A Great Lesson for Pastors

Others May; You Cannot
by George D. Watson

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.

So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.

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"Merry Christmas" is for Christians

I've read and heard a lot about the debate over "Merry Christmas" in businesses, companies, etc. and decided to add my two cents to the conversation. I see the point of most of the sides of this argument, so I'll try to address each.

I agree that the loss of "Merry Christmas" shows the further secularization of America and I don't like that. The question we must ask, though, is "Is this a battle worth fighting?" Is it one we can win? Is it one we need to worry about winning? I'm not taking a defeatist stance and saying we can't stop the tide, so don't try. (Though we can't stop the tide. Read Revelation.) What I am saying is we may need to re-evaluate where we are using our resources. Ed Stetzer said it well that we should be more worried about telling people about Jesus rather than making them say Merry Christmas.

Another point about this battle is that it doesn't affect our evangelism. How many people will have their eternity affected negatively if Lowe's sells holiday trees instead of Christmas trees? There are definite battles that do have implications on people's salvation: evolution, abortion, redefining marriage. These are issues that are gospel-centered. What greeting we use at Christmas is not. We must focus on what gets people saved (or hinders salvation, morality, etc.), not what just ruffles our feathers.

Besides, can we truly expect secular organizations, often led by people indifferent to the theological reason for Christmas, to focus on the spiritual impact of the season? We can't. We scoff at people that obviously "say the right things" (hallelujah, praise God, etc.) in church or around pastors when we know good and well that they have no concept of salvation through Jesus Christ. They are merely going through motions and we don't approve. So why should we demand it of businesses that are merely going through motions so as to not lose money from boycotting Christians?

I daresay we are, in a sense, asking them to take God's name in vain, using the original meaning of the commandment. They are taking the name of Jesus (Christ-mas) in a way that is purely meant to positively affect their bottom line. Wouldn't that fall into the definition of taking God's name in vain (no purpose other than personal benefit)?

Let them say "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings." As Christians worshipping the Savior whose birth we celebrate, we'll say "Merry Christmas." And smile when you do it. Until there is a law that says we can't. When that day comes, we have bigger issues than our favorite Christmas greeting.

Fasting Still Works!!

Now, I'm not saying that when we fast we have tricked God into giving us what we want. What I am saying is that because we are attuned to God, we are more likely praying in His will. When that happens, the Bible says God will give those things to us (1 John 5:14-15). So I'm finding that my fasting has resulted in prayer more focused on Him--not me and my wants--and this has led to many answered prayers.

What if we all took a day here or there to fast and pray? I think we would see some incredible things happen in the church.

A Ritual Obliged

I now understand how a great spiritual discipline can become an empty chore or worse, an afterthought.

I am still committed to my Lenten fast from Coke and to my one day a week fast from food. But they quickly lost their status as spiritual encouragers and became just another thing I had to do. Within two weeks, it had become an empty tradition, as Jesus called it.

If it can happen in two weeks, what becomes of a lifetime of going to church every Sunday and Wednesday? What becomes of reading your Bible and praying everyday? As I examine these things, I find that most days they blend into the cluttered backdrop of other check marks on my to-do list.

We have to fight (Paul said in the same way that we buffet our bodies) to make sure that our spiritual disciplines remain spiritual. Church isn't just a social gathering or business meeting, prayer isn't a soliloquy, Bible reading isn't a sedative to help us sleep, and fasting isn't a diet plan. These are opportunities to fine-tune our heart strings to our Composer, Concert Master, and Conductor.

As I renew (daily) my commitment, renew with me (daily) your commitment to the spiritual disciplines God has set before us.

A Fast Observed

Though I am not usually a participant in Lent, this year, due to the gravity of the spiritual war we are in while planting Hope Fellowship, I decided it would be a good idea to observe the spiritual discipline of fasting. I'm running a couple of fasts for Lent: I have sworn off Coke (I'm a two-a-day type) and I have chosen a day each week to fast from food. The day I've chosen isn't important--I don't want to appear to be fishing for praise from men and thus have my reward.

The Coke thing is hard: I have refrigerator full of them in my classroom and a refrigerator full of them at work at Domino's. The fasting from food for a day was difficult, but not as hard as the Cokes--I knew food was just hours away.

