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Lightweight Prayers

March 20, 2012 in Preaching, Spiritual Growth with 22 Comments

I’ve admitted for a long time that I think “I Stink At Prayer.” While my confession had more to do with my personal prayer life I never thought about the impact of my public prayer life. Gordan MacDonald recently shared some challenging words when it comes to our public prayers, pleading for us to be more thoughtful and intentional with them. Here’s what he recently had to say in Leadership Journal…

Can I be frank? I’m distressed by the low quality of public prayer that is being heard in too many worship services today. Too often, prayer is used as a transition from one event to another. But what if the pastoral prayer was (as some like to say) a main event?

When Solomon dedicated the temple, a large part of his public leadership was a quite pastoral prayer. He knelt and said, “Lord, there is none like you … you’ve kept your promises … please give attention to my prayer … may you hear the prayer your servant prays toward his place … deliver us when we’ve been defeated … teach us the way to live … help us to walk in your ways … when we sin, please forgive.”

This is not a lightweight prayer. It takes in everybody in the crowd. As he opens the gates of the temple, the king (little k) is interceding to the King (big K) on behalf of all who will come to worship.

I love to be in worship when young men and women are leading. And many of them lead us so well. But when they come to the place where prayer is appropriate, the substance of the prayer sometimes reveals a person who has hardly thought for a minute what they are going to say next. If the music was done like the praying, we’d probably switch bands rather quickly.

“God … we just want to thank you for this day … that we just could … just … sing to you … that we could … just … love you.”

Well meant, those words. But they lack thought; they lack power, and they fail to lodge themselves in the souls of their hearers. The aged one losing control of his life who is listening for assurance. The sinner who is listening for hope. The addict who listens for deliverance. And the joyful person, who listens for thanksgiving.

Prayer can be intentional, thoughtful, powerful. Let’s give our prayers the energy and depth that our Audience—and our audience—deserves.

So here’s a few questions this article leads me to ask.

1) Do you think our public prayers should be more of a “main event” to our church services?

2) Should our public prayers be more intentional and thoughtful and less light and lacking substance?

3) Is there a danger we could become like the Pharisees who used their prayers to sound more spiritual than others?

What do you think?

The Empire of Entitlement

March 15, 2012 in Leadership, Spiritual Growth with 16 Comments

There are few things that threaten my ability to live and lead in humility like a spirit of entitlement.

In today’s culture, it’s really easy to get caught up inside of what’s been called the “empire of entitlement.”  Inside of this empire I start to think…

-Life should revolve around ME.

-Relationships are about meeting MY needs.

-Fruitful ministry is the result of MY effort.

-The things I have are because of MY hard work.

In this empire of entitlement I lose awareness that EVERYTHING is a gift, and it becomes so easy to lose perspective on just how much I have.

I have to be very careful, especially when things are going well, that I don’t live inside of the delusions of this empire for long. As soon as I start to believe that I have what I have because of MY hard work, it quickly leads to all kinds of unhealthy extremes. When I sense myself drifting in this direction, I have to remind myself of Scriptures like this one in Deuteronomy.  Moses warning is so relevant to many of us today. Especially those of us in leadership.

Deut 8:14-18

14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that He led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

Who did it?

Who grew it?

Who led it?

Who inspired the idea?

Who got you through the crisis?

Who took it to the next level?

He did. As in, not you.

So today as we seek to lead and love, let us all remember this simple truth: There is a God and it’s not you. Abandon your power and control for humility and surrender. Today may we fall so in love with Jesus that we are ready to follow him wherever he guides, always trusting that, with him, we will find life and find it abundantly.

Do you ever struggle inside of this “empire of entitlement” forgetting it’s God who gives you the power to accomplish what you accomplish and gain all that you gain?

Keep On, Keeping On

March 13, 2012 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Leadership with 20 Comments

I know there are a lot of church planters, pastors, and volunteers who read this blog. I know that many of you are in situations where you’re setting up and taking down church each week. For the first 4 years of Cross Point we were doing four services in an elementary school which forced us to set up and take down each Sunday. It was exhausting to say the least.

With that in mind I thought you might need a little reminder today that what you do really matters!!

This is part of a post recently written by Tam Hodge, the wife of Brent Hodge whose the pastor of our Cross Point Hendersonville campus.

