Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

Discipling leadership, not management

Leave a reply

That heavy breathing you’re hearing is me putting down my Kindle and rushing back to my laptop keyboard to share these notes from Mike Breen.

Yea, these are observations that I have intuitively felt since I became a pastor. My Bachelor’s degree is in Business Management, I worked in corporate finance for twenty years. I’m certainly not averse to applying management principles, but every time it came up in discussions in church, I resisted 5-year plans, church-growth, mission statements. These have their place but as Breen observes:

“The Church is crying out for leaders who model a life worth imitating. Dan Kimball puts it this way: “Leadership in the emerging church is no longer about focusing on strategies, core values, mission statements, or church-growth principles. It is about leaders first becoming disciples of Jesus with prayerful, missional hearts that are broken for the emerging culture. All the rest will flow from this, not the other way around.” (Mike Breen Building a Discipling Culture on Kindle) Ya! Amen and Amen. As a pastor I have learned you do not “manage” church. Sure there are times when you have to apply the principles, but if you are busy “managing” and not open to the moving of the Holy Spirit, well frankly, you are in the wrong “business”.

“We need leaders who will step out of “managing church” and make discipling others their primary objective. The time has come to humbly acknowledge before God that we have failed to train men and women to lead in the style of Jesus. Whether through ignorance or fear, we have taken the safe option, training pastors to be theologically sound and effective managers of institutions rather than equipping them with the tools they need to disciple others.”

Yea, as Breen points out, we are being “managed” to death. I haven’t seen anyone in any sector of society who would disagree. No doubt we have different reasons, but we need leadership and we certainly need it in the church, which for too long has been a spiritual enabler versus, a spiritual leader. A  working understanding of discipleship will make any church a place that will be used by the Holy Spirit.

A further amen to the following: “the Church is the best place to offer a genuine model of leadership. We have Jesus’ example to learn from and to share with the rest of the world. When we take on the lifestyle of Jesus as a leader, those outside the Church will see and respond. This is not just a message to senior pastors— Jesus calls us all to be leaders. The commission to go and make disciples is a call for leaders—you are leading when you are making a disciple.” Yea, I know Jesus ain’t a Type A Wall St type. I think we would all agree that is a good thing. Why would we then “lead” His church, by those kind of principles and the answer is of course, NO.

Our “business” is to be “fishers of men” and then to go and make disciples. Anything that interferes with that is not of God and is not about helping us to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and salvation in Him.

God builds leaders and gives them gifts for leadership

Leave a reply

Thought I would refer back to Fr Frederick Nkwasibwe’s book Business Courage as much as being a Christian is supposed to be about spiritual growth and maturity, yes I agree that there are interpersonal relationship benefits. (p 224) “…spirituality is considered a system of developing the inner life or spirit of the leaders and workers in order to receive and awaken important gifts. Moxley (2000), in his book Leadership and Spirit, makes a list of such gifts. They include becoming more centered internally and better connected relationally, getting a new kind of self-confidence, having a sharper understanding and acceptance of our personal power, becoming better able to engage in the activity of leadership and fostering a genuine partnership in relationships (p 151). For them, spiritual development is correlated to human development through developing interior life.”

Certainly it makes sense as we grow in the image of the Lord we grow in our relationships. Certainly Jesus is an example of how we should relate to others and in different situations. For those who needed confronting, He did not have a problem confronting. For those who needed compassion, He gave compassion. Not in a way that was enabling, but in a way to let people know that He knew we are weak vessels, we need compassion, but we also need encouragement. We need to understand that we need to grow, have better skills, be better listeners, empathetic, encouraging, on and on, just as Jesus was. He encouraged, but He also made it clear that He expected better. The more we become more like Him the better we relate to others.

I have had to be assertive, I’ve had to take the lead, confront problems. Can’t say I’ve always enjoyed it or looked forward to it. There were plenty of times when I wished I could have avoided confrontation and there were times when I just did. I can look you in the eye though and say that the more I’ve grown in Christ, the more I’ve felt the need to confront, especially when it was in Christ, but also to do what was right and to step up for the weak, the disadvantaged, the bullied. But always as a witness for Christ, always pointing people to Him through our better skills and in fact relying on Him to give us the words to speak. I’ve had plenty of times when I wondered “where did those words come from”. The Holy Spirit works through us at the workplace as much as anywhere else in our life. Hey we normally spend more time at work then anywhere else in our life, why would God leave that part of our life out and what we need to function in that part of our life unequipped? God has certainly developed leaders and He gave them the necessary gifts for leadership.

