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What Should the Culture think about Christians?

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christians

When I read through the gospels, I am blown away by the conversations Jesus had with people. There is a difference in the way Jesus talked to them and his expectations for people outside of Christianity compared with today.

It always strikes me as interesting when Christians talk about the culture, politics or current issues and are surprised when people who don’t follow Jesus act like they don’t follow Jesus.

Why are we surprised?

If Christians believe that the gospel changes us (which we do), then we should expect someone who has been changed by that truth to live and act a certain way. The New Testament writers did. That’s what all the NT letters are about, how to live and act as the body of Christ. Paul did it one way in 1 Corinthians, a different way in Philippians, and James and Peter added their own takes to it.

5 things to remember when you talk to someone you disagree with.

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Here are a couple of ideas on how to interact with the culture in light of this:

1. If you are a follower of Jesus, live like it. One of the best ways to move the gospel forward is to live like the gospel has changed you. Too many people who attend church every week do not live, think or feel any different from those who claim to not follow Jesus. As I said once in a sermon, a follower of Jesus should be obvious because they will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22 – 23).

2. Give space for those exploring Jesus to explore. Your church, community group and missional community should be places where those who don’t know Jesus feel comfortable asking questions and exploring Jesus. You should be the kind of person those who don’t know Jesus feel comfortable being around. Too many Christians don’t know how to be friends with people who don’t know Jesus, let alone share their faith with them. Be a good friend. Be someone who can be counted on, trusted, respected. This goes a long way in sharing the gospel.

3. Have a community/life that is attractive to those who don’t know Jesus. Same thing as above. If you are a pastor, how many people who don’t know Jesus do you see coming through your doors each week? How many people are getting baptized? Following Jesus? If the answer is low, you do not have an attractive community for the gospel.

4. Lovingly confront sin. If you are around humans, you will need to learn how to lovingly confront sin. The NT calls us to do this. Over and over community is to pull people aside and confront the sin in their lives with the truth of the gospel. Christians are good at shouting about the truth but terrible at doing this in a loving way. Don’t be passive aggressive. Remember how broken you are when confronting someone, and confront them the way you would want to be confronted.

5. Lovingly confront Christians who are unloving to those who don’t know Jesus. When you hear about Christians pointing their fingers, turning up their noses, or expecting not yet Christians in your church to act like Christians, lovingly confront them. Tell them how great it is that someone felt comfortable to put their cigarette out in the parking lot; at least they are there. Roll the red carpet out for not yet Christians by teaching Christians to love.

What people should think of Christians.

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8 Ideas That Challenged me as a Leader This Week

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leader

Here are 8 posts I came across this week that challenged my thinking or helped me as a leader, husband and father this week. I hope they help you too:

  1. How to Know if ‘Kids Sports’ has Become an Idol? by Jim Elliff
  2. 10 Confessions of a Millennial to Older Leaders by Zach Yentzer
  3. 6 Reasons Church Offerings are Struggling by Thom Rainer
  4. Creating a Path to Healthy Church Growth by Tony Morgan
  5. 6 Habits of the Best Conversationalists by Stephanie Vozza
  6. 3 Morning Habits to Boost Brain Power by Charles Stone
  7. 5 Key Differences between Church Shoppes & the Unchurched by Carey Nieuwhof
  8. The 7 Keys to Public Speaking by Nick Morgan
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The Benefit of a Church Crisis

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church crisis

That title may startle some, the benefit of a church crisis. Nobody likes a crisis. No one likes bad news or being disappointed or being uncomfortable. We like when things work, when things are easy, when things go our way.

Yet if you are a leader, at some point you will walk through a crisis with your church.

It could be financial, you may struggle with where you are meeting, it might be relational with another leader or someone in your church. It might involve your sin or the sin of another leader. It might be that you have someone on your staff who does something stupid, and you have to pick up the pieces of that situation.

4 responses to a church crisis.

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In that moment you have some options as a leader:

1. You can run. Many pastors when they hit a crisis run from it. While no one likes conflict, relational conflict in a church can be especially painful. We put off conversations we should have, we avoid people we need to run into. Or, many pastors leave when a crisis hits. I heard one pastor say that an average church has a crisis every 18 months, and the average stay for a pastor at a church is 18 – 24 months.

Do you run from or towards a crisis?

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A crisis is where leaders have the opportunity to shine. It is the moment they are needed the most.

