The Team God Has Given You.

The number one reason pastors leave the ministry is discouragement and the biggest struggle that leads to that discouragement is the difficulty in leading congregations to follow the pastor’s God-given vision. I don't know of a single pastor who has not faced this at some point in his ministry. 

We must remember that God is the head coach and pastors are the offensive coordinators.  They get to call the plays but the Lord sends those He wants on the team.  As leaders we know our job is to "equip the saints" but many times much of the equipping has already been done by the time they arrive to the church.  The Holy Spirit has already given them gifts, God has blessed them with talents and abilities, each has a certain personality type, everyone has their own love language, their passions and many bring much life experience with them when they come.  While certainly there is a place for more learning and training, much of the equipping has already been done. 

Corporately, the church has one mission:  the great commission.  But individual churches may have specific ministries.  It is through these different ministries that we are given the opportunity to carry out the Lord's mission.  This is also why many times what works in one church may not work in another.  God has a specific purpose for a specific group of believers in a specific location.

Equipping the saints-at-large is helping them to discover how God has made them and uniquely gifted them—their specific place in the body, so to speak—and how this all comes together and is to be used in God's plan.  There is no greater feeling than knowing you are doing what God created you to do.

 
The Lord knows what kinds of players He needs to run His offense for your team.  When you have a team full of tight ends and run blockers and you try to run a spread offense there is not a lot of victory.  Have you ever taken the church through a complete discovery process?  There are several different ones out there and we are currently putting together our own to help the churches we serve.

Democracy: The Beginning of the End

Long have we felt that the United States has the best form of government in the world.  Oh it is not perfect but it has always been leaps and bounds ahead of the rest..... in our opinion.  Now in our form of democracy, we elect those who represent us but the people are supposed to have the final say...boy has that changed.  The majority of the people in several states have voted in laws only to have the high court trump them.

Democracy really was doomed from the beginning.  We the people have always gone astray even from the very beginning.  When the Founding Fathers created the constitution and other documents that this country was supposed to be governed by, most if not all had one thing in common, their moral standard and guideline was the bible.  So long as most of the people used the same standard to live their lives, then democracy worked pretty well.  When that changes (changed) democracy begins to become worse and worse.

For the believer the times will get harder as the government begins to redefine more and more issues that God has already defined.  This will put the true believer more and more often on opposing sides of our government.  Will the church's presence shrink even more or will we fight?

In scripture the people always got off the right track and never returned on their own.  Will God raise up someone to lead the people back one more time or is this it?

Election Results & Sunday School

I did not follow the news on election night and was satisfied to find out the results early this morning over coffee.  I must say that it caught me off guard to learn that the country had voted to give Obama four more years.  One would think that in this "results oriented" world that we live in this would be a confusing move.  All day there have been many explanations of strategies and what ultimately gave the winning side the victory and maybe there is merit to much of this.  In my simple opinion however one thing sticks out more than anything else: perception.

There is a simple principal that I learned long ago from leaders before me and firmly believe to this day.  It is one of the keys to leadership,  "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care about them."  We will overlook some shortcomings in a leader if we really believe that they care about us verses a leader who is smarter and maybe more capable but does not connect.  Certainly as a Minister of Education/Sunday School Director the most important quality I look for in a Teacher is that they care about those they lead.  Teaching skills can be improved but caring about people comes from the heart.

I do not know President Obama or Mitt Romney personally.  From information resources, listening to others I respect and doing my homework, I am convinced that Mitt Romney has the better plan for American and is more capable of carrying it out. Perception is often stronger than reality and it sure appears to be the case in this past election.  The "perception" that was sold to the people is that Obama cares about them and Romney does not.  In my simple opinion this mattered as much as anything else.

The Sinner, the Sin, and the Struggle.

Many sins that used to be under the cover of darkness have not only made their way to the light in these times, but are even in the spotlight.  Our struggle with sin will never be over completely on this side of Heaven, though with the Holy Spirit's help, the power of prayer, and the assistance of other believers, we can win some of the battles.

Let's look at some tendencies.  The dictionary defines a tendency as a leaning or inclination towards something, almost like a gravitational pull in a particular direction.  A boy or girl growing up in a home where not much affection is shown may feel unloved and may seek to fulfill this natural need  for love later in life in a wrong way.  They may seek to have intimate relations (outside of marriage) early and often as a way to make them feel loved, and so a tendency develops.  Perhaps a person has always used food to comfort them during stressful times and now they have a weight problem that is difficult to overcome.

People may be raised in an environment where yelling and screaming and cursing is the norm and they acquire this habit which later becomes a tendency.  Having a parent that was a drunk might lead to alcohol experimentation early on that can lead to alcoholism.  Someone can be abused by a person of the same sex and end up confused about their own sexual orientation.  There are so many situations . . . and I am no psychologist.  The point is that these scenarios--and countless others--can cause possible weaknesses or tendencies in our lives that we may always have.

There are many sins I could use as an example here but I've chosen the sin of homosexuality because it has been in the news so much lately.  I pray for the person who has the tendency towards this sin, wherever the tendency came from; not because it is worse than any other sin but because I am limited in my ability to help as I cannot relate.  There are those out there however, who have been delivered of homosexuality and can provide help and direction. 

Please note that there is a difference in struggling with one's sin and glorifying in it. We all have our weaknesses.  There is a struggle when our tendencies come up against our will.  We know something is wrong but because of our tendencies, the pull towards a particular sin is strong. This battle may last a long time and come with victory and losses, but the war continues on.   When two people of the same gender decide to get married, then they are most likely not struggling with this sin any longer and have either just embraced it or tried to convince themselves and everyone else it is not wrong.  They are indeed committing to a sinful lifestyle.