Let’s discuss more and/or Dr Gene Veith’s book that we’ve been talking about for awhile. Wednesday 10am Green Bean Coffee Co at the corner of W King and Beaver Sts, park behind the church.

Hi, my name is Jim and I’m a sinner

Leave a reply

Gordon MacDonald in Leadership Journal (winter 2014 p 29) writes about his experience attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, I haven’t finished the article, but immediately I see so many parallels to what church should be:

“I was no sooner seated than the people on either side of me introduced themselves … and expressed gladness that I was there.” Shouldn’t that be what happens at church, a new person sits down and those around him/her make him feel welcome? “In fact, before the hour ended, four men, one after another handed me cards and said, ”I’m John, here’s my cell number. Call me anytime, and I’ll come and meet you if you need a friend.” What can I add to that? I also like that the meetings get right to it, no messing around, no one more quick word with your buddy. We are here for a reason, let’s get to it and do it.

MacDonald takes his turn to speak and tells them (since he’s not an alcoholic he doesn’t say “I’m an alcoholic”) but just says it’s my first time here. The response is “keep on coming, keep on coming”, he says that is said in the same way in church we might say “‘Praise the Lord”. He also notes as the others speak “change does not come easily, but it does come.” This is the same as church, as being a Christian, you do not automatically become right up to snuff, but God takes you, using the Body of Christ, the people there who make up Christ’s Body and begins to change you, begins the process of being more Christ-like. That is so great, everyone there encouraging the person “to keep coming, keep coming.” My take away is that we are all glad to be here, we are glad you are here, we look forward to knowing you better, and being good disciples. So don’t stop now, you’ve only begun!

No one feels they should somehow “chose”, AA , like the church, it is what it is and has stood the test of time. It’s not catering to the new generation or some secular fad, both have proven that when people become serious, about a serious form of worship (read liturgical) the church has been leading people to Christ and feeding them in this form of worship for centuries. Trying to make it into entertainment or buddy-buddy doesn’t move you closer to Christ doesn’t leave you in awe of a great, all knowing, all powerful God who can make real changes in your life, really can lead you into new life in Christ and will ultimately lead you into an eternal resurrection. When you have brothers and sisters in Christ they sometimes become closer to you then family. They are there to help you and guide you. They know that they are just beggars who know where the bread is and help others . They are excited to see you there and want to help you as much as possible. AA, like the church, isn’t there for your convenience or your comfort, it’s there to actually make you feel challenged, a little outside yourself, a feeling that there is so much more and I’m missing it and I’m also messing myself up more by not taking it in and growing in it. (After all the only alternative is the sinfulness, a lost, dead world)And it’s also there to make you very aware of what everyone else needs, for the Church everyone needs Jesus and we in the church have to understand that and look for what our individual role is in helping others to know Him as Savior and Lord.

When there’s someone new, go over and meet them, no pretense, no stuffiness, just simply an attitude of: “this is someone who the Holy Spirit has brought here to worship and since the Holy Spirit has put that person near me, then I have to greet that person as a brother or sister. Excited, enthusiastic (but not obnoxious), looking forward to what God has in store for us, and letting them know that just like any good brother or sister, I am there for them, that I look for what the Holy Spirit has for me to do in that person’s life. Isn’t that great? What an adventure!

Church, liturgical worship a new/old paradigm

Leave a reply

The church is not the world. Whether or not the world can be the church? Yeah, probably not, but for the world to try to force the church, or worse yet for the church to capitulate to the world is not acceptable. The more the church tries to conform to the world the more irrelevant the church becomes.