So what did I learn?

I'm not doing it for holiness, per se, or as a rote Christian requirement. The desire for those things I've given up are used as a stimulus to pray for and about our church plant.

And let me tell you, it works.

As if planting a church isn't on my mind enough, it is a constant burden while fasting. But it was an easy yoke. I knew throughout the experience that I was communing with God. My awareness of Him was heightened--not in any mystical, go-out-in-the-desert way--but in a way that had my entire day focused on Him. Through my hunger I found joy and assurance that He was in control, aware of everything we need as a family and church plant, and has every intention of fulfilling those needs in His good time and by His good methods. Incredible is a good word for the experience.

And the kicker? Less than a day after my first full fast, multiple prayers were answered.

Should it surprise anyone that God's ways, taught through His word, work?

Sometimes, I'm afraid, we are surprised. But it sure is an awesome surprise.

Ahhh, deja vu...

Remember the feeling after church camp? You were excited, you were pumped, you were storming Hell with a water pistol, and you promised to God and everybody that you were going to take your Bible to school with you that fall. You came back Saturday, slept all day, then had a service at church on Sunday to remember, relive, and reinvigorate.

Then Monday came.

You still had chores, you still got in trouble with parents, and you realized that you weren't really looking forward to the impending arrival of school. Maybe you had a job to go back to. Somehow, the Jesus high got lost in flipping burgers or cleaning up after someone else's brat kid.

I just had the pleasure of reliving that experience.

When we learned last week that we were approved for Fall Creek Elementary for our services, I was pumped. When we had a meeting of our LAUNCH Team Saturday night, I was excited. Sunday came and I was able to tell people what was happening and that things were speeding forward.

Then Monday came.

I still had to work, I still had troubles with people, and I had no clue how all these wonderful plans were going to work out. Somehow, the church planting high got lost in delivering pizzas and teaching someone else's brat kids.

But here's what I know:

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear nothing, for You are with me." Psalm 23:4

This is no shadow of death!! These are everyday struggles. There are some tense moments of stress, some problems to be worked out, and some logistics to puzzle through, but this ain't staring death in the face.

Therefore, we push forward, resting in the assurance of the green pastures of God's provision. If he's got my back when death comes messing around, then I know He's got me with something as mundane as living. We simply wait on him to provide.

Even when reality dashes our white-hot excitement with a frigid bucket of blah.

Full disclosure

I am so completely stressed right now. As a matter of fact, in the three years that Etta and I have known of our call by God to plant a church, I have not felt more pressure or stress about it. I'm sure there will be equally difficult, if not more so, places in the church planting travelogue, but this one is kicking my tail right now.

We finally have a location and a start date. But that just exacerbates the other uncertainties: where will the money come from to complete the tasks we need to, people to fulfill all the roles, how can I work 65 hours a week and still plant a church, etc.

God has been incredibly faithful for these three years, both in our home life and church planting life. I am supremely confident that He will continue to guide and direct it all. But some days it gets hard. Real hard.

"Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!"

Reality Check

We have it easy. I heard today from Dmitry Zborsky, a Russian church-planter that was given a one-way train ticket to the town in which he was to minister. No convention support. No sponsoring church. No job. No place to live. Just a mission. (read his story) We have it easy. We have nothing on any missionary sent to a foreign country (Hey Tim and Mary). We have nothing on _____________ (pick a person) from the Bible. We have it easy. Sometimes my emails and posts sound as if we are being dragged backwards through barbed-wire, but the reality is that we have it easy.

Don’t forget, in all my whining, to pray for those people that really have it hard. Thanks Dmitry.

Cowards need miracles; those with faith don't.

Luke 8:22 One day He and His disciples got into a boat, and He told them, "Let's cross over to the other side of the lake." So they set out, 23 and as they were sailing He fell asleep. Then a fierce windstorm came down on the lake; they were being swamped and were in danger. 24 They came and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to die!" Then He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, "Where is your faith?" They were fearful and amazed, asking one another, "Who can this be? He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey Him!"

I know my title seems harsh, but I like controversy. And so you know, this blog is in response to me thinking about health-and-wealth, name-it-and-claim-it, word-faith preachers. And I refuse to qualify my title before I make my point.

