Reliance Precedes Revitalization

Since I began my journey to discover a church to serve in revitalization, I have discovered many folks who are curious about this journey or even want to join me on this endeavor. One question that comes up often is: What is the First Step? While the obvious answer is prayer, there is another principle that I think is closely linked: Complete Reliance on God’s Holy Spirit!

I have learned that this is a universal principle guiding many actions in the Christian faith. So, the principle has universal application when we consider all of the unknown factors that affecting change in our lives. I am a planner, but many times you can’t construct a perfect plan to address a tough change personally or professionally. While I love books on change management and the wisdom within, nothing can replace this preceding principle in the life of a Christian. (Proverbs 19: 21)

When I think of this principle, my mind turns to Luke 10:1-17. The heart of the principle is in versus 3-4 where Jesus commands the disciples to “³ Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴ Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.” (Luke 10:3-4, NIV) Too often we as people want a plan first instead of seeking God’s will through His Holy Spirit. We have the cart before the horse. I we have been told “⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5, NIV)

When I decided to leave a successful church and church role, I was tempted to first secure a plan. Make sure I had another job lined up, find some medical benefits, hide my intentions from my current church leadership, and then when I had the plan lined up; pull the trigger and execute. This was a very worldly way of thinking about the problem. But before you are too harsh on me, or yourself, we are in the world and it is easy to think this way. What God reminded me was that there is a better way.

I trusted God’s Spirit to precede me in my conversation with my leader at the time. I explained what God was doing and how to grow into the next phase of my ministry journey it was time for me to take a major risk. Once he prayed about it, he was able to send me out with his blessing as well as some financial support until we landed. Just like in Luke, I took nothing with me, but expected God to prepare the path because He had called us to the journey. A positioned opened as a Chaplain at a local hospital that provides benefits and a local church that wants to work the process of revitalization has begun the process with us. There is allot more to that part of the story, but too much to put here for a blog.

If you are considering a change in ministry or God is calling you to something new, I want to encourage you to seek His guidance available through His Holy Spirit before constructing your plan. There indeed may be some strategic planning, but if you move forward without hearing His voice you will find yourself panicking to secure a plan, before you have consulted the Man!

Kicking and Screaming

As many of you know, I find myself in the wilderness currently as I look for a church to Lead into a work of Revitalization. What is not surprising is that over 80% of churches in our country are in need of the work of Revitalization / Renewal. Current research shows that approximately 89% of our churches in North American are plateaued or are declining. However, my initial search for a church has been met with opposition and hard heartedness.

Many of the church search teams I have met with think they are doing just fine. If you are like me at all, you think HOW IS THAT? While there are many ways to answer that question, my mind and heart gravitated back to our fear of death and our delusion that we have some level of control over it. If you have ever taken a philosophy class, there is a good chance you were asked to read the book “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy.

In this classic book Tolstoy brings us a man who has everything and then suddenly and unexpectedly he finds himself declining in health and eventually on his deathbed. His response to this process is to fight with all his being to control the situation. His self-centeredness tortures his family and a cloud of hopelessness descends on the household.

I think this is a perfect word picture for the plight of the North American Church. We think that we can control or fix the problem of decline in the church. And nothing could be further from the truth. We go kicking and screaming as we are dragged into decline, which will end in death one way or the other. We try new programs, put new systems into place, rely on money and building as a crutch, or coax ourselves into thinking we need more staff to fix the problem. But what we need to do is allow God to bring us to a graceful death so that resurrection can take place. There is something about where the church is that needs to die so that we can experience new life and be revitalized. In Tolstoy’s novel Ivan eventually realizes his need for surrender to find peace. Below is a quote from the book:

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. “Where is it? What death?” There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light. “So that’s what it is!” he suddenly exclaimed aloud. “What joy!”

What Joy you may ask? The Christian faith is very counterintuitive at times. Without the death of Christ, we have no resurrection. Without us dying to self, we cannot experience the life of Christ in us (Galatians 2:20). Without the church dying and giving up control, they will never see life and renewal via revitalization. The good news is that there are churches out there that are ready for this counterintuitive approach. We have met with one already that we feel is being spiritually stirred to this movement. As we patiently work to get to know them, time will tell if we are being led to come and experience a glorious death together in order to then experience a faithful and expectant resurrection. Our prayer and hope is to lead many others into this process. Revitalization is about repentant faith and obedience not money, buildings, or programming that in the end only prolongs the death process.

Hold on Loosely

I don’t know about you, but I am a control freak! My wife once bought me a shirt that says, “I have Control Issues” with game remote on it. But when you think about it we all have control issues to some extent. We feel that we have certain things or rights that are owed to us. Maybe you are above such things, but I know that I am still working it out. Here is a simple test below.

Next time you received poor customer service gauge you reaction. Do you get angry? Do you feel that you were robbed of something that you were owed? Do you feel that you were devalued? Do you want to give them a piece of your mind (for some of us it would be a smaller portion size than others)? The feelings that you are working through may be feelings connected to a sense of entitlement. This does not mean that we should excuse poor customer service. But what is our motive for exposing the problem? Is it that we feel that we deserve it or is it that we want to improve other’s customer service? A better motive may be that we want to improve that organization!

If you really want to tackle this issue common to many of us, read Philippians 2: 1-8. In this amazing passage of the Bible, Jesus chooses not to cling, or hold on, to His rights. He exercises a humility that is not wrapped in self-glorification, but is connected in a love for others. I think that if we want to really grow in the area of releasing control, it begins with receiving the kind of humility that Jesus exercised.

