(Some of the following material is from Wikipedia and the book, “Leadership and Self-Deception” by The Arbinger Institute).
In the mid-1800’s, at Vienna General Hospital in the country of Austria, mothers of newborn babies were dying at an alarming rate. In one of the two maternity sections of the hospital, one in ten women was dying after giving birth to their babies. Vienna Hospital had such a frightening reputation that some women actually gave birth on the street and then went to the hospital. The deaths of these mothers became known as “childbed fever” and conventional medical science provided no answer for this dilemma.
The doctors tried various methods to prevent these deaths but nothing worked. Women continued to die at the rate of one in ten mothers and more than half the women who contracted the disease died within days. This terrible circumstance became so well-known throughout the city of Vienna that women, ready to give birth to their child, were frequently seen kneeling and wringing their hands begging to be moved to a second section of the maternity ward. There, the mortality rate was one in fifty-still a terrible event-but the odds for women were far better there than the one-in-ten rate in the other maternity ward section.
One of the maternity doctors, Ignaz Semmelweis, became obsessed with the problem-in particular with discovering why the mortality rate in one section of the maternity ward was so much higher than the other ward. The only difference he knew about was that the maternity ward that experienced the worst death rate of the two sections was attended by doctors while the other section was attended by midwives. Semmelweis couldn’t see why that would explain the difference so he tried to equalize every other factor among the maternity patients.
He standardized everything from birthing positions to ventilation and diet. He even standardized the way the laundry was done. He looked at every possibility but could find no answer. Nothing he tried made any difference in the mortality rates.
Semmelweis, then, took a four month leave to visit another hospital and upon his return he discovered that the death rate had fallen significantly in his section of the hospital during his absence. He could find nothing, though, that would explain why the death rate had fallen significantly in his section while he was away.
Vienna General Hospital was a teaching and research hospital and many of the doctors, including Semmelweis, worked in multiple areas of the hospital. Many of the doctors, like Semmelweis, split their time between treatment of living patients and cadavers (dead bodies that were used for research and teaching purposes). The doctors had never before thought there was any problem with the practice of touching and handling a dead body and then seeing a patient in the hospital. Why? Because at that time there was no understanding about germs. (This was before Louis Pasteur’s germ theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur).
Simmelweis intensified his research. And here is what he discovered:
He found out that, along with other doctors, he was the problem. The practice of unsanitized hands was the one common factor in the deaths of the women after childbirth in Vienna General Hospital in the 1800’s. Semmelweis found that germs from the cadavers and other diseased patients were being transmitted to women in the maternity ward on his hands and on the hands of the other doctors.
So, he immediately instituted a policy requiring physicians to wash their hands thoroughly in a chlorine and lime solution before examining any patient in the hospital. The result was that the death rate fell from one death per ten patients to one death per 100 patients.
Dr. Ignaz Simmelweis was the problem. And, he sadly remarked later on, “Only God knows the number of patients who went prematurely to their graves because of me”!
Imagine living with that!
The doctors were doing the best they knew how but they were carrying germs that they knew nothing about. It caused a multitude of debilitating symptoms and deaths, all of which could have been prevented by a single act once the common cause was discovered: the germs from other patients and from dead bodies.
And, there is a similar debilitating germ that is spread throughout our own personal lives, in the lives of our families, and in our churches. It is sin that all of us carry to one extent or another.
It can destroy us spiritually, relationally, and maybe even physically. It causes multitudes of problems and symptoms but it is a germ that can be isolated and neutralized. That deadly killer of a germ is called self-deception.
Look at what the word of God says in Galatians 6:3-“For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” (Galatians 6:3) Self-deception is someone thinking they are something when they are nothing. (I am not referring to the way God sees us as part of His creation. I am referring to the way that we must view ourselves…as nothing without God). Self-deception is the inability to see that one has a problem. And, it is the inability to see that one is the problem. And the problem is that we think we are really something when we are really nothing. Semmelweis didn’t see that he was the problem and the cause of women dying in childbirth.
Let me explain it this way: I once counseled a young man who was married. He and his wife were having marital difficulties and he felt like his wife was the cause of their problems. After I presented some questions to him, he finally understood that it wasn’t his wife but himself who was the cause of their issues. And, just like Phillip Semmelweis, this young husband finally realized that he was the problem in his marriage.
We are all self-deceived at some point in our lives…where we think we are something when we are nothing. Therefore, we don’t see ourselves as the cause of the problems that we are facing. It is always someone else who is the source of our problems or it is our circumstances that cause our problems.
I have just finished reading a great book on this issue, titled: “Leadership and Self-Deception” by The Arbinger Institute. It is written in the form of a story and it is a book that I highly recommend but you will hate the book. Why? Because, the book addresses personal sin in our personal lives. That sin is called being self-deceived (thinking we are something when we are nothing).
I realize that I haven’t really explained this very well so I suggest you read the first three chapters for free by clicking on this link: http://www.arbinger.com/downloads/leadership_and_self_deception.pdf. The book does an excellent job of explaining all of this.
I will close with this: How can you tell if someone is self-deceived and thinks himself to something when he is nothing?
He is someone who always finds fault in others but never sees his own faults.
He is someone who always blames others and he will never blame himself.
He is someone who doesn’t believe the rules apply to him but gets upset at others for not obeying his rules.
He is someone who doesn’t believe that he has to submit to others in authority over him, yet, he expects others to be submissive to him when he is in charge of others.
He is someone who, while breaking the speed limit when driving a car, will get upset at other drivers who pass by him because the are breaking the speed limit.
He is someone who doesn’t believe that he has to follow the rules regarding parking spaces. He can make his own parking space wherever he chooses.
He is a pastor (or leader) who believes that others are the cause for the lack of attendance in his church or ministry but never once does he examine himself as being the possible cause of lack of attendance.
He is always critical of others but will never criticize himself.
He is someone who likes to make fun of other people and make jokes about them but never makes fun of himself. And, he gets mad at others if they make fun of him.
He is someone who doesn’t serve other people but will expect others to serve him.
He is someone who has all of the answers and knows everything about everything.
He is someone who offers his opinion to others about everything without being asked his opinion.
He is someone who will always talk about himself and never shows any interest in other people.
He is someone who believes that the world owes him something and never thinks about giving back to the world in which he lives.
He someone who is always right and believes he never makes a mistake.
When he does catch himself wrong about something, he will always find a way to spin the situation to make it look like he didn’t make a mistake and says, “I was just misunderstood”.
Because he thinks he is something when he is nothing, he is always concerned about what other people think of him.
He is insecure and finds his security in trying to impress other people.
He believes that when he sees other people talking they are talking about him.
He will find ways to put others down so that he can put himself on a pedestal.
And, finally, because he is self-deceived and truly believes that he is something when he is something, he thinks that he is a VIP and everybody should know this about him.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Sin of Self-Deception
Friday, October 9, 2009
Cheap Crosses
Mark 15:25 " Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him".
No one wanted a Roman crucifixion. With its origins in the Middle East in the area which we now know as Iran, crucifixion by the Roman government was cruel, vicious, brutal, and humiliating.
The Roman soldiers always made the victim carry the cross to the place where he would be crucified.
And so, the journey began for Jesus to carry His own cross through the streets of Jerusalem. Spat upon and laughed at, His robe ripped from His body, the Roman soldiers brought the cross, which weighed over 100 pounds and made of olive wood, to Jesus. They lashed His shoulders to the cross then tied a long rope around His waist that was approximately ten feet long. (Technically, Jesus carried the crossbar of His cross). The rope was that long, so that, should the victim become reluctant to walk forward, the soldiers could pull the one being crucified down the street.
Jesus had already lost a lot of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. He had actually sweated great drops of blood through His skin through a process of the human body called “hematidrosis”. Hematidrosis can occur when a person is suffering extreme levels of stress, for example, when someone is facing their own death.
Hematidrosis causes great weakness in the human body and can cause the body to go into shock. During this process, as a result of the hemorrhaging of blood into the sweat glands, the skin becomes fragile and tender and the slightest touch can cause a considerable amount of pain.
Before Jesus was crucified, He had been struck in the face and His body had been beaten through the torture known as scourging. Scourging, practiced by the Romans, was a cruel punishment that usually preceded crucifixion.
The only ones exempted from scourging were women, Roman senators, and soldiers, except in cases of desertion. Normally there were between one and six trained Roman officers, called lectors, who were responsible for dispensing the blows to the victims. In the training, the lictors chosen to administer the scourging, had received special medical training.
The lictors knew how to wield the whip so as to open bruises which had already formed. The instrument used for scourging was a short whip called a flagrum or flagellum to which was attached several braided leather thongs of variable lengths. Knots were tied in the ends of each thong, and sheep bone or iron balls were inserted into the knots at the end of each thong.
Jesus had been stripped of his clothing and his hands were tied to a post and the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the His back and legs with full force causing deep contusions. Lacerations from repeated blows cut into the underlying muscles of His body and ripped the overlaying skin of His back to a point where it hung in ribbons of bleeding flesh. His capillaries and veins would have been torn resulting in intense bleeding.
The pain that Jesus experienced from the scourging was intensified because of the hematidrosis in Jesus’ body. His body would now be in a state of half-shock and His body temperature would have begun to drop. At this point, there would be little fluid left to nourish the tissues of His body.
The Roman soldiers realized how hard they had pushed Him when Jesus fell to the ground and could go no further. So, they enlisted Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus’ cross.
Once the victim reached the site of a crucifixion, a society of Jewish women would always give a victim a mixture of vinegar and myrrh, which acted like a drug, to ease the pain before the cross was lifted with the person tied to it. That day when Jesus was crucified, two thieves were crucified with Him, and the thieves drank the liquid in an attempt to ease the pain of crucifixion.
But, not Jesus.
No. He wanted His mind clear. He knew exactly what He was doing and He knew the pain that was to come. There was no attempt on His part to try to ease the discomfort or escape any of the suffering that was about to occur.
So, the Roman soldiers flung Him to the dirt and stretched His arms at 90 degree angles on the cross. Then, the soldiers drove 5 inch long spikes into His wrists.
The reason they drove the spikes into the victim’s wrists was so that at the moment of lifting the victim, the median nerve that runs from the wrist to the shoulder, would be severed and excruciating pain would race up and down the victim’s arm. The only relief possible to the victim would be death itself and doctors report that the greatest pain that someone being crucified would experience would have been when the median nerve was severed.
As the pain shot through the arms of Jesus and the two thieves that day, no one could imagine the terrifying screams that went up from the hillside in that awful, awesome moment.
Once the victim was lifted up on the cross, one of two methods was used regarding the victim’s feet. The first method would be to leave the feet hanging, which would bring about almost certain death.
The soldiers, though, had discovered a way to prolong the torture. They would place the left foot against the cross then place the right foot on top of the left and drive a spike through both feet. When the victim would begin to sag and as the body reached an angle of 65 degrees, he would be unable to breathe and carbon dioxide would fill the lungs, causing more terrifying pain. (Imagine holding your breath and not being able to breathe).
In order to relieve the pain of carbon dioxide filling the lungs, the victim would then use his feet to push himself upwards in order to exhale, thereby, resulting in more excruciating pain in his feet and legs because of the spikes in his ankles.
They crucified Jesus on the cross.
He was tortured.
He suffered.
He bled.
And, then, He died.
They cried. His family and His friends, who were gathered around the cross that day when Jesus was crucified, were broken-hearted.
Why did He have to die? Why did He have to suffer such a hideous and heinous death?
Couldn’t He have found another way?
Why is the cross so important? Why was it necessary for Jesus to die on an old rugged cross?
Because the cross is the place where Jesus shed His blood and died for our sins. And, the cross is the place of Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice for the atonement for our past, present, and future sins.
It is in that awful, terrible moment when Jesus, holy and perfect and pure as He was, and is, takes upon Himself the sins of the world and He is crucified.
It is a liberating event for you and for me for on the cross we are delivered from the penalty of our sin. The penalty would have been separation from God for eternity in that terrible place called Hell had Jesus not died for us.
Not only were we delivered from the penalty of our sins by Jesus dying on the cross, we were also delivered from the power of sin in our lives. How cruel it would have been for God to have delivered us from only the penalty of our sins but not offered freedom from the power of sin in our daily lives.
Being delivered from the penalty of sin and being delivered from the power of sin, when Jesus died on the cross, He also set us free so that one day, in heaven, we will be delivered from the presence of sin. In heaven, there will be no sin and what a glorious day that will be!
But, what about the cross today? If the cross was so important when Jesus was crucified, why is it not important to us today?
We live in a world of crosses today in our culture but the crosses are "cheap crosses." Just go into your local Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Target, or K-Mart and you can buy a cheap cross (always for much less than the retail price). Just Google the words “cheap crosses” and you will find many web sites where you can purchase a cheap cross.
And, certainly, you know that a lot of people need to wear a cross and other people need to have a cross hanging on the walls of their houses. But, of course, all of those crosses were bought at discount for less than the retail price.
Cheap crosses.
We see people everywhere wearing crosses around their necks on a chain. They wear their crosses in their ears as ear rings. They wear their crosses on their fingers as rings or they have their crosses tattooed on who knows how many different parts of their bodies.
And, it’s cool to wear a cross, isn’t it? Why, just ask Snoop Dog or 50 Cent or rapper Slim Thug if it isn’t cool to wear a cross around your neck. Hey, if the rappers do it, we all ought to do it!
Here is the funny thing about purchasing a cross: you can go into any Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Target, or K-Mart and buy a cross and they won’t even ask you for your O.C.I. badge (Official Christian Identification badge) that says that you are a legitimate, in good standing and long-time member of the “I’m saved because my identification badge says so” society. (Oh, wait a minute! I just remembered: wearing a cheap cross means you believe in God.)
Everybody qualifies to buy and wear a cross, whether they are a Christian or not.
Wearing a cross is appealing, isn’t it? It makes you look cool and it makes a great fashion statement. And cheap crosses profit the companies that make them because they don’t cost a lot to make. So, all in all, if everyone will buy a cheap cross then we will help the economy.
And, cheap crosses might be appropriate to put on the steeples of some of our churches whose pulpits are catering to those who want religion at no cost and no sacrifice.
We don't mind wearing the symbol of the cross around our necks. We don't even mind singing hymns about the cross. And, to be honest with you, we don't even mind if someone preaches about the cross----- just so they preach to lost people and not to us. We love to sing that we will “cling to the old rugged cross” but just maybe we don’t understand what clinging to the “old rugged cross” really means.
If someone preaches that the cross is about personal sacrifice, we don’t like it.
If someone preaches to us that the cross will take us out of our own little world of our comfort zone, we don’t like it.
If someone preaches to us that the cross will mean our own death to sin, death to selfishness, and death to self-centeredness, we don’t like it.
We want to possess the Christian life for as little sacrifice as possible. And, just maybe we can ease on through our Christian journey for absolutely no sacrifice.
We really do want a cheap cross.
God forbid that anybody preach on the cross that requires suffering and sacrifice, about dying to self and dying to the flesh.
