The Person Standing Alone

There are pluses and minuses for being a part of a larger church. One of the minuses is that it is really hard to spot guests. McKinney is a very friendly church, but every once in a while we have people who slip in and out without being greeted by anyone.

Believe it or not, I have one or two introverted tendencies. One is that I don't really love meeting strangers. I'm usually pretty uncomfortable unless someone introduces them to me who I'm confident can keep the conversation going. Part of it is that my short-term memory stinks and I'm afraid I'm going to re-introduce myself to someone I should know (that happens at least once a Sunday).

For a long time I've talked to the ministries I lead about developing eyes for the person standing alone.

In a healthy church, most people gravitate to their groups of friends. So, when you see a person (or couple) standing by themselves, there is a good chance they're guests trying to scope out the nearest exits just in case the church starts handling snakes. One of my regular Sunday morning prayers is that God would give me eyes to see those people standing alone, and the courage to reach out to them. You should pray that too. Visiting churches is hard work, and people with trained eyes can make it a lot easier.

Negligent Christians?

I've begun noticing a trend in many of the blogs and books I've read recently, as well as in many of the conferences and podcasts I've followed. It's become extremely trendy for evangelicals to bash the modern Evangelical Church when it comes to acts of mercy and social justice. If you listen to many of today's Christian writers, you could easily come to the conclusion that the Church has been completely asleep at the wheel since the 14th century when it led the charge in caring for people during the Bubonic Plague.

It's convenient to bash the Church, and I won't disagree that the Church has not been all it could be in this area. But I'm not sure the situation is nearly as bleak as many people have painted it.

There is a good chance that the largest hospital in your area was started by the Evangelical Church. If homeless people in your area need to be cared and provided for, they likely go to a Christian food bank or shelter. When it comes to relief efforts for famines, hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, Christians have historically been some of the first people on the scene.

It's popular to bash the Church as if Christians have been completely negligent for the past seven hundred years. But those kinds of conclusions just don't bear the weight of the facts.

Don't get me wrong: we need to do better. We need to help people see that God cares about the poor, disenfranchised, persecuted and abandoned as we point them toward the ultimate hope found in Christ. It's true that some individual churches have focused on being right more than they've focused on being the Body of Christ. But I reject the notion that the Church has been completely negligent in these areas and think we should be ashamed of ourselves for the exaggeration. What kind of witness is that?

Would You Fire You?

Had a great discussion yesterday with a group of guys about managing money. Here's the question we posed:

If you had a financial planner who treated your finances the way you manage the resources God has entrusted to you, how long would he have a job?

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully [stewarding/managing] God’s grace in its various forms." (1 Peter 4:10)

Church is Full of Hypocrites

I had an interesting conversation with a guy the other day about why he doesn't go to church more regularly. He used the old "the church is full of hypocrites" line, which I'm not always sure how to respond. Do you agree, and try to talk about the importance of grace? Or do you disagree on principle and talk about all the great things the church is doing in the world? Both are probably true. I never know what to say... but this time he threw me a softball I couldn't resist.

Here's how the conversation went:

Him: "I don't really do church... it's full of hypocrites."

Me: "Yeah, sometimes that's the perception. When is the last time you were in church?"

Him: "Christmas... or maybe Easter. We usually go to both of those, you know, for tradition's sake."

Me: "Well, that's the problem. Your only two data points are the Sundays when the church is full of a lot of other people like you."

I think he got the point. He was at church this week.

Moving Target

One of our unwritten (but always present) values at McKinney Church is to do everything we do with excellence. If everything we do as a church staff (or as Christians for that matter) is an exercise of the gifts God has given us, it should be done so that He receives glory (Colossians 3:17). Excellence gives glory to an excellent God.

The main reason the value of excellence is unwritten is that it's impossible to define what "excellence" looks like. Excellence, quality is a moving target; it never stands still.

Excellence is subjective to everyone except God, and thus is measured differently for each of us. I have a different perception of what excellent music sounds like than you do, and we both have a different perspective than someone from another culture. It's a moving target.

The benefit of a moving target is that you have to re-aim every time you get ready to pull the trigger. Since the definition of excellence never stands still, we have to do the same thing. We're forced to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate everything we do to ensure we're doing things that honor God in an excellent way, using the gifts and talents He has given, so that He is honored and glorified.

Your Story

I spent this morning talking with a guy about how to tell the story of what Jesus Christ has done in his life. Every Christian needs to be prepared to give an "elevator version" of how they came into a relationship with Christ in less than 100 words. If you prepare that kind of story and are ready, you'll be shocked at how many opportunities you get to tell it.

(As a matter of fact, as I was typing this blog entry at Panera, I had a random guy sit down next to me and strike up a conversation where he asked me to "tell him a little more about myself...")

The two biggest challenges people face when telling their story is (1) Forgetting what the story is about, and (2) Forgetting the goal of the story.

Most of us tell "our story" and forget that our story is really not a story about us. We emphasize how we were before we came to know Christ, and emphasize our life after Christ, but don't emphasize what Jesus has done in our lives. The most important part of your story is the climax of the story - when you understood that Jesus Christ died for your sins and gave you eternal life as a gift. Make sure you make it absolutely clear that your story is about Jesus and what He did on the cross. It's not a story about you. The gospel has to be clear.

Secondly, without an invitation, your story is just information. After you've made it clear what Christ did in your life, it's important to give people an opportunity to take a step. I usually ask, "Tell me about your spiritual journey." Or "What about you? Has anyone ever given you the opportunity to trust Christ?" Whatever you say, give people an opportunity to take a step that gets them closer to understanding and responding to the Gospel. They won't always respond, but you'll never get to see them respond if you don't give them the opportunity.

So, what's your story? See if you can get it to less than 100 words and post it as a comment. And when you share it this weekend (I guarantee if you look for it, you'll have an opportunity), don't forget to invite people to respond.

The Surprise of Preaching

I got a really nice note yesterday from a person in our church who made some neat life choices as a result of something God did through the sermon on Sunday.

I don't know why, but those kinds of responses always surprise me. I'm not surprised that God blesses the teaching of His Word; He always does that. I'm just amazed at how He arranges it.

My experience is that the sermons I feel the worst about are the sermons He tends to use the most.

For me, sermons are personal long before they're public. I work hard on the front end, always asking the question "How does this connect with my life." Because if I'm not working to live it, I can't preach it. You can't lead to a place you're not willing to go.

As a result, I often walk up on the stage Sunday morning feeling as though I don't have much original to say. Sometimes that's the truth but more often it's just a function of the fact that I've been living with a sermon for long enough it has lost its freshness with me. And because it doesn't feel new to me, I wonder how much what I say is going to connect with people.

What I find is, the sermons that connect the best are the ones I've lived with the longest, although those sermons almost never feel great to me on the Saturday night before I preach.

Praise Publicly, Challenge Privately

I've mentioned before: When it comes to my gift-mix, I tend to be a fairly good leader by nature, but not a good manager. I work well at 30,000 feet, but don't do as well keeping the plates spinning on the ground. But with very few exceptions, a degree of management is involved in all leadership. Even the most visionary CEO usually has to manage a COO who will keep the plates going for him. So, I've done a lot of research on management trying to shore up some of my weaknesses in that area.

One of the most obvious pieces of advice I've received in this area has also been one of the most helpful. I had a conversation with a really great manager not long ago who reiterated the importance of "praising publicly, challenging privately."

