Constant Student of Jesus

I am slowly reading through The Great Omission by Dallas Willard. I say slowly because as my coworker Jan Lynn describes this book "it will kick your butt," simply meaning it has some deep and life challenging statements. The premise is that we are to become Disciples not "just" Christians. This mornings reading ended on page 17 (I did say slowly :-)).

"But only constant students of Jesus will be given adequate power to fulfill their calling to be God's person for their time and their place in this world. They are the only ones who develop the character which makes it safe to have such power."

WOW - I really want to fulfill my calling, I want to accomplish all that God has put in my heart to accomplish. As I so often struggle with accomplishing enough, I interpret this as I have to: work harder, study more, have a greater influence, simply put I feel I have to "DO MORE". I don't believe that is what Mr. Willard is stating nor do I believe it's what Christ wants. When we become students of Christ our character should change, our thought processes change, the fruit of the spirit (the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit) flows through us. With that comes His power to accomplish more than we ever could of our own strength. It is a contradiction, almost an oxymoron that by "Doing less" and building a stronger relationship with Christ we have the potential to accomplish more.

The statement regarding our developing of character is one of the "butt kicking" statements. Yes I want His power, yes I want His character but it's no wonder I feel I have less of both as a result of my poor priorities. It really is about pursuing Christ, my relationship with Him, my trust in Him, my confidence that He will use me to the fullest extent of my willingness to submit to Him. Another painful word, SUBMIT, yet that is a resounding theme in our relationship with Christ. "The last shall be first", "surrender it all", "walk away from what you have known to follow me". We must submit ourselves to His will, to His desires. This will require an extra effort of humility and determination of our wills.

I conclude these ramblings with the thought for the new year. I must be a greater student of Christ, for several reasons. To be a better husband and father, to be a better friend and pastor, and to accomplish to the fullest extent the calling Christ has given to me. I want His power more than my own position...

Fundamentalist, Creative Arts & Worship

I'm beginning to think that I might be a closet creative arts connoisseur. These last two weeks I've enjoyed great worship at our church. Much of the enjoyment has come from the worship leaders, the song selections and even my own choice to join in and worship. Additionally to these reasons we've added a couple different elements. Elements that are common in some worship experiences yet so many leaders are afraid or have other reasons for not taking the risk and utilizing them.

The two elements were the painting of a picture during one of the songs (the picture was of Christ) and the other was including a ballet style dance during a Christmas worship song. These expressions of God given gifts helped point me to the wonder of our savior, to the vast blessings of His gifts to his people. As a worship experience they contributed to my striving to know Christ better, even to preparing me for the teaching that followed.

As the local church strives to be relevant to our society let's reclaim expressions of worship that perhaps have become diluted by misuse. Let's bring honor to Christ through a variety of worship expressions. For some of us this will probably mean breaking away from some of our "fundamentals". It probably won't feel comfortable and you may even receive some "persecution". Move through it, honor God, reach the lost and disciple those around you! Know that His "fundamentals" are given to His children and I have to believe that He is proud when the gifts He's given are put to good use, to expressions of worship, to point people towards Him. Join me as I come out of the closet.

Surviving the Future

Outcomes magazine, in a story entitled Developing Next Generation Leaders predicts that there will be a need for over 50,000 leadership roles in Non profits and churches. I'm not sure of the exact number but am confident that the need for people willing to step into positions of serving Christ on a full time basis is going to be crucial in the coming years. In my denomination the leadership is getting older and there does not seem to be very many "young" leaders in the pipeline. This concerns me and should concern any person serving within the church. If we really believe that the Church is the Hope of the world then we need to enlist and train people. How should we accomplish this?


Call them. We as leaders need to get over our apologizing, shameful and even "poor me" mentality of calling people to serve. Serving Christ in any capacity is a privilege, serving Him as your vocation is an honor. Where do we get off apologizing to people we recruit that they may not make as much money as they would in the secular market place. We're not in the secular market place and we're not trying to establish that kingdom. Whether we get "rich" or not should not be our motivation, our motivation should be the eternal. Let's boldly call the young, those looking for mid life career changes and those boomers who are ready to do something signficant with their lives.


Train them. We must utilize the experiences and resources available to us. Our colleges and universities have done adequate to good jobs providing academic and even theological foundations for those in the ministry. The weakness is that they have not accomplished the "on the job" training required to move quickly into serving as leaders. As existing leaders we have to spend time investing in these individuals, we have to replicate ourselves. We have to provide opportunities for the inexperienced to get experience AND learn from it. I'm not talking about sending Billy Ray out to the South Forty where the "old timers" beat him and his family until they can't imagine ever serving in ministry again. I'm talking about creating communities of people that respect the growth potential of new leaders, embrace them with encouragement and we as leaders are on the spot to correct and help process these individuals into stronger servants. We must provide the systems and the relationships!


Adjust our paradigm: Lastly we must adjust our paradigm, our view of accomplishing ministry and serving. The age of a Senior Pastor, Worship Pastor, Youth Pastor and Children's Pastor leading the church are fading into the past. As we move deeper into the information age, roles like graphic arts, technical communications, information services, creative communications, and finance directors may be higher paid and even stronger leadership roles than some of our "pastoral" positions. For many this is a paradigm shift. We have to recognize that our ability to remain relevant is hugely influenced by the MEANs we are communicating the message of Jesus Christ.


We HAVE to make changes, we NEED to make them soon. Are you willing to endure the personal change to make this happen? Are you willing to change how you've served to accomplish the great commision?