the reluctant leader

SPIRIT-EMPOWERED: What is an Every Nation Church? (part III)

Here’s part 3 of my blog about what an Every Nation church or campus ministry is supposed to look like.

Every Nation Churches and Ministries exists to…
Honor God and establish
 Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, socially responsible
 churches and campus ministries 
In Every Nation

What does a Spirit-empowered church or campus ministry look like?

In some denominations and traditions the power of the Holy Spirit means falling to the ground after being prayed for. In other traditions the power of the Holy Spirit is something that happened in Bible times, but not today.

When I say we want to establish Spirit-empowered
 churches and campus ministries, I mean churches and campus ministries that honor God by welcoming and celebrating the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in ways that make sense to the culture and community where that particular church or campus ministry exists.

What some people think is the power of the Holy Spirit, might actually be a cultural response to the presence and power of God. Some cultures are emotional; others are analytical. Some are demonstrative; others are stoic. Some loud; others quiet. Huggers, hand-shakers. Loose, stiff. Serious, funny.

Some cultures and communities respond to the presence and power of the Spirit with great exuberance and emotion, while others respond in quiet reverence. Some fall down. Some kneel down. Some bow down. Some stand still. (Some fall asleep, but we probably shouldn't blame that on the Holy Spirit.)

God seems to love the variety. He created it. I think His power can flow through all different types of cultures. But what does it really mean to be empowered by the Holy Spirit?

Here’s what Luke wrote about being Spirit-empowered: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

It doesn't matter if you shout and shake or stand as still and quiet as a marble statue - as long as you are an effective witness to your lost friends and neighbors when your religious experience ends and you go back to work or class. A Spirit-empowered church is a church filled with people who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives that point others to Christ.   

Luke also wrote this about being Spirit-empowered: After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:31)

How about that for a Spirit-empowered prayer meeting - the building shook! As exciting as that building-shaking prayer meeting might have been, the proof that they were Spirit-empowered is what happened when they left the prayer meeting – they spoke the word of God boldly.

We can have world-shaking prayer meetings with all kinds of spiritual manifestations, but if we don’t live as witnesses and we don’t speak God’s word when we go home, then we've missed the point.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely need the miracle power of the Holy Spirit to be a decent witness. Left to myself, my witness would scare people away from God. 

Racism and Revival

I've spent most of my adult life as a white guy in a brown world - an American missionary in the Philippines. After twenty-four years living in Manila, I now split time between Manila and Nashville. One of the more shocking experiences as I have re-engaged American church culture is that so many churches are still basically all white or all black or all Latino. And that's not a good thing.

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of participating in the Lausanne Strategic Working Group in Orlando. I learned a lot from the forty brilliant strategists, theologians and missiologists in the room. The meeting ended with an evaluation question: "what was missing that could have made this meeting more effective?" My answer required no deep thought or prayer. Seemed obvious to me that the missing ingredient was color. A room full of middle-aged highly educated white men (plus one Nigerian, three Latinos, an Indian and a Lebanese) can create good strategy, but add more diversity and the ideas go from good to great.

"The color line was washed away by the blood." That's how Frank Bartleman described the early days of the Azuza Street revival a century ago.

Sadly, it didn't take long for good religious people to re-draw color lines.

But not everyone was drawing lines. During one of the most racist periods of American history (1890-1925) most early Pentecostal churches were bold exceptions to the culture of racism and segregation.

In 1897, several years before the Azusa revival, the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) became the first legally chartered Pentecostal church in America. COGIC founder CH Mason grew up hearing about the vibrant faith of southern slaves from his parents who had recently been freed when he was born. He would build COGIC on the foundation of prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit and racial unity.

For many years COGIC had as many white ministers as black. (Read that sentence again, and remember we are talking about one of the most racially divided periods in American history.) This unity and diversity effectively ended in 1914 when most of the white COGIC pastors broke off to establish the Assembly of God. Undaunted, Mason continued to work on both sides of the racial divide, often speaking at AG conferences for many years.

My favorite Mason quote is as true today as 100 years ago: "The church is like the eye. It has a little black in it and a little white in it, and without both, we cannot see."

Without ethnic diversity, the church cannot see. That explains a lot about the blindness in the church today.

If we want correct vision and fresh revival, maybe we should look at the Azusa Street playbook and embrace unity with diversity.