The most sure-fire way to lose a person's trust is to talk negatively about them in front of another person. It's true when you're managing businesses, and true when you're managing families. If you have something negative to say about someone, you owe them a conversation, but that conversation should be private. Using someones weakness as a "learning tool" for your team is a great way to make sure the only thing your team learns is that they can't fail in front of you. And if they can't fail in front of you, they can't risk in front of you.

The converse is also true. If you've got something nice to say about someone, make sure you say it to as many people as you can, because nothing motivates better performance like public recognition. Tell everyone that someone is a valued member of the team, and they'll go into battle and die for you as a leader.

Critics

When you're trying to lead change in your organization, you will always have critics.

Most leaders resist critics because they pour cold water on vision and strategy. And half the time, leaders are right to keep critics as far away as possible. The other half the time, keeping critics distant can prove to be fatal.

You have two kinds of critics in your organization. One group of people will never be won over. They're chronic critics who love to poke holes in plans and play the devil's advocate, but will never be persuaded despite a mountain of evidence against them. In most cases, this person has no actual influence because everyone knows his colors. The leader does well to remove him if it's possible, and marginalize him if removal is not possible.

The other kinds of critics are the people who are just not-yet-convinced. They're critical of plans because they haven't been persuaded that a plan of action is the best one. If the leader ignores these critics, it is to his own peril. These people can serve as a great sounding board for leaders because they help the leader shape his plans and communication to be as comprehensive as possible. They also help to point out flaws in logic and blind spots the leader hadn't considered, and nobody else bothered to point out. Their critiques are sincere, and come from the same heart as the leader's: a heart for the health of the organization. Though it can be exhausting for a leader to spend time with these people, if he is wise they will be some of his most trusted advisers.

If you distance yourself from everyone who disagrees with you, you will soon find yourself surrounded by a bunch of people who don't have anything to say to you. You'll be limited to your own wisdom and intellect, and that's a dangerous place to be.

Book Review: He is Not Silent

Albert Mohler is a freak. He is the president of Southern Theological Seminary, husband, father of two children, itinerant preacher, seminary professor, debater, and daily writes thoughtful, scholarly, persuasive entries on his blog.

Oh yeah, and he writes great books too.

I don't know where Dr. Mohler shops for time, but he must find it on sale.

He is Not Silent is Mohler's recent work on "preaching in a postmodern world." In it he defines biblical preaching and argues for expository preaching in a world of story.

However, lest you think this book is some kind of fundamentalist diatribe against everything contemporary, it isn't. Mohler helps the contemporary preacher think about preaching in a culture that continues to move in a postmodern direction.

One of the clearest examples of this is Mohler's chapter on "Preaching the Bible's Big Story." Postmodernism is consumed with the idea of "meta-narrative" - the idea that everything is connected as a piece of a big story. Mohler helps the preacher see this not as something to be afraid of, but as an opportunity to connect people with the meta-narrative of Scripture: the Gospel.

Mohler's book is a great call for preachers to stay focused on the Bible. He discusses the purpose of preaching, the reason for preaching, and the method of preaching. The book also contains a helpful chapter in talking about the uniqueness of the postmodern culture. It's a worthwhile read for anyone who preaches or teaches the Bible.

Many of you who read my blog don't preach. You are not pastors, and don't teach. This book isn't for you, but that's okay. October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Buy the book, wrap it up, and do your pastor a favor.

Book Review: Sticky Church

My buddy Jason, the Pastor of Small Groups at Chase Oaks church recently gave me Sticky Church, by Larry Osborne. If you've been reading my blog for more than a year, you might remember my review of one of Osborne's earlier books "Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God." That book talks about the importance of community within the church because it "Velcros people to truth."

"Sticky Church" develops the Velcro idea even further, proposing the idea that sermon-based small groups help close the back door to churches, further the impact of a sermon, allows more simple equipping of small group leaders, and provides a better context for people to grow as disciples.

Osborne believes (and I agree) that we do people a disservice when the only discipleship models we offer are linear (step one, then step two, then step three). Nobody grows in any other relationship like that. Instead, we learn best when we need to know. I didn't truly learn about God's sovereignty and character until I was in a desperate situation that forced me to examine it. According to Osborne, small groups are best equipped to help connect people to Truth because they connect people to Bible-centered community groups who are strategically placed in each others' lives to be present in need-to-know situations.

Even if you're not a part of a church whose primary discipleship model is small groups (ours isn't), this book can be helpful - especially for pastors. I'm not convinced that sermon-based small groups that function exactly like Osborne's are the silver bullet for discipleship, though I certainly buy most of his arguments. I do think that small communities of people are the most effective way to stimulate each other toward love and good works (Hebrews 10:24).

Whatever system your churches uses for discipleship, it's worth examining Osborne's model. Many of the principles will carry-over even if you decide not to do a system overhaul. Osborne thinks and writes well - "Sticky Church" is an easy and worthwhile read."

Book Review: Crucial Conversations

I heard about the book "Crucial Conversations" by Kerry Patters, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler from a friend who works in Atlanta. He said it was all the rage in Atlanta right now. I hadn't heard of it, so I'm either ahead of the curve or way behind it. It was published in 2002, so there's a strong chance I'm reviewing a book that was cool seven years ago. Even still...

This book is written to help spouses, roommates, businessmen, parents, and children communicate better in conversations that involve different opinions, high stakes, and high emotion. The principles they point out are helpful whether you're having a conversation with a roommate who leaves his socks on the floor in the living room, or an employee who is under-performing in their role.

This book helps you understand why some conversations go well, and some go poorly. Their advice won't be a surprise to most readers - there's nothing new under the sun. But these authors arrange helpful advice in such a way that is extremely helpful.

"Crucial Conversations" will help you go into difficult conversations with confidence, create environments that are safe for dialogue, deal with strong emotions that come when you're attacked, hurt, or scared during conversations, understand your goal alongside the goal(s) of other parties, in order to ultimately move a conversation toward a decision.

It's no wonder the people in Atlanta are excited about this book; it should make a comeback in Texas as well. If you lack confidence or skill in having difficult, emotionally-charged conversations with people you care about (or don't care about, for that matter), these guys can really help you.

Book Reviews: Organizational Change

I'm digging out of a pile from being in a class the last two weeks, and preparing to preach this Sunday so over the next few days I'm going to blow through some book reviews.

Most of my reading over the past two or three months has been about organizational leadership - the topic of my class. Some of those books have been helpful but aren't probably the kinds of reviews anyone wants to read (or write), so I'll just hit the good books I read in that vein today and move on to some more exciting books (for most of you) tomorrow.

The Leaders Change Handbook - This book, edited by Jay Conger, Gretchen Spreitzer, and Edward Lawler, contains independent chapters from experts in various aspects of organizational change. It deals with everything from leadership structure to organizational spin offs. As with most compilation books, some of the chapters are much better than others, but the book is helpful overall.

Managing Transitions - William Bridges is one of the world's leading experts on managing change. This book is short (125 pages), but immensely helpful. Bridges gives special focus to the reason people resist change, something most books on change do not address. He says people resist change not because of change itself, but because of the personal losses they inevitably experience by change. Leaders who address those losses openly, honestly, and creatively, will find much less resistance to change. Bridges also spends some time talking about leading through the "neutral zone;" the place between the casting of vision and the full implementation of whatever it is the leader is trying to change. "Managing Transitions" is an extremely helpful book.

