New Calvary Leadership Podcast

I'm becoming increasing passionate about discipleship and leadership development. We care a lot about our volunteer leaders at Calvary Baptist Church, but it's challenging to get the right mix of respecting people's schedules and making time to get together. So I've launched a leadership podcast specifically aimed for leaders at Calvary. The goal of this podcast is to be able to share more than just information about groups or events, but to try to share more of the "why" behind the vision and direction and programs at Calvary, as well as share some "how-to" ideas regarding challenges and situations we all face as leaders. I'll focus primarily on small groups, but will try to share a lot of things of interest to ministry leaders - or even ideas you can apply in the workplace as you are salt and light influencing others there. The first post will talk about being courageous, and I'll follow that up with some tips for our small group leaders over the next few episodes.

Stepping Up to a New Role

For the past three years while enrolled in a Master's program at Rockbridge Seminary I have been a volunter staff / ministry intern at Calvary Baptist Church. There I have served as the Volunteer Ministry Coordinator - supporting ministry leaders, helping our people understand their S.H.A.P.E. for ministry, recruiting and appreciating volunteers, and being an overall champion for the Biblical Purpose of Ministry.

Now in 2012 I find myself enrolled once again at Rockbridge (this time pursuing an M.Div), and have shifted roles at Calvary. Same bus. Different seat. I am now leading up the Small Groups Ministry at Calvary. I am extremely excited about discipleship, leadership development, and fostering healthy authentic community in small groups, and so I'm thrilled for this opportunity. As a result you will probably see this blog shift a little in focus, covering more items of interest to small group leaders and discipleship.

I want to hit the ground running, so this month I'll be hosting a gathering luncheon for all our leaders, taking several of them up to Chicago for a training conference, helping several people launch new groups, and will even have a 'fun' night out featuring hot buffalo wings! :)

Made For a Purpose

Do you ever wonder... what am I here for? what should I be doing? what will make me happy? I have, and I at times I still do. I've heard these questions from several friends recently and so it was natural to close out my recent sermon mini-series on stewardship (of opportunities and of finances) with stewardship of talents. But the driving force behind it are these two questions:

What am I here for?
What will make me happy?

The following is not a statement everyone will agreement, but as I see it the Bible teaches that it is impossible to know your true purpose in this life apart from knowing Jesus Christ. It is impossible to find real happiness by pursuing happiness as your main goal. And it is impossible to find the deepest fulfillment in your life apart from serving others. A key reason is that one of our main purposes, something common to all of us, is to have a loving relationship with God. And because He is the one who made us, He gets to decide our specific or unique purpose. We will over time discover it, but not create it. And that purpose involves serving and loving others and modeling Christ's love. That's not in a cookie-cutter way, but in a way that is completely unique to us - at the intersection of our passion, our skills, and someone else's need. In the message we look at passages such as Ephesians 2:8-10, John 15, II Corinthians 8, and Ephesians 4. The bottom line...

We come to discover and life out our unique purpose in life, and find true fulfillment in the process, by serving others according to the unique way God has designed us, our SHAPE. Get to know the One who made you, take steps to understand your SHAPE, and set your heart and hands to serving others as a loving response to what God has done for you. If you have any comments or questions on the sermon, let me know!

Making the Most of Every Opportunity

Happy New Year!! Many people are starting off the new year talking about hopes, dreams, resolutions, grabbing the brass ring and reaching for new opportunities. This morning at Calvary I was privileged to be able to share a message in our Sunday morning services. We took a look at what it means when the Bible encourages us to make the most of every opportunity, teaching from this passage in Ephesians 5...

"Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph 5:15-20, NIV)

The word translated 'opportunity' in this passage is kairos - a special moment in which the Spirit of God is looking at act through us. Paul is instructing us to walk around with our eyes open to what God is doing in the world, in our life, in the lives of others - and to respond by asking and doing what God would please God in that moment. This spirit-filled life is contrasted with a life on auto-pilot, never considered how God may be present or looking to act in the situations we're in. It's a very powerful passage - and a great opportunity for us to live according to the Spirit, and make the most of every opportunity in this New Year.

If you're interested, the sermon has been posted online - check it out and let me know what you think :)

Empowering Leaders

In yesterday's post I discussed an insightful article by Will Mancini on the vehicles needed to cast and share vision. There I started to consider application of these principles to leadership development, and continue here with some more thoughts on empowering leaders and application to our church.

Mancini is a co-author with Aubrey Malphurs on a superb book called "Building Leaders" (sample chapter on empowerment here), a guide to building a leadership development process in the church. He shares on the great importance of empowering leaders in this book, with a summary on his web site. Take a close look at the list above. Do you see how vitally important leaders are for casting vision across all levels of the organization? Empowerment is not easy! It's painful and at first inefficient. More from Mancini:

#1 Empowerment increases the scope of unknown ministry outcomes.

