Quit 'acting' like a Christian and BE one

Quit claiming to be a Christian if you aren't acting like one. By the slimmest chance possible you might be one (a Christian), but this is only because salvation is by God's grace through your faith. But if you aren't acting like one, quit the games and quit claiming to be one.

Just as the Israelites reacted when Moses came from the mountain with a shiny face (Exodus 34) because he had been talking with God, people create their own glory (prominence, preeminence) and things to worship (sex, money, status) and instead of giving up their sins and enjoying God's glory, they refuse to "look at Moses' face" and see God's glory.

It is like those who refuse to go to church, who refuse to hang out with Christian friends, who refuse to spend time with God, who refuse to participate in congregational singing, who refuse to read a good Christian book or Bible - Why? Because their hearts are hard and they refuse to see the glory of Jesus. They are hard-hearted, stubborn, and rebellious.

"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
-James 2:17

I am tired of you giving Christianity a bad name. Yes, we are all hypocrites at some time or another. In no way am I perfect. I fall short all the time. But like my claim to be a Christian, I try my hardest to follow Christ in every thing I do and every decision that I make. When I fall short I immediately ask for forgiveness and strive to never do it again.

You (who this message is for) sit there in your sin and shame, ask for forgiveness with no true repentance, and do the same sin the next day. If you are a "Christian" but haven't been to church in a month or two - this is for you. If you are a "Christian" but last night went too far with your girlfriend or boyfriend for the hundredth time - this is for you. If you are a "Christian" but just got finished looking at your nightly porn - this is for you.

Quit merely acting like a Christian and actually be one.

Call it Out

When I was young(er than I am today) I had a few particular people in my life that saw something in me. I had a couple of teachers and spiritual leaders point out certain characteristics that they claimed I could use throughout my life to influence people. My parents specifically liked to tell me that I was a great leader, a college professor would tell me that I had a gift in teaching, and an evangelist or two, when visiting our church, told me that I had a future in the ministry. These people spoke into my life and called something out of me.

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a pastor. So their words rang true from the moment they spoke them. For other people, these callings might lie dormant and unused for months or years. But when you speak into someone's life and call something out of them, you never how or when or where God is going to use it.

We need to speak prophetically into each other's lives. We need to call things out - gifts, passions, goals, dreams, desires. Isn't that what Jesus was so good at? He saw the martyr in a denier named Peter. He called it out by calling him "the Rock."

Biblical Prophets were less about "telling the future" and more about calling out truths of what was happening and what the result would be of certain actions. Prophets call things out of people.

I want to call the best out of others the way Jesus did. That's leadership. That's discipleship. You should want the same. Don't do it haphazardly though - you might be influencing someone's future for the better or for the worse.

Illegitimate Reasons to Leave a Church

A couple of weeks ago I posted five viable reasons someone could leave a church. I noted that I would soon post illegitimate reasons to leave a church (and there are many). I will post a few of them here:

1) A church is not perfect or it does not meet all legitimate needs. No person, no organization, and no institution is perfect. Every church has problems and shortcomings. And if you decide to leave a church because they are not perfect, you are just further proving that we live in an imperfect, sinful world.
2) The church you are at doesn't have a ministry that you need. Maybe God wants you to minister to your church instead of them ministering to you. Rather than complaining about the church and leaving, approach the leaders in a respectful way and work with them to further develop the ministry.
3) The one that gets me the most - Leaving a church to get away from problems. The Bible describes the church as a body and a family. When was the last time your legs didn't cooperate with you like you wanted so you parted ways with them? When you and your mother disagreed last, was that the end of the relationship? Or did you both try and work things out for the better? Deal with the problems like Christian adults and through the situation rely on the grace of God. Running away will derail the very process God uses to conform us into the image of Christ.
4) You are being challenged about your doctrine or pattern of life and church becomes uncomfortable. We should not run because we feel threatened by someone challenging us. Be ready to listen, examine, and act if necessary. Going through this process is the only way to grow.

To summarize: The only true valid reason for leaving a local church is a desire for more effective ministry in and for the body of Christ. Stay in your church, please. Make it better. Serve. Love like Jesus loved the Church. What would your life be like if Jesus would have left the Church when things got hard and when He faced challenges? Think about it.

Reasons to Leave a Church

1) A church begins to compromise the biblical essentials (e.g., Jesus is God and came to provide us salvation, there is one God).
2) When differences in belief or practice become so serious that cooperation in ministry is seriously hindered.
3) When legitimate needs are not being met.
4) When the leadership becomes abusive, serving themselves at the expense of the members, or tolerating sin that should have been dealt with.
5) Leaving to serve in another church so that the gospel can flourish.

