Choosing Group Ministry Options

If we hold our breath on the topic of "spiritual gifts"...  That's not breathing easier! 
These gifts are given so we can bless others: much in keeping with us "giving thanks". 


On Sunday nights, we heard a word on The Holy Spirit by J.R. Vassar, who pastors The Apostles Church in Manhattan. Pastor Vassar spoke about "that which is sensational, and that which is significant". The church in America needs that word today! So do I.
At Corinth, Paul paid more attention to spiritual formation than "special effects". He prayed that they might outgrow obsession with the sensational, and opt for what released the whole church for ministry. It wasn't the spiritual celebrities. In fact, Paul had critics at Corinth who thought him as dynamic as cold oatmeal.  But note the truth he set on the table for them:

When you make choices about gifts and ministry "best", 

Go for what's going to last.  Go for what helps the Church fulfill it's design. 

Go for that which develops & deploys the whole Body of Christ. 

We can't just spotlight the  exceptionall-gifted-and-accomplished. Give everybody room to grow. Thankfully receive what every child of God, walking right with God, brings to God's work. His or her gift.


Maybe some of his principles help us choose which ministry projects we should pursue, and which options we shouldn't. Doing things decently and in order? If you are an emergency response worker, expect last-minute calls. But when someone neglects planning and asks your ministry to bail them out, is that really your emergency? 
 God gives His people a wide range of service abilities. How does that shape the volunteer options you choose?  Is it God's call or someone else's you're thinking about? 
And near the top of our list: if the Body of Christ exists to witness for Christ, choose ministries that give more opportunity to share our faith. It's good to serve side by side with others in your community, but it's better when you get to say "the love of Christ compels us."

These are a few thoughts on serving God and community, and helping one another fulfill God's Call.

What thoughts would you add?

God's Calculations and Ours

The psalmist talked about a time when he was in so deep, he couldn't get out. But God got him out. Actually, he said, God's done that for us more times than we can possibly track.





Here's Psalm 40:5 from 
the New International Version: 

Many, O LORD my God,

are the wonders you have done.

The things you planned for us

no one can recount to you;

were I to speak and tell of them,

they would be too many to declare.

Browse a few Bible pages and you'll find that the ancient Hebrews were not handicapped when it came to their counting ability! In fact, I look at some of their census figures, financial reports, arms inventories, and such, one might feel they were obsessed with keeping detailed accounts.

The word for God's plans speaks of detailed calculations. Originally, the verb had to do with weaving: lots of strands coming together. Various aspects of a larger plan. Then the "recounting" could well be an "accounting report". 

No matter how vast his expertise for doing inventory, 

there's no keeping up with how many ways God is looking out for us.

... I found this news piece published October 28, 2010 about the world's most powerful computer. It  can do 2.5 thousand trillion calculations per second. And don't you know, some company is already trying to develop the next generation that can do more faster?  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11644252

God has not gotten smaller because technology has gotten bigger. 

Who He is and how much He does for us . . . we still don't have the equipment to calculate!                                                 ~ Breath easier.

Freedom to Set Others Free

Every so often I meet some guys in a diner for breakfast. And there's a quiet gentleman named Casey who drops by for coffee, too. He strikes me as a "strong, silent type" spiritually:  who's looking for ways he can be used of God to help others connect with our surrounding community's blessings. Each week, I get an email--mailed all over Chester County--that helps others know about important community services, like job training, and coping with the loss of a life-long companion, or finding a lifeline of support when habits begin to control one's life and spirit. What Casey does isn't flashy, but it's fundamental as a follower of Christ. He likes to see others set free.  So does Jesus.

"...He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives"  - Luke 4:18

The place God lets me preach is a special place, blessed by a unity that blends worshippers of varied background. So February seems like a good time to tell some stories of the Underground Railroad, of women and men who became free, and then risked it all to help others become free.


For the better part of thirty years, I have had some experience walking alongside of churches, observing God and observing people at work. Lately, I have been asking myself this question. 

When people think of church, 

is it a place where people are trapped?

or a place where people are being set free?