#2 Empowerment requires a sacrifice of short-term ministry efficiency.

#3 Empowerment requires giving away authority that previously provided the basis of personal ministry success.

#4 Empowerment necessitates close support and authentic community with other leaders.

What's my takeaway for a mid-sized church with a strong leader, wonderful volunteers, yet is too big for the pastors to know everyone and drive everything and too small to have a large staff or a solid culture of leadership development and empowerment?

1. It is essential to have a significantly higher level of interaction, support, and community with our small group leaders. (And not just as conduits to distribute information, but in recognition these are our most valuable set of leaders in the church.) 
2. It would be of tremendous benefit to more intentionally foster a leadership development culture in our church, by increasing communication and discussion, encouragement, and empowerment. Again not just top-down, but leader to leader, taking time to dream, dialogue openly, and pray together.
3. Our preaching of vision is strong, but can be made more effective by some advance planning so that the message is repeated and reinforced in other venues.
4. We should continue to re-evaluate our communications and branding as well as our structures and titles involving volunteers.
5. We have to be more willing to risk short-term pain and even failure to develop the culture of empowerment needed for us to have a significant kingdom impact.

Is your church empowering leaders? Can your ministry leaders and small group leaders articulate the church's vision? Is it their vision too? 

Casting Vision and Developing Leaders

Casting Vision and Developing Leaders - the two are a lot more connected that it might seem at first glance.

I read an excellent blog post today by Will Mancini - The six vehicles for church vision: how many are you using? Everybody knows the great importance of preaching for casting vision, but there you're leaving a tremendous amount of influence on the table if it's the only (or even the primary) venue for vision. Please read the whole article, but here's some key points from the six vehicles he describes.

Vehicle #1 - The Connecting Environment. Small groups are where vision sticks or bounces off. It's actually the primary vehicle because it is the most relational.

Vehicle #2 - The Leadership Pipeline. Highly underrated! Will writes "The leadership pipeline is the vehicle where vision is transferred from leaders to other leaders. It assumes a leadership development culture. It supposes there are time and places where only leaders meet to pray, dream, dialogue and train together."

Vehicle #3 - The Preaching Event. There is no substitute, as it connects the vision to the Word of God and the act of worship.

Vehicle #4 - The Structural Story. The supporting structure and systems, and your attitude toward staff and volunteers matters a great deal.

Vehicle #5 - The Visual Brand. Everything speaks.

Vehicle #6 - The Voice of Each One. Essential, though it may take a long time to get there if starting from a centralized preaching-centric approach. "Vision transfers through people not paper."

In my next post I'm going to discuss the need for empowering leaders and share some thoughts on applications within our church.

What are your thoughts? Are you using all six vehicles? If not, what needs to change?

Google Plus

You may not have heard yet about Google Plus (Google+) but it sure has been generating a buzz on the tech scene recently. Google+ is a new service (by Google) now in beta testing -  a social service with a fair number of similarities to Facebook and twitter, but also with some unique and powerful functionality. You can check out a demo of it, or read a good review on Google+. I'll describe some of the top features here and a few first impressions (I was lucky to catch the brief window of opportunity to join last night as Google opened the doors following the Facebook video chat announcement.)

• Circles

Circles allows you to place people you interact with into groups such as friends, family, coworkers, or just people you want to follow. Whenever you share anything - a post, a picture, a link - you get to choose exactly who gets to see it. It's a much nicer and more intuitive security/privacy model than Facebook.

• Hangouts

This is the most unique and fun feature I see in Google+. A "Hangout" is a group video chat that can be made known to the Circle of friends you specify. Up to ten people can chat, and you see everyone's face - and the person currently speaking gets the main/big window. Very slick.

• Huddle

The "Huddle" feature is group text chat. Think of a series of text messages, but between whatever circle of friends you want, not just two people. It's the perfect way to decide where to meet for lunch or which movie to see. This should work extremely well on mobile devices like Android phones or iPhones.

• Photo Sharing via Picassa

People who use Picassa will be happy to hear that Google+ users have their limit raised from like 1GB to unlimited. Android users have a great benefit called "Instant Uploading." Every picture or video taken can (by your choice) be uploaded automatically to your Google+ account. Once there, you get to decide who to share it with (which Circles or individuals).

• Sparks

This is a way to keep up with news in whatever area(s) of interest you choose.

My Initial Impressions using Google+

- Very well done! I like the interface, very intuitive, excellent feature set.
- Circles and how they are used to share in streams seem to be done to perfection
- Hangouts is the standout in terms of innovation
- Huddles, when available on the iPhone, will be a useful tool. It also seems like a pretty cool way for participants to join in the conversation at an event or seminar. Maybe useful for online meetings or group discussions (for those w/o webcams or desire to Hangout).
- Totally underwhelmed by Sparks. It's just not how I want to keep up with information on a given topic. I would rather find the best pages on a topic and follow them via RSS

Biggest fear -- many friends are already saturated in Facebook, spending too much time there following what is going on. If they try to do this in both Facebook AND Google+, I don't see how they (we? I?) will have any kind of life left!!  If they switch, I'll have half of friends on FB and half in G+; that's definitely not optimal. Let's hope there are integration tools to help address that issue.