This Sunday I begin a new journey in my life. I will be between ministries. I will be missing the amazing ministry of Oak Ridge BaptistChurch ,while I begin the process of searching for where God wants us to land next. My natural desire is to control, work hard, and to make this next part of the journey happen. But what is needed is for me to HOLD ON LOOSELY and allow God to open the right door.

So, I’m excited to share at Grace Baptist Church in Seaford at 10:45 AM a message based on Philippians 2: 1-8. A message that I need to adhere to first as I prepare to release control, so that God can have more. I’ve heard it said that sometimes we need to LET GO TO GET A BETTER GRIP.

Death Procedes Resurrection

It has been a while since I blogged. For a while I was doing it pretty consistently to help with our devotion life in worship arts. I decided to take the time to put up a quick blog to update everyone with the changes that the Lord has been brining our way.

As many of you know, I take off some time post Christmas to pray about what next steps the Lord may be asking of our family and me. This year brought a surprise. I was fasting, praying, and reading through the book “Transforming the Rural Church in America”, when the Lord surprised us with an unexpected ask. Many of you may not know that the church in America is in BIG TROUBLE. 4,000 churches close their doors each year in our nation. 1,700 pastors will leave the ministry this month. 80% of the churches in North American are plateaued or declining. These are staggering statistics and as my wife and I prayed and read this book we found that our heart began to be burdened to be a part of changing this reality!

The problem – we are a part of a great church, we love the people we serve with, and we are very comfortable with the stage of life we are in. A BIGGER PROBLEM – obedience is more important than location, friendships, or our comfort. As believers we are called to follow after Christ and not our own desires. John 12:23-26 really brings this reality home for us.

²³ Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. John 12:23-26 (NIV)

We realized that the Lord was asking us to step out of our comfort to be a part of a movement to revitalize the local church. After all, Oak Ridge (Our current Church) was a church that experienced revitalization. The key was that they were willing to do whatever the Lord asked of them to reach their community under the leadership of a pastor who was willing to do just the same. For more information on this movement watch this video: http://vimeo.com/59186399.

Therefore, at the end of February we will be dying a little. We will be dying to our comfort to pursue God’s next call in our lives by stepping into the Pastorate of a church who wants to partner with us to reach their community. A church that is ready to do the hard work of revitalization. We believe that God wants to do this for every church that is willing to make church not internally focused but externally focused. One that is willing to focus on their community being transformed by the power of the Gospel of Christ. A church where the pastor’s humility and sacrificial love is reciprocated by a church family who is willing to release power and control to see a God-Sized Turn-Around.

Many of you have asked what you can do. The greatest need that we have at this point is prayer. Prayer that the Lord will direct us to the church that He intends for us to shepherd and that the church has been prepped by God’s Spirit for the transformation. If God brings a church like this to your mind, you can also let us know and let them know about God’s call on our life. Then please pray that we can be a part of leading and witnessing the miracle of resurrection that we have seen at Oak Ridge in another church. Also pray that God will call at least 4000 pastors this year to step into the work of revitalization. Let’s be a part of praying and working hard to revitalize churches throughout our great nation.

Micromanagement Hurts

This morning I was working through Ecclesiastes CH 8 when I can across a curios phrase. “There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.” Ecc 8: 9b (NIV)

I have been operating in one leadership capacity or another about 20 years now. I have practice positional leadership, middle management, relational leadership, servant leadership…. And studied many other forms and practices. As I have grown as a leader I have had to temper my natural personality’s push to give direction to people, even at times when asked to do so.

Over time, and with the Lord’s challenge to become more humble, I have come to realize that the people that I am leading with, and leading, have great skill, wisdom, and passion. That influence, like many other dynamics of life, is a stewardship. If we use it improperly it can yield poor results. That is caution I think the author of Ecclesiastes is pointing to in the verse above. The Lord can give us a preferred vision, he can give us a passion to achieve that vision, but we often forget that He wants us to work with a team to do so. If you are constantly micromanaging high-level leaders around you they will eventually do one of three things: they will move on to another leader (change jobs), they will become apathetic to you and your vision (dispassionate), or they will wait patiently for a season to see if you get it or wear yourself out not getting it. No matter how a leader responds to a micromanager, the hurt affects the organizations ability to achieve a God sized dream.

In organizations that have issues like this, you tend to find more managers than you do leaders. That is because micromanagers prefer those that they can manage and are typically uncomfortable with leaders. How do I know this? I was one of the worse micromanagers early in my career. I have seen this happen right in front of me, and then only too late in the game come to realize that I have been the bottleneck to what God wants to do. That humility thing is tough to be confronted with in those seasons. So, what do you do if you are a micromanager?

What helped me the most was to come to the place where I understood Maxwell’s leadership principle of the inner circle (http://www.u-leadership.com/the_21_irrefutable_laws_of_leadership-w.pdf) and the humility that the Bible describes in Philippians 2: 5-11. When you have surrounded yourself with the right people who you can trust to lead, it helps to alleviate your tendency to micromanage. In that process you have to give them permission to know you and communicate when they feel they are being a micromanager. That is where the humility factor comes in. You have to have the humility to understand as a leader that you need others on your team and that those team members at moments may have better ideas of how to achieve an objective than you do. When those moments come you are really able to build people up on your team as you show them how important they are to achieving an objective!

There are allot of articles out there on how to improve if you are a micromanager. If you are one, then have the humility to admit it, surround yourself with a great team, and continue to have the awareness to constantly learn to better address the problem before you hurt the vision that God has given you.