I often peruse websites about web design and last night noticed this article about giving an elevator speech. I thought about how it applies to Pastors. There are often crucial moments when we have an opportunity to be vision-casters with people, one-on-one. It may be a car ride making a visit, coffee with a fellow member, or a staff meeting with five extra minutes at the end. It begs the question, could I state my vision for my church if I only had a few floors to travel in an elevator with someone?
You see, vision is great, but it needs to be transferrable. Members of a church should be able to share their church’s vision with their friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors, but they can only share a vision that has been concisely articulated from their leadership. And a vision isn’t “reaching people” or “glorifying God.” Those are eternal purposes, universal to every church. A vision (in an elevator speech format) would be more like, “I want our church to be a visible and active change agent in Bentonville. I want us to share the gospel outside the walls of our church through our words, our integrity, and our acts of service. And I want us to help leaders have greater confidence in sharing the gospel in their circles of influence.”
I suppose that’s my elevator speech, or at least one version I might share in an elevator this week. What’s your elevator speech about your vision for your church?
I just wanted to praise God for an awesome Sunday! Camp had such an impact on me that I wanted to challenge our people to line up behind me as I repented of small-mindedness, self-centeredness, and short-sightedness. I want to have the mind of Jesus and see people as He sees them - in need of Him, in need of healing, and in need of life change.
At the end of the day, two couples joined by letter (one was our new Youth Pastor and wife), two kids were received for baptism, and another indicated after church he wanted to be baptized as well. Though I can’t wait until next Sunday, I REALLY can’t wait to meet a need this week!
I am currently reading Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering and have just completed the chapter about having moral authority in leadership. Stanley gives a couple of examples of how moral authority works in our lives. One example was Mother Teresa’s harsh words about abortion during a National Day of Prayer breakfast in Washington. Though the Clinton’s and Gore’s gave little response, the room erupted into a standing ovation after she spoke. Why would such a small woman have such a huge impact? Moral authority.
Stanley points out the difference between receiving forgiveness and having one’s moral authority restored. We are obligated, as believers, to forgive, but not to trust. Forgiveness is a biblical obligation placed on everyone who has been forgiven, but trust must be earned over a great deal of time and an establishment of an example of integrity.
I’ve personally gone through an experience in which someone close to me had a moral failure. Long ago I came to a place of forgiveness (that is, I released them from any debt toward me), but I cannot trust them because there continues to be a pattern of moral compromise. Often people demand our trust by demanding what they believe to be forgiveness, not realizing that forgiveness can be instant, but trust must be established over time.
One of the greatest examples of the establishment of moral authority in the Bible comes from the life of Zacchaeus. He was saved and forgiven by Jesus but his moral authority with the people around him was nil, due to the fact that he had cheated them out of their financial security for his own benefit. Assume that, having trusted in Christ, he gathered all those whom he had wronged together with a passionate apology. Would they forgive him? Perhaps. Would they trust him? Absolutely not.
So Zacchaeus sets the example we must follow when we’ve failed - he shows the real fruits of repentance. He not only apologizes, he declares, “Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” (Luke 19:8) If you received a check from Zacchaeus for four times the amount he had taken from you, you might be inclined to give him another chance.
The subject of moral authority is dear to my heart. It is one of those frightful doctrines. I can honestly say I’d rather lose everything I have down to the shirt off my back than to sacrifice my moral authority. I want to look my wife, my kids, and my friends in the eye with the ability to say, “All is well with my soul.”
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”—Romans 13:14
In the world before electricity, people used candles for more than mere decorations. When you use a lot of candles, especially the homemade kind, you need a snuffer. If you blow the candles out, you’ll spill precious wax and waste it, but a snuffer will put the candle out cleanly. How? By stealing the flame’s source of energy – oxygen.
Sin has a tendency to rage out of control when left unchecked in our lives, but Paul says to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and snuff the energy source of sin which is… Satan? No. The world? No. Suffering? No. It is self! “Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. The desire for sin is already in our flesh. It grows in intensity unless we grow closer to Christ.
A man I have admired for some time, Dr. B. Gray Allison, has wisely stated that we must wake up every morning and put “self” on the cross and ask God to crucify it. Then concentrate on stealing away every opportunity for sin to run rampant in our lives. To use the words of the writer of Hebrews, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” is the beginning of real growth in a holy Christian.
“But where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.” -Romans 5:20b
Sin is always extreme. When a person comes to a place of repentance and faith in Christ, their perspective of sin changes. They begin to see that Adam and Eve were not merely guilty of tasting some forbidden fruit, they were actually guilty of rejecting all of God’s good provision in paradise in exchange for the possibility of being sufficient without their Creator. If you’re a believer in Christ, sin is extreme. It is rebellion and the punishment of eternity in hell makes sense in light of God’s holiness.
But where sin is extreme, grace is far more extreme. Grace is radical. Grace goes beyond merely forgiving sin, it restores us, renews us, regenerates us. Grace is God’s means of giving gifts beyond measure. What the heniousness of sin destroys, the miraculous nature of grace restores manifold.
How do you see your sin? Is sin a harmless prank against God? Or is it an offense to the nature and law of the Almighty Creator? We ought to view sin with extreme hatred, but we ought to view grace with extreme pleasure. In fact, we should be so turned away by the nature of sin that we run with haste to feast ourselves on the goodness of God’s grace. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound!
”Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” –Ephesians 6:18-20
Paul completes his discussion of the armor of God with a final thought about the greatest resource of all, the resource universally applied to the Christian life with all the other pieces of armor… prayer. Look at the words he uses to emphasize this tool, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication… with all perseverance and supplication for all saints…” My how little we pray and how weak our prayers.
Then Paul makes a personal prayer request that reflects the request of my own heart. He requests that the believers pray that he would have the words and the boldness with which to preach the gospel in the power of the Spirit. There are many things that may aid a Pastor in his work such as education, training, and fellowship with others, but no aid is so powerful as the prayers of his people.
This is my request to anyone who will receive it, that you might pray for your Pastor on a daily basis, that God would give him utterance (the ability to speak) and boldness (the power to speak it with passion) as he steps into the pulpit each week. Pray for God’s provision and protection for his family and his ministry. Pray that God would use him as a change agent in the lives of countless souls.
“And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” -Acts 2:44-45
Luke did not record the history of the beginning of godless communism but rather the beginning of a caring community. As can be seen in Acts 6, noone was forced into relinquishing their possessions, rather most of the people simply volunteered their wealth for the benefit of others. At the time Luke wrote the book of Acts, Israel was experiencing tremendous poverty. People were starving within the church, so those who had extra made provision for those who lacked.
The Church is and ought to be a caring community of devoted followers of Christ, looking out for the needs of one another. Perhaps a need is financial, perhaps one needs comfort during a loss or support during a crisis. The truth is, one of the great privileges of belonging to the church is that of belonging to a community of blood-bought believers. The Church is far more than a support group, it is a rescue mission for the lost and hopeless. It is an emergency room for the spiritually sick. No, it’s more, it’s a resurrection facility in which dead souls come to life with the promise of eternity with the risen Lord!
Who needs the Church today? Everyone! Do you value your community of believers? Do you belong to one? If not, unite yourself with a Bible-believing, Christ-honoring Church this Sunday and give all that you have for God’s glory and for the benefit of others and of His Kingdom’s work.