Change is Like a Slinky - Hans Finzel is the president of World Venture, a Christian mission organization, so this book is written from a biblical perspective. Finzel describes six phases of change, and helps the leader think through successful ways to lead an organization through change. Honestly, the information in this book is great. Finzel is easy to read and offers great wisdom, but the Slinky parallels throughout the book drove me nuts. Read the book, but you've been warned ahead of time.

A Sense of Urgency - John Kotter writes for Harvard Business Press, and is one of the world's other great experts on change. He also wrote "Leading Change" and "Our Iceberg is Melting." "A Sense of Urgency" develops the idea that before change can be successful, the people who are being asked to change must feel the need to change. Kotter points out that the "need" must be experienced - it can't be handed down from a top-level executive. Kotter spends a chapter helping the leader deal with people he calls "NoNos" - the people who are chronically opposed to every sort of change. He also helps the leader differentiate between true urgency and false urgency that ultimately kill the change process.

The Leadership Challenge - James Kouzes and Barry Posner have written a book on Leadership that is possibly the most comprehensive resource for leadership available. If not, it is certainly one of the best selling leadership books of all time. They define 5 practices of great leaders: modeling, inspiring, challenging, enabling, and encouraging. If it is true that leaders are made, not born, Kouzes and Posner have taken a worthy stab at making great leaders. It's impossible to capture this book in a short review, so I won't try. If you're interested in organizational leadership and haven't read this book yet, it should probably be one of the next books you read.

That's Quotable - Vision

"If you don't see it before you see it, you'll never see it."

Mike Buster, Executive Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church

Vision, Need, and Teamwork

Vision is something of a buzz word for organizations, and rightly so. Without a clear picture of the future, organizations are destined to tread water instead of swimming toward a purpose.

Vision doesn't make any sense unless it's connected to need. There has to be a reason for the organization to move forward, or nobody will be motivated to take it in that direction.

Great visionary leaders are usually able to talk about how bad things are (need) and how things could be in the future (vision) but are almost always limited by an inability to describe the space in between. It's like a great fog to them.

Great visionary leaders have someone who can think inside the great fog and give it definition, before passing it along to people who can implement it. Otherwise, even great visions are dead in the water.

Kinds of Tired

For several years I've talked about the "Christian "F" Word." You know, when people ask you how you're doing it's always the response: "Fine."

Even when you're not fine, you say "fine," which really means "I heard your question and social constructs obligate me to give a response."

So, I try really hard not to say "fine," when people ask me how I'm doing. I still want to be polite, I just want to be unique.

Recently when people ask me how I'm doing I tell them "tired." I noticed myself doing it yesterday, and spent some time thinking about it while I drank my Chick-Fil-A peach milkshake last night (Lord Jesus, please let there be Chick-Fil-A peach milkshakes in heaven. Amen).

It occurs to me that there are two types of "tired."

The first kind of tired is when you're running in the area of your sweet-spot, using your giftedness to do what God put you on the earth to do. You're stretched, pushed and exhausted, but in a really good way. You're like the Super Bowl MVP who has just enough gas in your tank to finish strong and party hard, but you're running on sheer adrenaline. That's a good kind of tired. Most Sundays after I preach I come home really, really tired, but in a really, really good way.

The other kind of tired happens when you're operating in your own strength, with your own abilities, outside your area of giftedness. You're doing a lot of things that other people could do as well or better if your pride didn't get in the way of you empowering them to do it. This kind of tired makes everything feel forced, like the marathon runner who limps like a zombie across the finish line. Their bodies weren't created for that kind of beating and it takes a long time to recover. When you operate too long in areas outside what God has created you to do, it takes a toll. That's a bad kind of tired. It's okay to be there for a season, but those kinds of activities are not sustainable for long.

How am I? Honestly these days, I find myself vacillating between the two tireds. It's only for a season, but that's where I'm at. You didn't really want that information when you asked though. For fear of overwhelming you with a distinction that only seems important to me, I'll just tell you I'm "tired," and get back to the milkshake. It's really good.

Scary Stewardship

I'm out of my usual morning blog routine this week and last because of a class I'm taking that has me on the road during "normal blogging hours."

This morning during that class we had a neat side conversation about the stewardship of power. I'm interested in what you think.

The idea is this: God has given us four primary things to steward. Those things are (1) money, (2) power, (3) sexuality, and (4) fame.

All four things are a-moral. That is, there is nothing good or bad about any of those four things. They can be used for good or used for bad. All four things are also terrifying to most people.

When we're scared of things, we don't talk about them. And when we don't talk about things we can't "steward" them appropriately. Our failure to put emphasis on the area of money, power, sexuality and fame has caused us as Christians (by and large) to be bad stewards of all four.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Would you add to the list or take away from it? If you agree, how can we be better stewards of those things?

Shopping in Texas

Distance

You want to read a pathetic passage of Scripture?

Matthew 26:58a - "But Peter followed from a distance."

Just hours before, Peter promised he would keep following Jesus no matter what the other guys did; no matter the cost to himself (Matthew 26:35). But when his resolve was tested, he followed from a distance.

I've spent a lot of my life following Jesus, but doing it from a distance. Close enough to Jesus that I'm "technically" following Him, but far enough away that I blend in with everyone else.

Distance following is dangerous because distance puts us on a slippery slope to denial. At the end of verse 58, Peter stops following altogether. By verse 69, he is in active denial.

When the risk seems to high to follow closely, the potential cost will eventually be too great to follow at all. We think we're playing it safe by following at a distance, but the reality isn't safe at all.

Advice For Pastors

I'm currently reading The Curate's Awakening by George MacDonald. It fits nicely into the "Books I Would Never Read Unless Someone Forced me to Read Them" category; It's fiction, the cover is a cheesy pink color with characters who look like victorian seedy romance novel characters, and I don't know anyone who has read it except the person who recommended the book. Fortunately, that person was a professor who required the reading, so I'm reading the book.

MacDonald was a major influence on C.S. Lewis and Francis Shaeffer. In fact, Lewis wrote of MacDonald "I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself!" That's not a bad thing to put on your resume.

I'm only about halfway through this book, but it's tremendous. And early on through one of the characters, MacDonald offers some advice to pastors concerning their research in preparing for a sermon. The question is posed, "Should a pastor make up his sermons from the books he reads?" That is, should he rely on the insights of commentaries or just the insights which are original to him.

The answer MacDonald gives is, "Yes, [he should rely on books,] if he can do no better. But then I would have him read much, not with his sermon in his thoughts, but with the people in his heart.

I'm a young pastor but think that's great insight. If the only study we do is to help us develop great sermons, they'll be impotent sermons clearly delivered. If we study with the hearts in the mind we are much better positioned to develop Christ-centered people.

MIA

I'm taking a class the next two weeks in Dallas and plan to be pretty sporadic updating the blog. But I have to tell you about something my wife did for me yesterday.

For my birthday she got my a journal that she started writing in for me. The first several pages are filled with the things she loves about me. She left several pages blank so she can continue filling them in.

Ladies, if you want to give your husband one of the greatest gifts he'll ever receive, you should give this a try. It was a good birthday.

Why "Plain?"

Yesterday I talked briefly about a "plain" understanding of Scripture (hermeneutic). The day before that I made the claim that the way we understand Scripture is the most important theological question facing the Church today. Today, I want to give five quick reasons I think we must understand Scripture in a "plain" way - the way the original audience would have understood the same words.

