus took time to be with the father and to get away from the demands of the crowds to spend time alone in prayer. On the night Jesus died in his great prayer of John 17 he said to his Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do".

We can accomplish God's will also without sacrificing the "vitals".  Actually we can't do the Father's will without it. The graphic is a great tool to help prioritize our time. The four boxes categorize our time. Most people spend a majority of their time in boxes III and IV.  Box II is the one we neglect the most and it is the most important. Here are are some steps to take to help manage your time and accomplish the life you really desire. 

* Decide what and who is important. Outline what is vital, your priorities. These are usually things in box II, those that are not urgent, like prayer and Bible study, personal development and family time. 
* Discover where your time goes. Make an inventory of the activities that you do each day and which categories they fall into to. Making a list and then color coding activities to the box categories is a good way to visualize where you spend most of your time. 
* Get into a routine of spending a certain amount of time each day on the "vitally important" things. 
* To achieve this, cut back on the things in box III, those that are not important and not urgent, like watching tv, surfing the Internet or playing video games.  
* Don't allow the not important but urgent distractions (box IV) like email, texts and phone calls to interrupt your quality time. Put your phone away while you are spending time with your children, spouse or friend. 
* Use your high tech tools to help you spend more time in box II. 
* Find someone to hold you accountable.
  
The new year brings new opportunities. What is your one word for the year?