It's important that we remember that lost people are going to act like lost people.  We should continue to reach out to them and try to help them find that one foremost thing that every person needs:  Jesus.  We should do this with love in our hearts but without condoning their behavior or compromising God's Word.    For those who choose to continue down this road and claim to be Christians, the Bible again tells us what to do.  In 1 Corinthians 5:11 Paul states, "But actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one." 

What if I Don't Agree With the Direction of the Church?

What if I don't agree with the direction of the church?  This question comes up in every church sooner or later, so what is the proper way to deal with the issue?  What should we do? 

First of all let's establish that disagreeing, just like anger, is not a sin.  When times of disagreement come up in the church--and they will, over and over again--a question we should ask ourselves is do we react or respond?  We are all emotional beings and without the Holy Spirit to keep these emotions in check at times we may react or respond sinfully.

God has always been a God of order, it is people who sometimes get it wrong.  The church was never created to be a democracy though we have brought this type of government into the church.  God has always called men to lead His people and then given those men a vision of what He wants them to do.  The leader then shares this vision with the body and they work together to carry out God's plan.

How to best carry out God's plan can sometimes cause a difference of opinion. I believe a good leader will first spend much time in prayer and then try to the best of their ability to present the vision, the plan to carry it out the vision, and the reasons for the vision and the plan.  There should be a time to answer questions and address concerns that the body may have, but not to change the direction God has revealed.

So if all this happens and we are one of those who still do not agree, what then?  We should respond by entering into a time of intense prayer ourselves and seek God's guidance.  God is not going to give the man He has called to lead the church one vision and then give someone else in the church a different vision; that causes confusion and that is not of the Lord. 

If we do not necessarily agree with the plan, then the next question we need to ask ourselves is do we trust the leadership?  Will God confirm the plan in our hearts later?  Can we remain a part of the fellowship without stirring up strife?  If not, it may very well be God's way of letting us know that it's time to move on, He has another place for us to serve.         

Church Conflict

Can a person be wronged and then be in the wrong? Church conflict is an age old issue that will never go away until Jesus returns. The early church had to deal with it and I've never heard of a church that has not. The question is not if conflict will come, the question is how we deal with it when it does come. Part of the problem is that as believers are all at different levels in our spiritual maturity. We may all have different ideas and strategies on how to respond when we feel like we have been wronged, and it is a natural emotion for one to become defensive when this happens. What we do or say when we feel like we have been wronged certainly is a spiritual marker in our life. 

Jesus was wronged and did nothing but ask the Father to forgive them. It is very hard for us to do this. However, instead of taking matters into our own hands when this happens, should we not see what the Bible tells us we should do? Matthew 18 deals with this beginning in verse 15. When we take matters into our own hands and do other things--such as spread our hurt to others--then we may find ourselves on the wrong side. Proverbs has a lot to say about those who stir up strife; in fact in Proverbs 6, God says He hates one who stirs up strife among the brothers. Scripture has much to say about reconciliation. One question we might ask ourselves?  Is my reaction and/or response making a possible reconciliation harder or easier?

Importance of Selecting Teachers

I would like to deal with some very good comments and a question that were recently left for me on the post Another Step.  The subject was dealing with SS teacher selection.

Quite a number of years ago our family joined a church which had won consecutive SS Eagle awards for church growth, four years running.  I firmly believe that what happened while we were there was the result of what the commenter was questing in my prior post.  The pastor was very evangelistic and a good friend of mine and the education guy was also a friend and a man I respected.  Their church growth was a case of a formula put into place for church growth, and new classes were created yearly to stick with the formula.  There reached a point when the church plateaued because the teachers of most of the classes were not even mature believers themselves and the principle of as the leader goes, so go the people or the student rarely rises above the level of the teacher kicked in.  As a result of the spiritual immaturity in the church, many petty problems came up and could not be effectively handled and the church spent many years at a standstill.  

Teacher selection is one of the most important responsibilities for the Minister of Education, Sunday School Director and/or Pastor.  The commenter referenced James 3 and I totally agree.  Many who aspire to be teachers should not or should not yet.  It is the responsibility of the overseer to help those in the church to find their place of service and then equip and even mentor them. 

A teacher should never be accepted just because they volunteer and solicitation should definitely not occur from the pulpit.  This should take place after much prayer and then after a one-on-one meeting.  I would also never allow someone who has not been a member of the church for at least six months (preferably one year), to fulfill the awesome responsibility of a Sunday School teacher.  This includes people who come to the church from another church who may have been teaching there for twenty years.

One notable exception to this might be the following:  if a teacher were involved in an accident or had an extended illness or family crisis.  There are times when it is necessary to serve (temporarily) out of need and not giftedness.  Too many times though, leadership uses this "time of need" situation as an opportunity to stop looking.

I will even go on to say that the best teachers, and the ones I always look for, are not those who necessarily have a degree or have great teaching skills, but those who are the best Shepherds.  The Shepherd/Leader is one who is concerned about those under their care and demonstrates this by keeping up with the lives of their class members and spends time together with class members outside the classroom.  Caring about people is not a spiritual gift but a fruit of the spirit.  It is a maturity issue.  Teaching skills can be acquired and taught, but caring about people is a heart issue.

Let me finish up by saying that when your people grow in their spiritual maturity then most often your church will grow as well.  Once a proper leader base is established, the church will never be short on leadership.  It should not be the goal for the church leaders to grow the church but to spiritually grow their people.  When that is done correctly, a steady, healthy growth should occur.