One last tidbit - this video clip might clarify how Hangouts work...



Do any of you have any impressions about your experience with Google+, or any questions?

Great Small Groups

Have you ever wondered what factors make for a small group that is healthy, where life transformation occurs, and that actually grows? (I know I have!) Jim Egli and Dwight Marble have, and they conducted an interesting study to help answer that question. They've shared their results in a new book called "Small Groups, Big Impact." Rick Howerton has interviewed Egli and shared some fascinating results (part one and part two) from his quantitative study involving 3000 small group leaders in more than 200 churches in 21 countries.

What factors about the group leader and/or group would you expect to have a big effect on health and growth? Stop and think about that for a minute. The leader's prep time? Appropriate spiritual gifts like teaching or exhortation? Curriculum or meeting format?

Here's the first surprising result. The length of time a small group leader spends preparing the study has no correlation with growth of the group. None. Whether they spend no time whatsoever preparing, or several hours. The single biggest correlation? The prayer life of the leader(s) and whether they actually prayed for the group and their meetings. In some ways that's a 'duh' response, but at the same time profound - the key factor that correlates with whether a group grows is one the group members never even see!

A second surprising result about the small group leader. There was no correlation between personality types and small group growth (extrovert, introvert), nor spiritual gifts, nor age or gender or anything else outside the leader's control. Everything that mattered was a behavior, and there were only a few key factors. Here are some quotes from Jim Egli in his interview with Rick Howerton.

"We probed and looked at hundreds of variables but we found out there are just four key things—pray, reach, care and empower. Leaders need to connect with God. Group members need to reach out to others beyond their group and love each other. Leaders need to give ministry away and call others into leadership. It’s not complicated."

"It jarred my leadership paradigm. It meant that anyone that could love God and others could lead successfully. All of a sudden, I didn’t have to look for people who had a certain disposition or a certain personality type or gifting. I just had to look for people who were open to God and wanting to move forward with him." 

"When a leader connects to God and group members practically love one another and others, people are drawn to the group and into relationship with Jesus."

Simple, but profound, with significant implications for small group ministry. I think I might have to pick up a copy of 'Small Groups, Big Impact.' :)

Real-Life Discipleship

No, I'm not talking about the book "Real-Life Discipleship" (which I enjoyed and reviewed recently) - I'm talking about how the pressures of every day living can be a powerful environment for growing as a disciple.

A friend emailed me asking for prayer as things have gotten very hectic and stressful at work, right at the exact time there is another huge pressure hanging over his head outside of work. We've had other talks and been mentoring each other and wanting to be more faithful in Bible reading in prayer. Given that context, here's what I shared with him...

"The onslaught of stress from multiple sources can be a very conducive environment for growth. It may highlight what is important, what is not, or what should be; it displays or builds character in how we respond under stress; it makes it challenging to see and act on the needs of others when our own needs are so pressing and time is so short. Discipleship (following Christ more closely and loving Him and others) can happen in this real-life environment even more than while doing traditional 'spiritual' exercises. Two things will determine for you whether this hectic season of stress will be such a time of growth in Christ, or simply a growth in stress and anxiety - time in the word to gain God's perspective and let Him speak to you; and time in prayer asking to gain wisdom and strength before facing the day, and reflecting on the choices we made that day to gain perspective."

When I'm faced with more stress than it seems I can handle, I find myself moving in one of two directions. I either escape or embrace. I escape when I turn to video games or sports or a less productive (procrastinating) activities which provides very temporary relief from thinking about reality. That is so tempting, but never turns out well. On other occasions, I embrace what I'm facing as an opportunity to grow, and I embrace what God is doing in my life. I let go of distractions (instead of running to them), and ask God "what are you trying to teach me here?" I wish I could tell you I take the second choice all the time, but I don't. When I do though, it dramatically changes my perception of the situation, my ability to handle the stress, and it builds my character more in the likeness of Christ.

How do you handle an onslaught of stress and work? Do you find yourself turning away from God (and towards things of little value), or do you give thanks for an opportunity to grow in the likeness of His Son? Discipleship doesn't just happen in the church - it happens as we live out real-life.

Insights from James - Part 1 Count it all joy

I recently hopped into a new men's Bible study at our church - the Black Coffee Dude's study. It's obscenely early in the morning (6:00am), but the guys and the coffee make it worthwhile. We're going through the book of James, so I thought I would post some insights from our study each week. Today we looked at verses 1:1-18.

