Our Battle With Jesus

We are in an ongoing battle with Jesus.  The battle for lordship over our lives.

The cosmic reality is that Jesus is Lord.  But the sad human reality is that we want to retain lordship over our own lives.  We want to call the shots – make our own decisions.  This is true for individuals and for churches.

We’re continually naive enough to think that our ideas might work better than His.

Jesus will win the war.  One day every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

But will we – will you – not only say the words but live in light of the truth that Jesus is Lord?

Someone once said to me that the problem with being a living sacrifice is that you can crawl off the alter.

It’s time to give up and let Him have His way.

15 Reasons Why She Left Church

Blogger Rachel Held Evans recently posted 15 things that drove her away from the established church (not away from Christian faith).

Lists like this are from a personal perspective, but there are certainly many many others in a similar place (Check out the link).

And while I am wholeheartedly committed to the gospel and God’s word, I believe it is important for us to sometimes take a step back and look at the way our churches are perceived.

I’m curious what you think about this list.  Are there some items that resonate strongly with you?  Are there others that you think are unfair?

____

1. I left the church because I’m better at planning Bible studies than baby showers…but they only wanted me to plan baby showers.

2. I left the church because when we talked about sin, we mostly talked about sex.

3. I left the church because my questions were seen as liabilities.

4. I left the church because sometimes it felt like a cult, or a country club, and I wasn’t sure which was worse.

5. I left the church because I believe the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that humans share a common ancestor with apes, which I was told was incompatible with my faith.

6. I left the church because sometimes I doubt, and church can be the worst place to doubt.

7. I left the church because I didn’t want to be anyone’s “project.”

8. I left the church because it was often assumed that everyone in the congregation voted for Republicans.

9. I left the church because I felt like I was the only one troubled by stories of violence and misogyny and genocide found in the Bible, and I was tired of people telling me not to worry about it because “God’s ways are higher than our ways.”

10. I left the church because of my own selfishness and pride.

11. I left the church because I knew I would never see a woman behind the pulpit, at least not in the congregation in which I grew up.

12. I left the church because I wanted to help people in my community without feeling pressure to convert them to Christianity.

13. I left the church because I had learned more from Oprah about addressing poverty and injustice than I had learned from 25 years of Sunday school.

14. I left the church because there are days when I’m not sure I believe in God, and no one told me that “dark nights of the soul” can be part of the faith experience.

15. I left the church because one day, they put signs out in the church lawn that said “Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman: Vote Yes on Prop 1,” and I knew the moment I saw them that I never wanted to come back.

 

Letters to a Young Pastor?

Maybe.

There are letters in the New Testament – like 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus – that we call the ‘Pastoral Epistles.’  

At the beginning of 1 Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to stay in Ephesus. (1:3)

So, is Tim ‘the pastor’ of the church at Ephesus?

I don’t think so.  

Certainly he has a responsibility to preach and to teach.  He has shepherd responsibility in at least some ways.  I don’t know what his primary gifting would be precisely.

But Timothy’s ministry was itinerant (traveling).

-Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea (Acts 17:14)

-When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia (Acts 18:5)

-For this reason I have sent to you Timothy (1 Corinth 4:17)

-I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothya to you soon (Phil. 2:19)

-But Timothy has just now come to us from you (1 Thessalonians 3:6)

Timothy was all over the map!  He went to the various churches, sometimes alone and sometimes with others, to encourage, teach, and bring correspondance back and forth with Paul and others.

That doesn’t make the content of these pastoral epistles any less relevant to pastors today.  

But it’s significant that in 1 Timothy and TItus, we have instruction on the character qualifications of elders and deacons.   They were the local leaders in the churches who would oversee teaching and ministry in everyday life.  

Timothy wasn’t their pastor.  The elders he invested in were.  

Perhaps over time, some of those elders would receive growing support to the church to give more time to focused ministry, but it would be these leaders that shepherded and taught the church long-term, not Timothy.

 

 

What Is Church and What Types of Leaders?

The New Testament seems to use church (ekklesia) in a few ways.  It can refer to a specific congregation (the church that meets at Lydia’s house), the church in a geogrphical place that would include several gathering places (the church in Corinth) and the church in the broadest, universal sense (the church is the bride of Christ).

Which of these is the primary way that we see church?    

I think it’s usually the first – the individual congregation.  

And typically in our setting a primary leader of the local church is the pastor.  