In every situation, the decision to leave should always be done carefully, prayerfully, and in communication with the church leaders to see if the issues can be worked out. People should never just disappear from a church unless they are being spiritually abused causing any form of communication to be dangerous.

In summary, Christians need to be committed to the church.

(There are many illegitimate reasons to leave a church - I will post those soon.)

Conflict is the Price of Growth

When a church grows, it changes, and that change causes conflict.

The sad thing is, many times when a church begins to face this inevitable conflict they take a collective step backwards and in order to not deal with the conflict they refuse progress in their mission to grow, disciple, and reach the lost.

Conflict is not always a bad thing in a church. Conflict, if handled in love and humility according the principles laid out in Scripture, should be the recipe for a more mature church that is more unified than ever. The churches that refuse to deal with conflict shifts their worshiping from Christ to comfort even if they might not admit to it.

In Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, they discuss eight different forms of conflict in which a person or a group of people want something that they perceive they lost due to change.

1) Power - Change requires some people to lose power (e.g., job title, prominence, proximity to the top leaders, the right to make key decisions) when responsibilities must be divided. These people often forget that Jesus took on the lowly title of "servant" for Himself as our model of humility, and rather than acting like power-hungry heathens we should strive to act more like our God.
2) Compensation - Change requires that compensation such as salaries and benefits be reallocated to other priorities. Money motivates too many people, and when their pay does not meet their expectations, conflict occurs.
3) Preference - Change requires that long-standing leaders be reassigned in roles and responsibilities so that new leaders can be raised up.
4) Information - Change requires that new people have access to certain information, which means that some people will feel out of the "information loop". While it is important to make sure the appropriate people are appropriately informed, those who are driven by information will fight to be "in the know" and thus, conflict.
5) Visibility - Change requires that new people become more prominently visible, while others who use to be prominently visible become less so. Sadly, by causing conflict over their loss of visibility, such people often forget that Jesus is still watching their behavior and is quite disappointed.
6) Energy - Change requires more physical, emotional, and spiritual energy than might have been needed in prior stages of ministry. As the pace picks up, the leaders need to be fully capable of taking on the load. If they are not capable, they should quickly be replaced. The replaced often complain about things changing too fast and rather than humbly accept their limits and find a place to serve that best suits their energy levels they cause conflict.
7) Expedient Pace - Change requires that decisions be made at an expedient pace so the church can mature and grow. Some people value their ability to control the pace of the church decision making because it is a form of power and rule.
8) Control - Church change results in less control over everything! The church is like a river that can be channeled and influenced for progress and power. However, every attempt to control a church kills either the church or the person seeking to control the church.

In summary, for a church to grow it must accept the pain that accompanies change. Because we want more people to have a relationship with God and worship Him we must be willing to accept the inevitable conflict that change brings.

Which of the eight forms of conflict have you seen active in a church? Was it handled properly?

10 Things You Didn't Know About Senior Pastors of Large Churches

I read a very cool article pulled from a survey of 232 pastors of churches that have an attendance (on average) of at least 2,000 people. Interesting stuff that came out of it - thought I would share. Let me know what you think.

1. They think of themselves more as teachers and directional leaders than as pastors.
Sure, their business cards may say pastor and their congregants may call them Pastor Smith -- but when these leaders are asked which phrase best describes how they see themselves and their role, the phrase "pastor, shepherd or spiritual guide" ranks a distant fourth.

Which words do today's senior leaders resonate with? When presented with nine options, more than 80% select "preacher/teacher." Half choose the term "directional leader," and slightly more than a third select the word "visionary."

2. Preaching tops the list of things they do best.
Jesus spent a lot of time healing people, but only 1% of senior pastors surveyed say visiting members, the sick and shut in is something they personally do best. Only 7% say they're great at converting others to the faith, and only 10% identify pastoral counseling and spiritual direction as an area of significant strength. These results may seem problematic, but with a high value on lay involvement and an average reported staff of 55, it's likely that others at the church excel in these areas.

So where do senior pastors believe their strengths lie? Seventy nine percent say they're best at "preaching" followed by "thinking about and promoting a vision and goals for the future."

3. They haven't always worked in churches.
Although most attended church regularly at the age of 16, 42% of them spent five or more years working in another field before entering the pastorate. The most popular prior career choice? Business. Meanwhile, a third of senior pastors' spouses work both outside the home and outside the church.