Context: The author James is a pillar of the early church and is writing to a Jewish Christian audience scattered away from Jerusalem, facing significant persecution. As our study leader and D.A. Carson's father like to say: "A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text."

v2 - Gotta love how the letter starts out: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." (quotes here are NIV)  Seriously?! Ouch! Talk about hard application. He follows with the reason "because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

-> Regardless of the reason for the trial, temptation, or suffering, there is the option to respond in joy for the chance to grow closer to God and grow in character (not joyful in the event itself). We'll have to face the trial regardless, and the pain is real, but the type of person who emerges from the trial depends on this choice of attitude.

v6 - why is it bad to pray for wisdom while doubting? Practically speaking, if you lack faith that God is listening, that He cares, or that He is able to see you through and help you grow, the result will almost surely be bitterness and greater confusion. When the circumstances don't change, our natural inclination will be to blame God for not rescuing us. But remember, we're to pray here for wisdom, not an escape from the circumstance of our trial.

-> The context is a group of believers suffering for holding on to their faith. Their suffering would go away if they simply deny their faith. To stay faithful means the persecution and pain will continue. What's needed in this circumstance is the strength to endure, and the wisdom to know how to live and witness. In doing so we follow in the example of Christ and grow in fellowship with Him.

What is the difference between trial and temptation? (v1,12,13,14)  Actually, these words are used almost interchangeably in different translations, and with good reason. The underlying Greek word is the same for both: peirasmos/peirazō, which means the type of trial or temptation in which a man is tested. It's utterly natural for man to consider taking the easy way out, satisfying his own desire rather than God's desire. Circumstances plus this desire lead to the temptation - God does not need to do anything special.

-> The purpose of trial / temptation is not for God to find out how we'll respond (He already knows), but for us to realize what kind of person we are and how strong our faith is. Why is this necessary for us to grow? If we don't know when/how our faith is weak, we will not turn to God for strength. God through the Holy Spirit offers the strength and means to avoid temptation, but the choice is ours whether to seek His help. Pray for wisdom.

Back to verse 2... still, isn't it awful how rosy and unrealistic James is, asking us to reckon it as joy when we face these trials? What does he know about suffering and trials? It was a major "Aha!!" moment for me when I realized...

James is the brother (half-brother) of Jesus. Despite knowing Jesus well, he rejected His ministry and gave Him little respect. Then he had to watch the best brother the world has even known be tortured and killed on the cross. On top of that, he soon came to realize Jesus claims were true, feeling the shame of rejecting his brother and savior. (It's hard to convey just how powerfully and personally this struck me today.) Historians tell us that shortly after writing the epistle James faced the exact persecution he was telling others to count as joy! He was accused by religious leaders, facing being stoned to death unless he recanted his faith. His answer? James "declared himself fully before the whole multitude, and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, our Savior and Lord."  So this is a man who is acquainted with suffering, with trials, and who was in fact able to live out his own teaching - counting all this joy as a humble servant of Christ.

Ok, James, you've got my attention. Let's see what else the Spirit has to say through the words you wrote to your brothers - and to us. Father, grant us wisdom. Amen!

Secret of Contentment

My youngest son got a great big helium balloon yesterday. He was thrilled with it - an unexpected gift celebrating our Children's Ministry reaching their $5,000 goal to begin drilling a well to serve a community in Honduras. But his enthusiasm was short-lived.

He told his mom, "You know, I have to tell you I'm feeling a little bit jealous." 'Why is that?' "Well, I like my balloon, but my sister got a whole batch of like five balloons. So I don't feel so good about my one balloon."

I called him over and shared I've felt that way before, and I was proud of him for verbalizing his feelings so well. But then I reminded him that his balloon was awesome regardless of what his sister had, and that the children in the village who would be getting a well have never seen a balloon. Not one, much less a big helium one. They drink water that isn't as clean as what we have in our toilet. The point - if we compare what we have to what other people have, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment. We need to be thankful for what we do have, regardless of what we wish we had.

Great timing, as this was exactly the message in our sermon and Children's ministry yesterday. The apostle Paul shares "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Philippians 4:11-12, NIV)  Paul's secret for contentment? A spirit of thankfulness, an attitude of rejoicing, in all that we have and are in Christ.

It's easy to think it childish when one of your kids wants five balloons instead of one. But parents, don't we fail to find contentment when we are disgruntled about our house, our old car, our job or co-workers, or spouse? If you're feeling that way, admit it to God, and reflect on the many things you are thankful for.

Dig Deeper $5K theWellProject Goal Reached

Just two weeks ago I described how our 10-Day H2O challenge in support of raising funds for a well in Honduras was a big success. We're doing TheWellProject in partnership with Living Water International. Today we got the totals of donations that people made...

... we've already reached our goal of raising the $5,000 needed to dig a new well !!! 