That simply cannot happen, the church is not the world’s, it’s not the pastor’s, it’s not the people’s who “built” it. They may have raised the money for the brick and mortar, the ornaments, the furnishings and they can take pride in what they’ve done. But a Lutheran will always say it’s not what I’ve done, it’s what the Holy Spirit has done through me. The church building is the outward symbol of the Christ, it should be the way it is to stick out in the world as that physical landmark, that bright light of Christ into a dark world. But as Luther points out, there is the “visible” church, it’s of the world, but it’s not necessarily the church that will be the be the Bride of Christ. It is a place where people can come to spend time in worship, by themselves or corporately. I love it when people come in, people I know and I don’t know and ask to spend time in the chapel. The church is where the pastor is, I welcome people who come in and say “I need to talk”. It’s a place where the pastor can be called out to tend to someone, a member of the church or not, any time. Where do you find a place like that in the world? You don’t! The motivation is serving God, by serving people. Glorifying God by serving people to the best of our ability. With a few exceptions, the world is not motivated that way. So the building is a highly visible symbol of God’s presence in the community, but the church, the Body of Christ is the people who know Jesus as Lord and Savior and come together to worship in that building.

The church is an entirely different paradigm. As the pastor of a old and glorious church I know what it’s like for a person to walk into the narthex and get a hint and then turn the corner into the sanctuary. It’s not a “oh, that’s nice” kind of coo. It’s more of an intake of air and “wow” in some form, getting that little hint of the Glory of God. The paradigm is this; it’s not about you, it’s not about what you “like” or what makes you comfortable. It’s about the glory of God, it’s about you realizing how insignificant you are, and how magnificent, all-encompassing, all-powerful God is. It’s not to assail your self-esteem or hurt your feelings, it’s to get you to realize it’s about far more then you. That’s a good thing. I don’t want the universe to be about me, to think that it revolves around me. Sorry, but truth be told, that is exactly what too many people think. There are people whose attitude is I don’t want to think about something far more powerful, far greater and glorious because that would make me feel bad about myself. When you really understand what you are in relation to God and how glorious He is and how that is to your benefit, being the creation of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendant God, that the universe is under control, we should feel empowered through Him, not themselves. We have a God who has given us promises and an entire paradigm through His Word, Scripture, that should give us security and assurance that these things will play out the way He has promised. He created all things, He controls all things, He sustains all things. It’s going to happen the way He decides. Yes, we can get off the bus anytime, where does that leave you? Dead, cutoff, condemned. If you reject God, you condemn yourself. There isn’t a second choice.

The world’s paradigm tries to convince you that there’s just a whole multitude of choices, so long as that choice isn’t Jesus. Part of those choices is church “your way”, nice and comfy, happy/clappy, you leave church all bouncy/bouncy. But after awhile you realize how fleeting and phoney it is, that it’s work and not really worship. There’s no assurance, no real supernatural power, just you being entertained. Henry Blackby writes: “

 

If you find that Christianity exhausts you, draining you of your energy, then you are practicing religion rather than enjoying a relationship. Jesus said that a relationship with Him would bring rest to your soul. Your walk with the Lord will not make you weary, it will invigorate you, restore your strength and energize your life.”

All the “entertainment”, appealing to the world, that takes a lot of day in/day out effort, it becomes all about what you do, instead of what God does for you in worship. Will that wear you out, drain you? Of course, it’s not about coming to God, facing the altar, lifting our hands up to Him, it’s about your efforts, the pastor’s efforts, the musician’s efforts, the creative director … blah, blah. No wonder people don’t take the church seriously, it’s not about coming before God, it’s about a new production week after week. There’s little about God working on you and a lot about all the things we do for a new whiz-bang wahoo.

So the point is this, we cannot come into church and take the paradigm of the world in with us. Everything is different for a reason, it is to take you out of the world and point you to something timeless. Something that is valid and compelling today as much as it was 2,000 years ago and will be compelling and valid until Jesus returns. It connects us to Christians all around the world and for all time. The sanctuary should be something that evokes a “wow”, makes you draw in your breath makes you a little about the glory of God. The symbols around you are there to remind you that you are link, a part of the history the church, you are part of that visible church, in my case a building that’s been around 140 years and, God’s will, will be part of well into the future. There’s a cross, at First St Johns there are stain glass windows of the first disciples, of Martin Luther and, rather oddly, CFW Walther, the first president of the Lutheran church in the United States. There are timeless representations of “All Glory to God”. There are representations of bread and wine, the Body and Blood. There is Jesus the Lamb, Jesus crucified, Jesus’ ascension and Jesus ruling in glory. All of these are representations that would be known to the Acts Christians and will be known, again, until He returns. These are all intended to remind you that you are not in the world, that you have come into Jesus’ church, you are connected to the Body of Christ.

