While I am still mulling over what God said to me, I was also reminded of the power of partnership in the Gospel when pastors lay aside agenda’s and egos to support one another in advancing the Kingdom.  I was a student pastor at a large church for several years, and found it frustrating that my peers were many times too busy to get together to pray and connect.  It was difficult to build relationships with them when I had a better chance of connecting with them at a conference out of town than in my own city.  I am sure I contributed to this as well because of my busy schedule I created.  However, what I saw at this retreat this past couple of days was very encouraging!  Pastor’s from all sizes of church, and all types of denominational backgrounds interacting and praying for God to do something great in our city.

When we broke out into small groups at the retreat for prayer we had the opportunity to hear the stories of other pastors and how God is working in their churches.  We shared success and struggles with one another and prayed for each other.  I was so encouraged as men surrounded me and prayed for my personal walk with Christ, my family, and my ministry.

During our large group sessions, key leaders expressed some profound ideas that really convicted me and reminded me how significant this time is.  Here’s a few that stood out to me…

1) We need to be asking God not only what what He wants us to do in our church, but what is he doing in the broader faith community.  In light of this, how do we need to realign our priorities for the sake of partnering.
2) We don’t have all of the spiritual gifting we need in our church alone to accomplish the mission God has called us to.
3) We need pastors who will not simply be friendly with one another, but forge real friendships with each other.

All of these are great ideas, but I was also thinking about how we actually do this.  Here’s some ways I’m working to do this…

1) Personally I am praying for other pastors consistently, and leading our people to pray for them as well.
2) When I’m planning, I am creating margin to work with other pastors. (ie. attend the prayer retreat, respond to their initiatives, consider how to work with them)
3) I am having lunch or coffee with these men and asking them how I can support them and pray for them.  Also, I want to let them know I want to learn from them and let them speak into my ministry.
4) I’m committed to not speak badly about these men or slander them in any way to anyone.  I want to go to directly to them if I hear something about them that is out of line with Gospel conduct.  I invite them to do the same for me.

Bottom line: Pastor’s and churches need to work together for the sake of the Gospel.  I am not a believer that we can all merge our church together and become one church.  Each church has it’s unique passions, skills, gifts, calling in the city.  But if we believe that we are all part of the same bride of Christ called the Church, it should be normative that we embrace and encourage one another in the mission!

Here’s the deal.  Leadership is difficult and spiritual leadership is even more difficult.  However, attempting to spiritually lead people, including our families, without first spending time on our faces before God is impossible!  But, when we get our hearts in the right position before God, reflecting a place of ultimate submission to Him, we will walk in bold humility that is unstoppable.  That’s the type of leader God will bless and use to build His kingdom!  That’s the type of leader that Jesus was.  God please help me be that type of leader!

Yesterday I was spending some time looking at Jeremiah 17:5-8 and was confronted again by one of the greatest issues I face.  Trusting in something other than God.  When you dissect this passage, you see such a common pattern of the human heart.  In the text Jeremiah records the words of the Lord contrasting the man who’s trust in mankind and the one who’s trust is in God.  The startling reality is sobering for me and yet encouraging at the same time.  Maybe you will benefit from a reflection on these powerful verses.

The Man Who Trusts In Mankind (vs 5 & 6)

• Limited strength
• Heart disconnected from God
• Cursed
• Struggling to survive
• Only see’s the negative
• Spends his life in the spiritual waste land
• Isolated
• Surrounded by death

The Man Who Trusts In The LORD (vs 7 & 8 )

• Unlimited power at his disposal
• Confident in God
• Blessed by God
• Deeply connected to God
• Never-ending supply of spiritual nourishment
• Eyes of faith that overcome fear
• Thriving and productive even in difficult times
• Vibrant life evident to all

Ok, so which one will you choose?

Three Areas-

Godliness- How is his passion for God? Is he demonstrating a gospel-focused heart through actions that reflect grace and truth, confidence and humility, compassion and accountability? What evidence shows he is growing in his love for God and people? Is he a person of character? Does he give God the glory for success or is the focus on himself? Are the fruit of the spirit evident?

Effectiveness- Is he skillful in his work? Is the ministry producing fruit? (Growing numerically and in depth?) Is there clarity about the vision and purpose, and is progress being made towards accomplishing it?

Excellence- Is he doing the work for the glory of God? Is he a hard worker? Is he implementing his ideas not simply talking about them? Is he getting a gifted team involved? Is he continually learning and improving?

Three Focuses-

Students- Does he love and care for students? Does he know and seek to disciple them? Is he studying students to know how to speak into their worlds accurately and biblically? Are students following him? Are unbelieving students coming to faith?

Parents- Is he working to partner with parents? Does he communicate with them effectively? Do parents trust him? Are parents involved in the life of the student ministry? Are the number of parents connected to the church growing because of the student ministry? Is he spending time with parents consistently to build into them and cast vision to them about their role?
Leaders- Is he equipping lay leaders to the work of ministry. (Ephesians 4) Is he building the ministry around himself or multiplying ministry through many equipped leaders? Is the ministry increasing the number of qualified, equipped leaders? Is he able to cast a compelling vision to leaders? Are leaders loyal to him?

Thoughts? Additions?

