Life Here and There

This is based on my sermon for New Year’s, which comes from [youversion]2 Timothy 2:21[/youversion] and surrounding verses.

Is it even possible to really change? Millions of people must be asking that question, especially as we face another new year. You may already have a list of areas of your life you’re going to change. Whether they are “resolutions” or not, you’re hoping you can make it this year.

ONE GREAT TRUTH: Change is possible. In fact, it’s God’s plan for all of His children to change us into the image of Christ, but we have to be ready first – prepared for His use through repentance and renewal.

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I like change, and I like adventure. I also think change is a natural and necessary part of growth. In leadership, we are sometimes charged with the responsibility of reviving a dead or dying organization, which requires change. We also need to be good counselors in helping people cope with the fears and stress of change. But there are times when change works against us as leaders. Let me share some examples…

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Message Based on The Life of Paul, Acts 9

Change is a tough word. It’s all around us in technology, nature, and culture. Yet I think we fail to understand the most powerful change of all which happens in a human soul that meets and trusts Jesus.

Paul had things going for him quite well. He had ascended to power and prestige. He had the authority of the Roman government to go and arrest Christians for treason and heresy, but Jesus confronted him.

The four things God did in Paul’s life, He does in ours as well…

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I first saw this video at Michael Hyatt’s blog (CEO of Thomas Nelson). It’s so powerful and moving and I wish every kid, teen, parent, grandparent, politician, and Pastor could see and feel the passion in it.

Sometimes I think we miss the point. Change the world.

We live in times of exponential change. The only constant is change itself, as they say. Watch this video for just a glimpse of what I mean…

So how should the church respond? I have some seemingly conflicted views on this, but I think they’re well worth taking to heart.

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In light of recent feedback, Bethel is going to be making a few changes to our current worship services. We’ve been interviewing recent visitors and want to meet the needs of our community in a more meaningful way. Beginning Easter Sunday, we will be making the following changes…

• We will begin displaying the Ten Commandments on our screen, and next to each commandment, the names of church members who have knowingly disobeyed them during the previous week.
• At the conclusion of the early services, we’ll be offering pet blessings. Bring Fido to Pastor Brandon, and he’ll sprinkle them with anointing pet shampoo and pray a prayer of prosperity over each of them. We’ll also paws for reflection.
• We’re launching a project to re-paint the auditorium and main hallways the same color that Terri Chadd has chosen for the offices. Justin Williams will be in charge of finding gallons of the purple/plum paint for $4 each. Any complaints… see Terri or Justin.
• We’ll be phasing out ushers in exchange for an ATM-like tithing machine in the south lobby. Bring your bank card, or have your tithe automatically debited each month.
• The Senior Adult Class will begin a new practical study series on “underwater basket weaving.”
• The Easter Egg hunt will be more challenging this year. We’ll have six angry pit bulls to chase the kids who run, but we’ll also have Deacons on the roof with tranquilizer dart rifles… they’re working on their aim as we speak.
• We’re removing the organ and piano in exchange for two drum sets, adding colored lights, a fog machine, and a rotating crystal ball that will descend from the ceiling during the second song.
• We’re foregoing church softball this year and in its place we’ll host an entire season of the Ultimate Fighting Champions… Deacon edition. Randy is a trained boxer so he’ll be handcuffed to make it fair.
• Each time we’ve printed a member directory, we’ve managed to accidentally leave out a few people, so we’ll be printing a new directory that includes every person who is a member of Bethel, along with every person who is not a member of Bethel… everywhere. Just in case.
• Many people have gotten just a little bit burned out on Pastor Brandon’s “through the Bible” sermon series, so for the month of May, he’ll be choosing a different book to preach from each week, all selected from Oprah’s Book Club with a finale sermon coming from Dr. Suess’ The Cat In the Hat.

Any feedback may be directed to Angie Cox, LCSW, who can now perform therapy unsupervised.

Oh, and happy April 1st. ;-)

I just finished reading Tribes by Seth Godin. I’ve been wanting to read it for six months now and finally had some oral surgery which enabled me to lay in bed and read the whole thing in a few hours. It’s kind of short, which is the only drawback. Seth Godin is a genius, but most people who know him already know that. In fact, others in his niche who break all of his rules still can’t find fault in his methodology.

I’m recommending this book to Pastors on this blog. It’s not written by a typical Christian leadership expert, but Godin’s thought process seems to be lifted right off the pages of the New Testament description of the church – an ancient tribe with a massive following of highly committed people.

