Goodbye World!

Everyone — This blog was a great outlet for me while I was in transition and allowed me to work through a number of important ideas.   Now that I am in the middle of church planting and recovery ministry,  my energies are going to the teachings that are required for that.   Therefore I just don’t have the time to post here any more.   I will leave this site up at least for the near term future so that others can find the articles.   You can find our ministry at http://www.cincinnatifreedom.org

Dynamics of Attraction

As mentioned in the previous post, there are several major things working against people getting married, those are trends that the church has to fight. What about at an individual level? I’d like to look at the dynamics of relationships and what the pitfalls are. There are many different kinds of men and women out there, so it’s impossible to cover every scenario, but let’s look at a few basic dynamics.

The most important issue is that of attraction. What causes one person to become attracted to another? I believe group dynamics are very important to the process. In general, I see a pyramid phenomenon at work in groups. In any group there is one person that is considered the most attractive person (MAP) by the corresponding group of the opposite sex, and vice versa. This leads to the phenomenon where 10 guys are after one girl, and 10 girls are after one guy. Because of this people do not naturally “pair off” that easily.

How do people end up getting together then? Well first, in many cases it’s not 10 to 1. It’s often more like 10 to 3. There are different personality types, so not everyone will find the most attractive person to be the most attractive to them. That improves things, but he problem still remains that it is a many to few scenario. Next, the “most attractive person” changes over time. Few people can stand the limelight indefinitely. Someone else will enter into the picture and change the dynamics. Also, if the most attractive person dates, they are usually taken because they are in high demand. This leads people to consider other options.

Now, I want to say that I do not consider the “most attractive person” phenomenon to be Godly. I believe it’s actually a kind of idolatry, but you need to see it to know what is going on. This “king of the mountain” phenomenon is damaging to the people on the top and on the bottom. The people on the top can think that the world revolves around them, and that everyone loves them. They may also get frustrated from attracting lots of people that they are not interested in. The people at the bottom get frustrated from not being seen by anyone, and frustrated from the long term and repeated rejection they experience.

You have to break this idolatrous “crowd” phenomenon.  In reality once you stop chasing the “most attractive person” you will find that there are actually a lot of people of the opposite sex that are not only available but who have wonderful qualities and are attractive to boot.   It is rarely the case that there are not enough people of the opposite sex and right age, unless we’re in a prison camp.  It is usually the case that we have ignored or otherwise weeded out everyone who could be a potential mate from contention.

Those are some of the hidden group dynamics, what about the individual dynamics? Mystery and unattainability are actually major factors in attraction. You want what do not know about, or what you can not have. This is why siblings are naturally not attracted. There is no mystery. So we want someone we do not know about, but generally only the ones that we see as “above” us or at least roughly equal. We do not naturally consider those who we do not see as less attractive than ourselves.

Additionally, men and women tend to have different psychologies of rejection that develop.  Men basically are the pursuers.  So if you are not a proactive man it may feel like life literally passes you by as it regards women.  Regardless if you are the man you have to go after the girl you want and face rejection.    So the phenomenon of being a man can be an exercise in repeated rejection.   If you are a woman, the rejection is usually a little more passive.   You are waiting for someone to “pick you”  and you have to do a lot of things in order to get picked.   This is very rejecting because the message is that you have to be someone you can’t be.  You have to be better looking, but you just are what you are, how do you change that?   So I think the standard psychology that women develop is that they are not likable enough.   It’s permanent rejection.

In addition, because of the “mysterious” phenomenon, deception can play an important part in attraction.   In Genesis 6:2, the “sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good” and so they took them.   This is the same language as the tree in the garden of Eden.  She saw that the fruit was good and she took it.   The issue was that the fruit was not actually good!   Lust is essentially when we believe the lie about someone.   Normally a woman or a man that inspires a strong lustful attraction it is because there is something unhealthy about them.   Now, please do not get me wrong, a lustful person can lust after anything and anyone, but it doesn’t just cut one way.  I’m pointing out that there are people who can stir up lust in an otherwise “normal” person.   It’s not because that person is actually physically more attractive, it is because there is a spirit associated with their own lust that presents itself as “good” to others.    When you believe in your heart that the person is “really hot” or likewise, it’s because you are believing that spirit.    We get pulled in by this spirit and this person, and then we get consumed.  In essence, you are attracted to the person who spiritually speaking is LEAST attractive.

The first part of developing Godly attraction is repenting of this.    You see it’s not even an issue of inner versus outer beauty.  It is an issue of you assigning beauty to someone because of something unhealthy.   If there were identical twins dressed identically, and one was pure but one was not, the one who was not would appeal to you if you’re not healthy.  You have to develop an attraction to what God finds attractive, and then you will ascribe beauty to what God finds beautiful.   In addition, you have to be able to see potential in people, the way God see potential in you.

But how do you go about finding someone if you have already crossed these bridges?  Can a singles group do the trick?   Usually the answer is “no.”    Singles ministers often set these groups up intentionally to keep people from meeting someone there.  They say “we’re not a meat market.”    So the people who want to meet people aren’t there!   Can you do online?  The problem with online is that it bypasses the natural process of attraction.   You learn all about someone’s vital statistics first and eliminate the mystery!   You end up with someone who looks great on paper but who you are not really attracted to.    I’m not saying it can’t work, I’m just saying it is harder than it sounds.   Also because of the stigma with “online” dating the people who are there are sometimes there because they are a difficult match for some reason or another.