I know there are many who serve in this capacity with churches who set up and tear down every week. It can get tiresome. It can become very frustrating. In fact, you may have grown resentful. But let me offer you a word of encouragement…

You are not just getting up early – You are going before those who will show up for the first time to meet their Savior.

You are not just breaking a sweat – You are sweating in thanks to the One who purposed you to tell the nations.

You are not just setting up 150 chairs – You are providing a place for the wounded to come and sit in the lap of their Healer.

You are not “doing church” – You are creating an experience.

You are not clocking in and out – You are investing in lives!

For every chair you set out…For every crayon you put in a basket…For every coffee creamer you place in a bowl…For every cable you run across a gym floor to an amp…For every sign you hang…For each and everything your hands commit to you are creating an experience for those to come. You are creating an atmosphere for others to come into and rest. A place for God’s people to enter into to find hope, encouragement, friendship, counsel, healing…life. A safe place for others to meet God.

I know this is hard work. I am exhausted from serving today. I feel like I’ve done a months worth of P90X. And every single second of it is worth it. None of this is about us. It is about God and the ones He sent his son to love on.

So whether you hold babies, set up chairs, turn knobs on the sound board, preach you heart out, hand out programs or count the money in the back room please know that what you do REALLY MATTERS.

Keep it up!

Where do you serve in your local church?

Love To Hate

February 8, 2012 in Leadership, Spiritual Growth with 19 Comments

Almost four years ago I wrote THIS post about my friend, Brad Johnson. The post included an open letter he had written to his church apologizing for the pain his affair had caused his church.

Yesterday, while sitting in my office one of my colleagues asked me a question about “search terms.” They were wondering how people most often find my blog. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at such stats, but I was absolutely shocked to see that almost four years later “Brad Johnson Affair” is still one of the biggest search terms used on Google to find my blog.

I think that’s so sad.

Why is it that we, as Christians, are so fascinated and pre-occupied with other Christians’ public failure?

Why do we LOVE to hate people who have stumbled?

Is it about revenge?

Does it make me feel better about myself?

Does focusing on immorality around me allow me to ignore the immorality in me?

The thing I tend to forget is Scripture is full of people like David and Moses who committed murder and embodied so many other character defects. And yet, God used them. Not only did he use them, they would become the heroes of our faith. The truth is many of the individuals God used throughout Scripture would have NO chance of ever being hired in any of our churches today.

Why don’t we have more leaders in our faith and in churches who have had moral and ethical failures?

Because we love to shoot our own. We love to hate people that have screwed up. We love the sensational scandal.

But let me say this. Giving up on people like Brad Johnson and the hundreds of Christian leaders who fall every year is not a statement on them. It’s a statement on our belief in God’s redeeming work.

Do you believe God can redeem Brad’s life and ministry? Let me ask a more probing question. Do you really WANT God to redeem Brad’s life?

Maybe the reason we don’t have more Brad’s and David’s and Moses’s leading in our churches today is because as a Christian community we’ve slammed the door on God’s redeeming work in the lives of people who have screwed up.

We’ve stopped looking into the eyes of the fallen and speaking redeeming, loving words. We’ve stopped telling them here is who you can become.

Old habits can change.

Old patterns can be rewired.

You can become the person God had in mind when he thought you into existence.

Who have you given up on? Who needs you to believe in them again?

*On a side note. I’m reading Brad’s new book The Four Laws of Forgiveness: How to Forgive Yourself and Others
and it’s blowing me away.

Learning To Disagree

February 2, 2012 in Church Leadership, Leadership with 28 Comments

If you know me at all, you know I have a passion for helping the Body of Christ learn to disagree in a respectful and honorable way. The downright slanderous criticism and cheap shots that permeates the church these days turns my stomach.

That’s why when I saw this open letter written to me on Jared Wilson’s blog I had to re-post it. Jared and I don’t know each other very well, but we know each other enough to know that while we share a lot in common we also have some differences. We approach ministry differently, but I respect and value what he brings to the Kingdom. His passion for Jesus and his writing has not only encouraged me but sharpened me. His latest book, Gospel Wakefulness is fantastic. I’d be a fool to write him off just because he annoys me from time to time. :)

Enjoy the letter…

Dear Pete,

You and I both know we have some significant differences of opinion — significant differences of conviction — about church and how it’s to be done, on everything from video venue stuff to the point of sermons, and all sorts of secondary theological issues, I’m sure. But this isn’t about any of that. Because even though we run in different tribes (so to speak), I love you and appreciate you and am glad for your heart for people and them knowing Jesus.