4. Being an extrovert isn't mandatory.
Yes, their role demands that they be comfortable standing on a platform and speaking in front of large crowds. But nearly half of them say they're somewhat or very introverted.

5. Family stays at the top of mind when it comes to prayers.
In a 53-hour work week, megachurch senior pastors spend a full 19 hours in and preparing for preaching, teaching and worship, 9 hours in meetings--and 5 hours in intentional prayer and meditation.

When they pray, who do they pray for? Their family (94%) and themselves (84%) primarily, followed by church staff (76%) and other individuals at church (64%). Almost two-thirds say they seldom pray for political leaders and roughly 20% say they never do. Similarly, only 19% regularly pray for their neighbors.

6. They usually like the people they work with.
Megachurch pastors report low levels of conflict in their churches, and high levels of satisfaction with the individuals they work with. Only 5% of pastors report being "somewhat dissatisfied" with the church board; the remaining 95% of pastors gave satisfactory ratings. Worship directors got the lowest rating of "very dissatisfied" but only among a mere 2% of the pastors surveyed.

7. They believe their top gift is leadership.
According to our survey, the spiritual gifts most often possessed by large-church senior pastors are leadership (77%) and teaching (67%), distantly followed by exhortation (21%).

8. They are actively involved in sports.
When asked "in which of these areas outside your church community would you describe yourself as ‘currently active'," the most common answer was not a school-related activity, a social service or hobby group; it was a parachurch group (37%), followed by a sports league (34%) and denominational activities (32%). As was found to be the case in Leadership Network's recent executive pastor survey, the top non-church involvement for senior pastors in large churches is sports leagues. In fact "sports" is also the most frequently mentioned way megachurch pastors say they maintain their sanity during crazy or stressful moments of ministry.

9. They find worship at their church helpful for personal spiritual growth.
One might think that working at a church could hinder full engagement in the worship experience, however 41% of pastors surveyed said that worship services were extremely helpful for them. On the flip-side, only 27% of senior pastors report finding small groups extremely helpful to their spiritual growth, and 11% went on record to say they're not very helpful at all. Personal time with God still tops the list with 79% saying that reading the Bible, prayer or solitude is "extremely helpful" to spiritual growth. This finding also parallels the responses of executive pastors.

10. They're not thinking about quitting.
In today's world, people tend to switch careers a lot. But what about pastors? Just under half of large church senior pastors surveyed admit they've thought about leaving their church to enter a different occupation in the last five years, although on the upside, most say it's only "once in a while." Furthermore, when asked about their plans to retire, on average senior pastors expect to be in their position for 17 more years (until age 68) – on top of the 15 they've already put into their role.

I feel called...

Precursor:
Before I start, I want it to be clear that anything and everything I ever say or write comes from somebody else. I don't claim to be wise by any means. I just listen and read a lot. And so whenever I come to the blank whiteboard of iRescue, it is oftentimes because my thoughts and/or emotions just got sparked by something someone else said. This is definitely one of those times.
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I've heard MANY people use the term "calling". In fact, I myself have used the phrase, "I have been called into a full-time, life-time ministry." I, along with many people, use these words to try and communicate that we feel God has given us a specific "missional" assignment in the kingdom. But, now that I read and think more about it, I wonder if this type of language is misleading.

The truth is, Christian's have already been given The Call; it is inherent in being a disciple. If you are already a Christian that desires to use your passion and abilities to worship God and lead others into worshiping God, then you are a disciple. The call has already been issued: "Glorify Me in all that you do. Love and serve your neighbor. Go into the world and preach the gospel to every person." That's it.

Now, each person must evaluate how this call specifically relates to them. God does give direction like He did to Paul in Acts 16:8 as He told Paul to go to Macedonia. But this direction and guidance will always be in retrospect of the call that we already have.

So, I think that instead of waiting for "the call", we should go ahead and recognize that we have already all been called and find out how we can each individually best fulfill our missional role as Christ-followers.

For those brilliant mathematicians that like to get their hands dirty - go be the best engineer you can be. But don't forget your calling. For the skillful businessman with incredible leadership abilities - go run a thriving corporation. But don't forget your calling. And for that pastor that just cannot get away from the church - go preach and lead that congregation. But don't forget that your calling is the same as every other Christian's - love Jesus and tell others about Him.


For more on this, check out The Resurgence's new blog: http://theresurgence.com/greear_language-of-calling-part1

I'd like to hear what you think. My mind is still racing on this one and I am still unsure about all of my thoughts on this. Add a comment below!