You need to meet people in a natural setting.  Where can you do this?   Ask yourself, where would I be if I were my potential mate?   Don’t look for him or her at the singles meeting, she/he’s not there for the same reason you’re not.    He or she is serving at the soup kitchen, or on a mission trip, or taking classes.    That natural setting allows for you to have a natural attraction.   For guys, once you meet a potential, you need to take your big step.  For girls,  you may need to do more than “send signals.”  Some guys don’t get them.  You may need to engage an older woman at the church who can help you asses the situation and figure out if there is a way to make it happen.

Why People Aren’t Getting Married

There are a lot of young Christian people out there who are just not getting married. It’s a borderline epidemic. It was not always this way. It is a problem associated with our time and culture, and we’re not doing enough to address it. Why aren’t people getting married?

1. The Courtship Philosophy. Honestly I think the problem is partly of our own making. Especially since the rise of the courtship movement we’ve been sending young Christians the message that they should not be pursuing a relationship with someone else. They need to stay holy, deny their desire for a mate, and wait for God to meet the need. This kind of message is intended to stop the kind of people who are sleeping around or may be making rash choices.

The Biblical counsel for someone who “burns with lust” surprisingly is not that they go to a monastery until they overcome it. Paul says that they should get married. So I believe the expectation we should set is not that people stop pursuing, but that they need to switch from serial dating to looking at every relationship as a serious progression toward marriage. Now I’m not saying they don’t need to repent and deal with lustful attitudes. It’s just that the Bible does not say “get delivered from lust and then get married”. We need to help them treat their relationships with more seriousness and reverence, contront the lust problem, and avoid dangerous situations.

The real problem with the courtship message however, is what it does to the more passive, more naturally chaste individual. It causes them to stop looking and wait for Mr or Mrs. Right to drop out of the sky. Not that God doesn’t provide, but he always provides in conjunction with effort on our part. We don’t wait for people to just drop out of the sky to come to our church do we? We develop ways to find them and bring them in — often extremely elaborate ones! These people wake up one morning at 30 or 35 and find that there are no legitimate options for them because they have spent a long time avoiding or not pursuing someone. So we’ve stigmatize looking for someone as ungodly, and then when you get to be 35 and you start we think you’re strange for not having found someone, or ungodly for “settling” on whoever is left at that point. So we’re need to actually encourage people to find a mate.

We need to change our mindset so that we stop working against people getting married and start working toward people getting married.

2. Anti-marriage tendencies. For women, it is the side effects of feminism. There are lots of Godly young women in our churches who were never the less fed a quiet feminism through school or family which has told that getting a family is a shackle. You don’t want that until you are 30 if ever. You need to get out there get a degree, get established in a career, and then get married. Unfortunately doing those things will lead you farther away from marriage. You will be more independent, less willing and less able to unite yourself to a man. You will have the issue of two people going in two different directions negotiating who has to lay down what in order for things to move forward. You will have missed out on most of the best years for raising children, and many of the best men as well. This is horrible advice for women. Young marriage may have the drawback of immaturity, but maturing together has significant long term advantages.

Men on the other hand may be given to “playing the field” and “low commitment” although I find this rare for serious Christian men. I think the big hurdle for them is the changes that men have to make in order to accomodate for a woman and a family in their radical mindset. These radical men may have rough communication styles, and expectations that women may find austere. Ever look at the “decor” in a bachelor pad?

The church has work against both of these, educating women about the consequences of “postponing” family and men about what it really means to be a husband.

3. Unrealistic Expectations. Both men and women face this issue although it’s a little different for each. For the spiritual man you might be looking for a girl that is gorgeous and passionate about serving God in extreme ways. Get in line. You may also have “the list” going on, where they need to meet a long list of criteria you feel are essential in a mate. For a woman, you might be looking for fairy tale man, who is both sensitive and understanding, but strong and masculine. He is a great listener but doesn’t rush to “give the answer.” He is a courageous leader, but he would never override you. If these men exist, they are mostly your dad’s age – having developed these skills over a lifetime. So unrealistic expectations are a problem. Both sexes need to learn to look for the hidden gemstone instead of the “perfect” person. I’m not definitely saying you should compromise your spiritual values, what I am saying is that you need to look with God’s eyes on your spouse.

All of this leads me to conclude that churches need to be proactive about marriage.  They need to develop people for it and fight worldly tendencies.  They need to create places where people can meet.   Moreover, instead of a “singles” ministry, which generally is a place people go “not to meet someone.”  The should have a “marriage” ministry.  Where people go to become the person that someone wants to meet, and to connect with that special someone.   Perhaps a couple whose responsibility it is to know “who is who” and to help develop natural situations where they could meet.

Growing Ministry

Often we talk about about growing a ministry, this equates a ministry with a thing.. a large church or program is considered a ministry. However, I’d like to suggest that we focus on the human aspect — the ministry result that happens to a person. Ministry does not actually happen unless someone is actually touched or changed as a result of what you are doing. This is what we want to cultivate. We don’t want to grow a ministry, we want to grow ministry. We want the amount of ministry that happens in our church to increase exponentially regardless of what is going on with headcount.

