Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Key to Greatness
A spritiual hero of mine defined the key to greatness as humility. That is easy to say but very hard to live. Last night I was priviledge to see some conflictual issues worked out with great humility from all sides. It was life changing for me as a minister of Christ. As Pastors we are trained to be humble and to lay down personal feelings for the good of the congregation. But to see the laity live this out was inspiring to me. It has deepened my level of trust in my coworkers, friends and family (church). It was truly a watershed moment for me and for our church I believe. So people I say to you today, WHAT IF we all lived out being humble first and thinking of ourselves second? Could we make a difference in our spheres of influence more effectively? I believe we could. My prayer for everyone today is, be humble. That is the true key to greatness as demonstrated by Jesus, who was perfect and had every right to shout out and say "I am blameless you dopes! You got the wrong guy!" but he didn't. He knew the mission was bigger then the ME. WHAT IF we all pursued the mission over the me?
Saturday, November 3, 2007
What IF unpacked and unplugged
The question that permeates the mind of all young up and coming Christian thinkers should be: What IF? Whatever your IF is, that is the heart of beyond the box thinking. Craig Groessel and Bill Hybels, two of todays most creative church growth leaders, both put large stock in this question. What if we all acted out the most creative thoughts we have at reaching the lost and building the church? What would happen? Examine your IF.
Groessel has said "if you want to reach those who have never been reached, you have to do something no one else has ever done to reach them". That is beyond the box thinking. Its a radical, uncompromising pursuit of God's will for the church and our role in it. What if we did whatever it took to reach our neighborhood? What would that look like? What if we were not afraid to share Christ's love with our coworkers or family? Actually we can still be afraid, but we come to grips with the fear and look it in the eye and do what God is calling us to do anyway! What if churches did not care about membership? If baptism was really about life change and not just about padding the denominational statistics? What if we invested in the people who we baptized as much AFTER they were saved as we did trying to win them for Jesus? What if we shared our information with other churches? Imagine the impact the worldwide church of God would have if we all agreed to share the best resources out there without worrying about credit or career. That would be too hard you say...its a pride thing. I want everyone to know how good I am at something, so it is mine, and I won't share. Sounds juvenile but that is what happens in reality.
What if we all feared God? Sin would not be something we blow off with a quick prayer or a fake promise to do better. Well you say, that would be easier if God showed up in the flesh like the Father and the Son did, but we have the Holy Spirit. YES we have the Living God living in US! Is that not enough! We have the whole Bible to reflect on and we know who wins the battle between good and evil eternally! But we want more of God before we can fear Him. Wow, how arrogant can we be!? What if...well you get the point. Its a call to be radical. Think beyond the box. Do something no one expects. When we come up against a wall we can lay down and hide or we can do something beyond the box to climb that wall. What if we all climbed over the wall when we came up against it? What IF?
Groessel has said "if you want to reach those who have never been reached, you have to do something no one else has ever done to reach them". That is beyond the box thinking. Its a radical, uncompromising pursuit of God's will for the church and our role in it. What if we did whatever it took to reach our neighborhood? What would that look like? What if we were not afraid to share Christ's love with our coworkers or family? Actually we can still be afraid, but we come to grips with the fear and look it in the eye and do what God is calling us to do anyway! What if churches did not care about membership? If baptism was really about life change and not just about padding the denominational statistics? What if we invested in the people who we baptized as much AFTER they were saved as we did trying to win them for Jesus? What if we shared our information with other churches? Imagine the impact the worldwide church of God would have if we all agreed to share the best resources out there without worrying about credit or career. That would be too hard you say...its a pride thing. I want everyone to know how good I am at something, so it is mine, and I won't share. Sounds juvenile but that is what happens in reality.
What if we all feared God? Sin would not be something we blow off with a quick prayer or a fake promise to do better. Well you say, that would be easier if God showed up in the flesh like the Father and the Son did, but we have the Holy Spirit. YES we have the Living God living in US! Is that not enough! We have the whole Bible to reflect on and we know who wins the battle between good and evil eternally! But we want more of God before we can fear Him. Wow, how arrogant can we be!? What if...well you get the point. Its a call to be radical. Think beyond the box. Do something no one expects. When we come up against a wall we can lay down and hide or we can do something beyond the box to climb that wall. What if we all climbed over the wall when we came up against it? What IF?
Thursday, November 1, 2007
What IF: You had no fear of failure?
In my last blog I set up your what IF...in my continuing series on this issue I tackle the what if question in a positive way...what if you could do whatever you wanted to do without any fear of failure? Dr. Dan Erickson hits on this point and others like it in his book Finding Your Greater Yes! Check out his ministry called people matter ministries today!
If we had no fear of failure could we then succeed at our wildest dreams? Fear of failure lies behind so many things we have done and will do in life. When we were young it was in our mind when we thought about jumping in the deep end or riding a bike, as a teen it was there when we looked at that gorgeous boy or girl but were to afraid to engage in a conversation with them let alone ask them on a date, as young adults it was in the back of the brain as we tried to stroll confidently into that first big job interview or that first day at work once we landed the job. So what if we as adults were not afraid to fail? If we could dream big for God and for self and not worry about what the Joneses, Smiths or Browns would say. We would not fret about what our families would think, we would not worry about losing street cred with our friends. But you see Jesus Christ the living God once us to think big!!! To think without IF's to go beyond the box. To chase our dreams not look at them longingly in the distant sunset. God has given us all we need to fulfill the great plans He has for us! Will we tap into Him or run away afraid of the rejection and fear of failure that surely comes for all of us who fear failing. If God has a plan for each of us as Scripture clearly states then we should run it down, jump up and down on top of it and yell and scream at the top of our lungs until we accomplish it, finding it comes first, then the pursuit then the glorious goal line charge that equals arriving at His purpose for our lives. To often we spend our whole life looking and never get a chance to live in our purpose. Don't be another victim of the fear of failure.
If we had no fear of failure could we then succeed at our wildest dreams? Fear of failure lies behind so many things we have done and will do in life. When we were young it was in our mind when we thought about jumping in the deep end or riding a bike, as a teen it was there when we looked at that gorgeous boy or girl but were to afraid to engage in a conversation with them let alone ask them on a date, as young adults it was in the back of the brain as we tried to stroll confidently into that first big job interview or that first day at work once we landed the job. So what if we as adults were not afraid to fail? If we could dream big for God and for self and not worry about what the Joneses, Smiths or Browns would say. We would not fret about what our families would think, we would not worry about losing street cred with our friends. But you see Jesus Christ the living God once us to think big!!! To think without IF's to go beyond the box. To chase our dreams not look at them longingly in the distant sunset. God has given us all we need to fulfill the great plans He has for us! Will we tap into Him or run away afraid of the rejection and fear of failure that surely comes for all of us who fear failing. If God has a plan for each of us as Scripture clearly states then we should run it down, jump up and down on top of it and yell and scream at the top of our lungs until we accomplish it, finding it comes first, then the pursuit then the glorious goal line charge that equals arriving at His purpose for our lives. To often we spend our whole life looking and never get a chance to live in our purpose. Don't be another victim of the fear of failure.
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