When did Jesus perform the miracle? When they said they knew He could calm the storm? No. When they said, "Jesus, we believe"? No. It was when they woke Him up because of their lack of faith. They had no faith that He could fix it. It was simply the fact that misery loved company. They were upset that Jesus could sleep through their apparent death. When they woke Him up, He didn't tell them they had done the faithful thing by waking Him, He told them they had no faith. Faith did not bring about the miracle.

Where then would their faith have been found? In their trust that they would get to the other side regardless of the storms. Faith is found not, necessarily, in the miracle that gets us out of the jam, but in the perseverance that gets us through it.

Now, the qualification. Should we not pray for miracles? Sure we should. But we are not to depend on miracles, we are to depend on sustaining grace. We should pray for the faith to make it through, not just for the quick-fix that ends the problem.

If you are going through a struggle, pray for God to deliver you. But more so, pray for the faith to see you through the situation.

What's your testimony?

And still we learn.

We still wonder sometimes (read: most of the time) why God seems to be stretching out the church planting timetable until we are ready to break. And then He does something to let us know why.

Etta, except for a few college years in Arkadelphia, had never been just a church member. She had always been part of a staff family, even after we married. I started in the ministry when I was 20 but was not real knowledgeable of church goings-on prior to that. So, for both of our most vivid memory banks, we had been on the inside of decision making and saw all the behind-the-scenes activity that translated into church decisions. That all changed when we joined the church we attend. Now, though we occasionally hear some reasoning for decisions, for the most part, we are as in the dark as everyone else.

Then there is the whole “upset church member” thing. As part of the staff, as long as it wasn’t immoral or unbiblical, I supported the decisions of the pastor/staff and I never had to blow the whistle on immorality. I saw what was done and why and said, along with the rest of the staff, that it was what was best and folks could go along or get along.

But now, we understand how that feels to a church member:
We now know what it’s like to hear a result of an event spun to fit a particular mold or expectation.
We know what it’s like to have staff members fired (or asked to leave or given an untenable choice or whatever) and miss them and think they should still be here.
We know what it’s like to not be happy with a particular part of the church but love enough parts of it not to leave.
We know what it’s like to sit in the congregation some Sundays and be so prepared to hear from God that every word of the pastor is directed right at us.
We know what it’s like to sit in the congregation and be so blasé that it seems the pastor is mumbling in Swahili for all the effect it is having on us.
We know what it’s like for the actions of one or two to ruin the entire worship experience for us.

In short, we know what it is to be church members. Thank you, Lord, for the lesson. I pray it makes us better ministers when the time comes to lead a congregation. I’m afraid so many of today's ministers started when they were 20, never sat as an active member of a church (only as an air-headed teenager), and then have attempted to lead congregations with no real knowledge of how their actions effect the people in the pews.

I pray that other ministers, along with me, can admit that still God teaches and, I pray, still we learn.

Thanks

At this time of Thanksgiving, allow me to show thanks both to God and to you. I am thankful that God has brought us to this incredible experience of planting His church (more of this in a later post). I am also thankful to God for you, our wonderful friends and family. Thank you for your unceasing prayers as we seek to follow God every step through this experience. Thank you also to those of you who continue to support Summerlake financially. You all are laying the foundation for what we pray will be a God-worshipping, Jesus-sharing, kingdom-building community of faith. Thank you so much.

The Culture Has to Change!!

And, no, I'm not talking about the culture of America, though that could definitely use an overhaul. I'm talking about the culture of The Church. First, the background.

I have a friend--I'll call him Chris--who has been at a particular church for four years: 2 1/2 years as a very involved lay-person, and 1 1/2 years as the youth minister. Over the past 3-4 months he has been praying about, and discussing with me, his feeling that God was calling him from that church. On July 31st he gave his pastor his letter of resignation. He would finish out the month of August, his ministry culminating with a Back-to-School bash he had planned with another local youth minister. He he would be able to break the news gradually to his youth group and allow for a time of grieving and a warm send-off. This would also give the pastor plenty of time to begin looking for a new youth minister. This was very gracious of Chris, and was more than most people would have done in most secular situations.