You see a man in a plain white robe, around his neck is a stole the color representing the season of the church, usually with different Biblical symbols and represents the “yolk of Jesus”. That he is there to be the voice and face of Jesus to the congregation. I’m not Jesus, but I’ve been ordained to be His minister, His representative. I am the one charged with maintaining the spoken Word, teaching about Scripture, administering the timeless sacraments. Baptism that actually washes away sin, the Lord’s Supper that is His actual Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins. That plain white robe is intended to separate me, not to be more or less special, but different, separated.

We come to Him on terms that have guided worship through the ages. I and other men who are not concerned about our media presence, like others in their $600 suit or the other ridiculous extreme, t-shirts and holes in their blue jeans. There were and are men who were focused on worship on coming to the Father on His terms to honor, glorify and raise Him up. Coming to Him in our weakness, with nothing in our hands only raising to Him in prayer. Not trying to force my music on Him, but to take in everything around us and remember ‘be still and know that I am God.”

Church is not the world, stop trying to force the church into world’s mold. God is in control both in the world and in the church, but it is the church that saves to eternity. Anyone who thinks that there is any permanence about the world is just not dealing with reality. What we see today, even in ten years will be different. God’s kingdom has been and will always be, and that is the paradigm that we should encounter when we go into worship. It’s not about you, it’s about God, any other attitude is idolatry, that is you are putting yourself above God. It’s not about your likes, dislikes, tastes, your preferences. It is about coming in with a reverent spirit, what is the Holy Spirit going to bring to us. Can it seem repetitious? Yes, but again for a reason. When you encounter the trials, when you experience hardship, what do you want running in your mind, what is the background program in your soul? All happy-clappy, everything is beautiful? Or is it what you have heard in worship, “In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”, “as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever, Amen.” The Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s prayer. When, not if, you encounter tragedy in your life, do you want the background program in your soul being the latest staged production at the church of “it’s all about me”? Or do your want it to be “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy”?

God tells us in Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.” (ESV) We keep trying to drag God down to us, to make Him answerable to us. Instead we need to aspire to ever higher worship, coming before Him with empty hands and open hearts. Ready to hear the true Gospel. Frankly I’m not really interested in people leaving worship happy, or feeling good, or entertained. Frankly, when I write a sermon, I usually feel convicted, sometimes I think I’m just writing to myself. There’s no doubt that the Holy Spirit is guiding my sermon. Thoughts, references, pop into my head seemingly out of no where. I want to preach God’s Word, I want to be guided by Him. No one wants to hear my thoughts, they come to church to hear God’s Word preached. “Our way” says that I should be there to please my listeners, to “tickle” their ears, make them like me. Which are things that God’s Word warns us/me, away from. I’m there to preach His Word. I welcome anyone to challenge my exegesis and how I present/preach on Scripture. If I am wrong, I sincerely want to know, sometimes I do miss the target. If people leave happy and have been truly spiritually fed, fine. If they feel comforted, that’s good, because God’s Word should comfort. But if I feel convicted after I finish a sermon, I have to believe that there are others who will feel convicted by the sermon. How about feeling compelled, or inspired? When people walk by me and shake my hand, I hope that I see a look of determination, that others may be as convicted as I am, a look of going back into the world with the Holy Spirit guiding me, that more and more I am His and less of me.

Too many times people buy in to this attitude that “God owes me”, because of what they did, or who they are. Essentially anyone who passes by me in that church will encounter trial or tragedy. If they are not prepared for that, if they can’t come to terms with the fact that the Christian life is challenging, that there will be trials, then anything that rocks their world could leave them bitter, disconnected and possibly rejecting God. If they have a great life, great! I hope all do. But Jesus promises us that the world hates Him and will hate us. A Christian in the world, in general, will often have a more difficult life. In order to cope with that, the Christian needs that different paradigm. It can’t be the world’s paradigm because frankly the world is just going carelessly on its way to destruction. The Bible promises that. If you don’t believe that, you should reassess your understanding of the Bible. The Christian paradigm has to be one of understanding that it is all to the glory of God, it’s not about us and our entertainment, it is to be strong in Christ in confronting life and the world and we need to worship that way, God’s paradigm, not the world’s.

