Our Patient Lord

"I will wait until you come back." - Judges 6:18

I know I'm close to doing what so many other teachers will do in using a verse or part of a verse as a diving board to talk on more than is necessarily in the verse. I'm not going to do that.

However, while reading this passage the Lord brought it to my attention about His patience. We know various passages talking about how the Lord is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6 as one example), how He is patient, and have seen examples of this patience (Genesis 15:11-16 where he waited 400 years before judging the Amorites), but it was in Judges 6:18 that once again I was reminded of His patience.

Bare with me as I put a bit of a human spin into this, but here we see Gideon ask the Lord to wait until he could prepare an offering for Him. Now the Lord could have simply said, "well I'll come back after you have it prepared because afterall I am God and I have too many other things to worry about going on in this world than to sit and wait for this offering that I don't really need anyway." But no, He is all powerful enough and all knowing enough to be content to wait because He has all under control, whether He is waiting for an offering or waiting for you or I to respond to His calling on our lives.

We so often want to rush through things and get things done. We have a calling and so, bam, we must get it done NOW! We tend to worry what the Lord will do if we don't hurry, hurry, hurry. But sometimes, we need to be content and simply wait.

All in the Serve - Called to Work

"Go to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple..." - Haggai 1:8

Today at our quarterly recalibrate ministry meeting, Troy taught through the book of Haggai and related to us the truths about serving. The people who returned to Israel, who were truly the brave and faithful ones since the others stayed behind in comfortable Babylon, were now being exhorted over there poor priorities, perspective, and passion.

One of the points that really hit home though came from the verse above. It is a verse you could typically breeze over really quickly without understanding the significance of it. To gain a good perspective, think about what it is like to go hiking in the mountains. Though it is fun, it can also be very tiresome and some tough "work" for a day of enjoyment. Now take the thought of hiking and add manual labor into it. Not only will you be going up into the mountains, you now will be chopping down trees and then carrying the wood back down the mountain to build with and you do not have any sports utility vehicle in which to do it. That's hard work! And who demands this work? The Lord!

Just as He wasn't afraid to call the nation of Israel into action to serve Him, He still calls us into the same sort of service. Sometimes serving the Lord is going to take hard work. There will be times you're going to be tired, you're going to burn the midnight oil, you're going to be running on fumes. I'm not sure where people think service to the Lord should simply be comfortable and "easy" and if it involves doing something "hard" then they're not interested. We are called to serve, we are called to work.

However, we aren't called to be burnt-out. If you are "burnt-out" in ministry it is because you've been doing ministry under your own power without the power that is readily available to you. When you do ministry in your own flesh, you WILL get burnt out. But, if you are doing it through the power of the Holy Spirit, you may get tired physically, spiritually, emotionally, you may feel like you're running on fumes, but you're never get burnt out.

What is the Lord calling you to do? What's holding you back from doing it? We are called to work...it's all in the serve!

Thoughts on Church Advertising

I saw this video linked on another website and found it quite humorous for it's stereotypical look at churches. Afterwards, I went to the website it advertises to check out what all the guy believed in as far as "church marketing" goes but I didn't do enough research to really ascertain exactly what he was saying. But after doing all this I figured I'd write my own blog and thoughts on "church marketing".

Unfortunately, we (the American church) have become too concerned with programmatic methods of getting people into the doors of the church. We focus on relevance and advertise our church to fit the packaging we want to promote. We have conferences of church planting and how one goes about doing it. There are books out there on growing your church and using demographics to make sure you are where you need to be. They will teach you how to make cool and hip looking postcards to send out and what services you use to send them out. They will teach you how to make a great mission statement using acrostics or alliteration to catch people's attention. Or there are some pastors who see this type of marketing and go the exact opposite to be a completely "different" church that doesn't use such things. Out of this, in some ways, comes the emergent church.

However, in all this I believe the American church is missing what truly brings people to Christ and "turns the world upside down" (as the early church was accused of doing). Instead of focusing on programs, let's get back to being led under the power of the Holy Spirit.

"Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" - Galatians 3:3

The American church has put her faith in man-made programs to grow the church rather than looking to the power of the Spirit to lead and guide them. We need to get back to the basics of what the early church was about - teaching the word, fellowshipping, breaking of bread and praying (Acts 2:42). Let's focus on simply teaching the Word to our congregations so they will do the "work of ministry" (Ephesians 4:12) than creating catchy sermon series titles to try and woo the people in. Instead of long conferences and possible debates of how the "church" should be, let's get out there and reach the people.

