Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Number One Problem

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I have a question for you: What is the number one problem that Church faces today? In one word, simplify the issues bouncing around in our board meetings, debated in our denominational councils and faced in our Christian conferences. What would it be for you? Homosexuality, spiritual apathy, post-modern pluralism, abortion, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, world hunger? I believe that there is one crucial problem that we are facing that if solved would solve the other issues listed above.

Washing Peter's Feet

My one word for all of the issues in front of us is discipleship. It is both problem and solution. It is a problem because we find it to be the most difficult and complex task to work out in our pursuit of the kingdom of God. It is a solution because when disciples are made, hungry mouths are fed, justice is served and sinners find repentance.

Whenever a conflict or problem arose in the texts of Scripture, God always produced a leader to solve it. World-wide flood? Noah built an ark. Global spiritual darkness? Abraham left home and hearth in search of God. Hebrews suppressed beside the muck of the Nile? Moses paved a way out with his rod. Giants in the Land? Joshua led the charge. Midianites terrorizing the townsfolk? Gideon ousted them with 300 men and some cookware. Philistine giant decimating the courage of the army of Israel? David took him down with a slingshot. An entire species heading to an eternity in hell? Jesus vanquished death at Calvary. A world who needs to hear the good news of Christ’s victory? Twelve disciples take the reigns of a celestial organization called the Church.

To produce these leaders, God used ordinary men and women to speak into their lives, influencing their decisions and plans. Without these mentors or disciplers in their lives, these great men would not have accomplished the amazing things that are written about them.

Discipleship produces leaders. Leaders provide solutions. Solutions bring resolve to conflict. We must discover a way to effecitvely, consistently produce disciples. There is no other way to solve the globe’s problems.

What is the worst problem that we face as a Church? How could the right disciple solve the problem?

Would You Know What to Do?

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At the beginning of this year, I read a book called Swimming Lessons by Grant Edwards. In it, he posed this question, of which I am still struggling with the answer. I would like to share it with you and then show you how we at Tabernacle of Praise (TOP) are approaching the answer.

If I placed a recently converted Christian into your care, do you know what to do to maximize the chances of this new Christian maturing in Christ?

This question is significant in light of the fact that TOP’s mission statement is to reconcile the lost and disciple believers in Crawford County and beyond. Asking us this question is like asking asking a blacksmith if he can make a horeshoe, or a carpenter if he can cut wood. If asked those question, these craftsment could dismiss it as foolishness and continue with their work as usual, or they could be intrigued by the simplicity of it and give their full attention to answering the questions. In doing so, they would find faster, more efficient ways to create horshows and cut wood. They would earn larger profit margins and grow their clientele. This is the difference between a craftsman and a master. The master works hard at answering the simple questions.

We want to be masters at what we do, and so the Board of Elders and I tackled this question and Grant’s book for three months. We met biweekly to discuss each chapter and the quesitons and implications that those chapters raised for us as a church. In the end, we all came to the conclusion that we as a church don’t know exactly what to do to maximize the chances of a new Christian maturing in Christ. That’s not a good place to find yourself if your mission is to disciple believers. Now that we knew where we were, we decided to move on and get somewhere else.

FirstSteps

First Steps Ministry was founded by Grant Edwards to promote his belief in the efficiency and biblical precedent of one-on-one discipleship. According to him, believers grow in Christ faster, more steadily and more lastingly when they are being taught within the context of a relationship. We have come to believe that he is right based on our own experience and work in the ministry. Grant’s method is simple: The disciple meets with the discipler one hour or so a week for twelve weeks and they discuss and work on four essential disciplines of Christian life–prayer, Bible study, Christian community and evangelism. The idea is that a person has the best chances of developing these spiritual life skills when they are with a mature believer one-on-one.

In short, the Elders of TOP have decided to put their hopes in the First Steps method of discipleship to change our church culture, and ultimately, our community. To kick it off, we are holding a discipleship seminar this Saturday starting at 8:30 am. The seminar fee is $30 which includes lunch and a First Steps discipleship workbook, which is used to facilitate the discipleship relationship over the three month period. Please come if you can!

To Be Remembered

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[I've just heard that some dear friends of mine have just lost their grandmother, and so I would like to humbly dedicate this post to the memory of La Abuelita Chonita de Muñoz. She and her husband founded one of the greatest churches in Guatemala, and has in a small but real way, affected the course of my life.]

Here is a quote from Soren Kierkegaard’s philisophical work Fear and Trembling, edited and translated by Howard V. and Edna H. Hong. I recently received the book out of the kindness of Rebekah Lantz’s heart, who is letting me borrow it until I’ve had my fill. It’s a fascinating read all based on the instance when Abraham was tested by God when commanded to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Hopefully, a book review will be forthcoming.