Let’s look at the encounter with the woman at the well as a model for ministry activity:

1. Jesus met the woman at the well and he ministered to her.
2. Her life was changed.
3. She ministered to other people (the whole town) through her testimony
4. The ministry team (Jesus and the disciples) followed up on all of the people that she touched, and touched some more.

One person received a real touch from God and it changed the town. These kinds of “follow on” ministry situations happen repeatedly in the Bible, and I think that is one of the golden keys we’re missing.

Most ministry is like scattering seed. It just goes everywhere — rocky ground, the path, the thorns, and the soil. And there is nothing wrong with scatter shot activities. You need them. Jesus, John the Baptist and the disciples performed a lot of that. But you have to go beyond that. We scatter seed, and scatter it, and hope something grows on its own. Then when we aren’t seeing enough growth we start a program and try to get people into it. The initiative for the program is is not coming from the people, it’s coming from us.

Ministry means service, service is meeting the needs of the people. If you want to grow ministry, meet the needs of the people. The context does not matter, small or large the goal is to touch individuals. Jesus ministered to the woman at the well. The dynamic transforming power of God was now inside of her. She’s excited. What do you do now that you’ve got someone who has received ministry? Here are some common scenarios:

1. I’ve been in some churches where someone who receives a touch from God like this becomes a “problem” for the pastors and they will ignore this person or something similar. This can be extremely hurtful to the person God has touched. Jesus was surrounded by throngs. What did he do anytime someone pulled on Him? Did he say “this is not a hospital church” or call for the ushers? No! He met their need. That’s because the pull from the person (faith) is what makes the ministry happen. You’re foolish if you turn people away, you are thwarting your own ministry.
2. Nothing. She just gets the ministry, tells somebody, they acknowledge how great it is, and that’s the end of it.
3. She would get farmed into a group or possibly connected with someone. Now this is a much better result, depending on how it works, real change can happen.
4. She performs “follow on” ministry. This is the ideal. When someone is touched, there is holy fire within them. There is grace to touch someone else. “Freely you have received, freely give” Testimonies are the most basic ways of doing this. If its someone more mature, the follow on may be a teaching. Perhaps if they got healed, they start praying for others healing. The “ministry” they receive becomes the ministry that they give back to everyone — including the person who gave it to them in the first place!

We’ve spread the fire by letting the person who received do some giving, but we’re still not done. The Bible says that Jesus and the disciples went down to the city and stayed for two days and ministered to more people. They followed up on the result of her ministry! We follow up with a person who is touched, we give them a chance to minister to others, and then we follow up on the results of that, which as you can imagine leads to a cycle. More people are touched, more people minister, etc. This is what I’m talking about in “growing ministry.”

1. It begins with a “pull” from someone. A hungry person came to you or you scattered seed to one or to a thousand, and someone was stirred.
2. You feed them.
3. They are changed.
4. They feed others.
5. You begin again with the people they touched.

What you are now doing is cultivating the life of God among His body. Instead of setting up pyramids where one person takes initiative and everyone else is farmed in, which is what natural man always does, we are cultivating the “vine,” the life of God among our people. Every fire starts with a small spark. We can’t figure out why no fire is starting. It’s because we’re not fanning the sparks into flame. We let them go out, and then strike another match. You get enough sparks, and there starts to be a fire. The more lives change, the more people believe that lives can change. That’s more faith. More faith means more miracles. So it’s not as much about “vision” and ministry direction, and all of those things. It’s about fanning and chasing the fire of the Holy Spirit among the people (including yourself). When it gets hot, you can even burn dead wood in there.

Biblical Basis of Covering in the Shepherding Movement

The major proponents of the “covering” doctrine in modern times mostly trace their roots back to Watchman Nee’s book “Spiritual Authority.” While Nee was a neat and insightful writer, we should keep in mind that the second generation became a cult under his disciple Witness Lee so there must have been some error mixed in there! The Shepherding Movement was the first major group to take up the teaching, but even with the failure of the movement in the 1980’s, it keeps a life of its own. John Bevere’s book Under Cover is the most recent and popular restatement of covering theology. And all throughout the Charismatic church this kind of mentality lurks around.

When you are in a group that teaches submission and authority or “covering”, the Scriptural support seems overwhelming throughout the Bible. First there is the shocking instance of Korah’s Rebellion in Numbers 16 ends with the Earth opening up and swallowing them alive! Miriam and Aaron rebel against Moses authority and Miriam is struck with leprosy. David refuses to “touch the Lord’s anointed” in his long trials with Saul, and the Scripture is hard on Absalom who rebels against his father. The teaching follows that we need to treat unjust authority like Saul in the same way that David did. We want to be Davids not Absaloms right?

Jesus himself says that “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” He praises the Roman centurion in Matthew 8:9-10 after he says “For I too am a man under authority.” The logic goes that if Jesus was submitted to leadership, how much more should we be submitted to leadership?

Then in Paul we find that “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.” and that “whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God.” Our pastors are authorities set up by God, and so if we resist them, we are resisting God himself. And finally looking in to 1 Cor 11, we find a hierarchy setup: “the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” You need to get into line with the submitted order of the universe. God is a God of order after all right? Finally in Hebrews 13:17 we get a direct command “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls”

These are just some of the explicit examples. Once you take up the authority worldview, you will find it throughout the Scripture. The foibles of the Patriarchs for example can be explained in terms of their relationship to authority. This teaching must be true then right? Those who teach this doctrine are correct in identifying a Scriptural pattern of authority and order. Both the interpretation and application of this pattern are wrong, however.