When Jesus talked about the cross, it meant death.
When Jesus talked about the cross, it meant denial of fleshly desires and fleshly wants.
When Jesus talked about the cross, it meant heading down a road from which there would be no return.
But, where do we find ourselves today? Preferring a "cheap cross", one in which there is no commitment, no surrender, and no change in our lives?
That kind of cross is not found in the Word of God.
The cross that is mentioned in the New Testament is:
· A cross that is demonstrated by surrendering our lives to follow Jesus Christ.
· A cross that is marked by obedience to Jesus Christ.
· A cross that results in lives being changed.
In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul describes what the cross meant in Jesus' life-
5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus
6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God
7) But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8) And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
· The cross for Jesus meant no recognition (verse 7a: "…but made Himself of no reputation…"). Jesus was not concerned about making a name for Himself nor was He concerned about being well known or noticed.
· The cross for Jesus meant no prejudice (verse 7b: "…took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men…"). Jesus was willing to become like we are in order for us to become like He is. He was willing to identify and associate Himself with mankind, showing no prejudice toward us and toward our sinfulness, our rottenness, and our wickedness.
· The cross for Jesus meant no pride (verse 8a: "…He humbled Himself…"). For Jesus, there was never an issue of pride. He humbled Himself and became a servant.
· The cross for Jesus meant no rebellion (verse 8b: "…. became obedient unto death…"). We find no resistance and no rebellion in Jesus. We see that He went to the cross to die, willingly and joyfully. (Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.)
Among the words that have lost their meaning in today's church is the word “cross” and that word that has lost its meaning in our “religious” vocabulary today.
Cheap cross? I hope not but it sure looks like it.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and participant in the German Resistance movement against Hitler and Nazism during World War II. Bonhoeffer was arrested in March 1943, imprisoned, and eventually hanged because of his resistance just days before the end of World War II in Europe.
Bonhoeffer wrote:
"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. We surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die....death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man. Only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, die to all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die…” (end quote)
Instead of a cheap cross there must be the realization that the cross is costly. It cost Jesus His life. It will also cost us our lives by requiring us to die to self.
What is dying to self?
Gene Warr, says it best: http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/gene_warr.php, http://www.factsofthematter.org/ReadIt.cfm
“When you are forgotten or neglected or purposely set at nought, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult of the oversight but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dying to self.
When your good is evil spoken of and when your wishes are crossed and your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence, that is dying to self.
When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, to any annoyance, when you stand face to face with waste and folly and extravagance and spiritual insensitivity and endure it as Jesus endured it, that is dying to self.
When you're content with any food, any offering, any climate, any society, any solitude, any raiment, any interruption by the will of God, that is dying to self.
When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good words or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self.
When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances, that is dying to self.
When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly, as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart, that is dying to self.”
Let me ask you: are you dead yet?”
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Good Morning. This is God.
Good Morning. This is God.
Today I will be handling all of your problems.
Please remember that I do not need your help today.
If the devil happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle,
DO NOT attempt to solve it.
Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box.
It will be addressed in MY time, not yours.
Once the matter is placed into the box,
do not attempt to remove it so that you can hold on to it again.
Holding on or trying to remove will only delay the resolution of your problem.
If it is a situation that you think you are capable of handling,
please consult me in prayer to be sure that it is the proper resolution.
Because I do not sleep nor do I slumber,
there is no need for you to lose any sleep.
Rest my child.
If you need to contact me, I am only a prayer away.
And, if I need your help, I know how to contact you.
With all my Love,
God
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thoughts on the new church
Please bear with me on this post-I am going somewhere with this little bit of history and the length of the entire email. The book that I mention in this post, “Who Stole My Church” by Gordon MacDonald, is the best book I have read on church growth since “Purpose Driven Church” by Rick Warren was published. “Who Stole My Church” is written as a fictional story that will capture your attention like a good novel.
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I am so old. Seriously, I am old. Recently, I had a birthday and I turned 57 years OLD! And, not only am I old in years but my body feels like it is about 97 years old. I was born back in the “good old days” in 1952 in Hendersonville, North Carolina and my home church was First Baptist Church, Hendersonville.
My years at FBC were life changing. There were wonderful Sunday School teachers who loved me, cared for me, and taught me the word of God. FBC also made a concentrated effort in discipleship training on Sunday nights. As a child growing up, one of the teachers that I remember most in discipleship training was Mr. Mac whose primary passion for us children was to motivate, encourage, and instruct us on memorizing scripture. And, memorize scripture we did!
About 1971, FBC began to change (in a good way). Why? Well, the church had a new pastor and a new minister of music and youth. But, there was another important part of the equation and that was the influence of the 1970 revival at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky.
(Here are some links where you can find more info on the Asbury Revival) -
https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qOqitIKUNs
https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0585_Asbury_Revival_1970.html
https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://onecanhappen.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/asbury-revival-1970-dr-kinlaw-i-am-a-liar-now-what-do-i-do/
The revival “winds” of Asbury began to spread throughout our nation and eventually arrived in Hendersonville. One of the results of the Asbury Revival was the impact upon the youth group of FBC. The revival also spread to a lot of the youth in other churches in Henderson County.
God began to do a great work of revival in students’ lives and eventually the Lord touched my heart, as a 20 year old young man, and I straightened out my relationship with Him. Through what He was doing through the youth of our church, I recommitted my life to the Lord in 1972.
Prior to the Asbury Revival of 1970, in the the mid-to-late 1960's, our nation began to experience great turmoil and conflict and, as a result, this brought about significant changes in the USA.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Five years later, his brother Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were both assassinated in 1968. In 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement both became dominant issues in our country in the 1960’s.
In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, our nation was at war in Vietnam and in other parts of Southeast Asia. This war divided the people of our country and, as a result, there were terrible conflicts in our nation between those who supported our troops in Southeast Asia and those who opposed our military presence there. The conflicts were especially predominant on college and university campuses.
Campus unrest and violence resulted in students overtaking the offices of university presidents. The turmoil eventually resulted in four university students being killed at Kent State University, on May 4, 1970, shot by the National Guard (https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings). The strife that was demonstrated on university campuses and throughout our nation was reflected in the music of the younger generation. (https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_in_music)
During all of this chaos came the Asbury Revival of 1970. The Spirit of God began to work all across our nation and many, many hearts and lives were changed among high school students, college students, and adults.
For the students, who were saved or who recommitted their lives to God during the revival sweeping our nation, they were no longer satisfied with the traditional way of doing church that some of them had grown up with and that they had been accustomed to. They began to use their own music and their own instruments (oh, no…here it comes: guitars and drums! And, we blame it on Elvis and the Beatles!J).
As a result of the Asbury Revival, many new churches were started that were radically different from what churches in our nation had known up until that time. And, a lot of established churches were revived and began to have a new vision of reaching people through non-traditional ways of doing church.
Another result of the Asbury Revival was the beginning of, what we call now, contemporary Christian music. There are many Christian music companies today who can trace their beginnings back to the Asbury Revival moment and movement.
Another good consequence from this time period was the use of other translations of the Bible other than the King James Version. The “Good News Bible” and the “Living Bible” were produced during this era and with these, and other contemporary versions, young people had their own translations of the word of God that they could understand.
I say all of this to say that at FBC Hendersonville, our church experienced revival among our youth and young adults. And, many older adults in the church also experienced that revival.
But, as all of this began to happen, the pastoral leadership and the older adults at FBC were faced with a dilemma: would they refuse to let the younger generation be a part of the spiritual life of the church, with their guitars, drums, and other musical instruments or would they give this excited group of young people, who were thrilled about their new relationship with God, the opportunity to express themselves in ways that were radically different from what the older adults were accustomed to?
I am glad to say that the older generation did welcome us with open arms and they allowed us the freedom to express ourselves in worship by using guitars, drums, etc., in the youth choir and in other venues within the church and outside the church. Also, they gave us the opportunity to lead in some of the worship services on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings.
The youth group and youth choir had, at times, numbered approximately 100. And, one of, if not the most wonderful, blessings we received was that we had many older adults in the church who encouraged us, supported us, prayed for us, and ministered to us as we sought to understand more about God and more about how He wanted to use us to reach our generation with the gospel of Christ.
I know that this was not easy for those wonderful adults. They had to decide to change their mindsets about how to “do church” if they were going give us, and them, the opportunity to tell the younger generation about Jesus.
Their decision to change had a radical impact upon FBC. They welcomed us, put their arms around us, and gave us their love and care. As a result, God began to use First Baptist Church in a remarkable way in our community and in many other places in the eastern United States. And, now, almost 40 years later, the church is still benefiting from that wonderful work of the Holy Spirit that began in 1970-1971 and from the changes that were made at FBC.
Change is never easy for anyone, especially in a typical First Baptist Church of Anywhere, USA. But, the older generation of our church understood that in order to reach the younger adults and youth with the gospel in our church and community, they were going to have to adapt and change their way of thinking in regards to how church ought to, and could, be done.
What was it that helped the older adults make the changes? I think a lot of them understood that they “had their turn” at doing church for many, many years and that it was time to start thinking about the future; that is was time for them to start the process of “handing the keys” to the church over to the next generation.
I think they knew that, sooner or later, the time would come when they would have to turn over the “reins”, so to speak, and let the younger generation have their “turn” at doing church. I also think that they did not want to stand in the way of a great movement of the Spirit of God during those days.
Therefore, they adjusted their hearts to what God was doing in the church and rejoiced that many, many youth and younger adults were being saved and many more were recommitting their lives to God. (I can count at least ten people (and I am sure there are more) who God called into the ministry during that time who are still serving Him today).
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So, here I am, 57 years old. I am now one of those older adults. That’s right. I am a member of the senior adult population. Where did the time go from when I was 20 years old and a part of a great revival in my church?
And, now, I have to face the same issue that the older generation faced at First Baptist back in the 1970’s. Am I going to understand that, in order for younger adults and the youth of our nation to be reached with the precious gospel of Jesus Christ, I am going to have to acknowledge that “church” will have to be done in our culture in a much different way than what I am accustomed to.
Can I be honest with you? It is beginning to not be my turn anymore and I need to be part of the process of giving the next generation their turn to “do church”.
I have had my turn and it has been a wonderful and exciting journey. During these past almost 60 years, I have had the wonderful opportunity of being part of many different kinds of churches, both as a member and as a minister. God has allowed me to be a part of His kingdom work by giving me many opportunities to be involved in over the years.
And, I am not through, yet, but I have had my turn and it is beginning to be someone else’s turn. You might be thinking that I am giving up. I am not and I will never give up. But, I am a realist. I know that, if I live to get my threescore and ten years, that I am closer to the end of my life (and I hope I live a long time past 70 years if I get that many). Why do I say all of this? Because I believe that I must do my part to give the younger generation the opportunity and the freedom to do church.
There is a new generation of Christ-followers who are blazing their own path, who are bursting forth into the future with their own ways of “doing church”. They have a burning passion to reach their generation with the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are moving forward as if they are an army with a mission that will not accept failure as a possibility in their march.
They have a “no holds barred” and a “take no prisoners” approach. They are not going to “do church’ my way. They are not going to “do church” the “traditional” way. They might not even “do church” the way you want them to do it.
It doesn’t matter to them. They are going to “do church” in a new, exciting, and invigorating way that will probably not resemble anything that we have seen up to this point in church history. And, I for one, am glad!
You might ask, “But, why do they have to do it a different way? What is wrong with the way church has been done in the past?” I will tell you why.
Life is never static and never stays the same. It is constantly changing and therefore culture is always changing. Just like in the 1960’s and 1970’s, our world is constantly evolving and shifting. To think that the church can reach the younger generation of our day with the way we have done church over the past 40-50 years is unreasonable. We should never be so near-sighted as to believe that the way we have been doing church in the past is the only way to do church in the future.
Every generation has had to struggle with this issue regarding changes in culture and its effect upon the church. In the past, the church has always had to face the “shifting sands” of culture and whether the church would make adjustments in how they “did church” in order to reach younger generations with the gospel.
As a result, conflicts have occurred as churches have tried to decide whether they were going to make adjustments in how they would do church in order to reach the younger generation. And, this has been unbelievably evident in the area of music.
Let me share the following from “Who Stole My Church?” by Gordon MacDonald, who has been a pastor and author for more than forty years:
“In my own childhood, music had been the great unifying element of church life. [But], today music no longer seems to unify the generations that way it once did; now it seems to have the opposite effect-to divide us. And that has given rise to what are sometimes euphemistically called ‘worship wars’.”
“Every culture (perhaps each generation) appears to have developed its own unique musical forms and expressions-the bundling together of sounds and their harmonic combinations that create a sensation of beauty or nostalgia or vision. To those sounds we often add words. And once the melody and the words are laced together and sung, we are likely never to forget them or the circumstances in which we learned them.”
“In ancient times people used music to support their oral history. It was in music that they “rapped” their way through the stories of battles and tragedies, of victories and celebrations. They rehearsed their family genealogies in song. Then there were the songs that centered on the mysteries of God and His great acts.”
“There is the enormous body of Christian music, both ancient and modern, which begins with the songs of the Old Testament, often called the Psalms. There were the chants of the Middle Ages, the great prayer and worship hymns of the last several hundred years, the gospel songs of the nineteenth century, and the highly diverse kinds of contemporary songs that have risen up in the last thirty years of so.”
MacDonald goes on to discuss “worship wars” of the past 400 years. He discusses Isaac Watts, who wrote many wonderful texts to hymns that we still sing today, including “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross” and “Joy To The World”.
Watts “was born in 1674; his father was a pastor. One day, he was walking home from church with his father, and he started complaining about the music they’d sung that morning. Sound familiar? He was bored, he told his father, with the ‘psalmody’ (hymns of that day) that marked every worship service. (‘Psalmody’ refers to the singing of the psalms).
John Calvin had insisted that the psalms be the exclusive hymnody of the church. When people sang the psalms, they sang in a more-or-less monotone form with no instrumental accompaniment because instruments in a church were considered worldly.”
“So in Watts’ time, a man, called the church clerk or the ‘precentor’, simply sang out a note and everyone began to sing. What I’ve read suggests that the noise was awful. So here was Isaac Watts complaining about church music to his father. And the old man must have been very wise, because rather than arguing with his son, he listened. I think you have to give him a lot of credit for not being defensive when others might have just told the young man to keep his opinions to himself and accept the status quo.”
“Here was Isaac Watts complaining about the music, and his father said, ‘Son, why don’t you mend the matter?’ Meaning-write some music of your own. And Isaac did just that.”
“It wasn’t long before Isaac Watts’ hymns and songs were brought across the Atlantic to New England. They arrived just as one of America’s greatest preachers, Jonathan Edwards, was in the middle of leading a spiritual revival that was spreading all across the Northeast. And Isaac Watts’ (hymns) caught on as part of the spirit of the revival.”
