How and Why

20 10 2011

“And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingdom was highly exalted, for the sake of His people Israel.”
-1 Chronicles 14:2

It’s a good day when you’re appointed king.  At least, I assume so—I haven’t been appointed king over anything, unless I appointed myself (I take after King Julien).  And while most of us haven’t been appointed king, we probably have been appointed to something.  You may have been appointed an employee.  You may have been appointed a raise.  You may have been appointed a good grade.  You may have been appointed a leader.  You may have been appointed a friend.

Whatever it is, we’ve all been appointed to some sort of position, regardless of how it’s esteemed.  So, this passage has two huge reminders for us in regards to our position, our status, our situation, our job, our leadership, our friendship, and every other opportunity we can be appointed to:

  1. The Lord establishes us.  David knew he wasn’t king because of what he’d done.  Sure, he had a great track record, and the people were in love with him, but he knew that ultimately, it was God who put him in the position he was in.  I have to remember that too, because when I don’t, I start taking credit for the successes.  The obvious problem with that is that I become prideful and selfish, and end up inhibiting my influence and prohibiting my progress.  That’s a serious enough problem on its own!  But the less obvious issue with forgetting that God establishes me, wherever I’m at and whatever I’m doing, is that I also start taking credit for the failures.  If I establish myself, I’m bound to become prideful, but I am also bound to become depressed: my identity and attitude become wrapped up in the performance of my establishment, rather than the power of God’s grace.  Jesus took our failures when he died on the cross, and gave us his victories when he rose from the grave!  As long as I let HIM establish me, and give HIM the credit, I can trust that no matter what happens—success or failure—it’s in HIS hands, and not mine.  David fought lots of battles, but he knew that he was only responsible for how they started—either by God’s establishment, or his own—-not how they ended. When the Lord establishes you, you get to live worry-free!
  2.  It’s for the sake of His people.  David’s kingdom was exalted, but not because he was a great king who earned some recognition.  He worked hard, fought well, and received tribute from tons of different nations.  But the scripture says he was exalted “for the sake of [God's] people Israel.”  I can be a big nobody, or a big somebody, but whatever position I’m in, it’s for the sake of God’s people.  He has a plan and a purpose for my life, and to understand it clearly and steward it faithfully, I need to remember that it’s not for me or because of me that I am who/what/where I am…it’s for, and because of, God.  Without this truth driving our circle of influence, everything we do becomes self-serving.  We have a natural tendency to make everything about US!  God knows this—that’s why there’s so much in the Bible about the reward we’re promised in heaven after living a faithful life to the end!  But we have a choice: to stake our claim in what’s “here and now,” or what’s there and then.  The “there and then” is promised to be a lot better. We just have to make sure that we remember that what’s “here and now”—our current position—is for the sake of HIS people.  As long as we live with that in mind, we’ll serve more willingly, give more generously, lead more confidently, live less anxiously, love less conditionally…and reap the reward at the end!
Let the Lord establish you, so that you can trust him for the power and the outcome.  And let him establish you for the sake of his people, so that you can live purposefully and store up treasures in heaven as you go wherever he leads.

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Six Questions for the Ministerial-Minded

14 01 2010

I recently asked the small group leaders at 24-7 to ask six questions during their planning, and I thought I would share them with the internet world and expand on them a little bit… (almost all of them can be applied in some way to any area of ministry, so this may be applicable to everyone who is not a small group leader too!)