First of all, the Bible does not teach unquestioning obedience to leaders. In fact, the Bible is full of examples of God calling his people to confront unrighteous leadership. Jesus is the foremost. He was basically put to death for his confrontation with the Pharisees. They were the duly established authority of the time. He called them “snakes”, “hypocrites” and a “brood of vipers.” Essentially he was confronting authorities which were in disobedience to God, to re-establish God’s proper authority over all. If Jesus is our example in this as in everything else we should be ready to have a show down with authorities that are in disobedience to God. The apostles took this to heart. In Acts 4:19 and 5:29 when ordered by the duly establish authority to obey, they say “We must obey God rather than men.” There could hardly be a clearer Scriptural precedent. If someone is telling you to do something that you believe is wrong, do not do it!

The Old Testament examples are misconstrued as well. Moses was ruling a theocratic Kingdom, speaking to God face to face, and receiving the Ten Commandments. Which of your leaders do you think possesses the same kind of authority as Moses did? David’s refusal to kill Saul does not detract from the fact that he was not submitting to or obeying Saul. He fled from Saul. In fact, he makes one of his famous statement “I will not touch the Lord’s anointed” statements when Saul finds him in a cave where he had run to. Had he submitted to Saul completely, there would have been no King David, because Saul would have succeeded in killing him. And what about the other examples? Jehu is anointed by God to wipe out the ruling dynasty. So are basically all of the judges.

Finally, let’s look at the only Scripture in the New Testament which really talks about “covering” in an explicit way: 1 Corinthians 11. The hierarchy that is setup there, far from supporting submission relationships is one of the strongest statements against it. In verse 7 it says that “a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God” If we really believe that this passage is about a hierarchy of personal submission, which is questionable, then this passage is teaching that the man should not submit to other men, because the “head of man is Christ.”

What is the author of Hebrews really teaching us when he tells us to “obey your leaders and submit to them,” then? The elders of Christ’s church are the defenders of the flock. They are set in place to defend us, and they take many blows from the enemy in their effort to protect us. Becoming an elder means you are willing to take this heavy responsibility on. We must respect their God-given authority to run the church. If you are not an elder in the church, then it is not your job to lead the church. If you start leading the church without authority to do so, you are in rebellion. This is far different from saying that elders have the right to tell you what you must believe, or what you must do. They have the right to lead the church, and if you participate in that church, you have the responsibility to follow their leadership. If you can not follow, then you can find another church. Most churches that teach “covering” however will try to make you feel as bad as possible for leaving, and usually do not have real elders, just one powerful leader and people that derive their authority from him. In this way they are dangerously similar to cults. Unhealthy church leadership always extends beyond the church and into your private life. By praising you when you do or believe what they say, and condemning you when you do not, they exert authority that they have not been given. It is your responsibility to take back the authority that God gave you over your own life. Anyone who tries to rule your conscience but you is out of line!

Because of the hierarchical worldview of these leaders, they will see anything that is not submitted to their system as being in rebellion. Whether it is another church, a para-church group, or just an individual. If they are not in a hierarchy of submission, then they are not “under cover.” Do not let this keep you from obeying God. Just like every system set up by the enemy, it gains its power from fear and intimidation. If they can scare you into thinking you are in rebellion then you will stay regardless of what kind of terrible things happen to you. Eventually you will either start to behave the way they want you to, or you will become a wreck.

Action Teams

Advancing God’s Kingdom is a multifaceted an seemingly overwhelming responsibility at times. We look at what needs to be done and we are staggered with the enormity of “How can I do all of this” You can’t. That’s why you need a fellowship of people who each do a part. And ideally set it up so that their part doesn’t have to go on indefinitely. First, let’s identify three kinds of people in the church.

1. People to whom you are ministering.
2. People who growing by helping build ministries
3. People who are leading ministries.

Basically, these are the only kinds of people I think there are. People who are just attending and giving really fit in category 1. They need to be awakened and set into a role.

That leads into some obvious questions about the role of the Sunday morning meeting. Our team has discussed this a little bit, and we’re looking at it differently. First we are in the camp that says it is an evangelistic meeting, rather than a church meeting. If you have facility problems, split the church, you’ve done so already. Secondly, we are firmly against having multiple services. It divides your forces, and drains your ministry team. We are looking at the meeting more like fishing. Basically it needs to be set up to “go fishing” for people around a certain topic. Worship, preach to a decision point, and then, here is our innovation — have a “harvest” after the service. Churches have altar time, but we’re suggesting a step farther. A response group. Before the service, figure out who you are fishing for, then figure out who are the best people to catch those kinds of people. Who will give the best message? Who will perform the immediate ministry? Who can help in medium to long term? Plan out your service based on the response you expect to get, instead of what you want to say! This also helps solve the perennial “announcements” problem. Your service becomes an announcement. Instead of urging people to join something, and then preaching about something else, preach for the harvest, and then have it lead into the logical next step ministry.