“When Isaac’s (hymns) began to spread around New England, many so-called Christians utterly rejected them. In fact, there were churches that split down the middle over Isaac Watts’ hymns. In those days more than a few people simply would not sing any Watts’ songs. They stood silently or they walked out of church.”
“Another time in church history when there was a conflict that we could call a “worship war’ was during the Civil War (and immediately after). We’re talking about a time a century or so after (Isaac) Watts, (Charles) Wesley and (John) Newton (who wrote ‘Amazing Grace’).
“One year does stand out-1859. The country went through a devastating economic downturn, really a depression of sorts, and countless people were roaming the streets of cities in desperate poverty. Churches began opening their doors for people to come in and pray. And there was an enormous spiritual revival in America and England. They call that period of time the ‘Open Door Revival’ “.
“With the revival came an eruption of a new kind of music. This time it was music that was, in terms of subject matter, more personal, more testimonial, more about one’s personal experience with Christ. There was a greater and greater emphasis upon the individual and his or her connection with God. Jesus is more of a friend than anything in this new kind of music.”
“Those were the days when the songs of people like Fanny Crosby emerged. Fanny Crosby’s music reflected the individual conversion experience that happens when people come to Jesus. This was a time when people were more and more conscious of making what we call ‘personal decisions for Christ’. “ (Fanny Crosby wrote the words to, for example, “Blessed Assurance”, “Tell Me the Story of Jesus” and “To God Be the Glory”).
But, during the time of Fanny Crosby’s hymn writing, in England during the evangelistic crusades of D.L. Moody and his music leader, Ira Sankey, “there were people who totally rejected the music or its content”.
“And they rejected the use of a pump organ to accompany the singing. They derisively called the new music ‘human hymns’ “. Once when Sankey was singing a solo, a woman cried out, “Let me out! Let me out! What would John Knox [the great Scottish reformer] think of the likes of you?”
“Over and over people would walk out in the midst of the music crying out what must have been something of a cliché: ‘You’re singing human hymns…human hymns. Most of them were Calvinists who insisted that the only legitimate songs worth singing were psalms…or Isaac Watts’ songs.”
"So as you can see, the music wars are nothing new. And the question-not an easy one to answer at all-arises: how does each generation open the door for the next generation to sing the gospel in its own fresh way?Think of it: the music that many of us love the most-the music of (Charles) Wesley, (John) Newton, (Fannie) Crosby, and those that came after-was fought bitterly by many people when it was first introduced."
"There was a third war that emerged in the 1920's and lasted for about twenty years, give or take. America was in the roaring twenties; it was the beginning of the jazz era. And a new generation wanted to sing the gospel in an up-to-date way.”
“A man by the name of Paul Rader (https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.villageoftowerlakes.com/history/Rader/rader.htm), who was a pastor and evangelist in Chicago, started encouraging young musicians to write choruses instead of the standard gospel songs with their four or five verses and repeated endings. Rader wanted short, bouncy melodies that could be sung over the radio and picked up by listeners after they'd heard the song only once or twice. I guess he wanted tunes that could be sung and hummed all through the week. And, frankly, I think he was on to something.”
“There was another version of the new twentieth-century music emerging in the Deep South. Its roots were, for the most part, in the spirituals that rose out of the African slave culture. A scholar might have much better words to describe it, but my sense is that it was a very soulful kind of music that bordered on a wailing produced by suffering. And it was a music that spoke of a future hope. People who sang it seemed to feel a momentary reprieve from the ugliness of real-world life.”
“And from these roots came gospel music sung by quartets and choirs. It picked up a jazz flavor from New Orleans. Most of the music was emotional, very stirring to the heart. Of course, just as we’ve seen before, most established church leaders rejected gospel music at first. Here’s a comment from one of the most famous African-American song-writers, Tommy Dorsey, who wrote some the very best gospel songs, such as ‘Precious Lord Take My Hand’, in the mid-twentieth century. “
“He said:
Gospel music was new and most people didn’t understand. Some of the preachers used to call
gospel music ‘sin’ music. They related it to what they called worldly things-like jazz and blues and show business. Gospel music was different from approved hymns and spirituals. It had a beat.”
“Gospel quartet music became the rage throughout the South. It was a catchy, rhythmic kind of music that put the story of the gospel in graphic word pictures that common people could relate to. At first, it was sung in storefront churches and in tiny places where people who were often dirt-poor could escape their miseries and find a bit of joy. As it grew popular, the new music became widespread in Saturday night ‘sings’ in theaters and auditoriums. Finally, it made its way into the churches as part of praise and worship.”
But, there were critics. They compared these songs to jazz and popular music and said the new music was sensual and worldly. And, an older generation didn’t like the stuff at all.”
“There’s a fourth music war and I guess you’d have to say it’s happening right now. It’s been going on for about thirty years or so, We’re still in it and it’s going to be a little while before we can full appreciate or understand what’s going on. (Have you noticed, by the way, that these so-called wars are becoming more and more frequent?)”
“The new music comes from various sources. Once again it comes from popular sources-jazz, country and western, soul music, and the passionate expressions of rock and roll and all the styles that have followed. The most recent form of music emphasizes great passion and feeling. It sometimes flaunts the musical rules. A musician can reconstruct the music any way he or she wants. The important thing is that it fits the times. But feeling the music is also just as important.”
The reason that feeling the music is so important is that “the younger generation thinks that personal experience is everything. Genuineness and authenticity are their big words. They don’t need perfection or slickness. They don’t want to sing the notes the same way every time. They want to reflect the moment and its ethos. So they are drawn to raspy voices that sing about pain and brokenness, about loneliness and anger. They want to let it all hang it out and they’re somewhat suspicious of all of us who worked so hard to create an image that everything is perfect, that our Christian lives have no flaws.”
(end of quotations from book)
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We must come to the realization that if the church is going to continue to reach people now and into the future then the church is going to have to continually adapt and adjust to our ever-changing culture to accomplish its mission of reaching people of all generations with the gospel.
But what is it going to take? The church will have to change. We will have to change our perspective and attitude towards the culture and times in which we live. We will have to understand that if the church is going to reach a new and younger generation then we can’t continue to do church the way it has always been done. This doesn’t mean that we throw everything out and start over. And, it doesn’t mean that we have been doing it all wrong.
But, what this does mean is that the church will have to continue to adapt, adjust, and create new ways of “doing church” to evangelize lost people and to develop new ways of discipling new believers.
The church will always have to deal with the issue of how it can keep its mission of reaching and teaching people without changing its principles. But, the church will have to change its mindset and its methods of how to “do church” if it is going to reach a new and younger generation of lost people and to teach a new and younger generation of Christ-followers.
In closing, I would like to share with you the following preface from the book I just mentioned. Gordon MacDonald says it so much better than what I have tried to say:
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From the Preface:
“The title of this book, Who Stole My Church?, springs from a conversation a few years ago with a distraught man who felt betrayed by the church he had invested in for most of his adult years. From his perspective everything had changed---overnight, he said---into something that made him feel like a stranger in the place he'd always thought of as his spiritual home.
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I am so old. Seriously, I am old. Recently, I had a birthday and I turned 57 years OLD! And, not only am I old in years but my body feels like it is about 97 years old. I was born back in the “good old days” in 1952 in Hendersonville, North Carolina and my home church was First Baptist Church, Hendersonville.
My years at FBC were life changing. There were wonderful Sunday School teachers who loved me, cared for me, and taught me the word of God. FBC also made a concentrated effort in discipleship training on Sunday nights. As a child growing up, one of the teachers that I remember most in discipleship training was Mr. Mac whose primary passion for us children was to motivate, encourage, and instruct us on memorizing scripture. And, memorize scripture we did!
About 1971, FBC began to change (in a good way). Why? Well, the church had a new pastor and a new minister of music and youth. But, there was another important part of the equation and that was the influence of the 1970 revival at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky.
(Here are some links where you can find more info on the Asbury Revival) -
https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qOqitIKUNs
https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0585_Asbury_Revival_1970.html
https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://onecanhappen.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/asbury-revival-1970-dr-kinlaw-i-am-a-liar-now-what-do-i-do/
The revival “winds” of Asbury began to spread throughout our nation and eventually arrived in Hendersonville. One of the results of the Asbury Revival was the impact upon the youth group of FBC. The revival also spread to a lot of the youth in other churches in Henderson County.
God began to do a great work of revival in students’ lives and eventually the Lord touched my heart, as a 20 year old young man, and I straightened out my relationship with Him. Through what He was doing through the youth of our church, I recommitted my life to the Lord in 1972.
Prior to the Asbury Revival of 1970, in the the mid-to-late 1960's, our nation began to experience great turmoil and conflict and, as a result, this brought about significant changes in the USA.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Five years later, his brother Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were both assassinated in 1968. In 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement both became dominant issues in our country in the 1960’s.
In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, our nation was at war in Vietnam and in other parts of Southeast Asia. This war divided the people of our country and, as a result, there were terrible conflicts in our nation between those who supported our troops in Southeast Asia and those who opposed our military presence there. The conflicts were especially predominant on college and university campuses.
Campus unrest and violence resulted in students overtaking the offices of university presidents. The turmoil eventually resulted in four university students being killed at Kent State University, on May 4, 1970, shot by the National Guard (https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings). The strife that was demonstrated on university campuses and throughout our nation was reflected in the music of the younger generation. (https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_in_music)
During all of this chaos came the Asbury Revival of 1970. The Spirit of God began to work all across our nation and many, many hearts and lives were changed among high school students, college students, and adults.
For the students, who were saved or who recommitted their lives to God during the revival sweeping our nation, they were no longer satisfied with the traditional way of doing church that some of them had grown up with and that they had been accustomed to. They began to use their own music and their own instruments (oh, no…here it comes: guitars and drums! And, we blame it on Elvis and the Beatles!J).
As a result of the Asbury Revival, many new churches were started that were radically different from what churches in our nation had known up until that time. And, a lot of established churches were revived and began to have a new vision of reaching people through non-traditional ways of doing church.
Another result of the Asbury Revival was the beginning of, what we call now, contemporary Christian music. There are many Christian music companies today who can trace their beginnings back to the Asbury Revival moment and movement.
Another good consequence from this time period was the use of other translations of the Bible other than the King James Version. The “Good News Bible” and the “Living Bible” were produced during this era and with these, and other contemporary versions, young people had their own translations of the word of God that they could understand.
I say all of this to say that at FBC Hendersonville, our church experienced revival among our youth and young adults. And, many older adults in the church also experienced that revival.
But, as all of this began to happen, the pastoral leadership and the older adults at FBC were faced with a dilemma: would they refuse to let the younger generation be a part of the spiritual life of the church, with their guitars, drums, and other musical instruments or would they give this excited group of young people, who were thrilled about their new relationship with God, the opportunity to express themselves in ways that were radically different from what the older adults were accustomed to?
I am glad to say that the older generation did welcome us with open arms and they allowed us the freedom to express ourselves in worship by using guitars, drums, etc., in the youth choir and in other venues within the church and outside the church. Also, they gave us the opportunity to lead in some of the worship services on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings.
The youth group and youth choir had, at times, numbered approximately 100. And, one of, if not the most wonderful, blessings we received was that we had many older adults in the church who encouraged us, supported us, prayed for us, and ministered to us as we sought to understand more about God and more about how He wanted to use us to reach our generation with the gospel of Christ.
I know that this was not easy for those wonderful adults. They had to decide to change their mindsets about how to “do church” if they were going give us, and them, the opportunity to tell the younger generation about Jesus.
Their decision to change had a radical impact upon FBC. They welcomed us, put their arms around us, and gave us their love and care. As a result, God began to use First Baptist Church in a remarkable way in our community and in many other places in the eastern United States. And, now, almost 40 years later, the church is still benefiting from that wonderful work of the Holy Spirit that began in 1970-1971 and from the changes that were made at FBC.
Change is never easy for anyone, especially in a typical First Baptist Church of Anywhere, USA. But, the older generation of our church understood that in order to reach the younger adults and youth with the gospel in our church and community, they were going to have to adapt and change their way of thinking in regards to how church ought to, and could, be done.
What was it that helped the older adults make the changes? I think a lot of them understood that they “had their turn” at doing church for many, many years and that it was time to start thinking about the future; that is was time for them to start the process of “handing the keys” to the church over to the next generation.
I think they knew that, sooner or later, the time would come when they would have to turn over the “reins”, so to speak, and let the younger generation have their “turn” at doing church. I also think that they did not want to stand in the way of a great movement of the Spirit of God during those days.
Therefore, they adjusted their hearts to what God was doing in the church and rejoiced that many, many youth and younger adults were being saved and many more were recommitting their lives to God. (I can count at least ten people (and I am sure there are more) who God called into the ministry during that time who are still serving Him today).
_________________________________
So, here I am, 57 years old. I am now one of those older adults. That’s right. I am a member of the senior adult population. Where did the time go from when I was 20 years old and a part of a great revival in my church?
And, now, I have to face the same issue that the older generation faced at First Baptist back in the 1970’s. Am I going to understand that, in order for younger adults and the youth of our nation to be reached with the precious gospel of Jesus Christ, I am going to have to acknowledge that “church” will have to be done in our culture in a much different way than what I am accustomed to.
Can I be honest with you? It is beginning to not be my turn anymore and I need to be part of the process of giving the next generation their turn to “do church”.
I have had my turn and it has been a wonderful and exciting journey. During these past almost 60 years, I have had the wonderful opportunity of being part of many different kinds of churches, both as a member and as a minister. God has allowed me to be a part of His kingdom work by giving me many opportunities to be involved in over the years.
And, I am not through, yet, but I have had my turn and it is beginning to be someone else’s turn. You might be thinking that I am giving up. I am not and I will never give up. But, I am a realist. I know that, if I live to get my threescore and ten years, that I am closer to the end of my life (and I hope I live a long time past 70 years if I get that many). Why do I say all of this? Because I believe that I must do my part to give the younger generation the opportunity and the freedom to do church.
There is a new generation of Christ-followers who are blazing their own path, who are bursting forth into the future with their own ways of “doing church”. They have a burning passion to reach their generation with the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are moving forward as if they are an army with a mission that will not accept failure as a possibility in their march.
They have a “no holds barred” and a “take no prisoners” approach. They are not going to “do church’ my way. They are not going to “do church” the “traditional” way. They might not even “do church” the way you want them to do it.
It doesn’t matter to them. They are going to “do church” in a new, exciting, and invigorating way that will probably not resemble anything that we have seen up to this point in church history. And, I for one, am glad!
You might ask, “But, why do they have to do it a different way? What is wrong with the way church has been done in the past?” I will tell you why.
Life is never static and never stays the same. It is constantly changing and therefore culture is always changing. Just like in the 1960’s and 1970’s, our world is constantly evolving and shifting. To think that the church can reach the younger generation of our day with the way we have done church over the past 40-50 years is unreasonable. We should never be so near-sighted as to believe that the way we have been doing church in the past is the only way to do church in the future.