That's just amazing! I'm so proud of all those involved, and for the vision and leadership of our Family Ministries Director and teachers in making this happen. Not only that, we're months ahead of schedule. The Dig Deeper project is a year-long effort by our Children's Ministry, and we will definitely be doing more - so those still looking to make a donation and make a difference should still do so :)

How can I describe how excited I am about the generous efforts of our people at Calvary and the fact that a community in Honduras will be receiving the gift of clean water? At the risk of having my man card revoking, I'm about as happy as this little camper below...

H2O Challenge a Success

For the past ten days I have been forsaking any beverage other than water as part of Calvary's 10-Day H2O Challenge. This is part of our Well Project to raise funds to build a well to provide clean drinking water for families in Honduras. The purpose of the challenge was two-fold: i) to save money on beverages and donate these to the Well Project; ii) to raise awareness for the project. But there were two other benefits I found over the past ten days.

Although it wasn't a typical fast, I did see much of the same benefits from fasting. Often I would deeply crave something that I was giving up. Rather than focus on that, or whine about it, this became a call to prayer. Thankfulness that I had instant access to cool clean water, and prayer that the many people who do not would soon have access to this life-giving water, and perhaps even to the Living Water Himself.

I also found it raised awareness not only among my friends but within myself. There is a big difference between a mental understanding of the needs of 1 billion people for clean water, or that we're going to tangibly help one village or school in Honduras - and knowing deep in your heart that right now there are real kids who may well die before the year's end from dysentery or disease from a lack of clean water this well will provide!

Frankly... I simply can't wait any longer to help out these families!! Real lives are at stake here, and working together we can make a profound difference! If you are able, please consider making a donation, of any size, to get us to our target of $5000 as soon as we possibly can! (I know not everyone participating in the challenge is able to do this. I just want to thank those who did for their sacrifice, and appreciate your prayers in all this!!)

   

Will you help children such as these?

Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

Mark 9:41 (NIV)

Calvary friends, there will be a table setup for special donations this Sunday and next. Others interested in helping out with the Well project can donate online too. To keep up with the story, follow the Dig Deeper blog.

The H2O Challenge for Ten Days

For the next ten days my family and I, along with about a hundred friends at Calvary Baptist Church, are going to be giving up coffee, soda, and other beverages to drink only water. Drinking water, safe water, is a privilege that almost one billion people do not share - and we're doing something about it! The Well Project Calvary is seeking to raise $5000 to dig a well for children and families in a village in Honduras, in partnership with Living Water International. For the H2O challenge from Feb. 14th to Feb. 23rd, we will take the money that we normally spend on coffee, soda and other drinks, and give that to the Well Project. We'll being doing more over the course of a year, but this is a great start! If you're on Facebook, check out theH2OChallenge or The Well Project - and check out this video on the 10 day Challenge...


10 Days from Living Water International on Vimeo.

Spiritual Friendships

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)

I recently described to a friend a desire for an organic process for encouraging our development as fully-devoted followers of Christ that is relational, authentic, seeks transformation, and occurs during the everyday life of people rather than in some church program. He smiled and said, "You know, there is a simple term for this. It's called friendship." Hmmm... he's got a point. But I know that many of us have friendships in which there is no discussion of spiritual matters, much less intentional effort on growing as disciples. What's missing? In a nutshell - what we need more of are Christ-Centered friendships in which the Holy Spirit is acknowledged and active. In other words, a spiritual friendship.

Douglas Rumford in the book 'Soul Shaping' defines Spiritual Friendship as “a Christ-centered, intentional relationship between at least two people, where these individuals focus on the nurture of each others spiritual life. This sort of friendship does not require one to be an expert, but simply to be spiritual peers who regularly come together and commit themselves to growing in Christ.”

In Acts 18 we see the story of Priscilla and Aquila, how Paul connected with these fellow tentmakers, built a friendship, shared the gospel and discipled these Jewish Christians to the point where they could effectively share the gospel and disciple others. In fact, they did just this with a scholar named Apollos, who himself had a great impact for the Kingdom. Rewind the story, and we see that Paul himself found an amazing spiritual friend in Barnabas, who stood up for him and worked alongside Paul for a year in Antioch (Acts 9 and 11). Thus we see spiritual friendship providing tremendous benefit for these individuals and for the church - among seekers, new believers, growing Christians, and for leadership development.

Developing spiritual friendships isn't rocket science, but since it involves people it can be messy. It is first of all a friendship, in which the two (or more) decide together to nurture one another towards Christ-likeness, becoming more intentional about what they talk about and do together. Here are some factors that enhance the effectiveness of developing fruitful spiritual friendships:

• Openness (transparency and honesty)
• Trust
• Regular time spent together
• Desire to grow
• Intentionality
• Listening
• Prayer

The benefits of becoming more intentional in your relationships in encouraging one another to grow in Christ are real, and are available to all believers. What is your next step in developing a spiritual friendship?