OK, now this is the next step, how is the church structured? The traditional “Life groups” or “Cell groups” are too often done like an add on to the church and they have no definitive purpose. I propose the “Action Team” as the orienting concept for the church. This connects activity in the churchto the relationships, instead of the two existing in separate spheres, which is unnatural. Everything you do in the church is a kind of “Action Team” Someone in category 3 is leading it, people in category 2 are helping with it, and people in category 1 are receiving from it. Each one is about advancing God’s Kingdom in some way. People in category 1/2 can freely move in and out of them without lots of formality and commitment around joining. Basically it’s a place where you can make a difference. Your category 3 people need to be empowered, under the authority of the pastor or board to own it and drive it. Here’s the revelation: the more owners you have the more momentum you have. Each leader is a franchise owner in a sense. They have a responsibility and the backing of the church, and they basically are responsible for keeping momentum, tapping people to help with different responsibilities, getting resources, etc. The expectation is not just that the people come to the leader, but that leader comes to the people. He or she finds the people that they need, or needs to minister to and tries to fit them in. The general orientation of the leaders of these groups is to work themselves out of a job by raising up the people on the team, or to spawn off other groups, as appropriate. Remember though, these are not Kum Ba Yah groups. They are doing something for God.

Another thing I’m going to propose is that the Action Team is not a meeting time, it’s a team. It’s a set of relationships pushing for a goal. You don’t “go to” a team. You play on it. I’m not saying that people don’t meet, but I’m saying that basically the leader moves it forward, and he or she pulls other people in as needed. When you become a part, you expect to relate to the leader, do stuff at random times, etc. Another great thing about this concept is that you can have people logically play on multiple teams, even leaders can play on the team of another leader. Because different teams are doing all kinds of different things at different times it looks like chaos, but it’s not, because the leaders are empowered to do things, and each is trusted to push their own ball forward. They report results to the board (including if they are board members) and that becomes the point where any needed collaboration occurs.

Another thing about the team is that it involves training. It’s work, it’s fellowship, but it’s also an education. Every leader should train his or her leaders on an ongoing basis, also inviting other leaders of the church to train and activate the people. Here are some example action teams:

• Deliverance and Inner Healing Team.
• Street witnessing team.
• Administration team.
• Worldview ministry team.
• Campus ministry team.

One of the hidden hindering dynamics we talked about in the previous post was that normally you have paid people trying to lead unpaid people. This can be quite difficult. From a dynamics perspective, I think unpaid people leading unpaid people works best. All are working with equal motivation and time constraints. Then it’s not about someone trying to “get people to do something” it’s more about a bunch of people doing something together behind the initiative of a leader. The understanding for everyone is that if their work begins to lead in a direction where they need financial resources including salary, the church will back them up.

An Empowering Ministry Model

Maybe you read the last post and you are thinking, “This guy must be house church.” Or “He doesn’t know how much work being a pastor is.” I’m not, and I do. I’m just realizing that the core problem we need to solve is how to give rather than consolidate responsibilities. What’s needed is a new conception of the leader of the church. So I’m working through an alternative model of how to enable people to grow. Here are my working thoughts.

1. The leader of the church should be the conductor of the symphony not the star of the show. The leader’s job is to maximize the fruitfulness and growth of the people on his team, and their job in turn is to do the same for those they lead. For those who see things through an authority paradigm, let me put it this way: you’re not divesting yourself of authority, you are making it less visible. Think to yourself, “Whenever I as leader take on a responsibility, I’m taking it from someone else.” Furthermore, when I take “important” jobs and give away the “unimportant” jobs, I’m communicating that I’m important and others are unimportant. Ouch. That will not build team ministry, I promise.
2. “Church” should be seen as a fellowship of ministers rather than a place, a service, or a gathering. My Biblical picture of this is Nehemiah. Basically everyone had a place along Nehemiah’s wall regardless of their vocation. All held a load in one hand and a sword in the other. My secular picture of this is a Partnership. In a partnership there are many owners. In a corporation, everyone works works for the CEO in a pyramid structure.
3. The primary job of the fellowship is to grow people, and identify the place along the wall where they will make the most difference and find fulfillment, and then to help them do it! This means provide the people, the training, the money, any resources needed to help people build God’s Kingdom in the way they are passionate about. Most churches operate on one of two extremes they either push people into roles they aren’t necessarily excited to perform, or they encourage them to “find their destiny” or “go ahead and start something.” Neither one of these will get the job done. We have to show people what there is to be done, and give them opportunity to walk in one of those paths before they will know.
4. Roles are fluid, just like people. People grow and situations change. Moreover, many people have a wide variety of talents. That means we need to stop thinking about a particular ministry as a long term “calling” and more like a short to medium term “role.” I’ve done kids church, adult education, worship, prayer, pastoral counseling, etc. If someone had limited my life to one of these, I would have been stunted, and someone else would have missed their opportunity to grow.
5. Resources should chase results. As a fellowship of ministers, we can think of ourselves like an investment group. We want to invest in the places and people that are getting results at that time. If we think giving the staff a raise will produce more results, we should do that. If we think that investing in a better website or facility will produce more results we should do that, but the bottom line is that we should make effort to economize our time and money and then invest it where it’s going to do damage to Satan’s kingdom.