Seven Deadly Sins of the Pulpit

I was digging through an old notebook this morning, looking for notes on Ephesians 1 for my sermon this weekend at Bethel Franklin. I did not find what I was looking for, but I did find piles of vintage Steve Murrell sermons. This blog is a summary of a sermon I preached at Victory-Manila in November, 2004. Not sure where the original idea come from, but I think it was inspired by a conversation with Rice Broocks.

__________

It is increasingly common today to hear parts of the gospel proclaimed. The same was happening in the early church. In Acts 20:26,27 Paul says to the Ephesian church elders, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.  For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the WHOLE WILL OF GOD. (Acts 20:26, 27)

Unlike many modern preachers, Paul refused to edit out the difficult parts of the message. He insisted on preaching the whole gospel.

In 604, Pope Gregory wrote about the "Seven Deadly Sins" which included pride, gluttony, envy, lust, anger, greed, and laziness. In the spirit of the Pope's top seven, here's my list of "Seven Deadly Sins of the Pulpit." 

1. PREACHING CHRIST WITHOUT THE CROSS. No cost Christianity. Paul determined to know and preach nothing except Christ and Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Today it seems we preach everything but Christ and the cross, causing many to live as enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18).

2. PREACHING SALVATION WITHOUT SANCTIFICATION. No change Christianity. So many claim Christ today with no evidence or change in their lives, and the pulpit is at least partially to blame.

3. PREACHING DECISIONS WITHOUT DISCIPLESHIP. No commitment Christianity. I know we are getting crowds and decisions, but are we making disciples?

4. PREACHING LOVE WITHOUT LORDSHIP. No compliance Christianity. Jesus is Lord, and because He is Lord, he heals, delivers, provides, and saves.  

5. PREACHING PROSPERITY WITHOUT PURPOSE. No cause Christianity. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing.

6. PREACHING BLESSING WITHOUT BIRTHRIGHT. No covenant Christianity. Esau threw away his birthright and still expected a blessing. It does not work that way. If we want the blessing, we must accept the covenantal responsibilities that go with the birthright. 

7. PREACHING REVIVAL WITHOUT REFORMATION. No transformation Christianity. We are called to be salt and light, to impact individuals and cultures, families and nations. The gospel is supposed to be transformational.

I have certainly been guilty of all of above at different times in my life as a preacher. As I have matured, hopefully, I'm being more and more faithful to preaching the WHOLE WILL OF GOD. How about you?    

 

Upper Room Joy vs Frontline Sacrifice

From Upper Room Joy to Frontline Sacrifice: 3 Essentials of Healthy Church Culture

One of the most important, but elusive, tasks of church leadership is creating and maintaining a healthy church culture. What I call church culture, some people call environment, atmosphere, or vibe. No matter what you call it, it is vital that church leaders create good environments.

No matter if you are leading a new church plant or an old established church, a mega church or mini church, a western church or third world church, an urban church or a rural church, an attractional church or a missional church... no matter what kind of church you are leading, if you want a healthy church culture you will need to constantly over-emphasize the following:

1. VIBRANT SPIRITUALITY. Seems silly to even list this one, but countless times throughout history organizations and churches that start out deeply spiritual end up spiritually dead. When I say spirituality I do not mean spooky, cooky, scary, or weird. Vibrant spirituality is Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered, not experience-seeking and out-of-control. Many churches have traded spiritual transcendence for cultural relevance or unbiblical mysticism. Both are bad trades.

2. GLOBAL MISSION. Yes, the presence of the Holy Spirit makes our meetings exciting, but that's not the point. The purpose of Holy Spirit power is to prepare us for mission. (see Acts 1:8) If we want healthy churches, we will have to lead people from upper room joy to front line sacrifice, from personal devotion to global mission. A healthy local church, requires a global mission. Jesus told his original followers to makes disciples, not just in their local communities, but in all nations. Jesus called them to a global mission, and he calls us to no less.

3. COMPASSIONATE COMMUNITY. I have observed some deeply spiritual people pursue a global mission, and leave piles of body bags in their wakes. This happens when we are more concerned about mission than people. Remember, Jesus died for lost people not for religious experiences and mission statements. The people are the mission.

Misguided Attempts at Personal Holiness

From dress codes to movie bans to hair length regulations, our religious world is rife with sincere but misguided attempts at personal holiness. Do we really think holiness is about external behavior, human effort, and religious rules? Apparently we do. Even though the Bible teaches the exact opposite.