Unfortunately, the pastor was not as gracious, nor did he have the same heart to allow the process to unfold. He told Chris on Wednesday afternoon, August 1st, that that evening would be his last at the church. Chris had not yet even told his children, who are youth, and he was being forced to tell the youth group that he was leaving immediately. When he protested that he was not prepared to do it that way, the pastor told him that was "the way it was done. It is good business to end it immediately."

Bull! That may be the way it is done sometimes (it was done that way to us), but it is not the way it should be done. THE CHURCH IS NOT A BUSINESS!!! Was that loud enough? It's time for these executive, CEO pastors to understand that the church does not work like the world. The church is supposed to be different. The church is supposed to set the example, not follow it. The church (read: CEO pastor) should not fire a minister with no warning, no chance to change, no severance, and no concern. The church (read: CEO pastor) should not fire a minister that has resigned with graciousness and character the day after he submits his resignation letter.

The church is a place of love, truth, forgiveness, and grace. For lay people and staff. That can never be forgotten, though it appears many have. I'm not saying anything goes, that there are no reasons to fire someone; but it can always be done with grace. I know of staff members fired for moral reasons, but they were still given severance and opportunities for counseling and help. That is the love of Jesus. Kicking people to the curb or throwing them away when they have served their "perceived" usefulness is not the love of Jesus.

The culture has to change and it begins with those of us who have had it done to us. We must change the culture by first making sure the culture of the churches we pastor is different. We then change the culture by taking every opportunity to tell CEO pastors, who we know are doing things the world's way, how ungodly that way is.

Jesus said that the world will know we are His by the love that we have for each other. When the world hears of the wretched way pastors (and committees, for that matter) are treating staff, they don't see Jesus, they don't see love, and many of them wonder if we are His to begin with.

I must say, I don't see Jesus or love in it either. And sometimes I wonder too.

Wow!! Be Amazed!!

I have just discovered the most amazing thing. Are you sitting down? Get ready...

Prayer and Bible reading make the day go better!

I know, you're as blown away as I am. Maybe I should write a book. I'm sure there are many people that need to know this.

Obviously, I hope, you realize this is a bit tongue-in-cheek. But only a bit. What is truly amazing is how easily we forget the power of God's Word and prayer in our lives. This is not really a new discovery for me, but it was something I was reminded of recently.

As I've written before, I'm not the greatest at expressing my hurt or frustration with people or God. While this past incident wasn't a direct result of that, it had some basis in it. Primarily, it had to do with not believing I had enough time to pray and read as I should. But (and this is no surprise to anyone) the lack of prayer and reading led to frustration and fear. Shocker!!

I was worried that we had missed the call. I don't have the personality to plant a church. We don't have the necessary resources. We live in the wrong place. I don't have time working two jobs now and that won't change when I start teaching middle school. We don't know enough people. A church called that was interested in me as their pastor. It's time to give up and go to an established church and forget about this church planting thing, at least for now. It's just too dang hard and requires too many freakin' sacrifices. I'm tired. I'm not qualified. I can't do it.

Woo-hoo!! Go, pity-party!!!

So I decided to go back to what had gotten me through these feelings before: Bible reading and real, earnest, just-me-and-God, not driving-down-the-road, prayer.

And you know how many questions got answered? Zero. But that's okay. What I did get was peace. I did get a couple of small confirmations on the call but mostly, I just got peace. I read 2 Thessalonians, Psalm 61-65, Proverbs 13, and Galatians. No answers on how we are to plant this church, no vision of a house in Summerwood that would soon be ours, no call to an established church. Just peace.

Isn't God great? We go to Him wanting answers. "We need answers God!!" we yell. And He gives us peace. You can almost here Him say "Ssshhhhh. No, you don't need answers. You just need Me." And, lo and behold, He's right. All we need is Him.

So, maybe this is all elementary for you, but if not, try it. Go to God for answers. Yell, cry and throw things. Tell Him your hurts and needs. Then, remember to tell Him how great He is. And when He doesn't give you every answer to every problem, or any answer to any problem, but gives you peace instead, be amazed with me at how that peace calms you better than the answers would.

Science Discovers Sin-Nature!!