2. You can pretend it isn’t happening. Many people in their personal relationships act like a crisis isn’t happening. Couples pretend they aren’t hurt by the other or that they aren’t angry. Many pastors, when a crisis hits, pretend nothing is going on. Instead of looking at hard numbers (i.e., our attendance is dropping, less people are serving, less people are joining small groups, giving is going down, we aren’t seeing people come to faith), they simply keep doing business as usual.

Another sign of this is making it everyone else’s fault. The culture is hard, people aren’t dedicated anymore, no one is listening. So the blame game continues to get passed.

The reality is: numbers are your friend. Numbers may be painful and reveal some truths you don’t want to look at or want to pretend aren’t real. But numbers are your friend.

3. You can outlast the crisis. Hopefully you are picking up a theme in this post.

Leaders shine in a crisis. Leaders don’t shine when things are going well because they aren’t needed as much. They are needed, but a crisis is when it shouts for leadership.

Leaders outlast the crisis. Does this mean that people who leave aren’t leaders? I would say yes.

No one said leadership is easy; simply look through history. It is filled with people who rose to the occasion in spite of great difficulties.

A crisis is when a leader shines.

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4. You can learn from it. Never waste a crisis.

Never waste a crisis.

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As soon as possible, begin learning from the crisis:

  • Could we have seen this coming?
  • Did we do something to make this happen?
  • Did we overlook something?
  • Is there a system that is broken?
  • Did we miss something when we hired someone?
  • Did we extend ourselves too far financially?

Make no mistake, a crisis is when leaders shine. A church crisis in many ways is a wake up call to a church. It is God’s grace to a church. It causes a church and its leaders to see what is most important.

It can also cause leaders to take a step of faith they should have taken but maybe were too afraid to take. Many times in my leadership a crisis has pushed me and our church out of our comfort zone. That is hard and painful, but it’s also good.

Don’t waste a church crisis.

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Monday Mind Dump…

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mind dump

  • What a weekend.
  • I realize every pastor is supposed to say that after Easter, but it felt that way in our new space.
  • One of my favorite things this weekend was watching people who have never done the stations of the cross go through it for the first time and seeing their reaction.
  • So cool.
  • It was awesome hearing the stories of change during baptism.
  • I love that those who got baptized yesterday became Christians at our church in the last 10 weeks!
  • It was awesome kicking off our series in the book of Romans.
  • I’ve been thinking about preaching through Romans for the last several years but never felt like it was the right time.
  • With where our church is, now is the right time to walk through this book of the Bible.
  • If you missed yesterday, you can watch or listen to it here.
  • It was cool yesterday to see so many people come from GTX, the crossfit box that Katie and I go to.
  • I started reading The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and her story is incredible.
  • I think it is easy for Christians to think about conversion in very sanitary ways, but meeting Jesus (when we are truly changed) wrecks us.
  • It’s been challenging me as I get ready to preach on the end of Romans 1 and God’s heart towards sexuality and homosexuality.
  • Those verse are bigger than homosexuality.
  • I also started reading In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin just to get a change of pace.
  • I try to read novels throughout the year just to give my brain a break and thought I’d try reading something historical for a change.
  • Katie and I watched Spotlight on Saturday night.
  • It was incredible and heartbreaking.
  • The abuse of power is gut wrenching.
  • I’m really excited for our first membership class to happen on April 16th.
  • We tried membership before at Revolution and I’m not sure we knew what we were doing, so we took it away until we could figure out how to make it more than signing a piece of paper.
  • I think it has been a missing piece at our church.
  • We’re assessing a new church planter to join Acts 29 this week in AZ.
  • Love that our network is growing in our state.
  • I also get to train some leaders in Phoenix this week on leadership and marriage.
  • Always love talking about those topics and the chance to help other leaders.
  • Well, time to get back at it…
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You Become What You Think About the Most

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you

I came across this in How the Best Leaders Lead by Brian Tracy

You become what you think about most of the time.

Most of the time, leaders think about the qualities of leadership and how to apply them daily.

Leaders have a clear vision of where they are going, and they convey this vision to everyone around them.

Leaders have the courage to take risks, to move forward, to face danger with no guarantee of success.

Leaders have integrity. They deal honestly and straightforwardly with each person. They tell the truth, and they always keep their word.

Leaders are humble. They get results by using the strengths and knowledge of those around them. They know how to listen, and they know how to learn.