These things change the game for the ministry men in the church. Instead of a race to get into the leadership seat where there is freedom and pay, it’s a team sport to grow God’s Kingdom. Now this does not mean that we never put people into full time ministry, it just means that we make that decision with different glasses on. Perhaps the first person to be paid is a young single guy who can evangelize full time for a thousand dollars a month and place to sleep. Maybe instead of hiring associates, we find ways to farm out the “counseling” to guys who have other jobs. Maybe we even give them a stipend for the sacrifice. Why does it sound crazy to us to pay a member of the congregation to minister part time, but it doesn’t to pay someone to do the same thing full time? Maybe our traveling guys really get priority. The fellowship makes a pointed effort to keep people out on the field advancing.

You can get away with not having the senior leader paid for a lot longer when he is not the personal incarnation of prophet priest and king. By the way, few men are better at all three roles that the best of exemplar of each from their congregation. If he is not preparing every week for every sermon, and doing most of the counseling, and making most of the decisions, then the investment needed on his part is much lower and comparable to the other members of the team. Rotate the preaching responsibilities. Spread the counseling around. Focus on empowering others to grow and advance. Part of this is by not hogging the responsibilities. This doesn’t mean you should not ever go full time, but do so when it meets the “results” criterion above. Once you reach a point where the responsibilities are shared, but it is clear that making you full time is going to really help the ministry, that’s a reasonable time.

Paid Pastor Problems

If you’ve been around enough churches you know that the perennial problem is getting everyone involved. Pastors look for strategies to get people involved, but sometimes it feels like pretty much nothing you can do, outside of becoming a cult, will get more than 20% of people doing anything. The team and I have been reflecting on this lately, and I’m starting to have some thoughts about what needs to happen. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to hit some sacred cows. The firs thing is that I think the “full time pastor” model promotes several things which really stunt involvement. Now before I go any farther, let’s be clear that I’m not against full time pastors. I just want to point out a few issues with what happens in this model by default. Secondly the vast majority of pastors are great people working as hard as they can to serve the people of God, so what I’m talking about is structural, not personal.

First, most we don’t recognize the conflicting messages we are sending. We say “this is your church” but at the same time we are setting all of the vision, and making all of the decisions. The reason we end up having to say “this is your church” is because everything we do is communicating the opposite. Also we might say or think “I want people to get more involved” while at the same time we’re being paid to minister. To a lot of people in the pew we just asked them to do for free what they are paying us money to do. The motivated Christian doesn’t see it this way though, because what they really want is the chance to minister.

Ironically, that is the second problem — the minister is doing all of the really cool stuff that the motivated guys want a chance to do. He’s making the major leadership decisions. He is doing almost all of the preaching. He prays and prophesies whenever he wants to. I’d say at least 90% of the hard core Christians I’ve ever known wanted to be full time. Because, basically it’s a pretty cool job. If you’re sold out to God and properly gifted, even with it’s difficulties, it’s a dream job. We’re sending our motivated guys the message that the end all be all of the Christian life is being a paid pastor. Now we don’t actually think this, and in fact most pastors will say “your ministry is more important than mine because you touch more unbelievers.” But the reality again is that for the motivated guys, they would love to be us if they could. Lines like “that’s not your calling” will not make them feel any better. What will happen if we don’t make room is that guys will grow to a point and then leave to start their own ministry because there isn’t room for them in our house.

This leads to the third issue. Because the pastor does all of the cool stuff, is able to spend a lot of his time focused on God oriented stuff, and has the support of everyone else, he becomes very strong in the Spirit while the rest of the congregation, especially the men do not develop to nearly their full potential. So you can end up with one spiritual giant ministering to a lot of people that don’t seem to grow beyond a certain point.

The fourth issue is the consumption of resources. Salaries are a huge portion of any church budget. When our default model is to pay people to do the ministry, that means that most of our resources will go paying pastoral salaries. That is until we get so big that we need a building, then it is a split between the building and the pastoral salaries. We should remember that the greatest apostle of all time actually worked making tents for part of his ministry. This should be a message to the modern day “apostles” who would find such a thing far beneath them.

Wesleyan Revival Structures

Much has been said of “Apostolic Movements” of late. These are supposed to be a restoration of the pattern of the first apostles. Too often these “apostolic” movements are just large churches built around an extraordinary leader who has planted a few satellites. What is needed is an explosive first century style revival movement, where the Gospel spreads like a flame so fast that can not be extinguished. I believe the closest thing we have to a well documented apostolic movement in modern times is the early Methodists, particularly in America where the frontier was opening up new lands at a remarkable speed. The Methodist “circuit riders” under the leadership of Asbury tamed an entire country as rapidly as it could be settled. Now, certainly some of what has happened in places like China, Africa and Brazil rivals this, but little study has been done on it yet.

The question is how did they accomplish this, and can we reproduce it today? I have been reading about it, and have identified the following principles so far:

Go where the people are. In the old days, simply going out to preach somewhere was an event, since there was nothing else in particular to do. Today it’s a kind of oddity. The Methodist circuit riders went all throughout the countryside, sometimes going house to house, and scheduling meetings for themselves when the would return. The culture has changed, but the principle remains. The modern church has planned almost all of its evangelism strategies around getting the people to come where we are. We have to go where they are -physically. In inner cities, emergency rooms, coming out of bars and clubs. Anywhere that we can find people who might listen, we have to go. We have to be on the ready for a “revival moment” in our regular activities too. Revival happens where the people are.