At least that should have been the headline. Go here to read the article. The gist of it is that babies fake cries, among other things, from six months old, in order to get what they want. They deceive. Well, duh. Ask any mother and she could have told you that. Postmodernism tells us that man is inherently good and then is corrupted. (That's why we are apalled at the Virginia Tech shootings. There must be something wrong with him.) The truth is, man is inherently sinful (and that sinfulness can easily slide into the most egregious of depravities) and that can only change through Jesus. And science now seems to finally admit to the first point.

Now, understand that the article took no theological look at the implications of the findings. But, the fact is, we are born into sin.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Just like green eyes and brown hair, sin is a part of our make-up and has been passed from the first father, Adam. We are born with it. And it starts at the earliest possible age. Also, if you think about it, every one of us was with Adam the day he sinned. What we needed in order to exist was contained within his procreative package. We were not a conscious part of the sin (duh) but were there to experience it. Therefore, we actually participated in it and became sinners. AND, that nature was then passed on to us. So, we are born (and pre-birth) sinners.

For some, this may beg the question of the death of an infant and "the age of accountability." Millard Erickson covers this well in his Systematic Theology. I'll paraphrase his explanation.

We are born with both the propensity to sin and the guilt of that sin. However, the ultimate punishment for the sin (eternal separation from God) is not carried out until we "accept or approve of our corrupt nature." We become condemned sinners once we can understand we are sinners...and like it. Prior to that moment, we have not--and are unable to--acknowledge our sinful nature any more than we are able to accept and acknowledge Christ as Savior at that age. So, the death of a child, while a devastating time, is not a time to worry for her eternity. A couple of scriptures help us here.

2 Samuel 12:23 "But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

David was confident that he would see his dead child again one day. Then later, Jesus said something that allows us to assume children who have died go to heaven.

Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

This would be an odd statement to make if all children who died went to hell. We can safely say that a child, not old enough to choose Christ or sin, is chosen by Christ.

To put the entire post more succinctly, sin is as much a choice as salvation. The problem is, our nature is to choose sin and we must fight against our nature to choose Christ.

Faith is ugly...grace is beautiful.

There is nothing pretty about trusting when things are not going according to our plan. It's not fun, it routinely hurts, and it can often be fraught with disappointment. That's faith for you: ugly.

I'm afraid we have a glamorous view of faith (thank you Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Joel Osteen, et al). We tend to think if we can verbalize it God will materialize it. I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. We may want healing or deliverance or wealth but it may not come the way we think it should. We may want the path that we know God has set before us to be smooth and non-threatening, but life isn't made up of such.

If we think otherwise, we must conclude that the Apostle Paul had no faith. Shipwrecked, beaten, left for dead, maligned, ridiculed, and ultimately, tradition tells us, beheaded at the behest of Nero. What a faithless idiot! All he had to do was name it and claim it and God would have made him a wealthy success with his own internationally famous ministry tour, a private boat, no health problems, and mass conversions at the mere sound of his voice. He just didn't know what he was doing. He should have consulted Benny or Jesse.

Or maybe, just maybe, Paul knew something we need to learn: that faith is ugly and grace is beautiful. There are no clear-cut answers to faith. Yes, some are healed by faith. Some find their paths smooth. Some have successful ministries. But some, with equal or stronger faith, don't. Are we to assume Jeremiah had no faith either? When was the last time we saw Benny weeping that no one was responding to his message? To hear him tell it, he never fails. And Benny hasn't gotten his own book in the Bible.

The point is, faith is not clear cut. We have faith that God will see us through. Paul had it. Jeremiah had it. But faith does not mean everything will be easy. Faith means that we hope in and trust something stronger than ourselves when it is obvious we can't do it on our own. Again, it's ugly because we don't know the end result; we just have faith.

But grace is beautiful. Grace tells us that, not only will God see us through, but that there are great things in store for us. Grace says that, though our strength will fail, we will be lifted up. Grace tells us that when faith doesn't get us what we think we need, grace is all we need. Paul was told, when faith did not make things easy, that God's grace is sufficient. Here, read it for yourself.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Doesn't sound like a man concerned that he didn't get what he wanted, but that God gets what He wants. He wants our faith, ugly as it may be, because He knows the beauty of His grace. He knows that grace says when we are weak, we are strong in the power of Christ. When we can't, God can.