The pastor / shepherd is a wonderful and necessary role as it follows the biblical examples of a shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.  A good shepherd guides his sheep on the right path, correcting them when necessary, encouraging them and fighting to protect them.  

But I wonder if the shepherd role isn’t totally wired to think bigger.  Is there a vital connection to the congregation down the road or are they another pastors responsibility?  

Of course we care about other churches, but there is often not a vital connection with them.  Sometimes, at our worst, there is a competitive feeling and fear that somebody else is going to steal ‘our’ sheep.

Pastors and teachers in the local church are vital, but we need apostles, prophets and evangelists both in local churches and in leadership over larger areas to pull things together.  Especially apostolically gifted leaders.

If we shift our primary understanding of church away from only individual congregations and toward cities and beyond, we will desperately need apostles and prophets and evangelists to help us see the big picture and move forward together.  

 

What Would Happen Without Paid Pastors?

Just how bad would it be if we didn’t have full-time paid pastors in each church?

It would be so bad that we’d right back to the New Testament church.

Um…

Titus 1:5  ”The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”

There are also other places around the world today, where the church is multiplying rapidly without full-time paid leaders.  

The takeaway here is that God lives His Church everything we need to do what He tells us to do.  He is the one who calls, gifts and empowers.  If your body is in a place or position that you cannot pay a pastor/leader, you are not a second class church!  

There are some ways, that a church without paid leaders can be healthier – especially if the paid leaders in our churches don’t understand what their role really is.

These churches don’t have the option of even considering the thought that, ‘I’ll just put my check in the plate and pay him to do the work…’  Even though we all know that’s wrong.

I think that in a church without a paid leader, people would have to live within their gifting only and not try to be all the callings in Ephesians 4 under one human leader.

So, why have paid leaders?  I’d live to share a few (admittedly fallible) thoughts…

1. Even though the N.T. church doesn’t seem to have had paid leaders in every house church / congregation, there will probably many theological and practical issues that could have been addressed much sooner if there were trained local leaders there.

2. It seems that in the fast growing movements today around the world, one think leaders are calling out for help in is training / education.  Certainly unpaid leaders can and do get trained and educated, having a leaders who has had substantial training (i.e. seminary) means that a local congregation should be able to receive much training without additional travel or expense.  

3. (Ill throw this in the middle) All the ‘stuff’ that comes along with owning properties, legal matters, things have relate to the state like weddings, reports…blah!!

4. Focus – While I truly beleive that a congregation could function well without paid help, for a leader to work 40+ hours a week, have a family that they care for and do even a third of the work that is typically done of a ‘pastor’ would be draining, I’d think, over a period of time.

What about you?  What do you feel like your congregation would miss most if you didn’t have a pastor/leader?

My next couple of posts will be about imagining alternatives for the future…

Biting the Hand That Feeds Me?

This will probably seem like an odd question coming from a Christian leader who is paid a full time salary by a local church, but…

What would happen if churches couldn’t pay a full time pastor, or even a part time pastor?

Hypothetically speaking, what if all of our churches were told that they could not pay anybody to serve in ministry?

What would happen?  Would our churches fall apart, stop reaching people and Christians stop growing?

I have my thoughts (and they will probably surprise you).  I will share them very soon.

But first, I’d like to hear what you guys think…

Where Have The Other Leaders Gone?

In a recent post I addressed what I (and others) have seen as a problem.  That we address all of the leadership giftings in Ephesians 4 as pastor.

If it’s true that Jesus continues to give His church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, where have the other leaders gone?

I suspect you will find the apostolic leaders in the parachurch and the megachurch.

When apostolic leaders become frustrated with the status quo of local churches, they sometimes become involved in parachurch ministries that are innovative and unrestricted by tradition and institutional control.

I believe we find other apostolic leaders as the lead pastors of mega-churches.  Instead of moving out and working to expand the kingdom over a broader area, they innovate and expand the kingdom under their roof, so to speak.

Many of these apostolic megachurch leaders are now leading their churches to plant other campuses and churches and there is much good happening in many growing networks.

Apostolic leaders are often church planters.  And their churches often grow quickly because of their passion and gifting.

I’d say we find prophets in smaller churches often enough.  They are often passionate and bold preachers.  They usually love to read, study and grow.  They are rarely quick to visit and usually only do so for major medical issues and crisis.  People put up with them because they are usually good preachers.

When prophets are small church leaders, some are fortunate enough to be able to have  an associate pastor or a visitation pastor who helps will the gap in shepherding.