Old Testament leaders were supposed to tell all the people to "be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." (Leviticus 19:2) My quick comments on that verse...

1. BE HOLY... The Bible tells us to be holy, not to act holy. Holiness is a state of being. It is something we are, not something we do. Internal not external. Being not doing. Fish swim because they are fish. Birds fly because they are birds. Christians avoid sin because they are holy. Swimming does not make one a fish. Acting holy does not make one a Christian.

2. BECAUSE I AM HOLY... We are to be holy because of who God is, not because of who we are or who we want to become. When the motivation for our holiness is to win God's favor, relieve our guilt, or impress our pastor, it is not real holiness. Real holiness is God-centered not man-centered. It is about Him, not about us.

So, what am I trying to say? The same thing the Old Testament leaders constantly said: whether you have long hair or no hair, whether you watch or boycott movies, whether you wear a suit or shorts to church, you should be holy because God is holy.

10 Things You Must Know to Succeed in Ministry

I landed in Manila less than 48 hours ago, and as usual I hit the ground running. Today, despite the jet lag coma, I taught six sessions at our ministry school. My students included future campus missionaries, future youth pastors and future kids ministers.

I love training and equipping next generation leaders. No matter how busy or tired I am, I always have time and energy for future leaders.

Here's what I taught in today's three afternoon sessions: TEN THINGS YOU MUST KNOW FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS IN MINISTRY.

1. You must know that GOD LOVES YOU and accepts you because of who he is and what he did for you, not because of who you are and what you do for him. Otherwise you will live and die on the performance treadmill.

2. You must know that GOD CALLED YOU to do campus ministry. Once you know this is a calling and not just a job, then the option to quit is off the table.

3. You must know that GOD WILL PROVIDE for all your needs. No way around it; this is a trust (faith) issue, and he is trustworthy.

4. You must that know THE GOSPEL WORKS in all situations at all times, otherwise you will spin your wheels trying all kinds of gimmicks and flavors-of-the-month. Cool hairdos and designer jeans never transformed a life.

5. You must know HOW TO FORGIVE. More than any other job, ministry will provide countless opportunities to practice forgiveness.

6. You must know how and when to SAY NO. Rather than doing everything that can be done in the name of God, narrow the focus and you will accomplish more.

7. You must know how to ENGAGE your culture & community. This is the starting line for making disciples.

8. You must know how to ESTABLISH biblical foundations. This is the central core of making disciples.

9. You must know how to EQUIP believers to minister. This ensures that discipleship grows in quality as well as quantity.

10. You must know how to EMPOWER disciples to make disciples. This enables discipleship to multiply exponentially.

Another episode of Man vs Jet Lag continues tomorrow. Stay tuned. Bye.

No More Excuses!

I'm pretty good at making excuses. Always have been. What about you?

In Luke 14 Jesus tells a story about excuses. Bottom line: Jesus doesn't really like excuses.

Here's the parable paraphrased: Rich dude threw a party; really a lavish banquet. Many who were invited made EXCUSES why they couldn't attend.

[18] "But they all alike began to MAKE EXCUSES. The first said, `I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. PLEASE EXCUSE ME.' [19] "Another said, `I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. PLEASE EXCUSE ME.' [20] "Still another said, `I just got married, so I can't come.'

None of their excuses were accepted; none of ours will ever be accepted either.

[23] "Then the master told his servant, `Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, SO THAT MY HOUSE WILL BE FULL."

Here's my summary of the parable:

1. God wants his house (church) full.

2. God wants us to stop making excuses for not being full.

3. God wants us to "GO OUT" so his "house will be full"

What are you waiting for? Time to go and make disciples!

Top 7 in 2011: Victory Year-End Video Report

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog called, "Church Growth: Are You Playing the Numbers Game?" Turns out some of my numbers were not accurate. Victory actually baptized 4613 people in 2011, not 4183 as reported in my blog. My apologies to the 430 new believers who were left off the original count.

Numbers do matter. To God and to us.

Here's Victory's 2011 Year-End video with some numbers that matter. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

7 Elements of A Healthy Church

I have about 30 minutes for this blog while I wait for my Atlanta to Lima, Peru flight.

As usual I will hit the ground running - four days of training pastors and church planters. The goal of this trip is to help Peruvian pastors understand how to lead a healthy church.

For four days we will discuss and dissect the following seven essential elements for a healthy church.