Every generation has had to struggle with this issue regarding changes in culture and its effect upon the church. In the past, the church has always had to face the “shifting sands” of culture and whether the church would make adjustments in how they “did church” in order to reach younger generations with the gospel.
As a result, conflicts have occurred as churches have tried to decide whether they were going to make adjustments in how they would do church in order to reach the younger generation. And, this has been unbelievably evident in the area of music.
Let me share the following from “Who Stole My Church?” by Gordon MacDonald, who has been a pastor and author for more than forty years:
“In my own childhood, music had been the great unifying element of church life. [But], today music no longer seems to unify the generations that way it once did; now it seems to have the opposite effect-to divide us. And that has given rise to what are sometimes euphemistically called ‘worship wars’.”
“Every culture (perhaps each generation) appears to have developed its own unique musical forms and expressions-the bundling together of sounds and their harmonic combinations that create a sensation of beauty or nostalgia or vision. To those sounds we often add words. And once the melody and the words are laced together and sung, we are likely never to forget them or the circumstances in which we learned them.”
“In ancient times people used music to support their oral history. It was in music that they “rapped” their way through the stories of battles and tragedies, of victories and celebrations. They rehearsed their family genealogies in song. Then there were the songs that centered on the mysteries of God and His great acts.”
“There is the enormous body of Christian music, both ancient and modern, which begins with the songs of the Old Testament, often called the Psalms. There were the chants of the Middle Ages, the great prayer and worship hymns of the last several hundred years, the gospel songs of the nineteenth century, and the highly diverse kinds of contemporary songs that have risen up in the last thirty years of so.”
MacDonald goes on to discuss “worship wars” of the past 400 years. He discusses Isaac Watts, who wrote many wonderful texts to hymns that we still sing today, including “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross” and “Joy To The World”.
Watts “was born in 1674; his father was a pastor. One day, he was walking home from church with his father, and he started complaining about the music they’d sung that morning. Sound familiar? He was bored, he told his father, with the ‘psalmody’ (hymns of that day) that marked every worship service. (‘Psalmody’ refers to the singing of the psalms).
John Calvin had insisted that the psalms be the exclusive hymnody of the church. When people sang the psalms, they sang in a more-or-less monotone form with no instrumental accompaniment because instruments in a church were considered worldly.”
“So in Watts’ time, a man, called the church clerk or the ‘precentor’, simply sang out a note and everyone began to sing. What I’ve read suggests that the noise was awful. So here was Isaac Watts complaining about church music to his father. And the old man must have been very wise, because rather than arguing with his son, he listened. I think you have to give him a lot of credit for not being defensive when others might have just told the young man to keep his opinions to himself and accept the status quo.”
“Here was Isaac Watts complaining about the music, and his father said, ‘Son, why don’t you mend the matter?’ Meaning-write some music of your own. And Isaac did just that.”
“It wasn’t long before Isaac Watts’ hymns and songs were brought across the Atlantic to New England. They arrived just as one of America’s greatest preachers, Jonathan Edwards, was in the middle of leading a spiritual revival that was spreading all across the Northeast. And Isaac Watts’ (hymns) caught on as part of the spirit of the revival.”
“When Isaac’s (hymns) began to spread around New England, many so-called Christians utterly rejected them. In fact, there were churches that split down the middle over Isaac Watts’ hymns. In those days more than a few people simply would not sing any Watts’ songs. They stood silently or they walked out of church.”
“Another time in church history when there was a conflict that we could call a “worship war’ was during the Civil War (and immediately after). We’re talking about a time a century or so after (Isaac) Watts, (Charles) Wesley and (John) Newton (who wrote ‘Amazing Grace’).
“One year does stand out-1859. The country went through a devastating economic downturn, really a depression of sorts, and countless people were roaming the streets of cities in desperate poverty. Churches began opening their doors for people to come in and pray. And there was an enormous spiritual revival in America and England. They call that period of time the ‘Open Door Revival’ “.
“With the revival came an eruption of a new kind of music. This time it was music that was, in terms of subject matter, more personal, more testimonial, more about one’s personal experience with Christ. There was a greater and greater emphasis upon the individual and his or her connection with God. Jesus is more of a friend than anything in this new kind of music.”
“Those were the days when the songs of people like Fanny Crosby emerged. Fanny Crosby’s music reflected the individual conversion experience that happens when people come to Jesus. This was a time when people were more and more conscious of making what we call ‘personal decisions for Christ’. “ (Fanny Crosby wrote the words to, for example, “Blessed Assurance”, “Tell Me the Story of Jesus” and “To God Be the Glory”).
But, during the time of Fanny Crosby’s hymn writing, in England during the evangelistic crusades of D.L. Moody and his music leader, Ira Sankey, “there were people who totally rejected the music or its content”.
“And they rejected the use of a pump organ to accompany the singing. They derisively called the new music ‘human hymns’ “. Once when Sankey was singing a solo, a woman cried out, “Let me out! Let me out! What would John Knox [the great Scottish reformer] think of the likes of you?”
“Over and over people would walk out in the midst of the music crying out what must have been something of a cliché: ‘You’re singing human hymns…human hymns. Most of them were Calvinists who insisted that the only legitimate songs worth singing were psalms…or Isaac Watts’ songs.”
"So as you can see, the music wars are nothing new. And the question-not an easy one to answer at all-arises: how does each generation open the door for the next generation to sing the gospel in its own fresh way?Think of it: the music that many of us love the most-the music of (Charles) Wesley, (John) Newton, (Fannie) Crosby, and those that came after-was fought bitterly by many people when it was first introduced."
"There was a third war that emerged in the 1920's and lasted for about twenty years, give or take. America was in the roaring twenties; it was the beginning of the jazz era. And a new generation wanted to sing the gospel in an up-to-date way.”
“A man by the name of Paul Rader (https://mail.mudcreekchurch.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.villageoftowerlakes.com/history/Rader/rader.htm), who was a pastor and evangelist in Chicago, started encouraging young musicians to write choruses instead of the standard gospel songs with their four or five verses and repeated endings. Rader wanted short, bouncy melodies that could be sung over the radio and picked up by listeners after they'd heard the song only once or twice. I guess he wanted tunes that could be sung and hummed all through the week. And, frankly, I think he was on to something.”
“There was another version of the new twentieth-century music emerging in the Deep South. Its roots were, for the most part, in the spirituals that rose out of the African slave culture. A scholar might have much better words to describe it, but my sense is that it was a very soulful kind of music that bordered on a wailing produced by suffering. And it was a music that spoke of a future hope. People who sang it seemed to feel a momentary reprieve from the ugliness of real-world life.”
“And from these roots came gospel music sung by quartets and choirs. It picked up a jazz flavor from New Orleans. Most of the music was emotional, very stirring to the heart. Of course, just as we’ve seen before, most established church leaders rejected gospel music at first. Here’s a comment from one of the most famous African-American song-writers, Tommy Dorsey, who wrote some the very best gospel songs, such as ‘Precious Lord Take My Hand’, in the mid-twentieth century. “
“He said:
Gospel music was new and most people didn’t understand. Some of the preachers used to call
gospel music ‘sin’ music. They related it to what they called worldly things-like jazz and blues and show business. Gospel music was different from approved hymns and spirituals. It had a beat.”
“Gospel quartet music became the rage throughout the South. It was a catchy, rhythmic kind of music that put the story of the gospel in graphic word pictures that common people could relate to. At first, it was sung in storefront churches and in tiny places where people who were often dirt-poor could escape their miseries and find a bit of joy. As it grew popular, the new music became widespread in Saturday night ‘sings’ in theaters and auditoriums. Finally, it made its way into the churches as part of praise and worship.”
But, there were critics. They compared these songs to jazz and popular music and said the new music was sensual and worldly. And, an older generation didn’t like the stuff at all.”
“There’s a fourth music war and I guess you’d have to say it’s happening right now. It’s been going on for about thirty years or so, We’re still in it and it’s going to be a little while before we can full appreciate or understand what’s going on. (Have you noticed, by the way, that these so-called wars are becoming more and more frequent?)”
“The new music comes from various sources. Once again it comes from popular sources-jazz, country and western, soul music, and the passionate expressions of rock and roll and all the styles that have followed. The most recent form of music emphasizes great passion and feeling. It sometimes flaunts the musical rules. A musician can reconstruct the music any way he or she wants. The important thing is that it fits the times. But feeling the music is also just as important.”
The reason that feeling the music is so important is that “the younger generation thinks that personal experience is everything. Genuineness and authenticity are their big words. They don’t need perfection or slickness. They don’t want to sing the notes the same way every time. They want to reflect the moment and its ethos. So they are drawn to raspy voices that sing about pain and brokenness, about loneliness and anger. They want to let it all hang it out and they’re somewhat suspicious of all of us who worked so hard to create an image that everything is perfect, that our Christian lives have no flaws.”
(end of quotations from book)
__________________________________________________________________
We must come to the realization that if the church is going to continue to reach people now and into the future then the church is going to have to continually adapt and adjust to our ever-changing culture to accomplish its mission of reaching people of all generations with the gospel.
But what is it going to take? The church will have to change. We will have to change our perspective and attitude towards the culture and times in which we live. We will have to understand that if the church is going to reach a new and younger generation then we can’t continue to do church the way it has always been done. This doesn’t mean that we throw everything out and start over. And, it doesn’t mean that we have been doing it all wrong.
But, what this does mean is that the church will have to continue to adapt, adjust, and create new ways of “doing church” to evangelize lost people and to develop new ways of discipling new believers.
The church will always have to deal with the issue of how it can keep its mission of reaching and teaching people without changing its principles. But, the church will have to change its mindset and its methods of how to “do church” if it is going to reach a new and younger generation of lost people and to teach a new and younger generation of Christ-followers.
In closing, I would like to share with you the following preface from the book I just mentioned. Gordon MacDonald says it so much better than what I have tried to say:
___________________________________
From the Preface:
“The title of this book, Who Stole My Church?, springs from a conversation a few years ago with a distraught man who felt betrayed by the church he had invested in for most of his adult years. From his perspective everything had changed---overnight, he said---into something that made him feel like a stranger in the place he'd always thought of as his spiritual home.
I listened to him describe what sounded like ecclesiastical carnage. Programs had been dumped, traditional music trashed, preaching styles and topics revolutionized, symbols of reverence (appropriate clothing, crosses, communion tables, and pulpits come to mind) thrust aside.His anguish (and his anger) began with a young pastor who had been appointed with a challenge from the church's leadership to "stir things up with a new vision."
According to my friend, most of the church members---in particularly the older generation---had no idea what they were getting themselves into when all the growth talk began. Who would protest against, he asked, the idea of finding fresh ways to evangelize the unchurched? But what people expected was merely a fresh voice in the pulpit and a program or two imported from more successful churches.
Here's what I heard him saying. What he and his fellow church members had not anticipated was a total shift in the church's culture, a reinvention of ways to love God and serve people. What they did not see coming was a reshuffling of the church's priorities, so that lost and broken people rather than found and supposedly fixed people became the primary target audience.
In summary: virtually everything in the life of their church under new leadership became focused on reaching people who were not yet there.It was during that part of the conversation that my lunch partner finally said, "Our church has been stolen out from under us. It's been hijacked."
His solution to the problem? To leave and search for another church that "appreciated" the older and better church ways his generation was familiar and comfortable with.As I recall the conversation, my friend was less than delighted when he discovered that I wasn't completely sympathetic to his cause. I tried to find a kind way to say, "get used to it," but I wasn't very successful.
My parting comment that day was something like this: “You need to think about the fact that any church that has not turned its face toward the younger generation and the new challenges of reaching unchurched people in this world will simply cease to exist. We’re not talking decades-we’re talking just a few years.”
How many people of varying ages are feeling out of alignment with their churches today? Some of them think that their churches aren’t adapting fast enough to new realities, and others think their churches have simply changed too much. Sadly, more than a few at both of these extremes address the “problem” by just dropping out. Some stick in there but take on the role of bitter critics and they sap the strength of the community in their own way.
Here and there, however, are marvelous people who seem to understand that a church is not meant to be a club organized for the convenience of insiders but a cooperative where people combine together to grow spiritually, to worship the triune God, and to prepare themselves for Christian living and service in the larger world.” (end quote)
My parting comment that day was something like this: “You need to think about the fact that any church that has not turned its face toward the younger generation and the new challenges of reaching unchurched people in this world will simply cease to exist. We’re not talking decades-we’re talking just a few years.”
How many people of varying ages are feeling out of alignment with their churches today? Some of them think that their churches aren’t adapting fast enough to new realities, and others think their churches have simply changed too much. Sadly, more than a few at both of these extremes address the “problem” by just dropping out. Some stick in there but take on the role of bitter critics and they sap the strength of the community in their own way.
Here and there, however, are marvelous people who seem to understand that a church is not meant to be a club organized for the convenience of insiders but a cooperative where people combine together to grow spiritually, to worship the triune God, and to prepare themselves for Christian living and service in the larger world.” (end quote)
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Something More Than Just "Doing" Church
Author: Jeff Elkins
Recently my family and I had an incredible experience at a church in Baltimore. The church, which shall remain nameless, did everything perfectly.
The front door was held open for us by a gentleman with a kind smile. I immediately felt welcomed.
The layout of the entry way was awesome. Even though it was my first time at the church, and there were a ton of people coming in and out, the natural flow of traffic let me know exactly where to go.
The welcome desk was well labeled and prominent on the left hand side of the entry way. It was staffed with friendly helpful people; and there were no lack of easy to approach greeters with clearly visible nametags standing around expectantly hoping someone would ask them a question.
Beyond the Welcome desk there was a room full of breakfast treats and the smell of coffee was in the air (a huge plus for me).
A greeter identified us as visitors and led us to the Children's check in area.
The Children's Sunday School Check-In Desk was also extremely easy to find. Check in there was great. One of the workers escorted us to the classrooms, explained to us the security procedures, and answered any and all the questions we could possibly have.
The worship service was impeccably pulled off. The music was sincere, not showy in anyway. There were multiple worship leaders, but it was extremely smooth and enjoyable. The songs were relevant, fresh, and easy to pick up for someone who might not know them. They did a great job of trying to help people engage Christ without terrifying those that might be new the church experience.
The sermon was clear, relevant, and engaging. The pastor's points were well thought out and communicated. My attention was held the entire time.
There were no unnecessary rabbit trails or rants. It was challenging but not offensive, informative but not burdensome, fun but not ridiculous. It was a good message.
After the service we went to get our kids and they were beaming. Yes...that's right...our kids loved Sunday School there. Usually a new church experience will send them all into tears, but not this time. They couldn't stop sharing stories about how much fun they had.
This church is a well oiled machine. They have it down. They do all the things church growth authors say should be done to create a wonderful church experience. They pull off an excellent attractional worship service.
As we drove home I asked Wendy what she thought. Reflectively she said, "That would be a very comfortable place to fall into, but there has to be something more." I agreed, "Yeah. That was amazing...but I don’t believe it is going to turn Baltimore upside down for Jesus."