Through the month of April, my goal is for our congregation to look at a range of ways that God works "Setting The Captives Free".  Probably, this study will lead me to some places where Baptists seldom go. I can't be captive to that. Undoubtedly, this study will mean getting free of some old hurts and hangups myself. Undoubtedly, overdue. But if we go there, we'll be able to help others get there. 

Through His Cross, Though His Grace, 

Into a Springtime of Awakening ~ & breathing easier.

Because of Life Breathed Into Us

Yesterday even as I stood speaking to the church family, there were words and sentiments coming that had not been planned. Like most preachers, I usually have a general idea of what I'm going to preach several weeks in advance. The Bible has numerous "stand-out" names for Jesus, and I knew some of them seemed right to aim us, as a church, in a positive direction at the start of 2011.  


There's a certain name for Jesus that was coined by his critics, "this man is... a friend of tax collectors and sinners". There it is:  "Friend of Sinners". Ironically true. Those words intended for insult have inspired hope for many. Quite often, for me.


Today we whisper this word "sinner". We prefer to say "everybody has issues." Undeniably. One of our issues? People who say they want to be like Jesus, then kick others who are spiritually down-- treating them like dirt. You know how bad you feel when your back is out of line? Well, knowing your faith is out of line feels much worse!


So we looked at how Jesus befriended sinners, most of all, by dying for people like me on the Cross. But this sermon turned into a two-parter. Part two was how people wanting to be like Christ must learn how to be friends with all kinds of people, even those they might instinctively choose not to befriend.


How do we do that? Dr. Martin Luther King reminded people almost 50 years ago that you do it with forgiveness. Not just words of forgiveness, but deeds. That climate requires us to extend grace to those who've hurt us. And when we do, God breathes new life into them, and us.


Our most basic tasks include building character and availability. Availability means being there for others when it's especially challenging to stick by someone's side.


It takes patience, gentleness, genuineness, and caring beyond our own strength to care. It takes Jesus. It takes that mental memo and inner prompting-- He's still a friend to sinners. Will we act accordingly?

Any church doing this has to provide teamwork to shepherd people through a process, of . . .

•  Getting real about the issues.
• Getting close to Christ  (and getting around people who already are.)
• Getting away from all the old trappings of sin.
•  Getting help from a new circle of support. We're supposed to be family.
• Getting on with God’s plans to grow us into who we’re meant to be.
• Getting thrilled about every day progress and wins.
• Getting involved as a friend to others who need Your Friend. 

Are We Thinking "Defense" or "Offense"?

This week health issues require our family to adjust our schedule. Who doesn't face an issue that potentially could put them on the sidelines? Yet God's strategy isn't withdrawal, or the saints hunkering down until the devil is done lobbing his grenades.


Re-reading 2 Corinthians 10:1-6, we see that combat analogies are not alien to the peace preached in the gospel ministry. Here's my paraphrase of Paul's message to both detractors and allies at the church in first-century Corinth.

 "I am asking you politely, because Christ Himself takes an even-mannered  approach. So you think I act like a wimp when I'm around, and talk tough when I'm not? I'll ask you again. Don't force me to come on strong. (That is what I've got to do with those who've been implying that we operate from our own fleshly power for our own fleshly ends.)

True, we go through life dealing with the same needs and realities other men do. But we're not shooting blanks in this war that's raging in the invisible realm. We're stocked with heavy artillery to get the job done knocking out Enemy strongholds. 

We demolish every resisting argument--every prideful pretension, those walls people set up to shield themselves from any awareness of God. (i.e., accountability to God.) 

We capture every single thought and make it march in the direction where Christ is taking us. Not one instance of insubordination will go unpunished--once you all are following orders."

Ministry is the work of faith. And faith will keep us on the advance. This week, what needs to fall down so His cause moves forward?

Bigotry Beyond Belief

Last week Bill Maher was swapping blows with Bill O'Reilly. (Television is such a tease.) But not to be outdone by FOX, CNN wanted to give Mr. Maher airtime too. It wasn't dull. Hopefully this post won't be either.