U.S. suicide rates rise sharply article by Tara Parker-Pope New York Times May 2, 2013 as quoted in Leadership Journal Summer 2013

2 Replies

This article really hit home with me because what of suicide means to me as a Christian and especially in terms of the fact that the group most affected, is becoming most likely to commit suicide are men in their 50s, like me.

So what’s the difference? Clearly as a Christian, as a pastor, I see suicide as the final act of those who are hopeless, who see nothing else left to live for and so chose to stop.

Why men in their 50’s? Parker-Pope points out factors such as economic, availability of prescription painkillers. That might accelerate the process, but, in my opinion, that’s not the core issue. As a Christian my faith is in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ, my hope is in Him only, not in the economy, my expectations, what other people think etc. She does go on to point out that “…it hinted that deeper issues like failed expectations and a loss of hope might be a root cause.” She quotes “Dr Julie Philips, a researcher from Rutgers: ‘The boomers had great expectations for what their life would look like, but … It hasn’t turned out that way.'” She goes on to say that future generations will be facing the same situation.

I can certainly speak as being part of that demographic and can relate. Twenty five years ago I finally finished my business degree working for Motorola and there was no doubt in my mind that I was finally on my way to at least being a CFO for, at least, a mid-cap company. If you had told me that I would be a Lutheran pastor in York, Pa., I would probably have suggested that they might cut out smoking, drinking whatever was messing with their mind.

Middle aged men today have become all about their job, achievements, their house, their car, well you get it. That’s it, their total investment is in how they amass money/ things. I hear it constantly from men “oh yeah, I don’t need church, blah, blah,” and they will spout some inane nonsense about how they know it all, don’t need none of that, again blah, blah. The more they talk, the more obvious they don’t know what they’re talking about. But hey I will concede that the church has gone out of it’s way to make itself less relevant to men. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s all about the job, making money etc.

In addition to not needing church, don’t need government, because they’re all crooks, doesn’t make a difference, again blah, blah. Men aren’t getting educations because it doesn’t make a difference, the only thing that makes a difference is how much money, the quality of their possessions. Men in their 50’s are statistically supposed to be at the peak of their earning, on their way to having a nice easy retirement etc, etc. The reality is that most are finding that is not going to be the case, that they haven’t achieved what they thought they were supposed to and everything that they’ve pinned their hope on is simply not going to happen. Their hope is gone, the supposed promise of the American Dream is simply not going to happen.

Let’s cut to the chase, yes of course each of us is responsible for running our life, but we need to realize that it’s not about what we ultimately do, it’s what God guides us to do. I had a certain set of expectations, but I was clearly led by God to be where I am now and there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s much more to come. It may be where I’m at, or something entirely new, but when I look back on my life I have no doubt as to who was guiding it. I’m not saying that I’m somehow “chosen” I’m not saying that I’m any kind of special case at all. I am saying that if more people, not just men, trusted in what God was doing and quit trying to live by their own expectations, they would find life to be a more of an adventure, a lot more fulfilling, more authentic and in the end? Maybe not the big bank account, big house etc. But knowing that they have lived according to God’s will, they’ve lived the life that God guided them in and in terms of living their true life, in the resurrection, they will be blessed and yes, the building treasure in heaven that Jesus makes many references to.

Space and inclination don’t permit me to get into a discussion of suicide, but it’s God who gives us life and it’s His decision what happens and when He decides to call us home, suicide is never the solution in any respect. Pride, anger, disappointment are not acceptable, but in a society where we have this idea that it’s all about us and we can do what we want, when we want, well God is simply not going to bless that.

It’s way past time for us all to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and trust in the hope and promises of the Bible, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are responsible for the conduct of our life, but that responsibility is realized when we trust in what God is doing in our life and not our own desires and expectations.