1. It seems to have been Jesus' method.

Just one example: In Matthew 22:23-33, Jesus argues for the Truth of resurrection on the basis of verb tense. God says "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" rather than "I was." When Jesus interpreted Exodus 3, he believed God meant what He said in a plain sense.

2. The Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy

When prophecy was made in the Old Testament, it was specific. When prophecy was fulfilled in the New Testament it was fulfilled in light of a plain understanding of the prophecy. As readers hundreds of years before Christ read Micah 5:2, they would have had a specific village in mind when they heard "Bethlehem Ephrathah." Even the Magi from the East pointed Herod in the right direction (Matthew 2:3-6). Micah 5:2 is just one of hundreds of prophecies concerning Jesus which was fulfilled according to the plain sense of the original prophecy.

3. The Proper Use of Human Language in Relationship

If words do not have plain meaning, they are worthless. If I should not or cannot interpret your words in a specific way, you might as well not talk. God chose language to communicate to us and gave us language for us to communicate to each other. Any understanding of words other than a plain understanding makes the use of language pointless.

4. Objectivity Demands It

If words cannot be understood plainly, objectivity is impossible. If every word is up to individual interpretation, words mean whatever the audience wants them to mean.

5. Plain Interpretation is Core to the Gospel

If sin does not really equal literal death (Genesis 2:17), Jesus did not have to die on the cross. In fact, the temptation preceding the fall itself was a temptation from Satan to take God's words in a way that was something other than their plain meaning (Genesis 3:2-5). If a plain understanding of God's words with regard to the consequence of sin is not possible, we cannot be sure that we are understanding God's solution correctly.

Plain Understanding

Yesterday I mentioned that I think the question of how to understand Scripture is the most significant theological question that will have to be answered by the Church in the coming years. Although in a real sense our faith is in God, not the Bible, the Bible is one of the primary ways God reveals Himself to us. So, it's important that we understand it in the way God intended.

I believe in a "plain" hermeneutic (understanding of the Bible). That is, I believe our goal should be to understand the Bible in the way it would have been plainly understood by the original audience. This takes into account literary genre and figures of speech but tries to understand Scripture the way a carpenter in the first century would have understood it so that we can apply the principles to our lives.

I don't say I believe in a "literal" method because misinformed people take that claim literally. There are figures of speech, hyperbole, and poetry in Scripture that we should understand like we would understand any other figures of speech, hyperbole and poetry. The plain understanding of the poetry in Psalm 17:8 is not that God is a bird. The plain understanding of Jesus' use of hyperbole in Matthew 18:9 does not tell us all to become surgeons but does challenge us to take drastic action in avoiding sin. Jesus clarified Nicodemus' misunderstanding of his figure of speech in John 3:4 - "born again" does not mean we go back in our mother's womb.

When we interpret and apply Scripture our goal is to understand what the author intended us to understand.

The Bible doesn't contain some hidden secret code. It is not subjective. The Bible does not change with time, culture, or emotions. It is not primarily an allegory, illustration, or fable. It is God's revelation of Himself containing propositional Truth claims. We don't get to evaluate Scripture in light of our emotions, beliefs, and cultural trends. Scripture was written with a specific "plain" meaning for a specific "plain" purpose and our decisions, feelings, emotions and beliefs should be based on that.

Tomorrow I'll try to give you 4 reasons I think we have to use a "plain" hermeneutic when we interpret Scripture.

Theological Issue?

I had coffee yesterday with one of McKinney's mission partners who is serving in Japan. During the course of the conversation he asked me what was in my opinion the biggest theological question we (as a Church) would need to answer in the coming months and years.

I think it's the question of hermeneutics - how we study and understand the Bible.

I could have said "postmodernism," but when it comes right down to it postmodernism within the Church is a belief about how we should understand and apply the Scripture. It's a hermeneutical question before it's a question about worship styles, extent of the atonement, or social justice.

The issue of homosexuality in the Church is a significant issue. The Church is going to have to figure out pretty quickly what it believes about homosexuality and learn to address it in a Christlike way. But that issue is an issue of how we understand the Bible. Homosexuality is not the issue at all - Scripture speaks clearly about homosexuality. Any question we have about homosexuality is a question about how we understand Scripture.

There are some big questions facing the Church this century, but most of them only mask the real question which is a hermeneutic question.

Tomorrow I'll try to talk a bit about how I'm trying to answer the question. But before then, I'm interested: do you agree? Are there other questions you think are bigger questions that the Church will need to answer in coming months and years?

Love to Win or Hate to Lose

I had a great time last night at a meeting of some of the leadership at our church to plan for the fall. It's fun to get a bunch of people together who love their church for the purpose of dreaming about the future.

About a year ago I heard Dan Reeves (a former NFL football coach) give some advice to leaders: "You have to have people on your team who want to win. If you can't find them, find people who really, really hate to lose."

At McKinney, "winning" means developing Christ-centered people who make a difference. Last night, we had a lot of people who love seeing that happen, and a few who just hate the alternative. Either way, it's fun to be a part of a team who is excited about keeping the ball moving forward.

Perception

I read a quote by Ben Arment the other day that I think is significant for leaders - especially pastors. In one sense, what he says is obvious. In another sense, it's profound.

He said: "In your mind, you probably spend 90% of your time leading. But to your congregation, you spend 100% of your time communicating."

His quote, of course, is a bit over-simplified. It insinuates that communicating and leading are mutually exclusive, and they aren't. But Arment has a point.

Perception is everything. If a leader feels like he can lead without communicating well, he is in trouble. The vast majority of the people you lead may not ever sit with you in a strategic meeting. They will never get lunch with you or be on a board with you. They will be affected by the ripples of your leadership, but will not see your leadership.They will only hear what you say.

How does what you preach connect with where you're going? Can people connect the dots, or are you just assuming they'll "get it?" Do they understand the importance of Mark 6 to what they're trying to becoming as a Christ-centered person, or do they just understand how Mark 6 fits in the context between Mark 5 and Mark 7?

There's a big difference.

The direction has to be rooted in the Truth of the Scripture. But the Truth of the Scripture has to be lived out in the life of the believer, or your leadership is sunk. And you have to help people connect the dots.

Beach Balls

One of the toughest challenges for leaders is what I call the "Beach Ball Mentality" (The idea isn't new to me, but I've forgotten who I stole it from).

Imagine your office, home, church, or wherever it is you serve as leader as a multi-colored beach ball. Each department/location/ministry/family member represents one of the colors.

When you live life in the blue section, you see everything through shades of blue with the exception of times you move to the edge of blue and can catch just a glimpse of another color. All your decisions, wants, and desires are colored by your understanding of reality, which is blue. In the beach ball to the left, someone who lives in blue will have a hard time ever even knowing that yellow or pink exist, much less be able to understand things from their point of view. This is an unavoidable reality; the leader cannot just command blue to see yellow or pink.

The challenge of the leader is making decisions that affect the whole ball while considering the effect of those decisions on each color on the beach ball. This is particularly hard because the larger the organization, the more likely it is that the leader's own reality is separate from the reality of others in his organization. Leadership begins to be its own color.

This is why communication is vital for the leader in any organization. Although he can't touch every color, he has to touch those who do. Every decision that he makes must be with the entire ball in mind and must be framed in such a way that the person who lives entirely each color can understand and hop on board.