Pete, I remember when I was less of a nobody than I am now and you wanted to meet. I remembered you fondly from your pastoral teaching at the church we once shared, even though you didn’t know me then, and I’ve always been grateful for your instruction during that time. So I was glad to meet you as a friend and as a learner and to talk about life and ministry. You’re the real deal. And you acted as a friend to me when you had nothing to gain from it and no real reason to do it at all. I didn’t have a book out, I didn’t have blog traffic, I pastored a brand new church plant of about 20 people. All that to say: you showed me friendship and mentoring when most other people in your position had already written me off. I’ll never forget that.

Pete, when you more recently contacted me privately to discuss a concern you had, I was both impressed and humbled that you trusted me enough to receive it well and respond appropriately. I appreciate that you also weren’t demanding anything either; you could have thrown your weight around, but you didn’t. So even though you’re 4 feet tall, you stand head and shoulders above so many other men. (insert winky face here)

So again: I love you and will never forget the kindness and respect you showed me once and continue to show me. You were a picture of grace to me in a difficult time, and I wish you nothing but the best in life and ministry.

And since these open letter thingies are supposed to be full of blistering criticism, here’s one more for the road: It’s time for a grown-up haircut, bro.

Love,
Jared

That’s how it’s done friends. Next time Jared thinks I’ve “crossed a line” do you think I’ll be more open or closed to what he has to say? And all of this begs to ask the question…

How are you doing at loving the people you disagree with?

Six Reasons The Next Generation is Leaving The Church

February 1, 2012 in Church Leadership, Church Planting with 69 Comments

So we’ve all seen the stats. It seems like the church is rapidly loosing influence with the next generation. Barna President David Kinnaman examines the 6 reasons in a new article in Christianity Today.

The six reasons he lists are…

1. Isolationism. One-fourth of 18- to 29-year-olds say church demonizes everything outside church, including the music, movies, culture, and technology that define their generation.

2. Shallowness. One-third call church boring, about one-fourth say faith is irrelevant and Bible teaching is unclear. One-fifth say God is absent from their church experience.

3. Anti-science. Up to one-third say the church is out of step on scientific developments and debate.

4. Sex. The church is perceived as simplistic and judgmental. For a fifth or more, a “just say no” philosophy is insufficient in a techno-porno world. Young Christian singles are as sexually active as their non-churched friends, and many say they feel judged.

5. Exclusivity. Three in 10 young people feel the church is too exclusive in this pluralistic and multi-cultural age. And the same number feel forced to choose between their faith and their friends.

6. Doubters. The church is not a safe place to express doubts say over one-third of young people, and one-fourth have serious doubts they’d like to discuss.

Your thoughts? Would you add any?

Things That Shine

January 27, 2012 in Leadership with 36 Comments

I got a phone call on Wednesday that blew me away. A guy called me to apologize for something he had publicly written about me over two years ago. As he apologized I played it off as if I had totally forgotten about what he had said. But in my moments of doubt and insecurity the words he wrote about me would come flooding into my mind. I could see them as clearly as if I was holding them on a piece of paper in front of me, because in many ways that had been etched into my mind. The conversation I had with him was incredibly healing, but it got me thinking.

Criticism happens, right?

I don’t care if you lead a public ministry, bag groceries, stay at home with your kids, or govern a state. You’re going to be criticized for the way you do it.

We don’t like to think about it much until we overhear it or read it, but guess what?

It’s happening right now in THIS moment. Some people don’t like you. They don’t like how you…

dress

sing

lead

preach

vote

think

write

spend

And there’s not a thing you can do about it. Nothing.

So in the words of my friend and favorite theologian Taylor Swift “Don’t you worry your pretty little mind. People throw rocks at things that shine.”

So, today, do your thing. Shine bright. And remember there’s a bunch of us who really believe in you!!

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