Emphasis on regular people. Methodism was so popular partly because it was so egalitarian. In a time where hierarchy had been the norm, the Methodist gave regular people a big stake in the game. The itinerants were paid (a small sum) but the local preachers were regular working people who had a passion for the work. When we focus on people who are paid to pastor, the expectation quickly becomes that they are paid to be the God people, and we just relax. The other aspect was that regular people relate to regular people. A highly trained clergyman is in a different world than an average person giving their testimony. This led to “wildfire” at times, but it was better to have that than no fire.

Young Single Men. Methodism drew upon those who had nothing to lose and were looking to make a difference for God. These were the men who could most easily be shaped and who were glad to go into hard places.

Motion. Once you stop moving you are in maintenance mode. The dynamic nature of the early Methodist movement, and the extent of their travels is the stuff of legend. Asbury himself rode 250,000 miles in his lifetime. People were trained “on the field.” They did not stop to go to school. They studied while they were going. Wesley and Asbury had very high expectations of personal discipline for the early itinerants. There was not time to waste.

The word apostle means “sent ones” yet too often in our ministries the structure looks more like “exalted ones.” I am meditating on what a rapidly expanding ministry would look like, so this is a work in progress, but my intial thoughts are that we need:

1. A fiery message.

2. Itinerant men supported by the church who will go to reach lost people where they are.

3. A system to catch the people that are stirred or awakened by the itinerants. This system should not be focused primarily on fixing people, but primarily on putting them into the harvest as well. The “fixing” has to be a byproduct, not a goal.

More on this later.

Freedom Manual – Coming Out of the World

In the Garden of Eden, it was not only Adam and Eve’s rebellion at work, they were deceived by the devil who appeared in the form of a serpent.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

He was the one who tempted them to disobey God, and because they obeyed his voice instead of God’s they came under his authority.  When you are born again, you come out from under Satan’s authority, and are completely under the power of God:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13)

You are no longer subject to Satan.  You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God.   This is both an event and a process.   Even though we are citizens of God’s Kingdom, we must walk out of Satan’s Kingdom and fully into God’s.

Separation
Before you were born again, you were separated from God.  Being reunited with God changes your relationship to the world:

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

The world around us is caught up in the pursuit of material security, success, and pleasure.   For the worldly person, this is the “meaning of life.”  This is what animates their decision making process.   However, it is all a big chase after the wind, because “you can’t take it with you.” At the end of life, you will lose all of your possessions.  You will be separated from all your friends, and your pleasures will not matter.  Honestly, if there is no life after death, it makes perfect sense to live for today, but the Christian is looking forward to an eternity with God.   Even an extraordinarily long life of 100 years is short when you consider eternity, which goes on forever and never ends.  We have to live our lives in view of eternity, and the things that matter for eternity.   For this reason, we have fundamentally nothing in common with the world.

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever. (1 John 2:17)

These things do not mean that you need to go live in monastery.  It means that you need to separate from the pleasures, pursuits, and alliances of the world.   Many Christians are confused, frustrated, and tempted because they have not understood this basic point.   You need to view your life and the lives of others in the light of eternal destiny.

Telling Others About Your New Identity
Because you have been brought out of the world, and into God’s Kingdom, the fundamental dynamics of every relationship in your life change when you are born again.  Being a Christian is not a secret, it is a public, and sometimes difficult, fact.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Go and tell your friends and family about the change that has happened in your life.   When you do this, there will be a change.  Some will reject you right out.  Do not be ashamed.

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)

Jesus has done something awesome for you.  What he asks in return, is that you tell others about Him.  This is because he loves them too.   You now have the keys to their eternal destiny.  Being their “friend” but keeping the truth about Jesus from them is not being friend at all.  You are denying them the only hope of salvation.   Even if they reject it, you have shown them true love.
While this can be very painful, it is part of following Christ.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

You can be consoled by the fact that even though you are being rejected by friends and sometimes family that Jesus sees your pain and holds out a great reward for it.   This is, in fact, the exact difficulty that He faced on earth.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  (John 15:18-19)

You are walking in the footsteps of Jesus when you are rejected or persecuted on account of your faith.   Many try to be Christians but avoid this rejection.  It does not work.  It’s pretending to be something you are not.  Eventually you will either become compromised and go back to the world, or you will be exhausted by the act of pretending to be of the world.  If you truly belong to God, according to the Scripture, the world will hate you.

Relationships with the World
Not all of your friends or family will reject you when you tell them the truth.  Some will use every effort to try to convert you back.   The devil himself will use every effort.   Do not be surprised if your old girlfriend or boyfriend calls you up right when you get saved and wants to go out again, or if the person you’ve been chasing for a year suddenly shows interest.  Be prepared to take a stand for God.  You will keep being tempted until both you, all of your friends, and the devil himself know that you are not turning back from your life with Christ.

Some may watch you, even for years, to see if what has happened to you is real or just some religious thing.  If you have rejected your former life and its pursuits, and are being open about your walk with God, and they still want to be friends, continue to hold out the words of eternal life to them, until God brings them into the Kingdom.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)

What is important is that you view them with an eternal perspective.   They are lost and in fellowship with the world, which God hates.  God loves them and wants them repent just like you did.   But until they do, it is dangerous to be “yoked” together with them.  This includes business partnerships, romantic relationships, and intimate friendships.   You are now reaching out to them, not fellowshipping with them.

