Not Happy

I'm not happy. 

I'm restless, fidgety and having a hard time focusing on anything. 

My soul is troubled and my mind is perplexed. 

The status quo is unacceptable and I refuse to pretend everything is OK when it's not. 

If things continue this way, I'm done.

Most Pastors would be content with a congregation of 200+, no debt on the church, hitting all of our goals for the past year, a stable cash flow and a recent 100% vote of confidence from the membership but I'm not.  Don't get me wrong....  I'm thankful.  I love our people and love my job, but there's something down in my spirit that refuses to believe that this is the pinnacle of what God has called us to.  I've reached a place of divine discontent  which is really a positive thing.  Here's why:

We cannot fully embrace vision for the future until we have become dissatisfied with the status quo. 

My discontent tells me it is time to fully embrace what God intends for Fountain of Life to be in 2011 and beyond.  What God has done these past 15 months is amazing and its importance for the life of the church cannot be minimized.   Understand this: until we as a church are living out the great commission in the context of the vision God has placed before us, we are no threat whatsoever to the Kingdom of darkness.  For over a year we've focused on relational connections and implementation of our discipleship model.  Now we need people to disciple.  We need conversions and a full-on demonstration of what life in God's Kingdom is all about.  As our guest speaker last Sunday so eloquently put it: We've corssed over, now we need to get out of the boat because something supernatural is waiting for us there.  

I will not rest at night until we are there and then I pray that God will once again stir up my divine discontent with the status quo.  It is that divine discontent that paves the way for new vision to be heard and embraced. 

Where's your discontent?  What's keeping you in the boat?

Is Really Such a Thing as a Move of God?

As I typed the title to this week's post I thought to myself "this could ruffle some feathers" I'm not trying to ruffle feathers but I really want to generate some discussion on this topic because I hear the phrase "move of God" dropped from the mouth of preachers and congregants alike. Usually it's in a context as follows: 

• "We really had a move of God last Sunday"
• "What our church really needs isn't another program, but a move of God"
• "God only moves when people......(you fill in the blank)"
• "There's a great move of God happening in.....(insert city/country name here)"  

I'm sure if you've been in church for long you've either heard or used one of those phrases or others like them. For sometime I've wrestled with the term "move of God" and pondered its meaning. What defines a move of God? In Pentecostal/Charismatic experience a "move of God" is usually measured by a few factors: the number of people slain in the Spirit, the amount of time spent in worship and intercession or the number of meetings that have taken place (5 nights a week for 2 years etc...) I've come to the conclusion that it's probably one of 3 things:

 

1. A purely subjective term that is defined by the person and/or group of people experiencing it.

 

2. Something so great, awe-striking, life-changing, city changing and amazing that it can't be defined in human terms.

 

3. It doesn't exist at all. (What I mean by this is that God is perpetually moving and active in the hearts and lives of people and all we have to do to find Him is to Seek Him.)

 

Rather than give my opinion here in the blog, let's discuss it. This should be lively.

If I Only Had the Nerve....

The Cowardly Lion in the "Wizard of Oz" story lacked what many of us lack at times when it comes to facing things head on - Courage.  Remember his #1 hit?

"Yeah, it's sad, believe me Missy, When you're born to be a sissy, Without the vim and verve
But I could show my prowess, Be a lion, not a mowess If I only had the nerve."

Truth is, we are all born with a level of courage.  We aren't born to be "sissies," (if you don't believe me, you need to observe kids - they'll try almost anything with no fear) but over time, fear creeps into the equation and stops us from acting courageously in life and in leadership.  This past week, Gwen and I along with our Youth Pastor attended the Catalyst West Conference in California and the theme of the conference was "Take Courage." 

When it comes to leadership, you have to have "the nerve" otherwise your organization will never progrss beyond its current reality nor reach its full potential.  Churches that play it safe all the time and lack courageous leadership are doomed to wallow in the pits of mediocrity and never fully impact their communities for the sake of the Gospel.  I walked out of that conference determined to lead courageously and not allow the organization I lead fail to reach its full potential.  That may involve some risks, but ultimately, didn't Christ demonstrate the ultimate courageous risk for the sake of humanity? 

My favorite quote from Catalyst West came from the keynote talk Andy Stanley gave:  "A single act of courage can become the tipping point for something extraordinary to happen in your life." 

It takes courage not only to lead, but to live vicariously in these uncertain times.  Where do you need something extraordinary to happen in your experience?  Leadership, personal finance, your business, your marriage, with your children?  Do you need to act courageously in one of these areas - make a tough decision, launch a new initiative, have a difficult conversation, face an uncomfortable conflict head on?  That one single act of courage may be the tipping point for something extraordinary to happen.  It takes nerve to lead and live and we don't want to look back on our experiences and wonder what would have happened if we'd only had the nerve.  Be courageous. 

Who Needs a GPS?

All I wanted for Christmas this past year was a GPS and my wife got me one (see picture below).  A month later it was stolen and since it cost substantially less than our homeowner's insurance deductible, I wrote it off as a loss.  It probably won't make a dent on my itemized deductions, but life goes on. 