Now, please don't think we are being judgmental or critical when we say "there must be something more." You must understand:
First, I think this church is incredible. I have attended a lot of churches, and I've never been to one that pulled off an attractional worship service like they did. Seriously, they did an amazing job.
Second, please know that I am very much part of this church; and therefore commenting on myself as much as my experience this past Sunday.
Now I'm not a member; but I celebrated and worked in churches like this one over the years. I applauded when churches like this one risked everything, denied all contemporary wisdom, and fought the status-quo to become environments that were comfortable and inviting to outsiders.
I cheered as these churches put down the hymnals and put lyrics on easy to see screens; as they got rid of the traditional pews and went to more comfortable stadium seating. I defended speakers that were struggling to give sermons in more "seeker friendly" ways and did my best to mimic them.
I got fired up about worship music becoming more like the music my generation listened to. I created environments that were fun, comfortable, and exciting, and then instructed the congregation to "bring their lost friends next week!" I've built crazy sets for Sunday mornings, hung flyers on door knobs, cooked pancake breakfasts, pulled off insane visual illustrations, put on Easter pageants and Hell Houses, delivered invitations with soft music playing behind me, and on, and on, and on...
So you see, when I speak about the attractional church I am not an outsider. It is very much a part of me. It has defined my walk with Christ. It has been the beat of my heart; but recently my heart has begun to ache.
So back to "something more..."
My problem is two fold:
First - I believe that the church is the only organization that can bring healing to the pain of Baltimore. Because it is the only group empowered by the Holy Spirit, it is the only group that can bring dead things to life.
Second - the things that used to work, the things that used to excite people about coming to church, the stuff that used to bring people to the healing power of Jesus, now seems to be the status quo and are no longer working like they used to. The people in my community that are disconnected from God are not attracted to our worship services any more, no matter how relevant we make them. (This is not just my personal experience. There are tons of studies out there now showing that less and less people every year are attending church.) They don't care what the music is like. They don't care how relevant the message is. They don't care if it is welcoming and inviting.
You see, the attractional based model assumes that there are groups of people out there that would attend a worship service if that worship service was simply welcoming and inviting. One author I read recently called these groups of people "window shoppers." The goal of the attractional church has been to create a beautiful window that would draw people in...but these groups seem to be quickly diminishing.
In an attractional church, the primary activity of the body, the front door where people are introduced to the church, is focused on being comfortable and exciting. It therefore, unintentionally, feeds the consumer attitude already present in our society.
Now, I don't know yet how to fix this yet, but here are a few things I have come to believe firmly in the last year...
We have to stop making our front door (where people come to check us out) a worship service; we need to make it our lives. People should not be encountering the Holy Spirit for the first time by watching believers worship. They should be introduced to the Holy Spirit through the insane, crazy, wild, reckless, sacrificial love of Jesus that defines everything we do, every conversation we have, every breath we take.
We should not be known for our music, our teaching, our environments, or our kids programs. We should be known for our humility, our brokenness, our passion for the poor, our acceptance of the outcast, our forgiving justice, our non-judgmental righteousness, and our generous giving of ourselves to others.
We must stop making the tools the point. We have to recapture what Jesus meant when He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." If we continue to make our worship service, our programs, our small groups, our activities, our spiritual disciplines the defining focus of what we do we will find ourselves losing Jesus on the journey.
Let it be said that we carry in us the attitude of Jesus. That we are people defined by our love for God and our love for others. Let the world be amazed at how wildly we give of ourselves, at how recklessly we serve, at how humbly we live, and at how unsafely we love. Let it be said that when you encounter one of us you never before felt so valued and cared for. Let membership in our community not be defined by the where we are from 9:30 to Noon on a Sunday, but rather by our reputation in the community as people that live differently.
And let the cry of our lives be, "Jesus is Lord.”
This is my hope for the church.
Thanks for reading my rant.
Jeff Elkins is an Examiner from Baltimore. You can see Jeff's articles on Jeff's Home Page: http://www.examiner.com/x-13920-Baltimore-Baptist-Examiner
Thursday, June 25, 2009
To: The Pastor
Dear Pastor,
I wanted you to know that you are loved and you are appreciated. Every day you get up and quietly go about the business of taking care of your church family. You are pastor and you are leader. People are following you because they know that you are following Jesus and they can honestly say that if they can be more like you then they will be more like Jesus.
But, people know that there may be times when you wonder whether anything you are doing is making a difference in people's lives and you wonder whether anyone really sees what you are doing. It can be very difficult as you minister to your church family and to your community.
Sometimes, the way can be discouraging. The long, and sometimes lonely, hours that are necessary to prepare to preach, along with the pressure of everyone expecting you to "hit a home run" every time you come up to the “batter’s box”. There are those days and nights that you spend at the hospital ministering to both the physical and spiritual needs of those who are hurting. There are the countless numbers of hours spent counseling, trying to come up with answers to help those who are hurting emotionally and spiritually.
Then, there are all of the meetings you have to attend and you are expected to minister to those in your community who don't go to your church but go to another church or they don't even go to church at all.
People know that there are times when you even have to neglect your own family for the critical needs of people in your church; those situations when you just can't say "no" to someone who needs your counsel, support, and a shoulder to cry on.
And, it’s entirely possible that you might be discouraged because you haven't seen your church grow like you thought it would. You are working hard, maybe harder than you have ever worked before. And, you wonder, at times, if it is worth it all and you wonder whether anyone really sees what you are doing and would anyone even notice if you just stopped……..sometimes, it may even feel like you are invisible to God.
You cry out, "God, what is wrong? What is wrong with my church? What is wrong with me? God, what is wrong with You? Can't you see that my heart is breaking over the spiritual condition of those I minister to? I keep investing my life in their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. But, it seems, sometimes, like nothing ever changes! No one even says, ‘Thank you for your hard work and dedication.’ No one says, ‘Thank you for your many hours of sacrifice to help us in our walk with God.’ ”
Pastor, perhaps you have even said, "God, if something doesn't change in my ministry, I'm just gonna quit! I can't take it anymore. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. I’m not sure if anybody really cares about what I am doing. I’m not even sure if anybody really cares about the things of God. It seems, at times, as though the only thing that matters to people is their physical needs and wants. Why aren’t they concerned about the spiritual needs in their lives?"
But, there you are, every day as pastor, teacher, counselor, and friend. You are the one who gives a compass to point the way for unsure feet. You are the one who is patient with those who often go astray. You are the one who gives guidance on how get to going in the right direction.
Sometimes, it might seem like people don’t notice how hard you work or how much you care but that’s not really how it is. Everything you do and every word you say makes an impact upon countless numbers of hearts.
Too often, though, they don’t tell you how much they appreciate you. But, part of the reason may be that they can’t find the right words to say it because they love you and appreciate you so much. Words just don’t seem to express what is deep within their hearts about how much you mean to them.
On behalf of your church family, please know of their admiration of you and please know that they look up to you. You are their shining light in a cold and dark world. You are their encourager when they feel like giving up in the face of dark and lonely days of the trials in their lives. They know that when they come to you, that you will help them look at their situations with a different perspective and you will encourage them by telling them that they can make it with God’s help.
Thank you, beloved pastor, for all that you do! You are making a difference in their lives and, as a result, you are making significant contributions in the kingdom of God.
In closing, though words sometimes are inadequate, what is written below describes a little of who you are as pastor:
“Can you imagine a place where to be great you must be a servant? Where the qualification to be first is to be last? Where the mighty are defined by their meekness? Where the richest are those who have given the most away? There is such a place and it is the kingdom of God.
The real heroes in God's kingdom are those who are ordinary, everyday people who have learned the secret of giving away things that they cannot keep in return for things they cannot lose.
Most of their major contributions to the kingdom of God have gone unnoticed. Their contributions have taken place in the everyday experiences of life: countless acts of love, support, and confirmation that have eternal significance in God's eyes.
Only heaven will be able to show the significance of their efforts and give credence to the belief that little is much when God is in it.”
I wanted you to know that you are loved and you are appreciated. Every day you get up and quietly go about the business of taking care of your church family. You are pastor and you are leader. People are following you because they know that you are following Jesus and they can honestly say that if they can be more like you then they will be more like Jesus.
But, people know that there may be times when you wonder whether anything you are doing is making a difference in people's lives and you wonder whether anyone really sees what you are doing. It can be very difficult as you minister to your church family and to your community.
Sometimes, the way can be discouraging. The long, and sometimes lonely, hours that are necessary to prepare to preach, along with the pressure of everyone expecting you to "hit a home run" every time you come up to the “batter’s box”. There are those days and nights that you spend at the hospital ministering to both the physical and spiritual needs of those who are hurting. There are the countless numbers of hours spent counseling, trying to come up with answers to help those who are hurting emotionally and spiritually.
Then, there are all of the meetings you have to attend and you are expected to minister to those in your community who don't go to your church but go to another church or they don't even go to church at all.
People know that there are times when you even have to neglect your own family for the critical needs of people in your church; those situations when you just can't say "no" to someone who needs your counsel, support, and a shoulder to cry on.
And, it’s entirely possible that you might be discouraged because you haven't seen your church grow like you thought it would. You are working hard, maybe harder than you have ever worked before. And, you wonder, at times, if it is worth it all and you wonder whether anyone really sees what you are doing and would anyone even notice if you just stopped……..sometimes, it may even feel like you are invisible to God.
You cry out, "God, what is wrong? What is wrong with my church? What is wrong with me? God, what is wrong with You? Can't you see that my heart is breaking over the spiritual condition of those I minister to? I keep investing my life in their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. But, it seems, sometimes, like nothing ever changes! No one even says, ‘Thank you for your hard work and dedication.’ No one says, ‘Thank you for your many hours of sacrifice to help us in our walk with God.’ ”
Pastor, perhaps you have even said, "God, if something doesn't change in my ministry, I'm just gonna quit! I can't take it anymore. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. I’m not sure if anybody really cares about what I am doing. I’m not even sure if anybody really cares about the things of God. It seems, at times, as though the only thing that matters to people is their physical needs and wants. Why aren’t they concerned about the spiritual needs in their lives?"
But, there you are, every day as pastor, teacher, counselor, and friend. You are the one who gives a compass to point the way for unsure feet. You are the one who is patient with those who often go astray. You are the one who gives guidance on how get to going in the right direction.
Sometimes, it might seem like people don’t notice how hard you work or how much you care but that’s not really how it is. Everything you do and every word you say makes an impact upon countless numbers of hearts.
Too often, though, they don’t tell you how much they appreciate you. But, part of the reason may be that they can’t find the right words to say it because they love you and appreciate you so much. Words just don’t seem to express what is deep within their hearts about how much you mean to them.
On behalf of your church family, please know of their admiration of you and please know that they look up to you. You are their shining light in a cold and dark world. You are their encourager when they feel like giving up in the face of dark and lonely days of the trials in their lives. They know that when they come to you, that you will help them look at their situations with a different perspective and you will encourage them by telling them that they can make it with God’s help.
Thank you, beloved pastor, for all that you do! You are making a difference in their lives and, as a result, you are making significant contributions in the kingdom of God.
In closing, though words sometimes are inadequate, what is written below describes a little of who you are as pastor:
“Can you imagine a place where to be great you must be a servant? Where the qualification to be first is to be last? Where the mighty are defined by their meekness? Where the richest are those who have given the most away? There is such a place and it is the kingdom of God.
The real heroes in God's kingdom are those who are ordinary, everyday people who have learned the secret of giving away things that they cannot keep in return for things they cannot lose.
Most of their major contributions to the kingdom of God have gone unnoticed. Their contributions have taken place in the everyday experiences of life: countless acts of love, support, and confirmation that have eternal significance in God's eyes.
Only heaven will be able to show the significance of their efforts and give credence to the belief that little is much when God is in it.”
Friday, March 20, 2009
Just some thoughts about Mother's Day and Father's Day
Many years ago, before I was a pastor, I had always noticed in the churches that I served, that there was an obvious difference between Mother’s Day and Father ’s Day recognitions.
I observed that on Mother’s Day, there was always the proverbial recognition of the oldest mother, the youngest mother, the mother with the most children in attendance, etc. But, when Father’s Day was observed, there was never much of a big deal made compared to what was done in regards to Mother’s Day .
This bothered me because I felt like fathers were being slighted quite a bit because there was a much bigger deal made over the mothers than the fathers.
Another observation that I made, before the Lord called me to pastor two churches, was that I always felt sorry for the men and the women in those churches who were never blessed with children for whatever reason. For example, some married couples were physically unable to have children and then some men and women were never married in life. It seemed like on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day that men and women who had never had children, for whatever reason, were made to feel inferior because we didn’t recognize them on these special days.
When God called me to pastor two churches, I decided to do something about this. Here is what I did:
1. Whatever recognitions I made on Mother’s Day, I made the same recognitions on Father’s Day. If we recognized the oldest mother on Mother’s Day then I recognized the oldest father on Father’s Day (mother with the most children in attendance then I recognized father with the most children in attendance, etc.)
2. I decided that I would find a way to honor all men and all women on these days, instead of just those who had children. I knew that some of the most important people in my life, who had some of the greatest impact upon me, were men and women who never had children. So instead of recognizing just mothers on Mother’s Day and just fathers on Father’s Day, the churches I pastored, on Mother’s Day we had Women’s Day and on Father’s Day we had Men’s Day. On Mother’s Day, I recognized all women and on Father’s Day I recognized all men.
I made a special point to say “thank you” to those men and women in our church, though never blessed with children, for their impact upon countless numbers of children’s lives in the church and also in their families and in their community. I gave a brief testimony of the men and women in my life that had made a difference in my childhood/teenage years and the profound impact they made.
Yes, we recognized both mothers and fathers who children equally (we did the same things for both groups), but I also recognized (had them stand up) all of the women and all of the men in attendance and honored them and thanked them for their significant contributions to the kingdom of God.
The “church” should never be a place where a person is made to feel inferior just because of their status in life, including the issue of never having children.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Have you ever noticed any difference in the way your church celebrates Mother’s Day and Father’s Day? What might happen if we recognized all of the women and all of the men on these two important days?
Just some thoughts about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
I observed that on Mother’s Day, there was always the proverbial recognition of the oldest mother, the youngest mother, the mother with the most children in attendance, etc. But, when Father’s Day was observed, there was never much of a big deal made compared to what was done in regards to Mother’s Day .
This bothered me because I felt like fathers were being slighted quite a bit because there was a much bigger deal made over the mothers than the fathers.
Another observation that I made, before the Lord called me to pastor two churches, was that I always felt sorry for the men and the women in those churches who were never blessed with children for whatever reason. For example, some married couples were physically unable to have children and then some men and women were never married in life. It seemed like on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day that men and women who had never had children, for whatever reason, were made to feel inferior because we didn’t recognize them on these special days.