Relationships and Culture
Christianity is often thought of as a “Western” or a “White” religion.  Nothing could be further from the truth.   Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew, and so were all of his followers.  Much of the Bible actually takes place in Africa, some in modern Iraq, and some in modern Iran.  Christianity is a God religion.

We are all born into a culture of some kind.   None of us can help being deeply influenced by the values and priorities of the culture we are born into.   When we accept Christ, those values must also be examined by the light of Scripture.  That which is out of line with Scripture must be left behind and reformed, even if it causes a rift with those in our culture.   The apostles were all disfellowshipped and persecuted by their Jewish brothers and sisters.   The Greeks and Romans were murdered before cheering crowds of their own culture.  Our first identification must no longer be with our culture or heritage, but it must be with the body of Christ.  Jesus Himself had to face this dilemma in a very personal way:

They said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”  (Mar 3:32-35)

Family roots are where we learn and derive our cultural identity yet, Jesus declares that he will identify himself with, and fellowship with “whoever does the will of God.”   After Jesus is raised from the dead this idea becomes even more clear:

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven… Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians–we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”  (Act 2:5,9-11)

People from every possible background were coming under a single banner.  Instead of identifying first with their heritage, they identified first with the people of God.  This does not invalidate our heritage.  On the contrary, each of us through our background brings something special to the body of Christ, especially when we have the courage to move outside of our cultural comfort zones.  The beauty of people from all walks of life and backgrounds worshipping their creator on equal footing is a unique of the Body of Christ.

For many, this is one of the hardest kinds of separation.  Giving God priority over every aspect of your cultural identity and values may cause some to see you as a traitor.  In some Islamic cultures it could get you killed.   Among immigrants, sometimes simply by not attending the ethnic church one may be considered no longer even a member of that ethnic group!  Stand firm, this is a trick of the devil to slow you down.  Even if they accuse you of losing your cultural identity, you can know in your heart that you are not losing it, but redeeming it in Christ.   As we saw in Acts, Jesus wants and loves a group of worshippers from every kind of background.

Pleasures of this world.
Many people mistakenly believe that God is against pleasure.   In fact it was God who created pleasure.   The problem is that because of our fallen nature, many of the things that we naturally desire are not good for us and those around us.   Since they are destructive, the devil tries everything possible to lure, tempt and supercharge our interest in them.

Sexual activity outside of marriage is one of the biggest temptations.  It does not matter if it is cheating on your spouse, or if you have never been married.   It doesn’t matter if it is between someone of the same sex or the opposite sex.  God has uniquely designed man and woman for one another and for sex to be part of a lifelong bonding relationship.   When we violate this design, all kinds of unintended negative consequences result.

Alcohol and substance abuse is another area of temptation.   Because the Bible does not devote much attention to these areas, people often rationalize it.   It is destructive to your physical body, your emotional health, and it is costly!

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19)

There are many other ways that people are lured away by the world.   Many of them are not innately wrong, but if done in large proportion they have a tendency to lead you away from the things of God and toward the things of the world.   This includes things like computer games, television, hobbies, and news reading.  We find ourselves with no passion for God because we are full of the interests, and distractions of the world.    If something like this keeps you from God or consumes a lot of your time, challenge yourself by laying it down for a season, and seeking God instead.   You may find like I did that, you are much happier without it altogether.

We should neither be making long lists of “dos” and “don’ts” that are not in the Bible, nor making excuses for compromise.   The soul that is in love with God desires to be as close to Him as possible, and seeks the habits that will promote that.

The ideas of the world
While most people recognize that turning to God will have an impact on relationships and personal purity, coming into the Kingdom of God also addresses the ideologies that we align ourselves with.  This is not about political affiliation, but about submission to God’s way of thinking.  For some people this is a minor area of concerns, and for others it is a major struggle.

Being a Christian means acknowledging God as the supreme creator.  The entire basis of the world’s thinking relies on evolution, which involves chance, mutation and death over incredibly long periods of time.  God did not create through chance, mutation or death.  He created spontaneously and out of nothing.  The modern scientific academy does not accept this, not because of the evidence, but because if one wants to reject God, they need a system to believe in which deletes His influence.   In fact, in many areas, there is a stunning lack of evidence for evolution.   If evolution is removed people come face to face with a creator, and that means having to face His claims on their life and behavior.

Another area where the God’s values come in direct conflict with the world is the infinitely high value He places on life.  Not only did He create us, He sent His son to die to save us.   The devaluation and ultimate destruction of life is one of the main agendas of the enemy.  He came “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).   This devaluation of life is seen in many areas.   Slavery and human trafficking is one of the most horrible.   Killing a baby before it is born, known as “abortion,” is another.   Some are more subtle.   Killing or “euthanizing” the elderly, or using the stem cells from aborted babies, or working people to death in sweat shops are other ways that the devil devalues human life.   Being a Christian means placing the same value for life that God himself places on it from start to finish.  Sometimes this leads to hard moral choices, but those choices must begin by placing the same esteem for human life that God does.

There are many other deceptive philosophies which can ensnare us, but the key is that we submit them to the Word of God.   The Bible speaks directly to the roots of every philosophical or political system ever created.  Being submitted to God means submitting our ideologies too and weighing them against what God teaches us in the Scripture.