Looking for an email of said celebrity, I wanted to offer a reasonable response to a reasonable question posed by Mr. Maher. Indeed, it was posed. I happened onto another website dedicated to bashing "blind" believing sheep. There's nothing in my response that was terribly original. But for those who might be interested, here's what I wrote:   

Bill Maher asks how faith makes people of faith better off. By the nature of the question, many responses would be experiential anecdotes. Who gets to define what we mean by “better off”? Any definition has a certain spin on it: and that will defy universal agreement.

I earned my way through college working with the terminally ill. My observations are admittedly colored by my beliefs. From personal observation, in the hours approaching death, people who have lived in faith DIE differently than those who have not. For those assuming death is the last stop, you can say, “So they feel better? They play the last scene with marginally more tranquility? They still die. Is that better off?” My point can be tested by clinical observation: will people of faith be better prepared for death at the end of life? Unless you’re into the paranormal, as no true atheist should be, let’s agree that dead people don’t get to say. The exception to that rule is whatever legacy they left behind. Who else actually benefited because they believed?

Does it strike us as a sell-out, when the medical community, immersed in the sciences, is doing more to make institutional provision for spiritual care? Chalk it up as marketing to customer preference. But then they can show us research that statistically supports the idea that faith is a significant variable toward healthy recovery. Eventually death comes around anyway. Neither belief nor unbelief cures that.

Again it’s anecdotal. Much good has come in my life because of faith. Reduced anxiety. Destructive life patterns averted. Connection to some of the most amazing people I have ever been privileged to know. More energy to invest in the well-being of others. A standard by which I can evaluate my own motives and behavior. At the risk of sounding religulous, fewer expletives in my vocabulary– this effect could be devastating to a comedian’s career. Lasting benefits? Hey, I’m not there yet.

Millions, through faith, have found a desire to live stronger than they did before. Their self-improvement schemes had been blow-outs. They found themselves part of caring communities of faith that stood by them in good times and bad. Many others signed up and later felt jaded. Some of us had that experience, and we refuse to forgive. If this applies, then again it’s anecdotal. All the same. In believing God, many others have found behavioral, relational, and motivational power they were not able to independently access before.  If that angers you, guess who’s the irrational extremist?

Historically, most of the undercurrents of humanitarian reforms have stemmed from people of faith. You can despise that fact, but you can’t change it. Some atheists have the guts to admit that atheism, as a whole, can’t boast that track record. Give me a list of societies where atheism became the predominant belief system, and the world was better off. Go ahead and point the finger at religious extremists and their violence. Governments that institutionalized atheism are the least tolerant, most violent of societies known in history. The damage they’ve done and will do, literally, is of apocalyptic proportion. Meditate on that truth, beloved.

Volcanic Ash! Who's Breathing Easier?

 I wondered aloud on my Facebook page if "no smoking" restrictions were still in force in Iceland. Bad joke, perhaps, but it was a coping mechanism to get through some frustration over travel delay. As of 10 AM this morning, it's not a couple of hours delay, or a couple of days. It could be a couple of months before my wife and I get to visit our son overseas. "Hope deferred" is tough. For people stranded between places, they would gladly trade places and be "stuck" at home. We don't know when, but we expect that when the family does get together, the pleasure will be doubly appreciated.
    All the same, it isn't easy. Maybe if I was Stoic, I wouldn't blink. But I do. I aspire to being a follower of Jesus, and "Jesus wept." Certainly not over a personal inconvenience .He wept for a generation that turned away from Him. Then He outlined some events coming in The Last Days.
    Don't attempt to connect all the dots here. Just pause. A mountain on a sparsely populated land-mass belches; and flights, nations, and commerce are grounded. Who's able to sell you comprehensive coverage? I'm not a Stoic, or an atheist (thank God.)  We can hardly wait to see our son. It is a strain. But the hope of seeing him soon, helps me think of seeing Christ again. With that thought, be ready for departure.And breathe easier.