So, while we may be able to speak of the blessings of God and the deliverance from any variety of trials, the stronger testimony is the one that tells of all-sufficient grace; of not seeing the deliverance but seeing the power of God in the life determined to follow through the darkest valley. It's in the dark that the beauty of grace shines its brightest, and the power of an ugly faith-beaten and bruised and bloody-is fully felt.

We are one in the bond of love...

In my Bible reading a couple of days ago, I read through Colossians. In case you're wondering, my Bible reading plan is a New Testament book per day. 27 books is less than 30 days, so I have a few extra days to cover the longer books. It's not an intensive study of each book; rather, I dwell a few minutes on passages that jump out at me. The goal is absorption through repetition. I also try to read 5 Psalms a day and 1 chapter in Proverbs. Three months of the year I read through the Old Testament, minus Psalms and Proverbs. Moving on... A passage in Colossians leapt out at me.

Colossians 3:14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Beyond what things? Well, the previous verses say...

Colossians 3:12-13 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

So, if I read this correctly, we as Christians (the church) are to have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and be forgiving. But above all this, love is the perfect bond for the church.

So you say, "Michael, this is silly. Everyone knows that the most important thing in the church is love. Duh!" Not so fast, blog-reader. Everyone apparently does not know that. I know personally of a pastor who does not believe this. He routinely mocks and derides as weak churches that "just looooove everybody". The most important thing is truth, not love. And, please, don't misunderstand. This is not "speaking the truth in love", as Ephesians 4:15 commands us. Love is not even considered a part of the truth.Christians are to love: the saved and the lost. Without love, we have no "community" in the church. Without love, evangelism becomes a rote exercise, accomplished in order to win brownie points with God. We are never told to be truthful but not love the person with whom you are sharing the truth.

The result of truth without love is a church that, ultimately, can allow no one in, except for those who, living in the height of arrogance, think they have perfectly attained the truth. A church like that exists. Members are allowed to join based solely on the pastor's opinion of them. Approved activities are based on whether or not they attract so-called "undesirables". Does this sound like a church? No. It sounds like the Pharisees. The church should be after the undesirables, because that's who God desires. The church is not the place for those who have it all together, but that was the model for this particular church.

Now, I'm not talking about membership in the church, being a part of the body of Christ. That is based upon salvation and obedience, not the vote of a church or pastor. However, I am talking about allowing the people that need the gospel most to darken the doors of the church. In the church mentioned above, people were escorted out the door and told never to come back. Why? Because they were rude, loud, often drunk, labeled as trouble-makers or had some other characteristic deemed undesirable. Are there times that drastic measures need to be taken to ensure safety in the church? I think so. Were these people beyond the help of the gospel and our church? Only if you think you have all the answers and can perfectly discern the mind of God and the souls of men.

Is my point here to bash a church? No, it's for the reader to understand why I vehemently say that Summerlake will not be this way. We will have plenty of issues with trouble-makers, loud-mouths, and generally bad folks. But that's the lost for you, acting like sinners. But that's who we are after. If it offends the pious deacon that a hooker stumbles across our church in her work clothes, he can leave, not her. She doesn't know any better than to look in the church for hope in the middle of her worst-case scenario. The pious deacon definitely knows better, or least should know better, than to expect a sinner to behave like a Christian. We have to have the ability to reach people where they are. We also have to be willing to walk a long path to get them there. And it will take a lot of love, along with the truth, to do it.

Forgiveness reviewed

When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother, I wonder what he meant. Jesus said forgive him "70 times 7 times", really just a number with no limit. What I wonder is whether Peter meant repeated offenses, the same offense repeated, or keep on forgiving for a particular offense. I think he most likely meant the first two, but what intrigues me is the possibility of the third.

In a previous post, I wrote that I had forgiven those that had hurt and betrayed me. I believe that at the time of the writing, I had forgiven them. The problem with forgiving a hurt done to you is that the consequences of the hurt continually remind you of the hurt. With the reminders come new anger and a new round of unforgiveness. That, in turn, puts you in the position of needing to re-forgive the offender.