Leaders have foresight. They continually look ahead and anticipate what might happen. They make provisions to guard against possible reversals and put themselves into a position to take advantage of possible opportunities.

Leaders focus on what’s important. They concentrate their time and resources, and the time and resources of the company, on the activities that will make the most difference.

Leaders cooperate well with others. They are liked and respected by everyone around them. They go out of their way to get along well with the key people upon which the company depends. They truly believe that people are their most valuable asset.

The best companies (churches) have the best leaders. The second-best companies (churches) have the second-best leaders. The third-best companies (churches), in these times of turbulence, are unfortunately on their way out of business.

The most important contribution you can make to your company (church) is to be a leader, accept responsibility for results, and dare to go forward.

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Leaders Disappoint Someone

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leaders

“Exercising leadership might be best understood as disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.” -Ronald Hiefetz

I had a mentor tell me when I first started out in leadership, “Every leader on a daily basis should disappoint someone; if not, you aren’t really leading.”

Every leader on a daily basis should disappoint someone; if not, you aren’t really leading.

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There’s a part of me that likes this idea. It means I’m moving something forward, creating change or pushing against the status quo.

The other side of me hates it because I want people to like me. I don’t want to disappoint people. I want them to love what I’m doing, be a part of it and think, “I never want to leave the church Josh is leading.”

The reality is, leaders do disappoint people, and if you aren’t disappointing people, you aren’t really leading.

Why?

Disappointment can look like frustration, bristling at changes that are made, challenging people to step up and lead, take ownership or challenging someone in a counseling session to deal with their junk.

All of those things disappoint people because it pushes on something in those people.

I’m calling disappointment; when you as a leader make someone uncomfortable, lead a church where they don’t think it should go, make a change that they wouldn’t make.

Now, to be clear: disappointment is not the goal of leadership, but it is a byproduct of it.

Disappointment is not the goal of leadership, but it is a byproduct of it.

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It is the reality of what you are doing.

Disappointment also comes in another form and from another place: past hurts.

When you hear things like, “You’re moving too fast, you’re changing too much, you’re building your kingdom and not God’s”, two things might be happening. One, they might be true and you need to listen to them. Two, someone is looking at you through the lens of a past hurt and past disappointment; you are reminding them of a leader they once followed or a church they were once a part of.

Where does that leave you as a leader?

Leaders do a few different things with this:

1. They run from it. Many leaders have enormous wounds from their past that shape their present and future, and the idea of disappointing anyone keeps them from leading. Many leaders want everyone to love them, which keeps them from making bold decisions, praying big prayers or making any changes. The slightest hint of conflict or an unwillingness to move into a new future from anyone in their church, and they are done as a leader. Many pastors fear the Monday morning emails that come in, so they look towards the status quo and simply surviving.

If you’re afraid of upsetting people, you won’t be able to lead.

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2. They revel in it. Some leaders genuinely enjoy making people mad or disappointing them. In a sick way, it is a badge of honor. “I made this change and we lost __ blank people, but I’m being bold.” Maybe you’re bold, but you might be brash and kind of a jerk. How you talk about people’s reactions to change reveals a lot about you as a pastor. If you enjoy people leaving over changes, that can reveal some broken things in you.

3. They learn from it. Leaders are learners, bottom line. It is not just about reading books and blogs (thanks for reading this one) and listening to podcasts. Do you learn from the reactions to your leadership? Do you learn from how you make people feel when you walk into a room or how you speak to them? Any time you disappoint someone, you should find out why. What can you learn from that?

4. It makes them stronger, better leaders. If you allow disappointing people, turning people’s anger into learning as a leader, you will become a stronger, better leader. This creates resilience to keep leading. The strongest leaders I’ve met are the ones who have lived and led through some pretty big storms.

Strong leaders handle storms correctly.

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How to Trust God

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trust God

Maybe you still struggle with this question, “Can I trust you, God?” After all, when we sin, we are telling God we don’t think we can trust him. This is a question everyone has; in fact, it is the same question Abraham had in the Old Testament.

If you’ve grown up in church, you know the story of Abraham, and our knowledge of his story kind of takes away some of the amazingness. In Genesis 12, we have this man named Abram. He all of a sudden appears in the pages of Scripture. He is out in the desert and he hears a voice. A voice he may have heard before, but maybe not. We aren’t told. This voice, God from heaven, tells him to pack up what he has and move “to a land I will show you.”