When God called me to pastor two churches, I decided to do something about this. Here is what I did:
1. Whatever recognitions I made on Mother’s Day, I made the same recognitions on Father’s Day. If we recognized the oldest mother on Mother’s Day then I recognized the oldest father on Father’s Day (mother with the most children in attendance then I recognized father with the most children in attendance, etc.)
2. I decided that I would find a way to honor all men and all women on these days, instead of just those who had children. I knew that some of the most important people in my life, who had some of the greatest impact upon me, were men and women who never had children. So instead of recognizing just mothers on Mother’s Day and just fathers on Father’s Day, the churches I pastored, on Mother’s Day we had Women’s Day and on Father’s Day we had Men’s Day. On Mother’s Day, I recognized all women and on Father’s Day I recognized all men.
I made a special point to say “thank you” to those men and women in our church, though never blessed with children, for their impact upon countless numbers of children’s lives in the church and also in their families and in their community. I gave a brief testimony of the men and women in my life that had made a difference in my childhood/teenage years and the profound impact they made.
Yes, we recognized both mothers and fathers who children equally (we did the same things for both groups), but I also recognized (had them stand up) all of the women and all of the men in attendance and honored them and thanked them for their significant contributions to the kingdom of God.
The “church” should never be a place where a person is made to feel inferior just because of their status in life, including the issue of never having children.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Have you ever noticed any difference in the way your church celebrates Mother’s Day and Father’s Day? What might happen if we recognized all of the women and all of the men on these two important days?
Just some thoughts about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina
If you live in Charlotte or have the opportunity to visit Charlotte, Elevation Church is a wonderful church where God is working. You will not be disappointed if you have the opportunity to attend. www.elevationchurch.org
Sunday, February 1, 2009
He Maketh No Mistake
By A. M. Overton
My Father’s way may twist and turn,
My heart may throb and ache,
But in my soul I’m glad I know
He maketh no mistake.
My cherished plans may go astray,
My hopes may fade away,
But still I’ll trust my Lord to lead
For He doth know the way.
Tho’ night be dark and it may seem
That day will never break;
I’ll put my faith, my all in him,
He maketh no mistake.
There’s so much now I cannot see
My eyesight’s far too dim;
But come what may, I’ll simply trust
And leave it all to Him.
For by and by the mist will lift
And plain it all He’ll make,
Through all the way, tho’ dark to me,
He made not one mistake.
(A. M. Overton was a pastor who lost his beloved wife in 1932 and for her funeral he wrote this incredible poem).
Monday, January 19, 2009
Can a leader be a servant and can a servant be a leader?
Matthew 20:27-“…and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant”.
Matthew 23:11-“The greatest among you shall be your servant”.
The question must be asked: Can a leader be a servant and can a servant be a leader?
In order to answer the question, one must answer the following question: What is a servant?
A servant empties himself of pride.
A servant doesn’t have to talk about himself but lets others talk.
A servant doesn’t have to control a conversation in a group of people.
A servant isn’t jealous.
A servant isn’t greedy.
A servant isn’t malicious.
A servant isn’t slanderous.
A servant doesn’t exalt himself.
A servant doesn’t need to be recognized for what he does.
A servant doesn’t need to promote himself.
A servant doesn’t need to be the first in line and is actually glad to be the last in line.
A servant doesn’t expect other people to serve him but looks for ways to serve others.
A servant understands that the rules apply to him just as much as they apply to everyone else.
A servant wants to be lowly.
A servant knows that he has no rights and expects no special privileges.
A servant wants to be crucified and wants to die to the flesh.
A servant doesn’t brag on himself.
A servant doesn’t need to impress other people.
A servant is glad when he is treated like a servant not just when he is called a servant.
A servant isn’t hurt when he is forgotten or overlooked.
A servant refuses to let anger rise in his heart and refuses to defend himself when his good is evil spoken of, when his wishes are ignored, when his advice is disregarded, and when his opinion is ridiculed, taking it all in patient, loving silence.
A servant doesn’t itch after commendation and truly loves to be unknown.
A servant rejoices, feels no envy, nor questions God when he sees others around him prosper and their needs being met while his own needs are far greater and in more desperate circumstances but yet to be fulfilled.
A servant lovingly and patiently bears any insensitivity and annoyances from other people.
A servant humbly submits inwardly and outwardly when he receives correction and reproof from someone and allows no rebellion or resentment to rise up within his heart.
A servant doesn’t think more highly of himself than he ought to and considers every person in his life a special gift of God, created by Him for a special purpose.
A servant is content with the level of God’s provisions of his financial, physical, and spiritual needs and trusts His Master to always take care of everything he needs.
And, finally, because he understands that the heart of Jesus lives within him, the servant knows that his humility and his lowliness are his gifts to the kingdom of God.
What is a servant?
Ah, now, that is something you will have to decide for yourself.
________________________________________________
Some of this is original material and some of it is adapted from: “Dying To Self” by Gene Warr, Video Tape, Wise Investments, Copyright 1977, International Evangelism Association. Gene Warr was a great preacher and teacher who is now enjoying the presence of God in heaven. You can listen to his messages and view some of his studies at: http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/gene_warr.php and more biographical info at: http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/pdfs/gene_warr_more.pdf
Matthew 23:11-“The greatest among you shall be your servant”.
The question must be asked: Can a leader be a servant and can a servant be a leader?
In order to answer the question, one must answer the following question: What is a servant?
A servant empties himself of pride.
A servant doesn’t have to talk about himself but lets others talk.
A servant doesn’t have to control a conversation in a group of people.
A servant isn’t jealous.
A servant isn’t greedy.
A servant isn’t malicious.
A servant isn’t slanderous.
A servant doesn’t exalt himself.
A servant doesn’t need to be recognized for what he does.
A servant doesn’t need to promote himself.
A servant doesn’t need to be the first in line and is actually glad to be the last in line.
A servant doesn’t expect other people to serve him but looks for ways to serve others.
A servant understands that the rules apply to him just as much as they apply to everyone else.
A servant wants to be lowly.
A servant knows that he has no rights and expects no special privileges.
A servant wants to be crucified and wants to die to the flesh.
A servant doesn’t brag on himself.
A servant doesn’t need to impress other people.
A servant is glad when he is treated like a servant not just when he is called a servant.
A servant isn’t hurt when he is forgotten or overlooked.
A servant refuses to let anger rise in his heart and refuses to defend himself when his good is evil spoken of, when his wishes are ignored, when his advice is disregarded, and when his opinion is ridiculed, taking it all in patient, loving silence.
A servant doesn’t itch after commendation and truly loves to be unknown.
A servant rejoices, feels no envy, nor questions God when he sees others around him prosper and their needs being met while his own needs are far greater and in more desperate circumstances but yet to be fulfilled.
A servant lovingly and patiently bears any insensitivity and annoyances from other people.
A servant humbly submits inwardly and outwardly when he receives correction and reproof from someone and allows no rebellion or resentment to rise up within his heart.
A servant doesn’t think more highly of himself than he ought to and considers every person in his life a special gift of God, created by Him for a special purpose.
A servant is content with the level of God’s provisions of his financial, physical, and spiritual needs and trusts His Master to always take care of everything he needs.
And, finally, because he understands that the heart of Jesus lives within him, the servant knows that his humility and his lowliness are his gifts to the kingdom of God.
What is a servant?
Ah, now, that is something you will have to decide for yourself.
________________________________________________
Some of this is original material and some of it is adapted from: “Dying To Self” by Gene Warr, Video Tape, Wise Investments, Copyright 1977, International Evangelism Association. Gene Warr was a great preacher and teacher who is now enjoying the presence of God in heaven. You can listen to his messages and view some of his studies at: http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/gene_warr.php and more biographical info at: http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/pdfs/gene_warr_more.pdf
Monday, December 8, 2008
Tony Doesn't Like Christians
From: www.tonymorganlive.com
After going back and forth on this for a couple of weeks, I’ve decided to just do it. I mentioned recently that I’m not sure I like Christians. With the help of some of my friends, here are the top…
10 Reasons I Don’t Like Most Christians
1. They consistently seem angry and bitter and worried. I thought Christians were supposed to reflect joy and kindness and peace.
2. They don’t dream big dreams. That seems odd given the fact that we’re supposedly worshiping a God who is “able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare ask or hope.”
3. They seem to worship their theology more than Jesus. For whatever reason, this appears to be especially true for folks that come from a reformed theology.
4. They don’t like it when other people or ministries experience success. Think about it. There are Christians who would be overwhelmed with joy if NewSpring Church experienced fewer salvations, fewer baptisms and our attendance dropped.
5. They use prayer as an excuse for inaction. They’re waiting for God to do his thing, but they aren’t willing to step out in faith and obedience.
6. They’re more concerned with the BMW next door than the lost person who drives it. Christians hate people with money. They’re willing to sacrifice time and money for those without it, but they’re satisfied to let “rich” people go to Hell.
7. They would rather people live life without Jesus than give up their personal preferences. What happens when your preferred teacher doesn’t teach? What happens when your preferred worship leader doesn’t lead? What happens when you don’t like the music?
8. They are fake. They dress up a certain way on Sunday and they live as completely different people the rest of the week.
9. They think they’re better than other people. That’s why they create rules to follow. It helps differentiate why they are holy while others are not.
10. They’re comfortable with mediocrity. Doesn’t matter where. Think Christian music and movies. Think how we invest our time and money. You don’t seriously think God deserves our best do you?
The reality is that I’ve sinned in just about every one of these areas. It pains me to say that, but it’s true. If people hear the Gospel and reject Jesus, that’s one thing. If I’m the barrier to people accepting Christ because of me and my sin, that’s a completely different deal. Fortunately, God’s much bigger than my stupidity.
When does your humanness get in the way of people knowing the hope, forgiveness and love of Jesus? Does your life make people curious about the claims of Jesus or does it make them flee?
Tony Morgan
After going back and forth on this for a couple of weeks, I’ve decided to just do it. I mentioned recently that I’m not sure I like Christians. With the help of some of my friends, here are the top…
10 Reasons I Don’t Like Most Christians
1. They consistently seem angry and bitter and worried. I thought Christians were supposed to reflect joy and kindness and peace.
2. They don’t dream big dreams. That seems odd given the fact that we’re supposedly worshiping a God who is “able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare ask or hope.”
3. They seem to worship their theology more than Jesus. For whatever reason, this appears to be especially true for folks that come from a reformed theology.
4. They don’t like it when other people or ministries experience success. Think about it. There are Christians who would be overwhelmed with joy if NewSpring Church experienced fewer salvations, fewer baptisms and our attendance dropped.
5. They use prayer as an excuse for inaction. They’re waiting for God to do his thing, but they aren’t willing to step out in faith and obedience.
6. They’re more concerned with the BMW next door than the lost person who drives it. Christians hate people with money. They’re willing to sacrifice time and money for those without it, but they’re satisfied to let “rich” people go to Hell.
7. They would rather people live life without Jesus than give up their personal preferences. What happens when your preferred teacher doesn’t teach? What happens when your preferred worship leader doesn’t lead? What happens when you don’t like the music?
8. They are fake. They dress up a certain way on Sunday and they live as completely different people the rest of the week.
9. They think they’re better than other people. That’s why they create rules to follow. It helps differentiate why they are holy while others are not.
10. They’re comfortable with mediocrity. Doesn’t matter where. Think Christian music and movies. Think how we invest our time and money. You don’t seriously think God deserves our best do you?
The reality is that I’ve sinned in just about every one of these areas. It pains me to say that, but it’s true. If people hear the Gospel and reject Jesus, that’s one thing. If I’m the barrier to people accepting Christ because of me and my sin, that’s a completely different deal. Fortunately, God’s much bigger than my stupidity.
When does your humanness get in the way of people knowing the hope, forgiveness and love of Jesus? Does your life make people curious about the claims of Jesus or does it make them flee?
Tony Morgan
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Legalism and Church Growth
One of the issues that can hinder a church from growing is “legalism”. Now, before your thought process goes too far by associating a specific university or some non-denominational group of churches with the word, please let me explain. In the context of church growth, legalism is defined this way: “We do church the right way and if you don’t do church the way we do then you do church the wrong way”.
Though someone might not agree with what I am about to say, I must say it: There is no one way to do church! May I repeat myself?
THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO DO CHURCH!
As we research and study the New Testament, it is very obvious that there is no descriptive nor prescriptive formula on how a church should fulfill its “marching orders” in the kingdom of God.
From the very beginning of what we call the “early church” in the book of Acts to our present day culture of kingdom work, “doing church” has never been static (that is, it has never come to a point of rest or standstill). Just as society and culture are in constant states of change, so is the church. That is why we must constantly adapt the way we do church in order to reach out to people who live in a constantly changing culture and world.
Legalism, in its purest form regarding church growth, is a strict adherence to a specific way of doing church and being critical of churches that don’t adhere to that same form of structure. Now, before you start thinking that you and your church are not like that please be very careful. It doesn’t matter how you do church. Any church can be guilty of legalism.
Your church might be the most extreme, radical, contemporary, “in your face” church on planet earth. You don’t belong to any denomination. You don’t subscribe to any form of church government. You don’t even do church the same way week by week. Your claim to fame is: “We wrote the book on non-traditional church."
Yet, even if this describes your church, if you and your church have the attitude that you do church the right way and everyone else does it the wrong way because they don’t do it like you, then you are guilty of legalism. When a church has this approach to other churches, you will find that the church will begin to become a stagnant and closed society only for those who are like-minded. Or, your church might still use Bach and Beethoven, for example, but you can be guilty of legalism if you are critical of any other church that doesn’t do church the way you do church.
It doesn’t matter if your church uses bluegrass, rock and roll, acid rock, punk rock, rap, disco, high-church, low-church, mid-church, country & western, do-wop, be-bop, hip-hop, contemporary, blended, reggae, traditional, gospel, classical, head-banger metal, jazz, or polka music (let's see: did cover I it all?) Any church can have the attitude that it does church the right way and any other church that doesn’t do church that way is doing it wrong.
What should be our approach to other churches that don’t do church the way we think they ought to? Let me say this very succinctly:
ALL OF US SHOULD STAY OUT OF EVERY OTHER CHURCH’S BUSINESS!
We must come to an understanding that, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can, and must, accept one another for who we are: Christ followers, who do church in myriad numbers of different ways but are on the same team with the same captain and His name is JESUS!
Acceptance of one another is biblical but our acceptance of each other doesn’t mean that we have to approve of each other’s way of doing church. We can accept another group of Christians, who make up a body of local believers in a local church, because we belong to Christ but that doesn’t mean that we have to approve of the way they do church. We just need to keep our opinions to ourselves. It is wrong for us to criticize and judge other believers for how they conduct themselves as a church in the kingdom of God.
In recent years, one of the most highly criticized churches in the USA has been Willow Creek Community Church. There have been countless numbers of pastors, church leaders, and web sites displaying their legalistic attitudes, by not only criticizing Willow Creek but engaging in an all-out attack on this church and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels.
Recently, the church conducted a three year self-study to examine how well it has fulfilled its purpose as a church. Results showed that Willow Creek had room for improvement and the results were published in a book titled “Reveal”.