I think that is the true fight of forgiveness. It may take months or years of separation from the hurt to be able to leave it in the past. There are many times in the past that I have been hurt and have had to forgive, but enough time has passed that it is no longer a struggle to live in that forgiveness. It is much more difficult to live in that forgiveness when the wound is still fresh.

So, if you still find yourself struggling over forgiving past hurts, even when you thought you had forgiven the person/people, everyone understands. Peter understood. Jesus understands. And He let us know we must be in a constant state of forgiveness. There is no limit to how often we may find ourselves needing to re-forgive, and there is no limit to the number of times we are required to.

A quick PS: Our Church Planter Assessment is this Friday and Saturday. Your prayers for God's guidance would be greatly appreciated. Also, one of the churches that has agreed to pursue how to partner with Summerlake Church is meeting this Sunday to discuss it. Pray also for God's will in this partnership. Thanks.

Anger Exposed

Ask Etta (my wife) and she will be happy to tell you exactly what I'm like when I get mad. Thankfully, she can't tell you of household items tossed, insults hurled, or tantrums thrown. She won't tell of any type of emotional or physical abuse. What she will tell you about is the silence. When I get mad, I clam up. She knows when I'm mad because I don't talk.

Well, as if God didn't know everything about me already, He now knows the silent treatment from me. (Yes, this is more of the preacher being honest with his own struggles. But I've had enough of preachers that have it all together when we, in fact, know they don't.) This is not the first time I've given God the silent treatment, but it's the first opportunity I've had to write about it.

God did not provide what I thought we needed in the time frame that I laid out. I've already written of frustrations with God's timing, but I honestly expected the answer to come soon after. It didn't. And it still hasn't. And it doesn't matter the source of the need; the frustration is natural for all of us when things don't work the way we think they should.

So I clammed up. I didn't pray. I basically existed as if God didn't. And that isn't a fun place to be. See the irony? I rejected my only source of comfort and direction. In the midst of my need that was not met, I rebuffed the only source for the answer. I quit praying when I didn't get what I prayed for. And you know what it got me? A big old pile of nothing. I didn't feel better. If anything, I felt more hopeless. Nothing was solved. The situation was only worsened. Therefore my plan to silent treatment God into giving me what I thought I needed didn't work. Not that I ever really thought it would.

Okay, so I clammed up. But you yell. And you go back to your pet sin. And you bad-mouth God to other people. And you... My point is, we all try to bully God. Something doesn't go our way and we blame God. Then we have our own little method of getting back at Him. We goad Him a little bit. We show Him how it feels. We plan to hurt Him by our little pitiful form of cry-baby rejection.

Here's the thing: He already knows how rejection feels. He's rejected daily. He knows rejection all the way to the cross. He's rejected by people who have no love for Him. And He's rejected by people who claim to follow Him that got their feelings hurt. So why the rejection? Because He rejected us, right? He didn't give us what we wanted. My four year-old uses the same logic.

There is no argument that we feel hurt when we feel we have not been given something we think we need. The question obviously then becomes whether we needed it or not. (And, yes, I definitely need what I'm praying for. I'm sure you do too.) But if we look with eyes fixed on the reality of the situation, we will see that God does not set out to hurt us. The gift of the cross was given to save us, to keep us from ultimate hurt. It is the ultimate example of supplying needs. So why do we think God has suddenly changed His mind and decided it's fun to needle us a little bit? I'm sure most of us will grudgingly admit that we really don't think God intends to hurt us, but we act as if we do. So we get back at Him.

So I'm still waiting. I'm wondering if God remembers our calling and knows all that we need to accomplish it. I'm wishing He would hurry up. But I'm also trusting. God is faithful to complete what He's begun. He prepares those He sends. When I withhold what Jamie, my four year-old, thinks he needs, I'm not doing it for sport or to see him cry. I do it because I know what's best. And I can't even see the future. My heavenly Father can. When He withholds, it's with my best interests in mind. We need to accept what heaven hands us and understand that our petty attacks on God accomplish nothing. It doesn't help us and it doesn't change God. God is working good for us. Even when it appears He's holding out on us.

No matter how much I don't like it.