Spiritual Friendships was a message I shared at Calvary Baptist Church on Feb. 6, 2011.
Download the Audio MP3 of the sermon.
View or download a PDF of the notes.

Ministry Mythbusters

I had the great privilege this morning of sharing the message at Calvary, as Pastor Chuck is away for two weeks. I chose to talk about how God views us volunteers as ministers. Some of the main teaching points were blowing away four myths about ministry.

Ministry Myths

Myth	Truth	Verse(s)
1. Clergy / staff do the ministry. Volunteers help.	We are the ministers. Equippers support us.	Eph 4:11-13
2. I don’t have any gifts. I’m not involved in ministry.	Every believer in Christ has a spiritual gift and a ministry.	I Cor 12:4-11
3. Ministry is what happens inside the church.	Ministry happens everywhere, whenever we serve others.	I Pet 4:10-11
4. Full-time ministry is a special calling reserved for a select few.	We are all called to full-time ministry.	Col 3:17-24;  I Pet 2:9

Why does this matter?

When you see yourself as a full-time minister, as someone who seeks to serve God and love others all at times, in all places, relying on the Holy Spirit… it transforms your life. This is not a call to do more – but to let God do more.

This is being who God wants you to be, and doing what He wants you to do. The cool part? In doing so, you become more you. We no longer merely 'pitch in' out of a sense of duty, nor do we do something natural within our own strength, but we begin to let the Spirit work through us and transform our heart until our ministry becomes a passion.

If you are a follower of Christ, you have been
… uniquely created by God for works of service,
… gifted by the Holy Spirit to serve others,
… given authority by Jesus to minister in His name,
… strategically placed in your current home/job/church.

Will you step up to the call of being a full-time minister, with the ministry of living out Christ in you?


Download the Audio of the sermon as MP3
View or Download a PDF of the sermon slides

Digging Deeper

Today at Calvary Baptist Church our Children's Ministry revealed a huge project they will be undertaking in 2011. We will be partnering with Living Water International to dig a well in Honduras. The kids will be doing a number of projects to raise $5,000 to pull this off, and we're really excited for this opportunity to provide clean drinking water for a village that right now is suffering greatly from the lack of any clean water supply. We're calling this "Dig Deeper in 2011", doing both this well project in combination with a focus on the kids (in partnership with parents) digging deeper in their faith and relationship with Jesus Christ. We've launched a Dig Deeper page on our website and even a new blog by our Families Ministries Director, Amy Anthony.

As cool as this is, it got a bit personal this morning when the family got home from church today after the Dig Deeper project was revealed, and after each kid got a water bottle filled with mud and junk as an object lesson. I asked my three boys what they learned in class today and they mentioned their bottles. I explained that many kids in Honduras have to drink water just like that, and they asked how we could help them. Oh my goodness... for the next full hour they had non-stop questions about wells, water, sickness, Honduras, and how they could make a difference. As we sat at the lunch table we learned all about what the kids there eat (beans, tortillas, bananas, eggs, meat and cheese), how they had to walk two hours just to get their water. We pulled out the globe and hunted down Honduras on the map. We saw that it was almost identical in size to Indiana (both 100,000 sq.km), and even similar populations (8 vs 6.5 million). My wife shared it was the third poorest country in the whole Western Hemisphere (after Haiti and Nicaragua). Each of my sons in turn took their hand and placed it on the globe over Honduras and prayed for the country. One prayed they would be healthy and safe. My oldest prayed they would find a great place to dig a well and that we could raise enough money to help them. My youngest boy prayed that the kids there would stay healthy long enough for us to get the well built and not die first (gasp, that one shocked me). Our boys are very excited that they and other Calvary kids will actually be working this year to save lives of these families in Honduras. I'm definitely excited, and hope you are too!

Biblical Basis for Saving

A friend from church who consistently calls us to faith and trusting God to meet our needs asked recently "Where do you see any Biblical instruction to save and keep reserves? Instead we need to live by faith!" (I love this man's challenge for us to be strong in faith.) I gave this a lot of thought and study, and present here my thoughts on what the Bible has to say about saving.

Scripture on Saving   (NIV)

Proverbs 30:24-25 "Four things on earth are small,  yet they are extremely wise: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer."  (c.f. Prov 6:6-8)

God does provide. But sometimes he provides before the need, and expects us to be wise stewards in setting aside in times of plenty for times of greater need.

I Corinthians 16:2 "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made."

Saving up - to give away and use to serve others - is commanded in a way that is consistent, and proportional to income. That is contrasted with waiting until the last moment the money is needed and passing the plate.

Proverbs 21:20 "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

Saving up (not hoarding) is considered wise. It's considered foolish to spend every dime you bring in. 