Can you hear the silent laughter of legalism? I can. Those same pastors and church leaders who have attacked Willow Creek in the past are probably saying, “I told you so. I knew they were doing it all wrong!”
But, what a wonderful example of humility for Willow Creek to reveal to everyone in “Christian Nation” that it had fallen short of its goals and objectives and that the church and staff were determined to address the areas in which they saw the need for improvement. Willow Creek didn’t have to publish the results of their self-study. They could have kept the results to themselves. Yet, Hybels and Willow Creek humbly admitted to themselves, and to the rest of us, that they could do a better job at how they “do church”, thereby, opening themselves up to even greater attacks.
But, isn’t it interesting? From those same critics of Willow Creek I have yet to hear any pastor or any church admit their own shortcomings and failures and reveal to the rest of us that quite possibly they weren’t doing church as well as they thought they were.
Ah, legalism.
Hmmm….now, what was that we were saying about those churches that do things a little differently than we do?
Though someone might not agree with what I am about to say, I must say it: There is no one way to do church! May I repeat myself?
THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO DO CHURCH!
As we research and study the New Testament, it is very obvious that there is no descriptive nor prescriptive formula on how a church should fulfill its “marching orders” in the kingdom of God.
From the very beginning of what we call the “early church” in the book of Acts to our present day culture of kingdom work, “doing church” has never been static (that is, it has never come to a point of rest or standstill). Just as society and culture are in constant states of change, so is the church. That is why we must constantly adapt the way we do church in order to reach out to people who live in a constantly changing culture and world.
Legalism, in its purest form regarding church growth, is a strict adherence to a specific way of doing church and being critical of churches that don’t adhere to that same form of structure. Now, before you start thinking that you and your church are not like that please be very careful. It doesn’t matter how you do church. Any church can be guilty of legalism.
Your church might be the most extreme, radical, contemporary, “in your face” church on planet earth. You don’t belong to any denomination. You don’t subscribe to any form of church government. You don’t even do church the same way week by week. Your claim to fame is: “We wrote the book on non-traditional church."
Yet, even if this describes your church, if you and your church have the attitude that you do church the right way and everyone else does it the wrong way because they don’t do it like you, then you are guilty of legalism. When a church has this approach to other churches, you will find that the church will begin to become a stagnant and closed society only for those who are like-minded. Or, your church might still use Bach and Beethoven, for example, but you can be guilty of legalism if you are critical of any other church that doesn’t do church the way you do church.
It doesn’t matter if your church uses bluegrass, rock and roll, acid rock, punk rock, rap, disco, high-church, low-church, mid-church, country & western, do-wop, be-bop, hip-hop, contemporary, blended, reggae, traditional, gospel, classical, head-banger metal, jazz, or polka music (let's see: did cover I it all?) Any church can have the attitude that it does church the right way and any other church that doesn’t do church that way is doing it wrong.
What should be our approach to other churches that don’t do church the way we think they ought to? Let me say this very succinctly:
ALL OF US SHOULD STAY OUT OF EVERY OTHER CHURCH’S BUSINESS!
We must come to an understanding that, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can, and must, accept one another for who we are: Christ followers, who do church in myriad numbers of different ways but are on the same team with the same captain and His name is JESUS!
Acceptance of one another is biblical but our acceptance of each other doesn’t mean that we have to approve of each other’s way of doing church. We can accept another group of Christians, who make up a body of local believers in a local church, because we belong to Christ but that doesn’t mean that we have to approve of the way they do church. We just need to keep our opinions to ourselves. It is wrong for us to criticize and judge other believers for how they conduct themselves as a church in the kingdom of God.
In recent years, one of the most highly criticized churches in the USA has been Willow Creek Community Church. There have been countless numbers of pastors, church leaders, and web sites displaying their legalistic attitudes, by not only criticizing Willow Creek but engaging in an all-out attack on this church and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels.
Recently, the church conducted a three year self-study to examine how well it has fulfilled its purpose as a church. Results showed that Willow Creek had room for improvement and the results were published in a book titled “Reveal”.
Can you hear the silent laughter of legalism? I can. Those same pastors and church leaders who have attacked Willow Creek in the past are probably saying, “I told you so. I knew they were doing it all wrong!”
But, what a wonderful example of humility for Willow Creek to reveal to everyone in “Christian Nation” that it had fallen short of its goals and objectives and that the church and staff were determined to address the areas in which they saw the need for improvement. Willow Creek didn’t have to publish the results of their self-study. They could have kept the results to themselves. Yet, Hybels and Willow Creek humbly admitted to themselves, and to the rest of us, that they could do a better job at how they “do church”, thereby, opening themselves up to even greater attacks.
But, isn’t it interesting? From those same critics of Willow Creek I have yet to hear any pastor or any church admit their own shortcomings and failures and reveal to the rest of us that quite possibly they weren’t doing church as well as they thought they were.
Ah, legalism.
Hmmm….now, what was that we were saying about those churches that do things a little differently than we do?
Monday, October 20, 2008
Church Growth BR549
Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, was asked the following question by Ed Setzer of the Lifeway Research Team:
What advice would you give to churches in America? What elements would you say are a must in any church?
I would say two things. Number one, you must keep your focus on Jesus. Don't lose sight of the gospel. Don't lose sight of the fact that people are dying and going to go to hell unless they know Jesus. If the church loses the centrality and the urgency of that message, I think the church dies.
And I think the reason that churches all over America today are closing their doors and shutting down is because they forget the gospel. They have forgotten that Jesus Christ died on a cross not so we could have a holy huddle or a stained glass fortress or us four and no more. He died on a cross so that we could reach the world.
They have got sin in their lives. And because of that they are separated from God. They go to hell. That is not necessary. Jesus died on the cross to make forgiveness and redemption completely possible.
Number two, don't try to be anything except who God called you to be. Maybe God didn't call you to go multi-site. Maybe God called you to one location. You need to be completely content with that. Maybe God called you to go plant churches instead of doing video venues. You need to do that.
Maybe God told you to do video venues and plant churches. You need to do that. You don't ever, every need to feel pressure because another church somewhere else in America or somewhere else in the world is doing something to think, "Oh, wow, we have got do that." Our call as a church is to do exactly what God called us to do. In the book of Revelation chapter two and chapter three Jesus gives seven different messages to seven different churches.
If he wanted every church to be the same he would have just said, "All right. Here is my message to every church and it is just the same." But he addressed seven churches specifically and said, "Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you." I just think that each church has a unique DNA that it needs to focus on. The gospel should be central, but the strategy and the structure of the church should be completely open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
(end of interview)
_____________________________________________________________________________
My advice? Find out where God is working, find out who God wants you to be as a church and find out who God wants you to reach.
Don’t try to be like everybody else. God stopped creating the universe on day six but He did not stop being creative. He is very capable of giving every church a unique identity and creative ways to help fulfill their assignment in the kingdom of God.
The churches and pastors that we put on pedestals, and we try to copy, didn’t copy some other church and pastor. No, these pastors, in their intimate love relationship with God, were undoubtedly hungry and thirsty enough to seek after God and ask Him to give them His unique, creative way to reach people.
God doesn’t play favorites. But, He does have His intimates-those who sincerely seek after Him in a love relationship that is real and personal.
Don’t go seeking after what other pastors and churches are doing to try to copy them. Seek after God and lead your congregation to seek after Him with all of their “heart, soul, mind, and strength” and to “love one another”.
Be willing to be obedient to God in whatever He leads you and your church to do. Your church doesn’t have to look like every other church. Your church only has to be what God desires for it to be.
There is no one way to “do” church. What works in one church may not work in another church. That’s why we don’t need to copy one another. I am not saying that we can’t learn from each other. But, ultimately, every pastor and every church must go to God, privately and corporately, in a love relationship with Him to seek His face and find out what He wants the church to be and to do.
The “doing” part of church (i.e., the heart of the church accomplished primarily in evangelism and serving) is important but the “being” part of church (i.e., the health of the church accomplished primarily through discipleship) is equally important. The goal should be to have a balanced church:
A balanced will look like this:
Heart/Health: evangelism/discipleship, reaching/teaching, going/growing, addition/multiplication, how many/what kind, loving one another/loving God.
As a pastor and church seek to fulfill the mission God has called them to, I think the following might be helpful in discovering this unique and creative journey.
To find God’s mission for each individual church:
God pursues an intimate love relationship with every believer in every church and with every pastor.
In the love relationship with God, He reveals to a pastor and church where He is working.
In the love relationship with God, He invites a pastor and church to join Him in His work.
In the love relationship with God, He speaks to a pastor and church through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church body to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
To fulfill God’s mission for each individual church:
Every pastor and every church will be faced with a crisis of belief that will require faith and action.
Every pastor and every church must make major adjustments in order to join God in what He is doing.
Every pastor and every church will come to know God more intimately by experience as they obey Him and He accomplishes His work through them.
(Adapted from “Experiencing God’, Henry Blackaby)
What advice would you give to churches in America? What elements would you say are a must in any church?
I would say two things. Number one, you must keep your focus on Jesus. Don't lose sight of the gospel. Don't lose sight of the fact that people are dying and going to go to hell unless they know Jesus. If the church loses the centrality and the urgency of that message, I think the church dies.
And I think the reason that churches all over America today are closing their doors and shutting down is because they forget the gospel. They have forgotten that Jesus Christ died on a cross not so we could have a holy huddle or a stained glass fortress or us four and no more. He died on a cross so that we could reach the world.
They have got sin in their lives. And because of that they are separated from God. They go to hell. That is not necessary. Jesus died on the cross to make forgiveness and redemption completely possible.
Number two, don't try to be anything except who God called you to be. Maybe God didn't call you to go multi-site. Maybe God called you to one location. You need to be completely content with that. Maybe God called you to go plant churches instead of doing video venues. You need to do that.
Maybe God told you to do video venues and plant churches. You need to do that. You don't ever, every need to feel pressure because another church somewhere else in America or somewhere else in the world is doing something to think, "Oh, wow, we have got do that." Our call as a church is to do exactly what God called us to do. In the book of Revelation chapter two and chapter three Jesus gives seven different messages to seven different churches.
If he wanted every church to be the same he would have just said, "All right. Here is my message to every church and it is just the same." But he addressed seven churches specifically and said, "Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you." I just think that each church has a unique DNA that it needs to focus on. The gospel should be central, but the strategy and the structure of the church should be completely open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
(end of interview)
_____________________________________________________________________________
My advice? Find out where God is working, find out who God wants you to be as a church and find out who God wants you to reach.
Don’t try to be like everybody else. God stopped creating the universe on day six but He did not stop being creative. He is very capable of giving every church a unique identity and creative ways to help fulfill their assignment in the kingdom of God.
The churches and pastors that we put on pedestals, and we try to copy, didn’t copy some other church and pastor. No, these pastors, in their intimate love relationship with God, were undoubtedly hungry and thirsty enough to seek after God and ask Him to give them His unique, creative way to reach people.
God doesn’t play favorites. But, He does have His intimates-those who sincerely seek after Him in a love relationship that is real and personal.
Don’t go seeking after what other pastors and churches are doing to try to copy them. Seek after God and lead your congregation to seek after Him with all of their “heart, soul, mind, and strength” and to “love one another”.
Be willing to be obedient to God in whatever He leads you and your church to do. Your church doesn’t have to look like every other church. Your church only has to be what God desires for it to be.
There is no one way to “do” church. What works in one church may not work in another church. That’s why we don’t need to copy one another. I am not saying that we can’t learn from each other. But, ultimately, every pastor and every church must go to God, privately and corporately, in a love relationship with Him to seek His face and find out what He wants the church to be and to do.
The “doing” part of church (i.e., the heart of the church accomplished primarily in evangelism and serving) is important but the “being” part of church (i.e., the health of the church accomplished primarily through discipleship) is equally important. The goal should be to have a balanced church:
A balanced will look like this:
Heart/Health: evangelism/discipleship, reaching/teaching, going/growing, addition/multiplication, how many/what kind, loving one another/loving God.
As a pastor and church seek to fulfill the mission God has called them to, I think the following might be helpful in discovering this unique and creative journey.
To find God’s mission for each individual church:
God pursues an intimate love relationship with every believer in every church and with every pastor.
In the love relationship with God, He reveals to a pastor and church where He is working.
In the love relationship with God, He invites a pastor and church to join Him in His work.
In the love relationship with God, He speaks to a pastor and church through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church body to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
To fulfill God’s mission for each individual church:
Every pastor and every church will be faced with a crisis of belief that will require faith and action.
Every pastor and every church must make major adjustments in order to join God in what He is doing.
Every pastor and every church will come to know God more intimately by experience as they obey Him and He accomplishes His work through them.
(Adapted from “Experiencing God’, Henry Blackaby)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Whatever It Takes, Lord
Today I am stepping across the line. I'm tired of waffling, and I'm finished with wavering. I've made my choice; the verdict is in; and my decision is irrevocable. I'm going God's way. There's no turning back now!
I will live the rest of my life serving God's purposes with God's people on God's planet for God's glory. I will use my life to celebrate his presence, cultivate his character, participate in his family, demonstrate his love, and communicate his Word.
Since my past has been forgiven, and I have a purpose for living and a home awaiting in heaven, I refuse to waste any more time or energy on shallow living, petty thinking, trivial talking, thoughtless doing, useless regretting, hurtful resenting, or faithless worrying. Instead I will magnify God, grow to maturity, serve in ministry, and fulfill my mission in the membership of his family.
Because this life is preparation for the next, I will value worship over wealth, "we" over "me," character over comfort, service over status, and people over possessions, position, and pleasures. I know what matters most and I'll give it all I've got. I'll do the best I can with what I have for Jesus Christ today.
I won't be captivated by culture, manipulated by critics, motivated by praise, frustrated by problems, debilitated by temptation, or intimidated by the devil. I'll keep running my race with my eyes on the goal, not the sidelines or those running by me. When times get tough and I get tired, I won't back up, back off, back down, back out, or backslide. I'll just keep moving forward by God's grace. I'm Spirit-led, purpose-driven, and mission-focused, so I cannot be bought, I will not be compromised, and I shall not quit until I finish the race.
I'm a trophy of God's amazing grace so I will be gracious to everyone, grateful for everyday, and generous with everything that God entrusts to me.
To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I say: However, whenever, wherever, and whatever you ask me to do, my answer in advance is yes! Wherever you lead and whatever the cost, I'm ready. Anytime. Anywhere. Anyway. Whatever it takes Lord; whatever it takes! I want to be used by you in such a way that on that final day I'll hear you say, "Well done, thou good and faithful one. Come on in, and let the eternal party begin!"
Source:Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church.
THE ANGEL STADIUM DECLARATION
APRIL 17, 2005
On April 17, 2005, more than 30,000 members of the Saddleback Family gathered in Angel Stadium to celebrate the congregation's 25th anniversary. But they did more than just rejoice in the way God fulfilled the original vision He gave Rick Warren for the congregation in 1980. He also shared a new vision God has placed on his heart, one for mobilizing all God's people -- all over the world -- to tackle the giant obstacles that keep people in spiritual darkness.