I'm convinced the beach ball mentality is at fault for the majority of our problems with music in the church, morale in the marketplace, and conflict at home. It isn't a problem with the people first and foremost; it's a problem with the leader.

The Problem and the Problem

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to go fishing with my father and brother-in-law. We do that about once a year, and it's always a time I look forward to. Joe and Michael are guys I respect immensely for a lot of reasons, one of which is their business acuity. They've both run successful businesses and have an ability to think critically about complex business issues that I don't have. I don't have the experience or wisdom they do so one of my goals whenever we're together is to get them talking and try to remember as much as I can.

Last week Joe was telling some stories about hard times he had early in the banking industry. He had a staff member that was under-performing but who was trying as hard as she could. He didn't want to fire her because she was improving but he couldn't keep her around because she was under-performing and killing the bank. Then one day a business professor made this statement:

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your inability or unwillingness to do something about the problem."

The big problem wasn't the lady, it was Joe. He was unable to help her get better at the pace she needed to improve in order to help the bank, so he had to let her go. But he bore the brunt of the responsibility.

A lot of times when we face problems with others that we can't put our finger on, it may be because we've failed to glance in the mirror.

Elephants

From time to time I get to talk with people who try to convince me that all religions are equally valid. That is, all religions point in the same direction, and each has a different piece of the puzzle.

The parable most often used to illustrate the point is one of several blind men who encounter an elephant. One grabs its tail and describes something thin and flexible. A second man grabs the trunk and can't agree with the "thin" part, but also describes something flexible. Another grabs the elephant's leg and argues that the "something" isn't flexible at all.

The story goes on, but you get the point. The person sitting at Starbucks will argue that mankind's view of the supernatural is like trying to describe that elephant. Each religion describes a different piece.

I recently ran across a quote by Lesslie Newbigin that was new to me though after some more reading it seems to be a fairly popular critique. It's from his book "The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society."

"In the famous story of the blind men and the elephant. . . the real point of the story is constantly overlooked. The story is told from the point of view of the king and his courtiers, who are not blind but can see that the blind men are unable to grasp the full reality of the elephant and are only able to get hold of part of it. The story is constantly told in order to neutralize the affirmations of the great religions, to suggest that they learn humility and recognize that none of them can have more than one aspect of the truth. But, of course, the real point of the story is exactly the opposite. If the king were also blind, there would be no story."

In order to make any Truth claim (either for it, or against it), someone has to be able to see the whole elephant.

Strength/Bulk Training

I just had a conversation with our worship leader about muscle training. Neither of us is working out, mind you, we were just talking about it.

He was explaining that there's a difference between bulk training and strength training. Body Builders who are consumed with getting big muscles train one way; athletes who are concerned more with strength than physique train another way. As a result, some of the most scrawny baseball players could mop the floor with body builders in an arm-wrestling competition.

Strength training relies on tearing down the muscle - doing repetitions until you are physically exhausted and then letting the muscle rest. Bulk training is more concerned with the amount of weight a person lifts at one time than the endurance and actual strength of the muscle.

I meet a lot of bulky Christians. Their goal is to carry as much spiritual weight as they can - to put as many religious activities on their back as possible, and they're generally pretty proud of how they look. As a result, they're bulky, but they're not strong. When the "muscle" is tested, they cannot endure.

How is your fitness level? Are you strong, or just bulky?

Christ-Centered

We're doing a lot of talking these days as a church staff about what it looks like to develop Christ-centered people. It's actually a tough conversation because it's so easy to fall into legalism by prescribing things the Scripture doesn't require. When I think of a Christ-centered person, most of us naturally think of:

1. Someone who reads their Bible every day.

2. Someone who goes to church each week.

3. Someone who is involved in (perhaps leading) a small group.

4. Someone who gives 10 percent of their income to ministry.

5. Someone who goes on mission trips.

Those five things are good things to be sure, but reflect a limited (and probably legalistic) perspective on Christ-centeredness.

Could a person without access to a copy of the Scriptures in their language be Christ-centered? If so, #1 cannot be criteria for Christ-centerdness.

Could a person in a remote village in Zambia without a church in their village or adequate transportation be Christ-centered? If so, #2 and #5 cannot be criteria.

Could a person in the twelfth century, prior to the small group model of ministry, be Christ-centered? If so, we should not make #3 criteria for Christ-centeredness.

Could a person with zero monthly income be Christ-centered? If they could, we don't want to leave them out. #4 must not be a true criteria for distinguishing Christ-centeredness.

If Christ-centeredness is the goal, and the goal is realistic for all Christians in all places at all times, we might need to re-evaluate what that looks like in light of the Scriptures.

So what do you think? Are there biblical traits within a person we could examine to measure Christ-centeredness? When you think of your own desire to be Christ-centeredness, how do you measure your progress? Are you using a biblical or cultural standard?

Praying for Troops and Enemies

I have a friend whose brother left last month for Afghanistan. A couple of weeks ago he sent me an email talking about some advice he received from our senior pastor with regard to praying for our enemies (Matthew 5:44), and I thought it was advice worth sharing and have changed the brother's name just in case:

I got a chance today to borrow five minutes from my senior pastor and go over something that's been on my heart. I've known for a long time that we're commanded to be praying for our enemies, but that becomes a whole lot more real when your "enemy" isn't a jerk at school but someone who's shooting at your brother. Ken spent much of his 20s in the Air Force, so I knew his answer would come not only from a sound understanding of Scripture but also from practical experience.

He explained that, beneath all the politics and strategy, Tim and his fellow Marines are in Afghanistan to suppress evil, and that God is in the business of defending the defenseless. So we can pray that God would change the hearts of the Taliban fighters or that He would take away their capacity to do evil (for instance, defeat in battle). This is a biblical way of praying for our enemies.

We touched on Nehemiah, too, which is the sermon series we're in, and there's an appropriate parallel - just as the Israelites rebuilding Jerusalem had a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other (Nehemiah 4:17), so does Tim have his camera in one hand and his rifle in the other.

So, in addition to praying that God would protect Tim and his unit and that He'd draw him closer to Himself in this experience, we can also be praying for the Taliban fighters on the other side. Easier said than done, I know, but I know that God does work when we pray, even when we don't fully understand it.

I think that's pretty great advice.

Ripple

I don't know if you heard or not, but Michael Jackson passed away last week.

Oh, you did hear?

Michael Jackson was known all over this planet, so the news coverage for the last 4 days has been non-stop King of Pop. Radio Stations are wearing out their copy of Thriller, and the Jackson Five are getting so much airtime their clothes may come back in style.

But here in about 3 days there will be a funeral and the world will move on. Michael Jackson will be remembered once a year when Barbara Walters does a "Where are they now" interest story on the anniversary of his death to remind us his body is still in the ground.

No disrespect, but Michael Jackson - as wildly popular as he was - will be forgotten.

Most of us cannot moonwalk. We'll never be able to to rock "I Want You Back" like little MJ. But we have the potential to make an impact that will ripple far longer than the King of Pop's.

Scripture is clear that the life lived well before God and his people will be "remembered forever" (Psalm 112:5-6).

The lives we live and investments we make today in what God is doing in the world will echo forever.

That's quite a ripple.

Book Review: Just Do Something

I mentioned this last week, but Kevin DeYoung is fast becoming one of my favorite new authors. He co-authored "Why We're Not Emergent, by Two Guys Who Should Be" and has written a new book called "Just Do Something, a Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will."