  1. Does it bring God glory and make much of Him? If what we are doing isn’t first and foremost bringing glory to God, then it is inevitably bringing glory to something else, and is no longer leading people TO His throne, but leading them AWAY from it.  It is really easy to include God without making it about God.  Instead of looking first at our lives and then searching for how God relates to them, we ought to look at God first, and then see how our lives relate to Him.  This keeps us focused on the fact that man was made in God’s image, and not the other way around!  Too often people live lives that include God but do not require Him…the first step in changing that is to model it in our own lives, and then to make it a foundational part of our ministry!
  2. Does it help people know God in a deeper and more relevant way? If we are not helping to lead people into a deeper relationship with God, we’re probably not leading them anywhere helpful at all.  A leader’s purpose is not to do things for others, but to help others get to a place in which they can do things for themselves.  If you aren’t continually encouraging and challenging people, you are actually building up glory for yourself by keeping them reliant on you to give them what they need.  Instead, we’ve got to lead in such a way that eventually makes us unnecessary because those we’ve been leading have become self-sustaining.
  3. Does it challenge people to live in greater integrity? We’ve got to make it a point to have people seek God’s approval, rather than man’s.  Many churches have made it far too easy to look Godly without being Godly, and that may be because they’ve forgotten that people aren’t held accountable to the church—they’re held accountable to God, who sees their hearts and knows their motives.  The world can’t be changed by liars…which is what we’re letting people be when we let them come to church and get involved in ministry without challenging them to be filled with the Spirit and live as they are called.
  4. Does it inspire people to make a heavenly impact on the world? The church isn’t a social club, it’s an army!  God gave us victory over every power and principality of the world, and yet many Christians keep that victory inside the walls of a building instead of storming the gates of hell and bringing the good news to the world in both word AND power.  Christianity can’t be allowed to settle as self-help…that’s an insult to the power of God that raised Christ from the dead (which is in you, by the way!).  Tekmito Adegemo said, “We cannot preach good news and be bad news,” and it’s bad news if the people who claim to love and serve a God of life, peace, hope, joy, and justice don’t do anything to bring those things into the world in a HUGE WAY!  Jesus said that we would make a greater impact on the world than even He did…so we’ve got to lead people into that promise and do everything we can to raise up people who are relentlessly in love with Christ and obsessed with a hope for the world.
  5. Does it create opportunity for vulnerability? It was the broken, the hungry, the sick, and the rejected that Jesus went to.  And I think there’s a whole lot more people who are broken, hungry, sick, and rejected than we perceive.  But it’s sometimes hard to admit that.  There are walls that are often built really high, and really thick, in people’s hearts…and those walls keep them from moving forward.  Leaders need to create an atmosphere of forgiveness if they want others to really start growing and dealing with their issues.  Grace has got to be our greatest asset.  And we need to not only notify people of grace, but give them opportunities to experience it for themselves by encouraging honesty and openness.
  6. Is it encouraging to people? JESUS IS GOOD NEWS! There is no reason anyone should be able to be around Christians and not be encouraged.  It makes sense that if we want people to grow, we ought to always be building them up!  A leader’s encouragement can act as fuel for a person’s progress.  There is always something in a person that is worth our encouragement…if there wasn’t Jesus wouldn’t have died for them!  We have to draw the purpose out of people and help them to discover and step into their gifts and talents.  And we’ve got to do everything we can to lighten their spirits, energize their minds, and inspire their hearts every time we get a chance!

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Categories : leadership, vision

ONE Lesson #4: Raising the Bar

10 09 2009

With God behind us, we can do anything (Php 4:13).  But when our knowledge goes too far beyond our practice, our belief becomes a burden because we’re not giving God space to fulfill the promises of scripture in our lives.  It’s easy to acknowledge what God says to us and still live lives that never go beyond what we can do.  As Christians, we’ve got to keep each other accountable, and not just with struggles or responsibilities, but with our faith at its core as well.  If we want to step into God’s dreams for our lives, we have to challenge each other to live in ways that require both God’s sustenance and each other’s support (both are necessary…Lk 10:27).

While explaining how individual’s personal walks with God play a part in their unity as a team, the youth staff at NewSpring Church said that they hold people to a standard they can’t live up to without Jesus and each other.  Leaders especially need to have unity between each other that is so solid that every person’s quiet time is vital to the operation of the ministry.  Holding each other accountable in this way not only makes sure that what you’re doing is always based in, surrounded by, and covered with scripture…it also ensures that your personal time with God becomes not only for yourself, but for your teammates too!


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Categories : leadership, revelation

ONE Lesson #3: Purposeful

9 09 2009

I accidentally deleted this post from before, so I had to completely rewrite it…I have to confess an unreasonable amount of frustration after I realized what I’d done…hopefully I haven’t forgotten anything really significant!

The best thing a leader can do is NOT to be in front of people, dragging them behind.  The best thing a leader can do IS to be behind people, pushing them to go places on their own.  The primary purpose of leaders in ministry should be to encourage others into their gifts, to help others realize their callings, and to provide others with the means to accomplish what God has laid before them.  Brad Cooper said “People are saved from hell, but they are saved for a purpose.  If they did not have purpose in the kingdom, God would take them straight to heaven right when they became saved.”

Leaders—draw out the purpose in people.

Here are just a few ways we can do this (NOTE – this is by no means an exhaustive list):

1) Empower them. Too many leaders keep all the responsibility to themselves and don’t trust the people they’re leading.  If you don’t put trust in the people following you, they won’t be able to put trust in you either.  Remember than when the disciples came to Jesus about the five thousand hungry men, He told the disciples to feed them before He fed them Himself (Mt 14:15-16)!  Show them that they have purpose that is of equal importance to your own purpose (as it is given by the same God), and have the faith in them that they need to have in God.

2) Help those you’re leading do what you’re doing better than you. YOU ARE NOT ETERNAL!  Your time may be now, but it won’t be always.  It is our responsibility to build up followers of Jesus who not only do what we do, but do what we do better than we do it.  God wants His church to grow, and if we never help people to achieve more than we do, we become the biggest obstacle for our ministry.  You must lead in a way that makes you unnecessary because of how prepared you’ve made everyone else.  Follow Jesus’ example when He told His disciples that they would do “greater things than these;” we should be able to say that to the people we’re leading!