No! No one who was great in the world will be forgotten, but everyone was great in his own way, and everyone in proportion to the greatness in which he loved…Everyone shall be remembered, but everyone became great in proportion to his expectancy…Everyone shall be remembered, but everyone was great wholly in proportion to the magnitude of that with which he struggled.” [Italics in original.]

To what greatness can a man love? According to Kierkegaard, he who loves himself is great. He who loves the world is greater. Yet, he who loves God is the greatest of all.

To what greatness can a man expect or hope? One can expect the possible, another the eternal, but the one who expects the impossible is the greatest.

To what greatness can a man struggle? A man can be great when he struggle with the world and conquers. The next man becomes great though struggling with himself and winning. Even so, the one who struggles with God and is victorious is the greatest.

May we all strive to the greatness of loving God, expecting the impossible and struggling with God. In this way, we shall be more than remembered; we shall inspire.

Dreams Lead to Opposition

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There you are sitting in your room thinking of what you want to be. Or, you’re at your desk in the office staring out the window thinking of the office you really want to have. Or, you’re doing your daily chores dreaming of that business idea you have. Dreams are the starting line of success. Without them, we would go nowhere. However, when we embark on the journey in pursuit of those dreams, the real work begins.

Nehemiah was a man with a dream. He would work for King Artaxerxes as a cupbearer dreaming of the day when his people, the Jews, would be restored to their former glory with the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. His heart was bent on it and his imagination drew him pictures every hour of what could be. One day, his dreaming thrust him into the center of a pivotal moment. The king asked Nehemiah why he seemed so sad and pensive. Nehemiah then told the king the shame that had occurred to his people and then dared to ask for permission to pursue his dream.

I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. 9So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.       Nehemiah 2:7-10 NIV

Nehemiah saw his opporutnity to spring into action for the sake of his dream. He asked the king for the permission and support necessary. It was granted and I’m sure that he had a party to celebrate the momentous occassion. The dream of a renewed Israel was about to become true! However, look at verse ten again. Sanballat and Tobiah hated what was happening and decided to oppose Nehemiah’s dream. At the very beginning of the dream, the opposition is asserting itself. They were digging in their heals to fight Nehemiah to the death. They hadn’t even met Nehemiah, but his dream was the only thing they needed to set themselves up against this man of vision.

Your dream will incite opposition. People who don’t even know you will be against you for no other reason than to foil the dream of your heart. It’s nothing personal, but yet it is immensely personal all at the same time. If you’ve dreamed a dream and have stepped through the door of opportunity, then be assured that your Opposition is readying itself and will be awaiting you.

What kind of opposition have you encountered in the pursuit of your dreams? How have you handled it?

Book Review: The Hole in Our Gospel

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Richard Stearn’s book The Hole in Our Gospel can be summed up in a question in the introduction: What does God expect of us? This is the million dollar question for all believers, but when it is posed by the CEO of World Vision U.S., one of the largest charity organizations in the world, it’s worth taking a listen to what he has to say.

Stearns_TheHoleinOurGospel

Stearns begins the book by setting up his thesis that there is a hole, or a fundamental weakness, in the gospel preachined by the American church due to the lack of concern for the world’s poor and outcast. His supporting argument starts with a detailed description of the hole in his heart before becoming the CEO of of a non-profit corporation and follows with a sobering potrayal of the hole in the world and ultimately, the hole in the Church. He finished the book with a call to action which he calls “repairing the hole.”

The beginning chapters offer a poignant journal of Richard Stearn’s life, career and change. He worked his way up from nothing attending two Ivy League schools and going on to serve as the President and CEO of two American companies. He married his college sweetheart and settled down into a nice life of Christian living. One day, this American dream was threatened by the call of God to serve at World Vision as their CEO in 1997, which he accepted after much internal struggle.

Throughout the middle of the book, Stearns lists the major threats to humankind in the world. The list begins with the disparity between the rich and the poor, because from this issue stems all of the others–hunger, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, inadequate water supply, illiteracy, female persecution and war. His wealth of knowledge on these subjects cannot be understated, yet he strives to keep the reader from being overwhelmed with the amount of information.

The last part of the book is a keen look at the lack of compassion in the Church to help the poor and how we can turn the tide and win the world for Christ. Our purposeful blindness to the plight of the suffering people of the world is the result in a misconception we have of what God expects of us, what the true gospel is and the rightful ownership of our resources.

This book challenged me as few books have. Stearn’s treatment of this difficult subject is a masterful testimony to the work that God has done in his heart and the work that World Vision is doing in the world today. This would be a must read for anyone who is concerned with what God will say to them on the day they see Him.