"Yada, Yada"

I don’t know if you’re a fan of Seinfeld, but one of the funniest episodes involved the use of the phrase “yada, yada”. Used in this context, it was meant to condense the story or gloss over the details of the story. “I was going to the store and ‘yada, yada’, I ended up spending $100 dollars”. I don’t know if the writers knew the Hebrew translation or not, but there’s more to ‘yada’ for you and me than just a placeholder in conversation.

It seems one of the most reoccurring situations that church planters/pastors find themselves in is the need to know the direction of God. Whether it’s where a church plant should be located, the name of the new church, or even the color scheme/logo of the new ministry. It would be helpful if God, in His mercy, would just hit us over the head with the correct answer. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for us) God designed things so that we would seek a relationship with Him and not just use Him as a Magic Eight Ball when we need an answer.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

According to the Spirit Filled Life Bible (NKJV), two words stand out in this passage that will shed light on hearing God when things are muddy for us.

• “ways” (Hebrew: derek), this word indicates “a road, a course” and suggests a specific opportunity that a person may encounter on a recurring basis such as each new day that we wake up. This passage suggests that in all our “days” we should acknowledge God.
  
• The other word of significance here is “acknowledge” (Hebrew: yada’), this is translated “know, know by observation, or firsthand experience”. The highest level of yada’ is in “direct, intimate contact” such as is experienced in marriage.
  

To pull it all together, if we will in all our days maintain ‘yada’ (intimate contact with God), then God promises to direct our paths toward His life-giving answer. If you find yourself struggling to know the will or direction of God, it means that you’re trying to work it out yourself without the benefit of God’s intimate direction. Spend some quality time with Him, and ‘yada, yada’ you’ll find that things run a lot smoother.

What Would Jesus Ask?

I love this clip and at the same time it makes me sad when I think about how most churches react when a genuine seeker shows up. I hope that people like this will continue to ask questions about God.

Feeding the Monster

My desire in sharing the following is not to rub salt in the wound or to take a position of piety (the Lord knows and my wife that I’m not perfect or always holy), but to remind us all to do what is necessary to stay pure before the Lord and man.

Several ministers and their sins have been in the spotlight in recent weeks and with this exposure, more disdain from those who we are trying to reach with the gospel. If the church, as the world sees it, can contain such liars, deceivers, and whores of the gospel, what is the point in converting? All of these things are already in play in the world, what’s the use in moving from one nasty field to another?

The barrage of sinful preachers has seemed overwhelming lately. Starting with the revelation that the author of the anointed song, Healer has been faking his cancer and now has admitted to a lifestyle of pornography. read here

Todd Bentley, the leader of the Lakeland Revival in Florida revealing that he and his wife have separated and now it appears he was involved with another woman. read here

Then this morning I read an article concerning the Without Walls Church in Tampa Bay led by Pastor Randy White. Randy and his wife Paula announced their divorce last year. She has moved on with her television and itinerant ministry. He has tried to salvage the church amidst the loss of thousands of members and thousands of dollars.

In a recent article posted by the St. Petersburg Times read here , Pastor White outlined several strategies for rejuvenating the ministry. He directed that excessive chairs be removed from the sanctuary (I’ve done this before in order to create community in services). Installing mirrors on the walls of the sanctuary to “brighten the dark atmosphere”. I’m sorry; mirrors have never been able to clear up internal darkness.

And finally, in the most absurd move I’ve ever read, Paula White will be returning to minister at the church on a monthly basis. You read that right! His ex-wife will continue to minister because “she packed the house when she led service two weeks ago”. Not trying to be mean, but this kind of stuff really makes me ill. Rather than scrambling to find a way to prop up the “church”, why not submit to a season of counseling, a sabbatical or all of the above. After this season of restoring, then decide what direction is best for their soul and their families and the body of believers.

This leads me to my point. How did we get so engrossed in ministry that we feel like its okay to do whatever it takes, including sinful acts, as long as we are able to produce results? Why do we have to continue to prop up the ministry? This is what I have termed, “Feeding the Monster”. It seems that ministry has evolved into a “the-end-justifies-the-means” mentality. We have overlooked the basic call of ministry and that is an intimate relationship with God. It’s not about the results and certainly not about the “show”. Whether it’s an anointed song, a wave of healings and miracles or the effective outreach of a local ministry, if it’s not about pure worship before the Father and then doing His will, we are creating monsters that must be fed.

I know that God desires that we pray for these individuals and the ministries that they represent. You may not be charged with writing a new worship anthem for the body, or leading a revival for this generation. You may not be commissioned by God to plant a church that impacts a metropolitan area. But whether you do or you are leading a small group, the question that I pose for you today is, “What monster are you feeding?”

How's Your Seal Looking?

I was reading the other morning during my devotional time and came across 1 Corinthians 9:2, “…For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord”. It reminded me of the answer to the question, “How do you know if you’re a leader?” If people are following you, you are the leader. If no one is following you, you’re just on a walk.

I’ve been a part of leadership circles in the past where titles were very important. It seemed that everyone had an official title: Apostle, Prophetess, Bishop, etc. I don’t have a problem with giving respect to anyone who occupies a position of authority or leadership. I do think that we have to be careful not to hang a title without that person producing the fruit of the position. The Bible instructs that deacons, for example, should first be tested (1 Timothy 3:10).

When Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church, he was saying that whatever they were at this point, they were a reflection of his apostleship. I’ve been told that once a pastor has been at the same church for five years, the church is a reflection of his leadership. The first couple of years, he can blame the problems on the former guy. But after the five year mark, it’s all him baby!

Another word for seal is certification. Restaurants are given certification grades by the department of health as to the cleanliness of the facility, quality of the food served, etc. A restaurant may receive a grade of A, B, or C. They may even be required to close until the problems are addressed. If someone were to view the fruit of your leadership and ministry at this point, what seal or certification would you receive?