This week, Gwen and I are taking a couple of personal days on the central California coast before attending the Catalyst West Conference in Irvine.  This morning I left our San Luis Obispo hotel in search of a coffee shop (Notice I didn't use the 'S' word - we just wanted something better than the complimentary in-room packets that are nothing more than a slight upgrade from Auto Repair shop coffee).  Armed with only the Google Maps app on my phone, I set out.  30 minutes later I was still trying to figure out  the flawed Google maps while bemoaning the fact that my "real" GPS would have had me back in my room with a fresh brew in hand and the perfect start to the day. 

Finally I got an address, turned off the phone app and set out on my own.  I've always had a good sense of direction so I used my inward navigational instincts and within 3 minutes, I found the coffee shop, got the drinks and the aroma is filling the room as I write this.  

As we search for direction in life, too often we look to external sources that are flawed and lacking in real substance.  Christ gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into all truth, so in reality He (the Spirit) is our inner GPS.  I understand we need and should seek external counsel, but sometimes when we can't find a Pastor, leader or trusted friend we just need to shut off all the things around us that are flawed and trust our inward navigational instincts that only the Holy Spirit can provide.  You may be surprised at how quickly you can find your way.

Leveraging Your Assigned Task

This year I have been challenging our church (Fountain of Life - Phoenix, AZ) to Be Intentional in all we do, especially when it comes to staying on mission.  You cannot be a follower of Christ and divorce yourself from His commission to make disciples of the nations.  As I frequently say to the people at FLI, "The Great Commission is not Optional."  Yet while most followers of Christ understand this, they get overwhelmed somehow thinking that it is solely their responsibility or their church's responsibility to carry it out.  (Insert deep breath here and relax).  It's not.   Watch what Paul said to a 1st century group of Christ-followers at Corinth.

1 Cor 3:5

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (NIV)

That word "assigned" is used over 400 times in the New Testament and carries a significant weight in this context. While it has a wide variety of applications, here it refers to something that has been given and entrusted to you to administrate or steward or take care of. Paul is saying "look, Apollos and I are simply carrying out an assigned task from God to serve you and in that assignment we became channels, we became tools to bring you to faith in Christ."

Each of us carries this same assignment from God to be intentional about serving people and letting God use us to draw people to Him. We need to intentionally ask God to show us how to carry out our unique assignment and when we are all carrying out our assigned tasks and leveraging them for Kingdom Impact, the great commission will be fulfilled.



The question to ask yourself is: How can you leverage your assigned task for Kingdom Impact? 

Pentecostal ADHD?

Yesterday I got into an intersting email discussion with some colleagues about the attention span of a congregation, specifically a Pentecostal/Charismatic one.  In 2009, former Presidential Advisor David Gergen was inteviewed by Bill Hybels at Willow Creek's Leadership Summit and stated that the most effective speeches were 15-20 minutes in length.  He further stated that if a speaker goes beyond the 30-35 minute mark, 75% of the listeners have checked out.  When it comes to preaching, does the same principle apply?  

Pentecostal Preachers in general tend to go well beyond the 35 minute mark.  If Gergen's assessment is true, the question we have to ask ourselves is this:  "Do our congregations check out after 35 minutes or do they suffer from Pentecostal ADHD and need Holy Spirit ridilin to get through our oratories?  After 20 years of this, I think it's the former.

Here's my take on why we preach too long:  Preachers fear not having enough material when the reality is we tend to pack too much into a single message. I'm guilty of this and I have preached in series ever since my wife told me several years ago after a Sunday morning, "That was a great series you preached today." 

I was trained to believe that preparation was key (and it is).  Further, the more prepared you were the less likely a congregation would be able to sniff out an unprepared message. But I believe in our quest to be good preachers we have failed to become good communicators of truth. In our passion to move an audience emotionally we have at times lacked the communication skill to motivate them to practical action. If a message leaves a listener feeling good at noon Sunday and marveling about how great the message was but it doesn't translate to practical action at 8:00 AM Monday morning, we have not done our job. When I listen back to my own podcasts (something we should always do) I always pick out 10 minutes of fat I could have easily trimmed and the message would have been just as effective.

Old habits die hard but I am up to the challenge to make sure I effectively communicate truth.

What do you say? 

Snowed in And Unplugged

I am in Happy Jack, AZ this weekend with my wife's family celebrating my father-in-law's 70th birthday.  About 25 miles somewhere south of here, AT & T has service.  That simply means I have no connection to the world via my smartphone.  My kids quickly point out that if we had Verizon we would have service.  It's a tired argument with me.  I'm not switching. 

I was finally able to wrestle my sister-in-law's laptop and wireless aircard away from the kids and get after it.  Situations like this make you realize how depedent we are on technology to stay connected with the world.  Yet there has been something peaceful about this weekend.  No constant barrage of text messages or email.  Yet we are having very meaningful family connection as the snow falls in north central AZ. 

By the time many of you read this you will realize I didn't make it to church today.  While I miss my congregation, I am still fulfilling the vision of the house by making meaningful connections.  Snowed in and unplugged isn't so bad after all.