Evangelists sometimes continue to serve in itinerant ministries and travel.  Sometimes, they too, are hired as ‘pastors’ at local churches, but they tend to only last a few years in one place at the most.  People in the church might complain because every message they preach is a simple evangelistic message.

These are all, of course, my opinions and observations.  I’d be interested to hear what others have to say about these thoughts.

When these other types of leaders can’t find a home in denominations and local churches, the mission is held back from what it could and should be.

But I’ll tell you who else is hurt – pastors.  Those faithful men and women who are called to specifically shepherd God’s flock.  They are burned out by continually being expected to do things that they are not gifted for.  They are essentially asked to serve all five of the roles, when they are only one or two of them.   That’s not fair.

And as I mentioned in the previous post, it’s causing burnout and frustration.  Leaders and churches often go through turmoil and tension that prevent them for focusing on the mission that God has called His people to.

In the next post, I’d like to propose some ideas and challenges for the future.

Why Use Titles?

I sometimes joke that I’ll start calling myself Reverend (Rev.) when I actually get revered by someone.

It’s not going to happen.  Nor should it, for anyone who knows me.

Reverend sounds too prideful, so we go with pastor.  That’s a nice humble title, right?  

It is, but why use titles at all?

Nobody in the Bible seemed to. 

“Hey, Prophet Isaiah.”

We often refer to Paul (the writer of many of the N.T. letters) as the Apostle Paul, but he didn’t call himself that.  He let people know often that he was an apostle (one who is sent) but it was not really a title.

I think the idea of a title at all comes from the clergy / laity system, which I reject.

We are all God’s people.  We are all gifted to serve the body.

And I don’t really think it’s about respect either.  There’s nothing disrespectful about a person’s name.

Just call me Dan.

 

A Problem with Pastors

“Pastor, We Have a Problem…”

I believe it’s a pretty big problem.  And it’s causing a lot of hurt and misunderstanding.  More importantly, it’s keeping the Church of God from being that effective body that God intends us to be.

Would you mind doing me a favor?  Do a quick search of your Bible concordance, online or in print.  Look up the word pastor.

How many hits did you get?   Only one, huh?  In Ephesians 4:11, right?

Here’s the thing.  If you’ve served in a church for any length of time, you realize that people have all sorts of expectations of you.  You are a master preacher, deep biblical teacher, effective evangelist, faithful shepherd, and architect of mission to your community.

But I know your secret.  You stink at least some of those things.  I know I do.

And there’s a good reason why – you aren’t called and gifted for all of them.  Nobody is.

Yet the church demands them.  And they should, because God gives all those gifts to His Church, just not in one person!

Let’s go back to Ephesians 4, where we found the single mention of the word pastor in the whole Bible.  You probably already know that pastor means shepherd.  You will find shepherd a few more times in the Bible.  It is important.

Ephesians 4:11-14 tells is that Christ gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (or pastors) and teachers.

Jesus gave those leaders to His Church, “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

Did you catch all that?  Not just pastors, but apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers.

We need all of these leaders.  People know it.  The problem is that we’ve mistakenly taught them to seek all of it in one person: the pastor.

That’s a big problem.

And if we don’t empower and rely on all of these leaders, freeing them to do the ministry God’s called and gifted them to, we will never be adequately built up.  We will never reach unity in the faith.  We will never really be fully mature.

God’s people will never be truly equipped for works of service.  We’ll depend on our pastor do to that stuff.

Pastor, you might not be a pastor.  If so, you are probably very frustrated.  You might hate visiting with people- you’d rather study.  Or maybe all you can think about is new ways to expand God’s kingdom in your community and around the world.  Or you stay awake at night praying and thinking of ways to help people know and follow Jesus for the first time.

You might be a pastor (shepherd) and wish you were more passionate about all that other stuff, but what you really value is relationships.  You want to spend all of your time with people – investing in their lives and walking with them through challenging times.

Something has to change.  Leaders and getting burned out and frustrated in record numbers.  The Church is not as effective is we could and should be.

None of us is supposed to carry this entire leadership burden alone.

It’s time to think differently.  It’s time to think and act and live – biblically.

Let’s try Jesus’ way.  We’ll have some stuff to work out as we go…

Quote: Why the Prosperity Gospel is Heresy

I speaking about the Word-Faith “prosperity gospel,” theologian Roger Olson says:

“It is heresy because it makes God into a cosmic slot machine and turns salvation into a self-centered acquisition of physical blessings.”