There is nothing wrong with catchy sermon series or props or creating a certain atmosphere. It's just when that becomes the focus that I believe we are missing the point. I also love the fact that there are a diversity of fellowships and "styles" of ministries out there; I think there is beauty in that. But when we start trying to package and sell these styles as to what "works" we glory in our own accomplishments and forget that the Lord is doing the work. Oh sure, one may say "it's not me but it's all Christ doing the growing" but yet their actions on teaching "what we've done" to make the church grow seems to contradict their first saying.

All I'm saying is that we need to stop putting so much energy and attention into numbers, programs, and packaging, and start getting back to going out in the power that the Lord wants (and promises) to provide.

I highly recommend anybody who has read something along the lines of the "Purpose Driven Church" to read "The Upside Down Church" by Greg Laurie.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Quick Thoughts From Last Night's Edge Study

Can I really be quick on writing? I think so and because I don't feel like writing a long blog, here goes...

I had Ben Tobias fill in to teach for me on Tuesday because (1) I had him prepare something just in case Michal went into labor or a Tuesday or something, (2) she didn't go into labor on a Tuesday but nonetheless the process kept me from my studies, and (3) I had him prepare and wanted to hear him so thought it would be a good night to do so.

Anywho he shared on worship and the wonder of worship. Very well put together and some very neat insights he got from studying the Scripture to prepare. One of the things that stuck out the most was the Jonathan Edwards quote he read where (paraphrasing), Jonathan Edwards rode his horse to a forest and had a great time of worshipping the Lord and a very unique experience. Ben pointed out in our modern day way of trying to imitate packaging and methods, we'd say "well how am I going to find a horse and where's the nearest forest?" and miss out on the fact that worship is not a pre-conceived formula. Ben then went on to look at several people in the Old Testament and pulled out what worship should be like.

We then had a neat time of worshipping the Lord in song and then prayer and it was a very cool way to end the night. It is always neat to be part of something like that where the Lord leads in something unique and different and allows you to be part of it.

Hello Noah, Goodbye Sleep!

We welcomed Noah Matthew Massey into the world on February 7, 2009 at 11:30 PM weighing 7 lbs, 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. We had only been in the hospital 20 minutes before he came out (though technically we had only been officially checked in for 7 minutes). In fact, the doctor didn't even make it in the room in time to deliver him. So from the time Michal's water broke to the time Noah was born was about 40-45 minutes! I had better take a class in delivering babies because next time I might be the one delivering!

Love For One Another

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" - John 13:35

It's rather sad how we who are to be known for our love for one another tend to easily divide over little things. We will characterize others by what dominational church they go to and then make sure that if theirs is a different denomination than ours we can easily justify not listening to them. Or when people leave our church to go to another, we feel as if we can no longer fellowship with them because they "rejected" our church and therefore aren't worth fellowshipping with. We will divide ourselves over non-essential beliefs, be it Calvinism vs Arminianism, spiritual gifts for today vs. no gifts today, etc. We will allow ourselves to get divided by small things such as athletics, personal convictions, and/or age groupings. We will allow ourselves to judge one another based off the latest trends and fashions therefore only hanging out with those we deem "cool" or "popular". We will divide ourselves simply because we are too prideful to submit to someone else's leadership, be it the pastor, ministry leader, or coach. We will divide ourselves over personal preferences like worship style, building structure, large/small congregations, etc.

And yet, we are to be known by our love for one another. How can someone tell if I am a disciple of Jesus? They should look at my life and be able to find love. Not just love for those who I already get along with or like being with me, but love for those who differ with me on issues, don't want to submit to authority I've been given, or don't fit into my "comfort zone" of people I normally hang around. We need to check our pride in at the door and realize that we aren't as great or as important as we think we are (or that others tell us we are).

Whose the one Christian you totally can't stand right now? Go and love that person. Go and pray for that person. Go and show the world that you've decided to place yourself below that person in order to lift them and esteem them in others eyes. "Yeah but what about me?" Who cares about you! You let the Lord worry about that because ministry has nothing to do with us but everything to do with Him. And we are all called to minister to one another.

Love one another...not a suggestion but a command!