I first saw this book written-up by one of my uncle's compadres on Pyromaniacs. It got a glowing review over there, and let's just say those guys don't have a reputation for handing out glowing reviews of anything very often. So, I picked the book up.

If you're familiar with the old standard "Decision Making and the Will of God" by Gary Friesen, you're familiar with the general principles Kevin DeYoung points to in "Just Do Something." Friesen's book is good, but reads a bit more like a textbook. DeYoung's book is not nearly as thorough, but is just as helpful. He writes in a clear, easy style that is brief and to the point, but presents enough information and support to help the reader understand his argument.

In short, "Just Do Something" says this: The Bible talks about "God's Will" in two primary ways: the "decreed will" of God and the "desired will" of God. Those terms are not unique to DeYoung, but are the terms he uses.

The "decreed will" of God is God's ultimate plan for the Universe that cannot change and is not revealed. We cannot get out of the decreed will of God - God will have His way. The "desired will" of God is God's moral plan for His creation that is revealed through Scripture. If we make decisions that have moral implications, we can look directly to Scripture to guide our decision making. I don't have to pray about whether or not to cheat on my wife; God has already made the answer pretty clear.

But most of our decisions are not moral decisions. From the biggest decisions we make (should I marry this person, take this job, move to this city) to the smallest decisions we make (should I wear the orange shirt or the black shirt), most decisions we make every day have no moral implications. Because we want to please God, we often go seeking His directional will in those decisions as well. We wait for a voice to tell us what to do, look for open doors, and lay out proverbial fleeces for God (If she calls tonight I'll know you want me to date her).

DeYoung points out, I think rightly, that God is not a fortune teller or consultant. He has given us a brain for a reason and promises to give us wisdom when we ask (James 1:5). In non-moral decisions we should pray diligently for wisdom, seek wise counsel, seek to honor God in our decision, and make the decision we want to make. God doesn't want us to know the future in every situation; He wants us to move forward with confidence while trusting Him. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He works through our desires to honor Himself (Psalm 37:4).

"Just Do Something" is a great book. I bought several copies for decision-makers in our church, and think I may start giving it as a graduation present as well.

Performance-Based Me

I had a breakfast with a guy this morning that I've been looking forward to for a while now. He and his wife have become some of our really good friends, and have a kiddo who is a few months younger than Casen. He and I are going to start going through some mentoring/discipleship material I've been going through with several guys, and I've been excited about it. He and I come from two very different backgrounds and I think we will really be able to help each other stretch and grow.

This morning, though, I felt like I was really scattered. I've got a lot going on right now and haven't been sleeping well. Add that to the fact that we met at 6am, and you understand that my mind felt like oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. He had some really great questions that I could have answered so much more articulately than I did. Instead I handled them about as awkwardly as a drunk blind nun trying to hit a curve ball.

It's easy for opportunities like that to get me down. I put pressure on myself that says if I'm not at my best, God can't work. If I don't "perform" well, God can't use me.

I have a routine on days that start like today: When performance-based me shows up, I sit down and re-read 1 Corinthians 4 and 2 Corinthians 4.

God doesn't need me to perform in order for Him to work. God is not sitting in heaven wringing His hands over my incoherent rambling this morning. He lets me be faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2), and uses my fragile intellect, emotions, words, and answers to demonstrate that the "power is of God, and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). God will judge success according to a more vast timetable than my limited view, so I don't need to beat myself up for it before the time (1 Corinthians 4:5). I just keep on being as faithful as I can be, and trust in a sovereign, all-powerful God who can make sense out of botched opportunities.

Jon and Kate

Kari and I haven't ever watched "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" but last night as I was forcing my wife to watch college baseball, I started seeing all my friends' facebook statuses talking about the show. We flipped over to the show and watched about 3/4 of the episode yesterday evening - enough that I didn't sleep most of the night.

I don't know why it bothered me so much. As a pastor, I have conversations with couples on a way-too-regular basis who are contemplating divorce. But to hear a couple sit on national television and justify their selfishness so boldly while eight beautiful children played in the background really messed me up.

It is not "best for your children" to leave their mother unless there is some kind of abuse involved. Period. The fact that Mom and Dad are fighting does not mean you have to get divorced for the sake of your children; it means you need to suck it up and figure out how to get along like adults.

Instead of doing what's best for their kids, Jon and Kate are showing their eight children that you don't have to solve disagreements - you just have to walk away. You don't have to keep your promises to people - just walk away when they're too hard to keep. They are teaching their kids that "Mom" and "Dad" are titles, not roles, and that love is a feeling, not a commitment.

Jon and Kate are making a selfish, egocentric, immature decision that seems best for them in the moment. But in doing so they are demonstrating a model of marriage that will negatively impact eight children for the rest of those kids' lives. My heart breaks for their marriage, and for those sweet innocent lives that will carry baggage they didn't choose for the rest of their lives.

Different/Same

Sometimes I am a little slow on the uptake. I'm just now getting around to listening to some of the sermons from the Resurgence Conference 2006. Actually, in 2006 that conference wasn't even on my radar. But one of my friends recently sent me a link to a couple of messages from that year and I listened to one while I mowed the yard yesterday.

The message was titled "Being the Church in Our Culture," by Tim Keller. If you've got an hour in the car or at the gym, it's absolutely worth a listen.

Among other things, Keller talks about how the challenge of the Christian life is to be radically different from the world while being radically the same.

The idea he comes up with is this: people need to be able to look at our lives and picture how they might look if they were Christians. If we don't inhabit the same world, think about the same things or fight some of the same battles as unbelievers, our witness is lost. On the other hand, if our lives are not radically different from theirs, they have no perceived need to turn to Christ.

Keller bases his sermon on an eschatology (theology of where everything is headed in the future) which is different from mine, but you can get to the same conclusions from a different starting point. I really love the things he says in this message and think it's worth checking out.

Safety

We're sending out two mission teams of young adults from McKinney today. One team is going to Florence, Italy to conduct a Vacation Bible School alongside a church plant there. The other team is going to Zambia to do a Vacation Bible School with an AIDS orphanage as well as some medical work alongside a hospital there. Join me in praying for both teams over the next 10 days.

I recently read something that has changed the way I am praying for these teams. I'll review "Just Do Something" at some point in the future, but Kevin DeYoung has quickly become one of my favorite new authors. In his book he writes, "... most of our prayers fall into one of two categories. Either we ask that everything will be fine or we ask to know that everything will be fine. We pray for health, travel, jobs - and we should pray for these things. But a lot of prayers boil down to, "God, don't let anything unpleasant happen to anyone. Make the world nice for everyone..."

DeYoung goes on to show that those are cowardly prayers. God's will for our life is not for us to be safe - it's that we are available to be used, trusting Him with the outcome. Such a realization sets us up to take wise risks.

Pray for teams Italy and Zambia teams. Pray for their safety and for provision, but ultimately, pray that God will use them.

Free or Costly?

Random thought today:

I think the perception that people like free stuff is a false perception.

People equate cost with value. If something is free, many people perceive it as having little value.

My experience is that people want expensive things... they just don't want to have to pay for them.

Case in point: A few weeks ago we gave away some CDs from SEARCH Ministries called "The Search for Meaning." They're great CDs answering 12 apologetic questions that stand in the way of a person trusting Christ. We offered them "free" to a couple of thousand people and gave away less than fifty.