Now picture this: Abram goes home and tells his wife Sarai that they are to pack up and go to a land that this voice (God) will show them. I always wonder what that was like. If she was like most wives, she probably asked him how long he’s been hearing this voice. Has it said other things? Did it give any directions? Any hints on what lay ahead?

No, Abram would tell her. Only that we are to start walking and stop when he says.

What God does tell Abram is that he will one day be a great nation and that all the people of the world will be blessed through him. The irony of this is that Abram has no children and is seventy-five years old.

Finally, as he walks to this land, there is a fascinating promise given to Abram in Genesis 15. Time has passed, and Abram and Sarai still do not have a child. From their perspective, they are not any closer to being a great nation than when they left their home. So Abram does what we would do. He whines to God. Complains, actually.

God takes it and is incredibly patient with Abram through this entire conversation. As Abram unloads his feelings of despair, lack of faith, anger, and hurt over his desire to be a father, but yet not having this desire met (are you beginning to see the connection between not trusting God and giving in to temptation or other sins?), God tells him to look to the heavens and number the stars. Abram can’t number the stars, as there are too many of them. “So,” God tells him, “shall your offspring be.”

God doesn’t just stop there. He tells Abram what he (God) has done. What is interesting to me is that when God gives commands in Scripture, in particular the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, before giving a command, he reminds the people of what he has done. God is about to make a covenant, a promise with Abram, but before he does, he reminds Abram of what he has done so far. He hasn’t just led him to a new place and promised him a son; he has guided, provided, and protected him and his family.

Then and only then does God give commands or make covenants. In Exodus 20, before giving Moses the law, he reminds him, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”(20:2). This is the foundation of the commands of God, his promise and the freedom that he provides.

In Genesis 15, after reminding Abram, he makes a covenant with Abram. We aren’t told in Scripture if Abram asked for it, but he was at least doubting and wondering if this was going to happen. He was complaining to God, as we would do. This has always been a comfort to me, that God doesn’t strike down questions in the Bible, but listens and answers them.

God tells Abram to bring him a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram did, and cut them all in half. In this time period, when two people made a covenant, they would kill the animals and cut them in half, and then they would walk through the animals, saying, “If I don’t keep my end of the covenant, may I end up like these animals.”

It was getting late and Abram fell asleep. Then God made a covenant with Abram, while he was asleep. As the sun set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and flaming torch passed between the pieces. Abram never passed through the animals; only God did.

This is the extent to which God goes to keep his promises as our Father. He makes the promise and keeps it, even when we don’t. Even in our moments of failure, doubt, and fear, he is still strong and sure.

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How to Worship

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worship

Worship music has often been a battle ground in church. It is the reason many people come to a church and the reason many people leave a church. Did they sing the songs I like during the worship time? Was the music too loud or too quiet? Were the lights too bright? Too dark? Did they make me stand too long? Not long enough?

I was reading through Leviticus chapters 1 – 7 the other day, which cover the offerings and sacrifices the nation of Israel were to make to God. The specific laws: the kinds of animals, which side of the altar, which door they were supposed to enter from, who was supposed to kill the animal, who was to throw blood on the altar, what to wear, and it went on and on.

This can seem like one of those what’s-the-point moments in the Bible. Why did they record all these details for things we don’t do anymore? Is it just a foreshadowing of Jesus or to let us know the history of God’s people? It can also get kind of monotonous reading about another sacrifice.

Yet, I was struck by the details. And I don’t think God was trying to be difficult or give them a whole host of hoops to jump through simply to have hoops.

Worship is something we do everyday, whether it is God, our job, house, spouse, kids, dreams, or hopes. We also worship our hurts and pain by holding on to them and making them the focus of our lives and identity.

3 things that matter for worship today.

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I think there is a lot of relevance from the beginning of Leviticus to our lives and churches.

1. Worship is easy to coast through. It is easy to walk into church, stand, sit, sing, listen to a prayer, recite a verse, take communion, open your Bible to hear a sermon and walk out. It is easy to simply coast through it. One of the reasons I think God goes to the detail of what kind of animal, which door to walk through, who does what, in what order is so that we see the importance of thinking through our worship and what is happening.

How to keep worship in your church fresh.