Luke 14:28-30 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’"

It's not a great sign of faith to expect God to cover you when you don't plan and save up. It's merely a sign of poor planning that does not honor Him.

Proverbs 13:11 "Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow."  (or the NASB: "Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, But the one who gathers by labor increases it.")

Wealth itself is never described as evil in the Bible - the key is what you do with it. The way to become wealthy: piece by piece, spending less than you bring in. 

John 13:29 "Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor."

In the Bible there are stories of God providing miraculously (Jesus and paying a tax, Mt 17:27; Elisha and the widow's olive oil), but this is for His purposes and in His timing, not a command for how we normally operate. It's clear that Jesus and His disciples also 'kept a purse' and had to balance issues of saving and spending.

Scripture on Giving

It should be pretty clear that God loves a generous giver, that we are called to give to the poor, to share of our possessions. Giving is not something you do instead of saving, it's something to do in addition to saving.

Proverbs 28:27 "He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses."

Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

God loves to meet our needs, He desires the tithe from us both as an act of worship and as a means to develop us spiritually.

Managing the Tension - Both Giving and Saving

What about the story of the rich fool and the commandment to be like the ravens who have no storeroom or barn? (Both from Luke 12). The teaching points here are not to avoid saving, but rather:

1) If you store things up for yourself and are not rich toward God, look out (Luke 12:21)
2) To fret and worry about the future and finances is foolish - your heart will be where your treasure is, and that should be in God.  (Luke 12:34)

Here's how the 'Money Help for Christians' website displays it, as a continuum from
Squander -- Save and Give -- Hoard

They note that one who squanders lacks self-control, one who saves has self-control, and one who hoards has greed. "The question is not to save or not to save. Nor is it to give or not to give. Both giving and saving should be practiced at the same time. Each Christian must prayerfully find the right saving balance.  Squandering our money does not honor God.  Hoarding our money dishonors God.  We must find the right – God pleasing – balance of saving."

Kick Debt Off discusses what the Bible has to say about savings and offers these comments.

Benefits of Saving Money as a Christian

1. You are able to meet your family obligations without getting into debt.
2. You get the ability to support other people in need.
3. You are able to support Gods work in the local church and missions abroad.
4. You have the ability to demonstrate your obedience to God through your finances.

Dangers of Saving - you're on a dangerous path if:

1. Savings becomes your god
2. You build your confidence and security in your savings fund
3. You are hoarding (a good word for greed)
4. Are in the habit of just collecting stuff without a purpose
5. Your saving is motivated by worry

One final heart check - if we are calling on the church to "rely on faith" in all things instead of planning well and having set-asides for both known future needs and to have the ability to meet unknown needs in the future - do you have life insurance? a mortgage? money in a checking account? and IRA or a fund for a vacation with the family? Again it's not faith OR saving, hoard OR give-it-all-away, but a prayerful balance of giving now and saving to give later.

Ministry Design

I've had some interesting conversations with ministry leaders and small group leaders at Calvary about how we do ministry and what we expect of our people. Do we strongly challenge people to become fully devoted followers of Christ? Do we have events with no agenda (or challenge) other than to hope people make a new friend? Do we have high expectations of our volunteer leaders and help them to be more effective in our mission? Do we accept people no matter where they are? The answer to all these is 'Yes!' How we can say yes when these seem to contradict each other is a practical challenge. To explain this I want to unpack a little bit about ministry philosophy and ministry design.

Ministry Philosophy - How we do and think about things

"You are loved. You are are accepted." - God loves everyone, withholding love from no one. And so must we.
"Encouraging the development of fully-devoted followers of Christ." - God accepts us where we are, but loves us enough not to leave us there. The Spirit lovingly and patiently ever calls us to deeper devotion and commitment to God. And so must we.
"Loving relationships" - community is not just a biblical value or a key purpose; Christ-centered relationships are essential to growth and ministry.
"Progressive sanctification." While conversion and justification happen at a point in time, sanctification is a process that takes a lifetime. Jesus' call to his disciples was also progressive. "Come and see", "Come and Follow Me", "Come and Be with Me", "Remain in Me."
"Next step" - we don't expect seekers to behave like believers, nor do we expect new believers to have everything figured out one month after coming to Christ. Our goal is simple - help each person discern and take the next step in (or towards) Christ which the Holy Spirit is leading them to take.
"Authentic Leadership" - we want our leaders to model, not just teach.

Ministry Design - Cultivating Environments for Growth

Because personal growth is an organic and relational process, we can't force things to happen. What we can do is to provide excellent environments which allow for such growth to occur naturally. Crafting such environments is not easy, but intentional thought about the design of ministry activities is important. The key to this is:

Know your Target - Know your Purpose - Know your Desired Outcome

Here is how we look at 'targets' at Calvary: concentric circles of commitment. Community - those outside the church Crowd - those who attend Calvary Congregation - have committed to membership Committed - have committed to growth Core - have committed to serve and share It's important that ministry activities are friendly and appropriate for your primary target.