At the end of the celebration, they all stood together and read the declaration above that RW wrote to help them express their radical commitment to this global spiritual revolution.
I will live the rest of my life serving God's purposes with God's people on God's planet for God's glory. I will use my life to celebrate his presence, cultivate his character, participate in his family, demonstrate his love, and communicate his Word.
Since my past has been forgiven, and I have a purpose for living and a home awaiting in heaven, I refuse to waste any more time or energy on shallow living, petty thinking, trivial talking, thoughtless doing, useless regretting, hurtful resenting, or faithless worrying. Instead I will magnify God, grow to maturity, serve in ministry, and fulfill my mission in the membership of his family.
Because this life is preparation for the next, I will value worship over wealth, "we" over "me," character over comfort, service over status, and people over possessions, position, and pleasures. I know what matters most and I'll give it all I've got. I'll do the best I can with what I have for Jesus Christ today.
I won't be captivated by culture, manipulated by critics, motivated by praise, frustrated by problems, debilitated by temptation, or intimidated by the devil. I'll keep running my race with my eyes on the goal, not the sidelines or those running by me. When times get tough and I get tired, I won't back up, back off, back down, back out, or backslide. I'll just keep moving forward by God's grace. I'm Spirit-led, purpose-driven, and mission-focused, so I cannot be bought, I will not be compromised, and I shall not quit until I finish the race.
I'm a trophy of God's amazing grace so I will be gracious to everyone, grateful for everyday, and generous with everything that God entrusts to me.
To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I say: However, whenever, wherever, and whatever you ask me to do, my answer in advance is yes! Wherever you lead and whatever the cost, I'm ready. Anytime. Anywhere. Anyway. Whatever it takes Lord; whatever it takes! I want to be used by you in such a way that on that final day I'll hear you say, "Well done, thou good and faithful one. Come on in, and let the eternal party begin!"
Source:Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church.
THE ANGEL STADIUM DECLARATION
APRIL 17, 2005
On April 17, 2005, more than 30,000 members of the Saddleback Family gathered in Angel Stadium to celebrate the congregation's 25th anniversary. But they did more than just rejoice in the way God fulfilled the original vision He gave Rick Warren for the congregation in 1980. He also shared a new vision God has placed on his heart, one for mobilizing all God's people -- all over the world -- to tackle the giant obstacles that keep people in spiritual darkness.
At the end of the celebration, they all stood together and read the declaration above that RW wrote to help them express their radical commitment to this global spiritual revolution.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Ron Clark writes the following in his book, “The Excellent Eleven” (a book on teaching):
Mrs. Owens scared the death out of me. She taught me biology, chemistry, and physics in high school, and those were three years I spent in complete fear of her wrath. Each day I would walk in Mrs. Owens’s classroom to be met with her intense face, those piercing eyes hidden below her strong brow and that gray hair swooping upward to give her already tall stature even more of an ominous presence.
Yeah, I was scared.
Her appearance, however, was only the beginning. Mrs. Owens was the most demanding individual I have ever met. She would often declare in her bellowing voice, “I insist that you all succeed! Now apply yourself!”
Her tests were brutal, and taking notes was a nightmare. I would have to run from my third period class to get to her room, and before I even made it, and before the bell had run, she would already be lecturing away.
My classmates and I would be falling over one another to get in our seats and get started. Her room had chalkboards on all four walls, and she would fill up every inch of space on them, talking away all the while about grams, molecules, and weights. She would then pause, stand upright, look around and finally say with intensity, “I need board space.”
After all I went through during those three years, I was surprised to find that once I started teaching, I drew one very important lesson from Mrs. Owens:
When you are dealing with children, above all else you must have passion. I learned more from Mrs. Owens than any other teacher I have ever had. Her passion and enthusiasm for her subjects were infectious, and we all worked three times as hard in her class as we did in the others.
I remember one time when Mrs. Owens was having problems with her back. She came to school on a stretcher (no exaggeration) and, lying flat on her back, wheeled herself around the room from chalkboard to chalkboard. She claimed she would let nothing short of death come between her students and their education.
Friday, August 22, 2008
The great danger facing all of us...
is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life,
nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness,
nor that we shall be terribly unhappy,
nor that we shall feel [that] life has no meaning at all--
not these things.
The danger is that we may fail to perceive life's greatest meaning,
fall short of its highest good,
miss its deepest and most abiding happiness,
be unable to tender the most needed service,
be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God--
and be content to have it so--
that is the danger:
that some day we may wake up
and find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings of life
and have really missed life itself.
For life without God,
to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him,
is unthinkable, impossible.
That is what one prays one's friends may be spared--
satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best,
that has in it no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with the Father.
~Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Sermons [1878]
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Why Can't We All Get Along?
How I wish we could! But, conflict is inevitable when people are involved and work together in any endeavor. Few people enjoy conflict (though at times it seems some people do!) but conflict is inevitable in any church or any ministry.
While conflict is usually unavoidable, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t attempt to avoid, or work through, the issue. When a church or ministry staff is in conflict with each other, the church/ministry will be hindered in its attempt to accomplish its goals in the kingdom of God.
There are many sources that can result in conflicts between people who work together. Our relationship with God, our relationship with other people, and our ideas, plans, schedules, and communication can produce conflict with others if these areas if we do not address them properly. The following might be helpful in trying to avoid conflict so that we become great team players on our church/ministry staffs.
Relationships
1. My relationship to God:
• Have I been spending time alone with God?
• Am I obeying God in the specific areas of my life in which He is working?
• Is my love for God and my understanding of God growing on a consistent basis?
• Is there any known sin in my life that needs to be confessed to God and dealt with in my life?
• Do I have a submissive and humble attitude towards God?
• Am I harboring any anger or grudges towards God that I need to confess to Him and ask for His forgiveness?
• Am I allowing God to do what is necessary in my life to make me more conformed to the image of His Son?
2. My relationship to my wife:
• Do I treat my wife as royalty because she belongs to the King of kings and Lord of lords and she has a royal “bloodline”?
• Do I treat my wife as a special gift from God?
• Have I been spending time alone with my wife?
• Is there anything I need to discuss with my wife that I have hesitated to mention?
• Is there anything my wife needs to discuss with me that I have prevented her from talking about?
• Have I offended my wife in any way that I need to make things right with her and ask for her forgiveness?
• Am I harboring any anger or grudges towards my wife that I need confess to her and ask for her forgiveness?
• Am I approachable so that my wife feels she can come to me and talk about anything she wants to?
• Do I have a submissive and humble attitude towards my wife? (Ephesians 5:21 “Submitting yourselves one to another…”)
• Does my wife find me being more conformed to the image of Jesus?
3. My relationships to other people in my life: my children, my relatives, my friends, my co-workers, etc.
• Do I treat my children and the other people in my life as royalty because they belong to the King of kings and Lord of lords and they have a royal “bloodline”?
• Do I treat my children and the other people in my life as special gifts from God?
• Am I spending time with my children and the other people in my life who are important to me?
• Have I offended any of my children or any of the other people in my life, in such a way, that I need to make things right and ask for their forgiveness?
• Am I harboring any anger or grudges towards any one of my children or any of the other people in my life that I need to make things right with that person and ask for their forgiveness?
• Do I have a submissive and humble attitude towards my children and the other people in my life?
• Do other people find me being more conformed to the image of Jesus?
The condition of my relationship to God and the condition of my relationship to my wife, my children, my family, and others will affect my relationships with others on the church/ministry staff with whom I work (or anyone else for that matter). If there is conflict in my personal life, I can expect there to be conflict in my relationships with others with whom I work. The problem is not with them; the problem is with me.
Ideas, Plans, Schedules, and Communication
Ideas can become plans but ideas don’t necessarily become plans. Brainstorming ideas and thinking “outside the box” are great ways to get the “creative juices” flowing. But, every idea doesn’t always develop into a plan.
4. Ideas:
• What are the ideas that I have for ministry projects?
• Have I discussed these ideas with my pastor (or other person in authority over me)?
• Do I allow him the freedom to give me positive and negative feedback about my ministry ideas?
• Have I discussed these ideas with other church staff and other believers whose opinion I trust?
• Do I allow them the freedom to give their positive and negative feedback about my ministry ideas?
• Have I informed every person that needs to be informed about my ministry ideas?
• Have I involved every person that needs to be involved with my ministry ideas?
• Have I presented my ideas to God to see if He approves?
• After receiving feedback and opinions from those I trust, do I have the proper attitude of humility to consider their opinions, and if necessary, make the necessary adjustments to my ideas.
5. Plans:
• What are the plans that I have for ministry projects?
• Have I discussed these plans with my pastor (or other person in authority over me)?
• Do I allow him the freedom to give me positive and negative feedback about my ministry plans?
• Have I discussed these plans with other church staff and other believers whose opinion I trust?
• Do I allow them the freedom to give their positive and negative feedback about my ministry plans?
• Have I informed every person that needs to be informed about my ministry plans?
• Have I involved every person that needs to be involved in my ministry plans?
• After receiving feedback and opinions from those I trust, do I have the proper attitude of humility to consider their opinions and, if necessary, make the necessary adjustments to my plans?
• Have I presented my plans to God to see if He approves?
6. Have I made sure that my ministry plans are not in a scheduling conflict with other ministries’ plans?
7. Do my plans infringe into other areas of ministries outside of my own responsibilities and job description?
• Have I discussed this with the leaders of those ministries?
• If my plans do infringe into other areas of ministries outside of my own responsibilities and job description, am I willing to give those plans to the leaders of those ministries and let go of my ownership? Can I rejoice if the plans succeed without my involvement and oversight?
• Have I received the approval of my ministry plans from those in authority over me?
8. Have I communicated, in advance, the schedule for my ministry plans to everyone who needs to be informed and involved?
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed". (Proverbs 15:22)
"As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend". (Proverbs 27:17)
While conflict is usually unavoidable, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t attempt to avoid, or work through, the issue. When a church or ministry staff is in conflict with each other, the church/ministry will be hindered in its attempt to accomplish its goals in the kingdom of God.
There are many sources that can result in conflicts between people who work together. Our relationship with God, our relationship with other people, and our ideas, plans, schedules, and communication can produce conflict with others if these areas if we do not address them properly. The following might be helpful in trying to avoid conflict so that we become great team players on our church/ministry staffs.
Relationships
1. My relationship to God:
• Have I been spending time alone with God?
• Am I obeying God in the specific areas of my life in which He is working?
• Is my love for God and my understanding of God growing on a consistent basis?
• Is there any known sin in my life that needs to be confessed to God and dealt with in my life?
• Do I have a submissive and humble attitude towards God?
• Am I harboring any anger or grudges towards God that I need to confess to Him and ask for His forgiveness?
• Am I allowing God to do what is necessary in my life to make me more conformed to the image of His Son?
2. My relationship to my wife:
• Do I treat my wife as royalty because she belongs to the King of kings and Lord of lords and she has a royal “bloodline”?
• Do I treat my wife as a special gift from God?
• Have I been spending time alone with my wife?
• Is there anything I need to discuss with my wife that I have hesitated to mention?
• Is there anything my wife needs to discuss with me that I have prevented her from talking about?
• Have I offended my wife in any way that I need to make things right with her and ask for her forgiveness?
• Am I harboring any anger or grudges towards my wife that I need confess to her and ask for her forgiveness?
• Am I approachable so that my wife feels she can come to me and talk about anything she wants to?
• Do I have a submissive and humble attitude towards my wife? (Ephesians 5:21 “Submitting yourselves one to another…”)
• Does my wife find me being more conformed to the image of Jesus?
3. My relationships to other people in my life: my children, my relatives, my friends, my co-workers, etc.
• Do I treat my children and the other people in my life as royalty because they belong to the King of kings and Lord of lords and they have a royal “bloodline”?
• Do I treat my children and the other people in my life as special gifts from God?
• Am I spending time with my children and the other people in my life who are important to me?
• Have I offended any of my children or any of the other people in my life, in such a way, that I need to make things right and ask for their forgiveness?
• Am I harboring any anger or grudges towards any one of my children or any of the other people in my life that I need to make things right with that person and ask for their forgiveness?
• Do I have a submissive and humble attitude towards my children and the other people in my life?
• Do other people find me being more conformed to the image of Jesus?
The condition of my relationship to God and the condition of my relationship to my wife, my children, my family, and others will affect my relationships with others on the church/ministry staff with whom I work (or anyone else for that matter). If there is conflict in my personal life, I can expect there to be conflict in my relationships with others with whom I work. The problem is not with them; the problem is with me.
Ideas, Plans, Schedules, and Communication
Ideas can become plans but ideas don’t necessarily become plans. Brainstorming ideas and thinking “outside the box” are great ways to get the “creative juices” flowing. But, every idea doesn’t always develop into a plan.
4. Ideas:
• What are the ideas that I have for ministry projects?
• Have I discussed these ideas with my pastor (or other person in authority over me)?
• Do I allow him the freedom to give me positive and negative feedback about my ministry ideas?
• Have I discussed these ideas with other church staff and other believers whose opinion I trust?
• Do I allow them the freedom to give their positive and negative feedback about my ministry ideas?
• Have I informed every person that needs to be informed about my ministry ideas?
• Have I involved every person that needs to be involved with my ministry ideas?
• Have I presented my ideas to God to see if He approves?
• After receiving feedback and opinions from those I trust, do I have the proper attitude of humility to consider their opinions, and if necessary, make the necessary adjustments to my ideas.
5. Plans:
• What are the plans that I have for ministry projects?
• Have I discussed these plans with my pastor (or other person in authority over me)?
• Do I allow him the freedom to give me positive and negative feedback about my ministry plans?
• Have I discussed these plans with other church staff and other believers whose opinion I trust?
• Do I allow them the freedom to give their positive and negative feedback about my ministry plans?
• Have I informed every person that needs to be informed about my ministry plans?
• Have I involved every person that needs to be involved in my ministry plans?
• After receiving feedback and opinions from those I trust, do I have the proper attitude of humility to consider their opinions and, if necessary, make the necessary adjustments to my plans?
• Have I presented my plans to God to see if He approves?
6. Have I made sure that my ministry plans are not in a scheduling conflict with other ministries’ plans?
7. Do my plans infringe into other areas of ministries outside of my own responsibilities and job description?
• Have I discussed this with the leaders of those ministries?
• If my plans do infringe into other areas of ministries outside of my own responsibilities and job description, am I willing to give those plans to the leaders of those ministries and let go of my ownership? Can I rejoice if the plans succeed without my involvement and oversight?
• Have I received the approval of my ministry plans from those in authority over me?
8. Have I communicated, in advance, the schedule for my ministry plans to everyone who needs to be informed and involved?
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed". (Proverbs 15:22)
"As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend". (Proverbs 27:17)
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