Category Archives: Church Life

Thoughts on Pastoring

I have been encouraged by a mentor of mine to put together some thoughts on ministry. It’s meant to be an encouragement for pastors who… well… pastor. It’s more about the ministry and call of pastoring as opposed to all the leadership material we have right now. Mark Galli’s piece, of course, pre-empts all my work! ;)

Since there is probably no publication interested in hearing from a “small church” pastor, I will probably end up forging my thoughts on paper and with some trepidation put together some blog posts in the future. And that will be the extent of it.

But today I was working on the second section of my “article”, which focuses on communion. (We serve communion every week in our Pentecostal church.)

I wanted to try out this thought: “Every week I try to make people homesick.”

In communion we are reminded that one day we need that this world is not our home. One day we get to partake of this table with Christ. With him. We need a longing for a greater allegiance to the Kingdom of God and every week communion gives us that opportunity. Every week I try to make people homesick.

 

The Spirit of Generosity

A new survey going around Facebook shows that churches are more stingy than ever. It’s the kind of fodder we seem to like. For cynics, it’s just another bullet in the gun for them. For Christians, it’s yet another way to beat ourselves up.

For the church I pastor I want to say this survey is not the rule. For those in my church, I want to thank you from the depths of my heart. You are shining examples of what it means to care for the Body of Christ and reach out to the world. We have witnessed amazing miracles to help those in need.

We are also entering a time of emphasizing missions and I can happily report our missions giving is UP. This last year we increased our budget to missions through your faith promise giving. We even added a missionary. As we enter into this season of prayer and dreaming for missions, please do not let up. Let your generosity stay as a shining example to the world around us.

May this survey never be true of this church!

What a Full Day Looks Like

I have LOTS of full days… and they get strung together and keep on going. Yet, in the midst of those full days I find such joy. The past few Sundays at my church have been incredibly encouraging for me. There is a hunger rising up in people. We had a prayer retreat a week ago where the agenda was just seeking God in prayer… and it was refreshing.

Yesterday, it was our church coming together to raise money for our youth to go to youth convention this next week. There was a spaghetti dinner and silent auction. Through all the effort, the group raised ALL the money they needed to send the kids!

It is a joy to watch God work. When the days are full, the work God does make the work joyful.

The Danger of “Decision” Theology

Scot McKnight makes the comparisons of how the New Testament seems to be talking about Gospel… and how we “gospel” today. He pulls no punches.

When all we care about is bringing people to a decision, to pray a prayer, to just admit their sin and find Jesus as Savior, we are doing damage. Jesus becomes a personal Savior, but not Lord. The whole point of the Gospel is the introduction of the Messiah… the Deliverer… the Master. McKnight is not very “friendly” when he says this decision theology is “heresy” (p. 117). (Just tell us what you think, Scot!)

Anyone who can preach the gospel and not make Jesus’ exalted lordship the focal point simply isn’t preaching the apostolic gospel.

Unfortunately, I know people living in that world and they will continue to live in that world. Why? Because that world gets rewarded. Not by the Kingdom, necessarily, but by our church world. Their very straight answer will be, “Well, how many souls have you won to Jesus?” (Like numbers explain everything. And in our particular church world, numbers ARE everything.)

McKnight’s book is worth a look!

The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited

Decisions or Disciples

What did Jesus call us to? Get people to a decision… or call on us to follow him?

Scot McKnight is highlighting this powerfully in his book, The King Jesus Gospel, but Dallas Willard was doing so before. And for some reason… we’re still not paying attention.

I was in a very uncomfortable conversation yesterday because it revolved around the issue of just getting people to a decision and then let whatever happen after that.

This post helps explain my thoughts much better. Then, this thought:

The soterian gospel is aimed at a decision; the missional approach at a radical change in life. One creates the saved, the other creates kingdom people. The crying need today is an evangelism strategy that focuses on the latter and says good-bye to the former.

Let HIS Kingdom come… and let’s quit our counting game.

 

The Great Shock of God Doing Something New

In preparation for our church’s prayer retreat this weekend I am reading through Acts. When I come to Acts 10, I pray through this scenario and ask challenging questions. I will never forget several years ago working my way through this passage and asking, “Lord, what segment of our society today would be like the Gentiles?”

In Peter’s day, the church is Jewish and it’s an impossibility to them that God would reach out to a Gentile (well, without that person becoming a Jew first). So, for Peter to go to Cornelius and see what God would do in that household is a jaw-dropping experience. For Peter to witness an entire household of Gentiles coming to salvation caused quite a stir. Peter even had to answer for this actions in Acts 11.

Thinking of that absolute shock, I asked the Lord, “What segment of our society would do that for the Church today? If that segment began to call out on the name of the Lord and the power of the Spirit was evident in them it would cause the American church’s jaw to drop to floor.”

What would absolutely shock is to the point of finally saying, “Oh, yeah! Salvation is possible for everyone!”

 

Preaching the Prophetic or Preaching the Politics?

Today seems to be a day where a bunch of preachers are going to “climb into their pulpits” and brazenly give their political views. First of all, not too many conservative evangelicals (and that is what they are talking about in this story) “climb into pulpits.” They kind of dance onto a stage, I think. Well, “dance” may not be the right word… but I digress.

As I read this article (and cringe), I am reminded of a saying:

The preaching of the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Whether it’s a “liberal” church allowing a Democrat office holder to take the pulpit, or a “conservative” church allowing some Tea Party politician to take control of the stage, it is dangerous territory.

The Church, on either side, will have lost its true prophetic voice when that happens.

I honestly don’t care one way or the other what the position of the IRS is on tax status. The Church does not serve the IRS. But the Church shouldn’t serve the Republicans or the Democrats, either.

The Pope and Pentecostalism

Pope Benedict made the following comments about Pentecostalism:

The geography of Christianity has changed dramatically in recent times, and is in the process of changing further. Faced with a new form of Christianity, which is spreading with overpowering missionary dynamism, sometimes in frightening ways, the mainstream Christian denominations often seem at a loss. This is a form of Christianity with little institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability. This worldwide phenomenon – that bishops from all over the world are constantly telling me about – poses a question to us all: what is this new form of Christianity saying to us, for better and for worse? In any event, it raises afresh the question about what has enduring validity and what can or must be changed – the question of our fundamental faith choice.

While the Pope certainly nails our weaknesses, there is the disappointment in the lack of acknowledgement to what has happened in say, oh, the last 100 years.

We, as Pentecostals, need to do far better in our dogmatics and our stability. There are gifts we bring to the Body of Christ, and we need to partake of the gifts other parts of the Body bring to us!