1. DISCIPLESHIP PROCESS. A simple, duplicable, transferrable and Biblical discipleship process is the starting line if we want a healthy church rather than a religious crowd.

2. EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP. It is not enough for a church to have great leaders. In fact, a strong leader can be a weakness, if that leader is not empowering. Healthy churches empower multiple generations of leaders rather than creating a "Man of God Syndrome" where paid professionals do all the ministry.

3. ENGAGING WORSHIP SERVICES. This is much more than good music. Essential elements of inspiring and engaging worship services include: anointed songs, excellent music, dynamic preaching, theological depth, relevant communication, spiritual power, presence of God, relational connection.

4. FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES. Too many church leaders act as if organizational excellence and spiritual life are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, well-developed ministry roles and clearly defined lines of authority actually enhance spiritual life.

5. MISSION ALIGNMENT. For a church that is part of network, fellowship, movement or denomination commitment to the corporate mission, vision and values is essential. For churches in Every Nation Ministries, that means a commitment to church planting, campus ministry and world mission.

6. HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of relationships. Key relationships that must be healthy include: the pastor and his wife and kids, the pastor and his peers, the pastor and his local leadership team, the pastor and his mentors.

7. FINANCES. Money does not make a church healthy, but an unbiblical view of money will make a church unhealthy. Integrity, generosity and wisdom are the foundations if healthy money management in a church context.

That's it. Gotta run to gate A7...

Church Growth: Are You Playing the Numbers Game?

A couple of decades ago when I was a fledgling church-planter, I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I didn't let that stop me. In those days church growth was all the rage. I read church growth books and took a pilgrimage to Korea in an attempt to learn how to grow a church. I think my primary motive was love for the lost, probably mixed with a bit of self-absorbed insecurity and youthful ignorance.

Early on I had this idea that as long as there was one lost person in my city, then my church was not big enough. I still think that way, and I hope I never get over my obsessive compassion for the lost.

While church growth books and seminars seem to now be out of style in most Western circles, I remain convinced that un-churched, de-churched and anti-church people still matter to God, and they should matter to us. I am convinced that we are supposed to do our best to engage our communities with the gospel. If we do a decent job of engaging, our churches will grow. And, that is a good thing, whether our growth is organic, organized or orchestrated.

Anyone concerned with growth will eventually have to deal with numbers. The trick is to figure out which numbers really matter and which numbers don't.

Many church leaders make the mistake of thinking that the two numbers that matter the most are the offering amount and Sunday attendance. Those two numbers often deceive us and never tell the whole story.

Yesterday I received a year end report from my Manila office that contained a lot of numbers about our church (Victory). Some of those numbers were vital, others were simply interesting. Here are 3 of the most important numbers on that report and why they matter to us: 91, 5009, 4183.

91 WORSHIP SERVICES in 16 Metro Manila venues with 58 preaching pastors. Victory is a multi-site multi-service multi-generational church that meets all over Metro Manila. Because leadership development is important to us, we do not use digital sermons, only live preachers. So, for us to grow from 80 services in 14 locations to 91 services in 16 locations, we had to identify, instruct and empower new preachers, kids pastors, worship leaders, head ushers and other leaders. Because we increased the number of venues and worship services, our attendance increased 31.4% from 2010 to 2011. We have averaged about 30% annual growth for 10 consecutive years. But, the most important number is not how many show up, but how many we raise up to places of leadership. That's why discipleship numbers are so important...

5009 DISCIPLESHIP GROUPS (called "Victory Groups") meeting weekly in Metro Manila. That number is probably the most important number we track. It is the foundation of every other number that matters. 5009 represents a 41.8% increase in 12 months. That's a good number and that's good news! We also saw a 29.2% increase (from 1,827 to 2,360) in Training for Victory participation, which is a foundational part of our discipleship training track.

4183 BAPTISMS in 2011. Another important number. Most of our baptisms are conducted at Victory Weekend which had a 71.3% 2010 to 2011 increase from 3149 to 5393 participants.

Are you playing the numbers game? I hope you are, as long as you are tracking the right numbers.

Depending on what kind of church you want to be, some numbers will be more important than others. For us, numbers reflecting evangelism, discipleship and leadership development are the most important numbers we track. The unavoidable and eventual result of evangelism, discipleship and leadership numbers increasing will be more people showing up at our worship services and more money in the offerings.

SUMMARY: Stop obsessing over nickles and noses and start making disciples.