Opportunity Honks!

Just read a recent blog entry by Pastor Steven Furtick...good stuff:

The Lifetime of the Opportunity

“The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.”Leonard Ravenhill

Every opportunity has an expiration date. Exceptional people, churches, and businesses possess the agility to move at the speed of God. This usually means merging into oncoming traffic at breakneck speed.

A lot of people I know are more fearful of making a wrong move than making no move at all. Not me. I’ve been alive long enough to know that if I just sit at the intersection after God has given a green light, He’ll only honk a few times before He passes me by in the other lane. Doesn’t mean He’ll stop loving me or stop using me. It just means that that opportunity is gone. Forever.

If you are currently considering an great, godly, risky opportunity, consider this:The cost of missing out can be greater than the cost of messing up.The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.

This caused me to remember times in my life when I have sat through the green light or shouted out, "Go around". How about you?

Spiritual Fertility

Just read a great post from Ben Arment about preparing the ground before planting a church. Here it is:

The Stuff Legends are Made of

Church planters are notorious for thinking that a great dream + hard work + insight = a thriving church. But church planters fail all the time with this formula.

What's missing is spiritual fertility. Every area has an established degree of receptivity to the Gospel, which can make or break a chruch plant before it ever gets off the ground. I'm not saying we shouldn't plant churches in difficult areas. I'm saying that in these cases, we should change our primary activity from planting an organization to cultivating relationships.

If you've read The Purpose Driven Church, you know that Rick Warren prayed for a church to pastor for the rest of his life. You know that he scoured maps in his basement, looking for the fastest-growing areas across the country and discovered Orange County. And you know that he sent a letter to a California missions director at the same time that director sent a letter to him.

Now that's the stuff legends are made of. And it's enough to send tens of thousands of church planters charging head-long over the cliff. What we fail to consider is that before Rick planted Saddleback Commmunity Church, he attended and then taught at California Baptist University in Riverside, California for years. But get this - he preached over 100 revivals throughout the Riverside area, which is just a 30-minute drive from where the Saddleback campus currently sits.

Now do you think... that just maybe... he might have helped cultivate this area for a church plant? I'm thinking it might have been the true first base.

I write this because I have a huge heart for the struggling church planter. I think they need to know about spiritual fertility and how it impacts whether a church plant will work.

Just finished a book on this subject, which will hopefully be out by spring. More to come...

I wish I had known about this principle before we planted our last church. God was still faithful, but it reminds me of when the Sonics drafted Jermaine O'Neal. He sat the bench for several years before he was able to contribute. So it was with our church plant. It took us several years of becoming a part of the community before we began to make an impact.

The Journey Ends

Okay…this will conclude our Journey to a New Church…for two reasons. My wife commented that this blog is making me sound like a very critical person and that’s not the person she knows and loves. Second, we have found a great church and hopefully will be able to invest ourselves.

So...let’s do this! The second church that we visited was a very contemporary church that did not seem to care if you came or not. Again…not much interaction at the door before or after. The worship was very pathetic, bland and not very moving. The message was given by the senior pastor and was quite good. The pastor was engaging, creative and overall very effective. I really liked this guy and his method. Unfortunately the sermon is just one spoke in the wheel. It takes a village (sorry)…it takes a team to pull off a great worship experience. Just one area functioning the way it should is not enough. In our previous church plants our team goal was always to make the experience from the car to the seat and back again a positive experience.

We did attend this particular fellowship for two Sundays just to make sure, but the results were the same, so we moved on.

The third church had been recommended by many people, so our expectations were high. We were greeted in the parking lot by a very friendly fellow driving a golf cart who offered to take us to the door. He was actually the small group pastor on staff and was very engaging. The greeters were also very engaging and helpful. The foyer was packed with people, which was actually exciting. There was coffee and donuts and folks handing out bulletins. So our expectations began to rise.

The sanctuary was darkened, the stage was lit with colored lights and the overall mood was very cool. A young man in jeans picked up a guitar and the band joined in with several upbeat worship songs. The worship leader was very passionate, which was a nice change from our previous adventures. However (you knew this was coming…right?), the body did not seem to notice or care or engage in the worship. I felt bad for the guy, because he was really anointed and was pouring his heart into it, but no one else cared to join him. In fact, I felt like if I had sung out loud, everyone would have turned around to see the idiot who was singing.

At the conclusion, a video was shown with testimonies of some of the members and their experiences since attending this fellowship. Some were funny, some were very moving. Overall…a great way to introduce the body to someone visiting for the first time. The pastor then entered the stage. He was a middle-aged fellow with a kind face. He began to speak and introduced the message which was one of a series that he had begun a couple of weeks before. As I listened, it was obvious that he was using many simple and cliché phrases. I kept waiting for him to “ramp” it up, but he continued in his monotone manner for 35 minutes.

The conclusion was a standing invitation for anyone to receive Christ. The worship leader sang for a few moments and then everyone was dismissed. The exit was again very swift for most everyone.

We attended a couple more times just to make sure, but again, there was really nothing here to engage us. So we decided to continue on our journey. As I stated in the beginning, we have finally found a very engaging body. It is a campus of a multi-site church with awesome worship on stage and in the body. The sermons are very effective and are shown on the big screen (which I thought initially would be weird, but now, it’s like going to a good movie). We have been approached on several occasions already about joining different small groups. And the atmosphere on Sundays is very open, exciting and just plain fun. At the same time, I think I’ve ended up crying during every worship service so far!

So ends our journey to a new church. My prayer is that a pastor or church leader will use our observations and experiences and be able to examine their own church environment through the eyes of visitors.