Instead of offering them "free," if we had made an announcement that a generous donor had paid for these CDs so that each person in the auditorium could have a copy of this CD, I guarantee we would have given away 500.

People don't want free things. They want costly things that don't cost them anything.

Providing and Caring

Last week, our staff spent some time at Union Gospel Mission here in Fort Worth. From time to time we take staff field trips to local ministry organizations with whom we partner. It helps us stay connected with them, encourages them, and gives us good ideas of new ways to partner with each organization.

Something that hit me during our time at UGM: There is a difference between providing for people and caring for people. Providing is product-oriented. Caring is people-oriented.

Many parachurch organizations and churches are providers of goods and services. Sometimes those products are tangible (food, diapers, clothes), and sometimes they are intangible (marriage help, parenting advice, Bible knowledge). We come up with programs and products to offer the people we serve. They partake of the product and come back when they "run out."

A caring organization makes the starting point the people. It doesn't stop providing once the initial felt need is met but continues searching for ways to serve and love people beyond even what they realize they need.

Many homeless shelters are providers. Union Gospel Mission cares for the homeless. Here's an example: Most homeless shelters provide a hot meal and place to sleep for the homeless; a significant thing. But when a homeless person comes to Union Gospel Mission for the night they are given clean scrubs to wear and their street clothes are checked. While they sleep, their clothes are laundered and folded s0 that they leave the next morning wearing clean clothes.

Union Gospel Mission has taken the step beyond just providing; they're caring for people. By making people the starting point moving beyond just the felt need, Union Gospel Mission is seeing amazing fruit in sharing the Gospel.

Why? They're living it out. Jesus' death and resurrection was not just provision. He saw and met a need we hadn't even begun to think of yet (Romans 5:8).

Prodigal

I mentioned last week that I taught Luke 15:25-32 as a part of our 4-week Eikon worship time. When we think about the story of the "Prodigal Son," we normally think the moral of the story is, "Don't be bad; but if you are, God will take you back."

Today, there is a trend of churches who are focused on people like the younger son. Most of the newer books I read, blogs I read, and "cutting edge" churches I follow are seeking the wayward son. Their mission statements talk about turning "irreligious people into passionate followers of Christ."

Many of those churches, pastors, and books are making a significant contribution to the Church as a whole. They stretch our categories and force us to think more clearly about what is really important. But they aren't complete. They only address one of the brothers.

I'm increasingly convinced that we need more churches devoted to turning "religious people into passionate followers of Christ."

Fort Worth, Texas is not known for its party scene. This isn't the place prodigal high schoolers line up to visit on Spring Break. By and large, Fort Worth is a place full of socially conservative, moral, middle-class, religious, lost people who show up to church every Sunday. Most of my conversations are not with people who have knowingly squandered everything they had on a licentious lifestyle; they are with people who have a robust 401k, responsible job, good looking family, and no relationship with Christ. I have to convince people they're separated from the Father before they can ever be found - you can't be found if you don't know you're lost.

It's important to provide a place for younger brothers out there, but also important to remember that the Father cares for both of his sons.

Green

Over the past year or so, the elders at McKinney Church have been thinking a bit more intentionally from an environmentally friendly standpoint about some of the products we use throughout the week. About a year ago we began switching out a majority of the lights to a lower wattage bulb. Somewhere around 90 percent of the cleaning chemicals we use are currently "green." Last month we switched to a line of restroom soap that is certified "green." And at their last meeting our elders decided to begin purchasing compostable table goods which will mean doing away with our Styrofoam coffee cups for Sundays.

I've done some reading about the "Global Warming" crisis and personally think it's a bunch of malarkey. But I still think it's a really important decision for our church to make for two reasons:

First, many people, especially those in my age demographic are absolutely convinced that our poor habits are affecting the climate of the earth. Those people come into our church, see us as a part of the problem and walk back out the door. We've put a potential stumbling block between them and Christ, and Styrofoam cups are not worth that. Read Romans 14:20 and substitute the words "Styrofoam cups" for "meat," and you get the picture.

Second, the fact that I believe man-made climate change is a myth does not give us the prerogative to be irresponsible. We are stewards of Creation. If we know (and we do) that certain chemicals and products are pollutants, and we have the ability to make more environmentally friendly choices while staying financially responsible, why would we not? Going "green" doesn't mean buying the whole environmental agenda lock, stock, and barrel. Sometimes it just means being responsible.

Uggh Part 2

Yesterday I referenced Geoff Surratt's open letter to pastors regarding the temptation of sexual sin. I know way too many guys personally who have fallen in this area, and am absolutely determined not to be one of them. While I have a keen sense that the heart (including my own) is deceitful above all things and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9), I feel confident you'll never read my name in the newspaper so long as I continue the following practices:

1. I am never alone in a privately with a woman who is not my wife. Not in a car, not in a house, not in an apartment, not at a park or a hotel or any other place where people are not around. Never after hours at the church office. Never before hours at the church office. If you keep this rule alone, you're in good shape. Most people don't have sex in public places, especially with people who aren't their spouse.

2. I am never alone in public with a woman who is not my wife. I don't have lunch appointments with women alone. That's stupid. I don't run errands with a woman who is not my wife. Forget the temptation; I don't need the perception.

3. I over-communicate any perceived exceptions with my spouse and boss. Don't get me wrong, there are no exceptions to the above rules. However, twice in my ministry I have shown up early for appointments with multiple women to find that all but one were running late. In both cases, I put my stuff down, excused myself from the table, walked outside and called my wife and boss to let them know the situation. I don't have to have an affair to ruin my marriage and ministry; I just have to be accused of having an affair to chisel away at the trust of my wife and boss. They need to know about any perceived exceptions to the above so that they don't ever have to worry.

4. Someone knows where I am at all times. I never "sneak away" during the day. My administrative assistant, or someone at the office always knows where I am going and with whom. Though I may simply announce "I'm off to lunch" to most people, at least one person in the office always knows where I am going and with whom. If I am working somewhere other than my office, someone knows. Yeah, it's a pain. But it doesn't touch the pain Gary Lamb's family is feeling right now.

5. I have tough friends. I don't ever get offended by people asking me if I am being faithful to my wife. I don't ever get offended by friends who ask me the tough questions about what I'm thinking or doing. I've got a couple of friends both inside and outside my church who know me well enough to know when I'm lying, and don't shy away from the tough questions. If you don't have friends who know you well enough to know when you are lying, you need to find those people and teach them how to tell when you aren't being honest. Poker players say "everyone has a tell." You do too, and you need friends who can spot it.

Again, don't get me wrong. I'm a guy, and I'm susceptible to temptation. I'm not immune. But I also love my wife. More importantly, I love Jesus and don't want to do anything that would cause people to think I can't be trusted in anything including what I've said about Him. The above 5 steps haven't made me invincible; they've just put enough guard rails up to keep me from "falling" into sin. If I go there, I'm going to have to walk there willingly or jump; I've tried to make it impossible to "fall."

Uggh

Sunday was a really special day at McKinney Church. I'll post more about it at some point in the future, but we had a surprise celebration for our senior pastor and his family who are celebrating their 25th year of ministry at McKinney.

Part of the surprise was that Jon Sherman, a former McKinney staffer and current senior pastor of Trinity Bible Church in Willow Park, TX continued our sermon in Nehemiah 3 instead of me. He did a phenomenal job of preaching from the Scriptures while honoring Ken.

