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After a few conversations recently, I am again reminded of the nature of God’s call on our lives.  When God calls us, he does not “need” us.  His motivation is blessing.  He desires to bless us.  So he calls us.  The things to which he calls us are the vectors and the means by which he blesses us - even now.  When we run from God’s call, thinking he is asking too much, we run from God’s blessing.  God cannot bless us as much or as fully if we disobey rather than obey. 

This runs alongside the call-burnout issue.  We think we have to do so much - this activity, that activity… we end up so hyperactive, we don’t know what to do with space and silence except that all the stuff we’ve packed away comes to the surface.  So then we blame God about how tired we are (since he has called us) or what we’re going through (because it hurts) and then don’t want to listen to what happens in the silence and so run harder and further. 

And all God wanted was for us to do what he called us to do: no more, no less.  A long time ago I decided to follow God’s call - wherever that led.  I decided to let God do as much as he possibly could.  And it has led me to some very surprising places.  Not the least of which is Warren, Ohio.  It’s been a tough call, so far.  Crazier by far than anything I’d imagined.

But God’s blessing has been greater than anything I’d imagined, either.  And it isn’t over yet - not by any stretch.  This week, I’m preaching on Isaiah 49:8 - 16.  In that passage, God’s people feel overwhelmed, abandoned by God and unable to fulfill their calling.  Yet, even so, God chooses to bless them.  They’ve been failures as his covenant people.  Yet, he chooses to give them something greater than they had to begin with.  He even wants to bless the journey back from exile into the land of promise.  He’s not just blessing the land, he blesses the journey too.

No, we have not been forgotten.  We will not be forgotten.  But we must pursue the call to receive the blessing.  We must pursue the call of God and no other calls.  This is the Word of the Lord; Thanks be to God!

So I’ve continued my work of prayer this week, seeking God’s vision and direction (while not neglecting my other pastoral duties).  It seems like I’ve been interacting with God at a very deep level regarding some issues we’ve been experiencing in our Congregation.  And the conversations I’m having reinforce what I’ve been praying for. 

I think we as followers of Jesus tend to under-play extended periods of prayer as valid for Christians - espeicially “professional church leaders.” 

I’m realizing it needs to be more balanced, now.  Definitely more time for prayer - in solitude and in groups.  No doubt about it. 

Now… how to get that to take hold congregation-wide…

Saturday, twelve guys from the church got together and cleaned up the outside of the building.  They worked from about 9 until about 2, with a lunch break, and got a lot done.  There’s still more to do, but things look really good around there right now.

Among other things, we had to plant a new Rhododendron in place of one that died.  The stump extraction was taken care of by these guys, who were the only ones willing to pose for a picture all day:

Food for thought from TheHeresy.com.  (via tallgrassworship, via dyingchuch)

If the church were a business we would measure our profit and if we weren’t making enough we would change. If we were a hospital we would measure how many of the sick and injured become healthier. If we were a vocational training institute we would measure how many people get jobs and keep them in their area of training.

Now imagine a school that measured how much people enjoyed the classes, how great the day care was, how inspiring the teacher was, the levels of enrolment and the amount of funding they had but only passively cared about the success of their graduates in the workplace. That my friends describes most of the church in North America today.

We need to change what we measure and how we measure our success.

· Do people have a proper understanding of the gospel?
· Do they love the people that can offer them nothing in return?
· Are people willing to sacrifice for others?
· Are people becoming more like Christ in their values and behaviour?
· Do they have life and freedom?

If we considered these things, we would realize the state we are in and we would change. As long as we measure things based on our own personal satisfaction or by the markers of organizational success we will miss the point.

Full post here.

In our days of congregational conflict, we experienced the conflict in terms of the “customer satisfaction” paradigm.  The irony is that the dissatisfaction came from the fact that we had begun to measure the “success of graduates” sorts of things and found ourselves not only lacking, but almost utter failures.  From this distorted sense of purpose flowed our lack of success in the proclamation of the Gospel. 

Now, with the conflict largely resolved, we find ourselves having success in bringing the life of the Good News to bear in our lives and in the community around us.  Having focused on “success of graduates” has allowed us to find that “customer satisfaction” comes along for the ride - but only to a point.  Disciples, eventually, have to come to value discipline - which, of course, from time to time, involves correction.  As long as correction is considered part of a satisfying experience, it’s all good.  If not, well… then we’re back to where we were. 

Whatever comes, though, it is essential that we measure the right things.  And I have hope that as a culture of discipleship develops in our congregation, even discipline and correction will be welcome.

Tonight, our men’s group decided not to meet in one of our classrooms at the church, which has been our normal practice.  Instead, this evening, we went to the Dunkin Donuts shop around the corner, where one of our young men was working, and had our group there.  We read our Bibles and prayed, and didn’t disturb the other customers or employees.  But we began to see how the Good News of Jesus could carry beyond the walls of our church into our community.

Just one more small step in the right direction, eh?

Last evening, our Trustee board did something I consider quite amazing: they discussed and passed a “board covenant”.  The “board covenant” states the board’s commitments to each other and the congregation in how they do business and what business they do.  It also acknowledges the accountability structures present in the congregation and deals with a few issues of discipline.  In fact, I’d like to share it in its entirety with you.  It follows in the “read more” section below.  Feel free to comment.

Read More »

From Barna’s website:

Protestant churches across the nation are using various forms of emerging technology to influence people’s lives and enliven their church experience. But the pace of technology adoption seems to have slowed in the past two years as some churches focus upon making the most of what they already have, and other churches attempt to get by without incorporating such tools into their ministry mix.

Read more here.  Via TSK.

It seems to me that the types of technology used in churches will change as the Web 2.0 tools become more incorporated into the mainstream.  Moreover, as traditional broadcast media models - large screens, etc., become more natively mixed in with the Web 2.0 applications, I think we will see more blogs, more podcasts, etc.  The Web 2.0 stuff doesn’t have nearly the expense or hardware overhead, which suggests to me that the stagnation of the more broadcast-oriented media puts it at near-saturation in the market. 

Other thoughts?

Our Church’s leadership team began to look at the draft of a new set of by-laws tonight.  While there was some initial confusion as to the purpose and scope of a set of bylaws or Constitution, I believe the discussion went well.  We made it through three of the ten pages in the time allotted.  We will look at it again in two weeks.

Our primary concern is to create structures for our congregational life that will empower us to be disciples of Jesus Christ and live out the Great Commandment (love God, love others), and the Great Commission (make disciples).  So far, we think we are achieving that end. 

Please pray for us as we continue to work through this process!

Churches breed passivity. Over years, congregations have newsletters thrust into hands, visions spoken over their lives and the Bible dictated to them. It’s a lazy form of Christianity that breeds passive consumers.

Thoughts?

On Wednesdays at 6:30 our Men’s group gets together to read the Bible and have a good time.  Tonight, we took care of a project on the church building: leaves.  Our building has a flat roof and we are next to an oak forest.  It collects leaves.  So even this last week, we had leaves falling all around the church - not off the trees, but off the roof.  So our guys spent most of two hours cleaning off the roof and the driveway where we threw all the leaves.  The satisfied crew then posed for a picture:

A big thank-you to Leon, Herb, Tim and Doug!