1) Share CONCISELY. – This has not been one of my strong suits in leadership. I can ramble. We have to coach, set guidelines, and even hold people accountable to being concise. The ability to summarize and get the essential info across is a much needed skill. We are working on this with our 8 year old daughter who sadly inherited my issues with this. Get to the point!
2) Press for CLARITY. – I think a lot of meetings are side-tracked because of misunderstanding of thought. Way too much assuming goes on in a meeting, but also too little focused listening. I again confess to being a culprit of hearing what I want to hear as I prepare my next statement. This takes a 5 minute discussion to 15 because of confusion that comes through not asking clarifying questions.
3) Come To A CONCLUSION. – If there is one thing that will frustrate a team over time, it is when a conversation is had and no one pulls the trigger on what we will actually do. I have enough D personality in me that I go bonkers when we don’t come to an action point to get something productive done. If you don’t do this, people on the team will disengage, knowing that in the end all we’ve done is circle the airport. Land the plane!

But, as I was mulling over this, God prompted my heart to remember the spiritual parallel of this habit.  You see, as believers in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that we will celebrate, we have been given “new clothes.”  In the Garden of Eden, we see sin stripping humanity naked as it reveals our ugly prideful rebellion.  Adam and Eve were driven to clothe themselves because of the guilt and shame that entered their minds and hearts.

However, God in his loving mercy provides clothes to cover them physically.  More importantly, this moment of provision points to a greater provision.  Not one of physical clothing, but of spiritual.  The animal skins covered the outside, but could not cover the gaping new wound on the inside.  Only God could remedy this ugly reality.  Like a fashion designer from What Not to Wear, God declares that those clothes would not do.  They were insufficient.  Temporary.

Humanity would try to fix the problem.  Covering our lives with the stylish threads of good works.  But like a bad outfit gone wrong, the man-made clothing was not remotely appropriate.  Actually, despite all the hard work nothing more than filthy rags.  Only God could step in and send a legit covering.  And that’s what He did.  Jesus covers us.  These “new clothes” are comprised of the righteous works of Christ through his blood shed on the cross.  Isaiah 61 says it this way,

¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD ;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

So, this Easter as we slip on that new piece of clothing we picked up at the store, may we ultimately worship more fully as we consider the righteous clothing we received at the Cross!  Happy Easter Week To All!  He Is Alive!

I was thinking about some of the ways we interact with the kids playing sports and how we interact with the people of God as we work out our salvation in Christian community.  One aspect that I noticed is how we cheer for our kids.  Cheering for them is not the issue.  Some parents get so intense about a game that they can get brutal with their words, yelling at their kids to do better or even degrading them when they mess up.  However at my kids age, it seems to be the complete opposite.  One of the girls was playing goalie and let the ball roll into the goal, and her parents would say “you’re doing good out there.”  Another girl would chase after the ball only to run completely past it and a parent would say “way to run hard.”  One of the girls tried to kick a ball in the goal and completely whiffed the ball and I heard a parent say “good job.”  What!?!?  I think you get the point.  We had girls messing up as they try to learn the game of soccer, and parents cheering for them even if they were doing terrible.  As I mentioned previously, I am a firm believer in affirming our kids and encouraging them often.  But I have to wonder, have we moved to the point that we are actually saying it is ok for them to do poorly.  I am willing to admit, that maybe I am being a little harsh here…

What about the process of spiritual maturity?  I wonder if this over-encouragement, call it the American Idol syndrome, is actually doing damage to the spiritual maturity of immature children of God, despite their physical age.  Scratch that, I am convinced it is.  Showing one another grace is an outflow of the Gospel and is an indicator we are grasping the power of the Gospel to overwhelm our failures.  But being honest about our sin condition and holding each other accountable with truth is also an outflow of the Gospel as well.  These are not in opposition to each other like we sometimes mistakingly believe.  We must hold both of these in tension, so we can call ourselves and others to live a life of obedience to Christ while being gracious to forgive just as Christ forgave us.  It is not productive or helpful to only encourage while ignoring sin.  Just as it is not biblical to deal harshly with sin without being gracious or remembering the power of the cross to overcome it.

There are hundreds of scriptures that speak to this.  A few to consider:  Jesus was full of grace and truth John 1:14.  He was so gracious that the worst of sinners wanted to be near to him, but so truthful that the most religious was cut to the heart by his words.  Colossians 3:12-16 reminds us to love each other and forgive as Christ did, and part of this is to admonish one another.  In Hebrews 10:24 we are called to “spur one another on towards love and good deeds.”  Spur does not give off the idea of being comfortable, does it?  And one final one from Proverbs 27:6, wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

Only the Gospel can give us the freedom to be humbly gracious and brutally honest at the same time.  Who is doing this for you?  Who are you doing this for?

Be less critical
Be more affirming
Be less angry
Be more joyful
Listen for and to God more
Obey more
Complain less
Read the scripture more
Put others first more
Be more honest/genuine
Work harder
Be more faithful with the little things
Memorize more scripture
Date Jada and the kids more
Serve others more
Watch TV less, hunt less, surf the web less
Sacrifice for Jada and kids more
Take more risks
Be more aware of weaknesses and surrender them to God
Manipulate less
Be more pure
Be more focused
Own my issues more and seek forgiveness
Speak and live the Gospel more

BTW…This list drives me to a deep and genuine love of the God that makes each of these possible through His Gospel.