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I just finished reading The Creative Leader: Unleashing the Power of Your Creative Potential. It’s been an enjoyable and challenging read. I don’t know that I would ever do ministry just the way Ed does, but that’s really kind of the point – duplication and imitation squelches creativity.

As we’ve journeyed through change at Bethel, we’ve witnessed some friction here and there. God has graciously bound us together and I feel great about our unified direction, but one portion of the book ministered to my heart for days on end – it was a timely word.

Pay attention to what people have to say and evaluate their suggestions honestly. But don’t allow their fear of change to cause you creative cramps… Creativity is a long-term investment. If your top leaders are not totally committed to the vertical vision, then fear of friction will dismantle this God-given virtue. At Fellowship, we do not value upsetting people, but we do value upsetting their equilibrium to challenge them for spiritual growth… To be sure, creativity must be biblically driven and it must honor God. However, when we have our people off balance, we have a great potential to catch them off guard with a powerful punch from the pages of Scripture… It is very tempting to want to please people, but leaders often experience leadership cramps when they allow their vision to be compromised to appease a few negative people. Once the vision goes horizontal, disaster will follow.

One of the toughest aspects of leadership for me is finding the confidence to lead with conviction regardless of the reactions of people. We all want to be liked, and praise is one of the most dangerous traps for leaders. We certainly ought to be listeners and learners or we’ll stunt our growth, but at the end of the day, God has called us to lead, and if we aren’t leading, we aren’t leaders. (Profound, I know!)

This book has challenged me to be more creative in how I minister to people, how I present the word, and to be willing to do what it takes to reach people instead of just trying to keeping the fish tank peaceful. I highly recommend that every leader get this book, read it, and apply it by exploring your God-implanted creativity.

Okay, Bethel has hit a tight spot in a very good way. We’re growing… quickly right now. We’ve obviously hit kind of a ceiling on how many people we can hold in our auditorium. Last Sunday we had 240 souls present, 206 of them in the auditorium and it was crowded. What are our options?

1. Build a new building – the price tag will be hefty no matter how efficient we try to be.
2. Expand our current auditorium – this means knocking out roof and walls and widening it, changing its shape from a box to a fan, which will also cost a lot.
3. Move to 2 services – lots of pros and cons on this one, more volunteers needed, possible divisiveness, but also an opportunity to free up space and reach more people without the million dollar price tag.

Our Leadership Team has discussed the issues repeatedly and we’re about to have to discuss the issues even more urgently. So I’m looking for feedback. You can offer feedback through my contact form, or by leaving a comment (click the title of this article and scroll to the bottom). We’re praying hard for God’s direction and I’d love to hear your thoughts. The greatest goals I have are

1. We keep glorifying God.
2. We keep serving and reaching people with the gospel.
3. We remain true to God’s Word.
4. We retain a close fellowship.
5. We do what is most wise and follow the Holy Spirit.

In our midweek Bible study last night, we went through a supplementary study on creation and evolution. There were many things I wished I’d had time to cover in the Sunday messages but simply couldn’t. In preparing, I studied areas of science that fascinate me. I wanted to have some basic knowledge on everything from the fossil record to quantum physics (like I said, fascinating!). I was so blessed by the exchange. People asked questions, gave their thoughts, and generally expressed their faith in Scripture as God’s perfect Word.

At the end of the night, I decided to close discussion on the issue. This Sunday, we’ll be moving on to the more personal nature of Genesis, chapter two. I couldn’t help but to add this one thought, however, after reading Job 38. The creation-evolution debate is much like the theological battle that took place between Job and his friends. They reason with one another about the nature of God and God’s world. Then God finally speaks.

What does He say? To summarize the chapter, it is “Were you there when I created the worlds? Then how do you think you know anything?” He goes on to illustrate His majestic and dynamic creative power. Can you make the sun rise? Have you ever seen the center of the earth? Can you make an intricate snowflake? Can you make rain or suspend clouds of water over the earth? Good questions! We can study, we can observe, and I believe we ought to explore the amazing world God created around us. Science is good, until it goes to our heads.

God ultimately settles the argument. We might say in modern vernacular, the buck stops with Him! God, the Creator and only eyewitness of creation, knows exactly what happened in the origin of all things. So at the end of our quantum theories, evolutionary theories, and Big Bang theories, all of which are questioned and debated regularly by men more skilled than I, God sits above the circle of the earth, stretching out the universe like a curtain and calling out, “Seek me and find me with your whole heart!” The debate ultimately ends with worship!