3) Humble yourself. This is the most important thing a leader can do.  The less glory you take for yourself, the more glory goes to God…He is most glorified when you are most humbled.   You are not leading your ministry, God is leading His ministry and just so happened to choose you as His vessel.  When we forget that, we become poor stewards—broken vessels—that end up “sinking” the opportunity He has given us.  This doesn’t mean we can’t be confrontational and confident: Jesus was both, but still willing to humble Himself further than we can really grasp (Php 2:8).  What it DOES mean is that we’ve got to put others before ourselves, and make sure our leadership serves them, rather than demanding that they serve us.

How else can you draw out the purpose in people?


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Necessities

30 08 2009

I cannot tell you how excited I am for tonight. It’s our first 24-7 service of the new school year, and the leadership team has been praying so much for God to show up in an incredible way…I believe that God is going to answer that prayer!  When our ministry (which is EVERY effort you make to share the gospel and show the love of Christ, not just church-related jobs or groups) is supported by prayer and passion, it becomes unstoppable.

If you are involved in ministry and you are not constantly praying for God to bless what you are doing, you need to do one of two things:
1) START praying about your ministry, because you cannot do anything of significance without the Holy Spirit backing you up; and when you pray for God to move where you are investing your time, it shows Him that you really do care about it and believe that He can do anything and everything to make it succeed;
2) STOP doing it, because if God is not involved in your ministry you are wasting your time.

We have to constantly be in a place of helplessness and total reliance on God to come in power and change people’s hearts…you received the grace of God from God, not from another person—that doesn’t change with your ministry!  You never received the ability to give that…people only receive God’s grace from God.

If you are not passionate about your ministry, you need to do one of two things (this might sound familiar):
1) START praying for God to change your heart about what He has called and anointed you to do, and begin putting every effort you can into serving and building up the people you serve with.  God doesn’t ever want us to do things begrudgingly, but sometimes we have to press on through a lack of motivation and passion as an act of faithfulness to what God has chosen us for.  IF you are truly doing what God has called you to do, obligation will shortly become obsession when it is backed by a sincere pursuit of God’s heart.
2) STOP doing it, because the world has enough people who dirty God’s reputation by doing ministry half-heartedly and showing through their actions that the kingdom of God is not worth pursuing excellence for.  God has chosen you for a purpose, and if you are not seeking and fulfilling that purpose because you have planted yourself somewhere else, you are not only missing out on a life of meaning and fulfillment that only comes from serving God as He calls you, but you are also keeping those you are currently serving from meeting with God in the way that He desires, because He has chosen someone else to do what you’re doing with the passion that you don’t have.

Every single one of us has a purpose in the kingdom of God, and to fulfill that purpose we need to continually seek God’s blessing and direction, and constantly be evaluating where we’re at and comparing it to where God wants us to be.  When we are where God wants us and passionate about being there, miracles happen!


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Categories : leadership, vision

ONE Lesson #1: Possessed

17 08 2009

I recently attended the ONE conference at NewSpring Church for senior pastors, youth pastors, and children’s pastors and man, did God speak to me there!  I’m going to do a series of blogs on some of the things the Holy Spirit revealed to my heart, starting with this:

Because my friends and fellow leaders are such visionaries and big dreamers, a common topic of conversation is how big other churches are, how many people attend different conferences, and even how much growth is happening in different ministries of the same church.  This is an awesome way to encourage one another and get bigger vision for where God may be leading us (after all, Ephesians 3:20 says He can do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine”), but it can also be dangerous, because it’s really easy to start comparing churches and ministries.  When we start comparing “ours” to “theirs,” we lose sight of God’s Kingdom because we are obsessing over our own kingdoms.

This can lead to “strategic evangelism,” in which ideas are pitched and people are talked to and ministries are promoted in such a way that one ministry (yours, if you’re the one doing this) should get everyone, and other ministries shouldn’t get anyone.  Selfishness, greed, manipulation, and lying go on all the time under the banners of revelation (“God told me He wants MY church to be the biggest”), calling (“God called ME to be a successful minister, so I should succeed”), and other common church words.  BUT…

God wants HIS Church to be the biggest – the body of Christ, the Kingdom of God, the Church (with a capital C), not the church (with a lowercase c).  And God may have called you to be a minister, and He may bless your ministry to appear successful, but HE is the one succeeding, HE is the one who should be famous, and without HIM your ministry and/or church would be a building filled with dead people condemned to hell – YOURSELF INCLUDED – and everything that’s done there God would see as filthy rags.

We can’t ever take possession of the things God has blessed us with; that includes leadership ability, lots or few people attending your ministry, a big or little building, one or eight services.  And we can’t ever become jealous of that church being bigger than this church, because we are all part of the body of Christ, serving different purposes in different places so that the gospel can be preached to everybody!

“Do you want to control a move of God, or do you want to unleash it?” -Perry Noble


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