The goal is for people to take further steps of commitment as they grow in Christ. Is it bad to be part of the crowd? No!! We're delighted to have people coming even occasional as they are exploring the claims of Christ. Is it ok to stay hidden in the crowd for 20 years? Not so much. We want the community to 'come and see' without other expectations. We want occasional attenders in the crowd to come to call Calvary their church family and commit to deeper fellowship. Our hope is that those who are close to Christ will join in His mission and start to build up the body and make disciples themselves. Here's the thing - an activity or environment that is well-designed for one target (or one transition) is likely ill-suited to people at other stages in their walk with Christ.

Let's look at some practical examples:

• Community BBQ

The Community BBQ is what we call a bridge event. Its sole purpose to be a bridge to the community. It shows that Calvary cares about them, cares about being a good neighbor, and likes to have fun. If a person attends a bridge event and leaves thinking "Maybe not all churches are bad." and decides to come check it out sometime, that's a step forward, and a win.

• Small Groups - Fellowship or Discipleship?
  

We have many small groups at Calvary. These are places where people can 'do life together', and encourage each other to grow closer to Christ. Some place a very high value on fellowship, doing things together, and trying to reach out to people on the fringe of the crowd. Others are fairly intense in the devotion to Bible Study. Is it ok for a small group to just be social - get together for lunch and shoot the breeze? No. But the "no" is not because it breaks a small group rule, it's because that doesn't help anyone take a next step in Christ. If the group spends most of the time chatting, but asks questions applying the sermon to their lives for 15 minutes, that might well be an appropriate next step for a group of guys in the "crowd", who have few friends who are strong followers of Christ, and who have never wanted to be in a small group before. A patient small group leader here will focus on "Come and See" and will have to be intentional to keep Christ as central in their time together (both inside and outside the group).

• Men or Women's Ministries
  

The goal of a men's ministry or women's ministry is the same mission as the church - to encourage the development of fully-devoted followers of Christ.  But people are all over the map in terms of their current commitment to Christ and the life of the church. No one event or activity will adequate reach all people. No one event or activity will be 'the next step' for all the women, or all the men. How then do we apply principles of ministry design to pursue our mission and serve our people? By cultivating several environments, each designed to help a target audience to take a next step in Christ. For example:

- Bridge events (fishing trip, ornament exchange) to reach out relationally to friends in the community
- Fellowship-centric activities (casual breakfast, luncheon with a brief message) to allow people already part of the crowd to connect with each other, and develop an interest in joining a group or serving on a team
- Men's small groups or Women's small groups - where people are intentionally encouraged to great understanding of God's word commitment to spiritual growth
- Men's Fraternity or Beth Moore Bible study - more intense groups, though still relationally based, that challenge the committed to greater devotion and their next step
- Service Projects - both as a means to pull-in "hands-on" people to connect relationally with others, as well as to encourage those who love to study the Bible to get outside the church and let their deeds match their words.

That's a lot of activity. Trying to do all of these things is a recipe for burnout! Besides, chances are good that someone excited about in-depth Bible study might be frustrated by a meeting where spiritual growth is lightly referred to for five minutes. Team-based ministry is the answer here. Have a variety of people on your team, with a variety of interests, and work in those areas where you have both passion and skill. It is completely OK to start small, in an area you're excited about. Do the very best you can with that activity, but make sure that you are crystal clear in who you are trying to reach, designing your activity to best meet the needs of that audience, with a clear 'next step' that defines a win for those participating. If there's no one passionate about the activity or event, don't do it! But with everything you do choose to do... Cultivate an environment for growth for the people you seek to serve.


So, ministry leaders... does this make sense? What comments or questions do you have? Is there anything you want to push-back against?

Great weekend with our 11th Annual Community BBQ

Today was a wonderful day with lots of fun, family, friends and food! Calvary Baptist had their 11th Annual Community BBQ. We had in the ballpark of a thousand or so people there (or triple the number attending in the morning), which meant we had a lot of friends and people from the community come by. The elephant ears were definitely one of my favorites :)  I also had a great time playing a set on bass with the praise team. Everybody Praise the Lord was a favorite there.

Our BBQ is really just a 'bridge' event, to show our neighbors and friends that we care about them, that we just want to hang out and have fun together, with no agenda whatsoever. Sometimes people have had rotten experiences with a church and no longer feel like it's a safe place - or that people who go to church love to judge others and have forgotten how to have fun. Calvary is not like that at all, though sometimes it's hard to understand that. I'm proud of the many people who volunteered and worked very hard today to make the event such a success!

The world famous Calvary Elephant Ear!!  Fried dough, cinnamon and sugar :)