Sherman illustrated one of his points about integrity by recalling a conversation he had with an older lady at McKinney many years ago. She said, "One of the things I love most about our pastor is that I have never once had to worry that I would open the newspaper and see his picture on the front page."

I'm not sure I can think of a better compliment for a pastor.

This morning Geoff Surratt has an open letter to pastors posted on his blog. This past Sunday a fairly popular pastor in the blogging world resigned from his church because of an inappropriate relationship with his administrative assistant. Gary Lamb was the pastor of Revolution Church in Canton, GA.

Obviously we should be in prayer for the Lamb family and for the family of the administrative assistant he names in his letter of resignation. And we should be on our guard lest we think we stand and fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). But dang it, if you're in a position of spiritual leadership and are not following Geoff's advice you are a fool.

I read back through Gary's blog entries over the past 6 weeks of his affair just to see if there were any clues. The duplicitous life it reveals made me nauseous. He brags on his wife, brags on his administrative assistant, and talks about his kids. How could he?

Pastors, the stakes are too high for a moment of indiscretion. The task is too great for a even a second of lost focus. And the future is too bright to risk it on a few minutes of pleasure. Nothing is worth that. You need to take steps in your life to make it virtually impossible for you to go down that road. Geoff has some great advice. I'll try to elaborate on a couple of steps I think are important tomorrow.

Meanwhile, what steps have you taken to make sure this doesn't happen to you? What have you noticed your pastor doing to protect himself in this area?

The Prodigal God

I've been on something of a dry spell recently as far as great books are concerned. I've read a couple of decent books and several bad books but haven't read many great books worth writing about.

Last week I got the opportunity to teach the Young Singles at our church on Luke 15:25-32. As a part of my study I read "The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller.

Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and seems to be something of a mentor to the New Reformed Movement of younger pastors. I've only recently become acquainted with him, but love virtually everything I've heard and read.

The Prodigal God is an exposition of Jesus' parable in Luke 15:11-32. I grew up thinking of this parable as the parable of the "Prodigal Son," in which a son goes out, squanders his inheritance, eats with the pigs, comes to his senses, and is embraced by a loving father. The moral of the story was always "don't be bad, but if you are, God is willing to take you back with open arms."

Keller points out that the story is actually about two sons. The older son is as separated from the father - as lost as the younger son even though the older son never left home. We just don't think about the older son because most of us resemble him too closely.

This book will take you an afternoon to read, and it will be the best afternoon of your week. Pick it up, and then comment after you've read it to let me know what you thought.

Studies and Devotion

If I really wanted to develop a "readership" of this blog, I would spend time thinking through a specific audience and only write entries that applied to that specific group of people. But because I don't care a great deal who (if anyone) reads my blog I tend to write about whatever is on my mind - and from time to time what I write won't appeal or apply to you. For those of you who aren't seminary students or pastors, today is going to be one of those days. 

Sorry. 

I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with a friend's son who is going to Dallas Seminary this fall. He asked some advice about professors and classes and had some general questions about seminary life. One of the questions he asked is one that relates to advice I hear from pastors and professors all the time. He asked, "How do you keep your 'quiet time' separate from your studies?"

Lots of people advise pastors and seminary students to have a time of personal devotion which is entirely separate from their Bible study time as it relates to a class or a sermon. 

I think that's a bunch of hooey. 

I'll go a step further: I think it's extremely dangerous advice. 

If you treat your sermon study or seminary study as an academic exercise which is separate from your worship and devotional life, you are treading dangerous ground. In fact, a lot of pastors and seminary students lose their faith at some point in their studies or ministries because they forget that God is a God who should be worshiped, not just studied. If we ever approach Scripture without a heart of worship and devotion or without a desire toward obedience, we miss the point of Scripture altogether.

All Bible study should draw us closer to God. It should all be an act of devotion and worship whether you are reading it for the sheer enjoyment of being with God or to better understand a specific branch of theological thought. 

If pastors and seminary students want to set apart a time of reading Scripture for personal enjoyment apart from the need presented by an upcoming paper deadline or Sunday morning sermon, so be it. But let that be in addition to the time of personal devotion they enjoy while writing the paper or sermon. Academics and worship should never be separated. 

Book Review: Leadership and Self-Deception

Leadership and Self-Deception is written by The Arbinger Institute, a group of scholars and philosophers that are working to bring positive change to the ways leaders lead. This book is written like a fictional story about a man named Tom who starts work at a new organization. Part of the training ritual at the new company includes a day-long meeting with the executive vice-president where the vice-president explains some of the things that make the company distinctive, and helps the new employee discover things within himself which might be holding him back as a leader.

The thesis of "Leadership and Self-Deception" is that all leaders are held back from leading well in their families, workplaces and in other arenas by self-deception. Self-deception begins when the leader behaves in a way contrary to what he feels he should do for another person. That act of self-betrayal begins a cycle that skews the leader's perspective in such a way that justifies his self-betrayal to the point that he needs others to under-perform so that his feelings of self-betrayal can be justified. In that way, we live life in a box of self-deception that severely limits our capacity to lead.

The powerful thing about self-deception is that it does not limit itself to the workplace. Self-deceived leaders in the workplace are self-deceived with their spouses and children, and vice-versa. In fact, sometimes our distortions of reality become so commonplace for us we have a hard time recognizing reality anymore. Since people always know how you truly feel about them, self-deception can absolutely crater a leader's ability to lead people.

"Leadership and Self-Deception" is profound. It is an easy read that teaches a hard lesson. Yet I'm not sure I remember ever reading a leadership book with the capacity to make me a better leader to the degree of this book. If you are a leader in your business, church, home, or in another organization, this book needs to be on your "Must Read" list.

Music or Preaching?

I'm currently reading Al Mohler's new book on preaching called "He is Not Silent." I'll do a review later on, because I think I am going to really like the book. Dr. Mohler is the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. I have followed his blog for a while and respect him a great deal, but want to push back on something he says early in the book. 

Here is Dr. Mohler's quote, talking about authentic worship within the Church: "Music is one of God's most precious gifts to His people, and it is a language by which we may worship God in spirit and in truth... But music is not the central act of Christian worship - nor is evangelism, nor even the ordinances. The heart of Christian worship is the authentic preaching of the Word of God."  

Dr. Mohler is reacting to the millions of dollars which are spent on music ministries within churches. He laments the fact that music now provides the energy and excitement in worship services, and insinuates that the American Church has over-valued worship music over and against the preaching of the word. 

I absolutely agree with Dr. Mohler that many churches have lopsided priorities when it comes to their worship services. I whole-heartedly agree that many churches have music ministries and philosophies of worship which distract from the Gospel. But the problem is not that people have over-valued worship music; it is that we have under-valued it and set it against preaching. 

When we see music as the warm up act to the preacher, we distort its value as much as we do when we depend on music for all the energy and excitement in the worship service. Paul holds up music as a part of the teaching ministry of the church (Colossians 3:16-18). It should not be set against preaching, it should go hand-in-hand. Both are vital.

If music is simply a way to connect with God in our worship services or the opening act for the preacher, we miss its power. We also grease the slippery slope into songs which are written and/or chosen for reasons other than their theology and glorification of Christ.  

The teaching of the Word of God is the heart of Christian worship. Preaching and music (as well as the ordinances) fall under that umbrella as avenues through which the Word of God can be taught and applied in the lives of Christ-centered people.