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Life · Ministry · Faith

Month: April 2016

Micromanaging God

April 26, 2016 /

man holding a banana gun

We have all had that boss. You know the one that makes the pointy-haired boss in the Dilbert cartoons look like a managerial ninja. There are not enough hours in the day to tell the stories of the trauma we experienced at the hands of our micromanaging bosses. The micromanager will say they view themselves as an empowerer of employees. If pressed further to explain why they must check with a ruler the trash bags to make sure the tops of the bag descends exactly 2.78 inches over the lip of the garbage can the micromanager will say it is because it is important . . . and everything is important.

The foundation of any relationship is trust. The micromanager has none. If they trusted their employees they would allow their employees to do the job for which they were hired. What keeps them from trusting? Low self-confidence and fear. They doubt themselves and their employees. They are filled with fear of what could happen if they were not there to handle every situation. No one likes a micromanager.

All of us have a little micromanager inside of us. This manager’s name is “fear.” But it is not employees we are hovering over it is God. To be consumed by fear is to micromanage God. Craig Groeschel puts it another way “Fear is placing your faith in ‘what-ifs’ rather than in ‘God is.'”

What’s the problem with micromanaging God? First, you are not his boss. Nothing more should really need to be said here. Second, do you honestly think you can run the world better than its creator and sustainer?

In this dramatic political season, many of us are tempted to be fearful of the “what-ifs.” To do so is to attempt to manage our world and not trust God’s capacity to manage. It is to place our faith in our capabilities or the capabilities of a particular candidate rather than the capabilities of God.

In this time, let us place our faith in who God is rather than being consumed by what could be.

Blessings,
Stephen

Starting a New Adventure

April 22, 2016 /

Dear Friends,

I am excited to share with you that I have entered a new phase of life and ministry. I am now officially an onine Doctor of Ministry student at Asbury Theological Seminary in the Activating Missional Communities program, while still serving as pastor at Hope. This new journey means a lot of things, not the least of which, is that my Kindle and I are becoming close and personal friends.

As individuals hear about my taking this step the first question is often, “Why?” While the answer is somewhat complex I wanted to take a moment to share with you some of my thoughts, largely taken from my program application.

The purpose of studying, at this time in my ministry, is about increased potential and opportunity. As a leader, as I grow the church grows. Maybe not necessarily numerically but certainly in ways that matter. From my perspective, working toward a D. Min. is a unique opportunity to learn and grow from some of the greatest leaders in the church and bring their wisdom into our particular situation at Hope. Studying in this type of program is also an opportunity for me to exponentially increase my knowledge in ways not so easily done through self-study.

One particular area of leadership growth and development I am particularly interested in is the area of discipleship. When I was in seminary Dr. David Holdren, who was then a General Superintendent, spoke with the Wesleyan students. On a white board, he drew out for us a system of discipleship he had just learned about that used a baseball diamond. As he described this baseball-based model, he said that all of us needed to develop a model of discipleship. At the time, I did not fully understand his advice, but I have always remembered those words of counsel.
Years later I read the book Home Run Life by Kevin Myers and realized this was the model Dr. Holdren was showing to us. I have also read other books explaining a particular pastor’s model for discipleship. I have been struck by the realization, if you boil them all down, they are really all about the same. This realization regarding each of these models brought me back to the words of advice from Dr. Holdren when I was in seminary.

I feel one of the greatest challenges for the church is in the area of discipleship. Our current answer to the question of whether we are effectively developing wholly devoted followers of Christ is a poor one. As I have been processing this reality, I have been working to formulate an effective system for our particular context. Much work remains, but I believe such a system:

  • needs to be self-assessing. The church no longer has the authority, if it ever did, to say to a person you are a spiritual infant (even though you have been in the church for 40 years).
  • while self-assessing, must naturally lead people to movement and growth. There is no condemnation for where a person is at. What is important is not where a person is at. What is important is that they are moving.
  • must take into account the realities of church membership/attendance. A “committed” church member may realistically only attend 50-75% of the time.
  • must take into account, even if a person attends 100% of the time, Sunday morning is not enough.
  • must go to where people are at. Church attendance is not a natural choice for the spiritual “nones.” John Wesley would go in the early morning hours and stand on the coal piles outside the coal mines and preach to the miners before they would go down into the mines each day. Where are the coal piles today? Every day people walk into darkness. How do we give them light to take with them, even if they are not followers of Jesus?
  • must make use of, build on, and find fresh expressions of the disciplines and traditions of the past 2,000 years of Christendom.
  • must make room for the Spirit to work in people’s lives on the Spirit’s timeline.
  • must be Kingdom centered. God is not a respecter of people, cultures or nations.
  • must be full of grace and truth.
  • must challenge people to, as Richard Stearns says, to “go nuclear.” In generations past missionaries would load their belongings into a coffin knowing they were never coming home. Today hundreds of thousands of people applied to be the first humans to travel to Mars, knowing it will be a one-way journey. Are we calling and challenging people to do great things for God, even things as crazy as traveling to Mars?
  • must scale up and scale down. Will it guide people as effectively in their spiritual growth in a church of two as a church of 100,000?
  • must empower others to lead and reproduce.

In the process of implementing such a system, we have many amazing resources available to us today to help us connect with each other and grow together. These include, but are certainly not limited to podcasting, webinars, blogging, and various social media platforms.

Along this journey I will be sharing in this blog insights I am learning and questions I am pondering. I encourage you to interact and share your thoughts. Some of the things I may share may be controversial or push some buttons. I don’t promise to even completely agree with everything I post. This will be a learning opportunity for all of us to be stretched and grow and I welcome  the chance to process these concepts with all of you. I know that I have much to learn.

Blessings,
Stephen

In the spring, when kings go off to war

April 19, 2016 /

canons on the battlefield

Dear Friends,

One of the most loaded verses in the Bible is also one easily missed. Found at the very beginning of 2 Samuel 11, we read, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”

What follows is the disastrous story of David, King of Israel, stealing another man’s wife. A man who was off fighting David’s battles. The woman, Bathsheba, becomes pregnant and David contrives to hide his sin ultimately killing her husband, Uriah, and other innocent men, all in an effort to hide a “moment of pleasure.”

In the story of David’s sin we find three questions, that, depending on how we answer them, can serve as a test to help us avoid the opportunity to sin. They are:

Am I where I should be?

David was the warrior king of Israel. The place he should have been was on the battlefield with the army. Had he been there, instead of on a rooftop at the palace, the possibility of his being tempted to sin would not have existed.

Am I with who I should be with?

David should have been, needed to be, with his men. With Joab his commander. With his army. These were his support community. These were the men who had the ability to tell the king, “No!” In the palace were only the servants who had to follow the king’s orders.

Am I doing what I should be doing?

As has already been said, David was a warrior king. His place was alongside Joab planning battlefield strategy. Instead, he was stuck in the palace in Jerusalem. Even if he was attending to the affairs of the growing city of Jerusalem it was not his role. He was the king, the management of the city should have been left to another. Had he been doing what he should have been doing likely his soul would not have been so restless he would seek to appease it with a one-night-stand.

When we sin we can come up with all kinds of excuses and justifications. The temptation was too great. I deserve a little pleasure. My spouse is not meeting my needs. If God had not wanted it to happen, he would not have opened the door.

But in the dark recesses our souls, if we are willing to be honest with ourselves, we know the reason for our sin and temptation is because of the answer to one or more of the questions above. We are not in the place we should be. We are not with the people we should be with. We are not doing what we should be doing. And because of this we are open and exposed to temptation. Failure is lurking at our doorstep.

Stephen

When was the last time you took a shower?

April 14, 2016 /

dog taking a bath

Don’t worry, I really don’t want to know the answer to the question. No matter how clean we live our lives all of us, eventually, need to take a shower. Even if you don’t think you do, the world around you does. Taking a shower refreshes, cleanses, and renews making use feel better about ourselves and the world feel better about us. If you don’t believe me, try going a month or two without taking a shower . . . but please, just this once, I implore you to trust me on this one, just this once.

When was the last time you took a spiritual shower? Taking a spiritual shower is pausing for a moment to reflect and evaluate on your spiritual health and then removing the muck that has accumulated.

All of us going through life tend to just accumulate stuff and some of that stuff causes us to smell to those around us. Taking a spiritual shower is a cleansing action to get rid of the stuff that and adhered itself to us. We develop unhealthy habits. We believe things that are not true. We have become lazy in our relationships. Even the cleanest of us need to take moments of spiritual cleansing, refreshing and renewing.

So please, take a shower! You will smell better to everyone around and feel a lot better about yourself as well.

Stephen

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