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2. Worship is easy to make about me and what I want. It is easy to make what happens in a worship service about me and what I want. After all, I have a ton of choices on a Sunday morning. When we do this, we miss the point of worship. It has very little to do with what we want and all to do with who God is and who we are. Worship is an acknowledgement that we are not in charge, that we are not God and that we don’t deserve to have access to God, but should be under God’s wrath if not for His grace and the sacrifice of His Son in our place.

How to make worship about God and not what you want.

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3. It is easy to leave repentance out of worship. In the Old Testament there is a continual reminder of atoning for sins as the nation of Israel sacrificed animals. Hebrews 4 teaches that Jesus is our High Priest, and now we have access to God. This means we don’t need to sacrifice animals, we don’t have to continually atone for sins because of what Jesus did “once and for all.” Yet we too easily walk into God’s presence with unconfessed sin. We need the reminder of starting with repentance, of bringing our sin, our idols, hurts and anger to God. Before walking to communion, before giving God our lists of wants and needs, to remind ourselves of our need for Him and acknowledging the grace He has extended to us. I know my heart changes and my attitude changes when I start with repentance. It changes my perspective of what is happening.

Worship starts with repentance.

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How to Plan an Effective Easter Service

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Easter

Every year around this time I get questions from other pastors or people in our church about why we don’t do a normal Easter service on Easter Sunday. The thinking goes, “Churches will have people who only come once or twice a year, so you need to hit them with the Easter message. Don’t miss this opportunity.”

Do you have the right goal for your Easter sermon?

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And while I understand this thinking, I think it is shortsighted, which leads me to my answer:

Don’t miss the opportunity of Easter.

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  1. We do an Easter message every week. At Revolution we end all our services by taking communion. The goal of every sermon is to get to the resurrection. Notice I didn’t say cross, but that’s a different post. Each and every week we do the same thing: “We are broken and can’t fix ourselves. Our only hope is found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.” Easter is just one out of 52 times we do this each year.
  2. Create a reason to come back next week. I have two goals on Easter: helping people take the step of following Jesus for those who are ready, and getting everyone else to come back the week after Easter. Therefore, you have to create a reason for them to come back. Pastors do not put enough effort into this and just hope people will come back. This is why I love to start a series on Easter. In years past we’ve started a series on the Gospel of John and looked at how change works from Galatians. Last year we kicked off a relationship series on Easter. Give them a reason to come back. Never end a series on Easter; that communicates, too bad you missed all the cool stuff!
  3. If they only come on Easter, give it a twist so they don’t get bored. Unchurched people are smarter than we often give them credit for. They come on Easter, think they know the story, what you will say and how it will end. Because of this, they tune it out and wait until it ends so they can go back to their life. What if you hit them with an unexpected twist, hit a felt need they weren’t expecting you to talk about? The resurrection is our hope in all things in life; start with the brokenness it is the hope for. Too often Easter messages are geared towards Christians. I understand the tension because they are the ones who complain if they don’t like your Easter message. Everyone simply doesn’t come back.
3 things that should happen on Easter at your church.

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Monday Morning Mind Dump…

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mind dump

  • Sunday was our 8th week at our new location.
  • God has done so much in that time.
  • We’ve had 4 people take the step of following Jesus.
  • We’ve had 56 first time guests and 27 of them have returned for a 2nd and a 3rd time!
  • The response to our Future Family series has been incredible.
  • If you missed any of the weeks or want to watch them again, you can do so here.
  • If you weren’t there yesterday, you can watch & listen to it here.
  • I got to spend some time last week with the other area leads from Acts 29 West.
  • Love praying and planning with those guys to plant more churches in the western United States.
  • It’s also amazing to hear what God is doing around the world.
  • I’ve been spending some time working on our upcoming series Romans.
  • Feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of spending the rest of the year in Romans, but really excited about it at the same time.
  • There is so much in there.
  • It’s easy to see how people spend years preaching through Romans.
  • If you follow me, you know I’m pretty into crossfit and right now is the crossfit open.
  • These workouts are hard every year, but this is a new level of crazy.
  • I’m doing 16.2 today and it looks brutal.
  • Read a great leadership book last week, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading; highly, highly recommend it.
  • So much great insight for leaders and the difficulties of leading, but how those difficulties often come from the leader.
  • We’re hosting a dinner party this week which should be fun.
  • We’re part of a group that does a monthly dinner party with all the food from one country.
  • This month, at our house, is Irish night for St. Patricks day.
  • Always a good time.
  • Blessed to have friends that love food and are great cooks!