What We Need to Learn for Today’s Church

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Biblical Guy

In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? Psalm 56:4  

Now we need to learn why we should strive to be our best for His glory, He is the answer so we can start to build an effectual church of faith. Why? Because, people can be elusive and intolerant of Christians being stupid, we must strive to always be our best. Not judgmental, not prideful, not condescending; rather, listening with real faith, respect and the power of the Holy Spirit flowing Fruit of the Spirit in and through and out of us for His Glory. Then we can do church right!  

We cannot just jump in and grab; we need a way, and that way is His Way. We need a pan from God’s Word in which to be contagious with and for the faith, pointing others to Christ. We are not catch by force or manipulation, but show others why the Christ is better, why He is the answer. That is why we accepted Him, because He first came to us. When we have real capable faith a exhibited in Galatians 5:22-23 and know how to use His Word, we are better able to be used by the Spirit to explain Jesus to others.  

Most people are afraid to share their faith because they do not know what to say or how to say it. What to say is determined from the building of our faith and just live it out, be the product demonstrator of Christianity; the character gained will help make us ready to say it with love and care.  

Do you realize it is purely by Christ’s acceptance of us that we are saved in the first place?  

The Disciples were directly called and empowered by Jesus, just as we are today. We are given such incredible gifts and opportunities, which are not of our doing or earning. There is nothing that we can add to our salvation, such as good works or clean living, but we can and should respond to it. Justification means that God’s righteousness is covering us, protecting us from His wrath and punishment much like a blanket. It is like getting a speeding ticket, going to court, and having the judge declare you innocent, even though you were speeding. To God, you are clean, covered by what Christ has done for you. This creates our reconciliation to God. We were in perfect relationship to Him before the Fall, and now we are again in harmony. Because of justification, we can take great comfort and assurance in Christ. But, our response to what He has given does not happen overnight.  

Our faith has grace attached to it, but we also have responsibility with it. We will make mistakes and have setbacks, but He is there for us, carrying us through. Allow Him to do so. Do not have presumption; rather, pursue your decision.

 

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The Leadership Challenge P IV

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Biblical Guy

Leaders with Responsibility

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees”. Psalm 119:9-12 NIV

Never forget who you are and what Christ has called you to. The leadership position is not a place of power and control over other peoples’ lives. It is a place to be humble before our Holy God and to respond to His grace with the best of our gifts, abilities, and time to further His Kingdom. Leadership is not about the personality of the leader, it is about being surrendered to our Lord and being a humble example of His character.

It has been my experience and observations over the years that the most qualified and best leaders are the ones who are hard to get. That is they are not usually seeking the position, you have to go after them. They do not want to be in the ‘limelight’, and they feel they are not qualified and able. The ‘what to be’ leader who pursues the position with lust, tend to be the worst leaders, because they tend to have distorted motives. Now these are just broad observations, make sure you and whoever is the leader has the right motives.

We are to act as examples of the Lord first before we can ask others to do so.

There are few things worse in the church than bully leaders who put others down and do not follow their own teaching. We cannot be in leadership with the focus of power and control over others, this is not the call and example of our Lord! Read the life of David and how God blessed him when his heart was in tune with His. And then take careful note of how and when David was not in tune with God, but was engulfed in his pride and lust, and the consequences of his actions.

The committee is not the ministry, but a huddle to plan the ministry!

Too many churches think that being on a committee is a ministry and the buck stops there for the ministry of the church. So what is the point in that? I cannot tell you how frustrating it is from a pastor’s perspective to be on a committee, such as Youth or Christian Education, where its board members do nothing to help the ministry. Their view is to only “oversee it,” but never see it for themselves or attend, let alone help out. It is not the call of the Lord to be a Christian supervisor, God does not need anybody to sit in a room to critique and manage His servants, who themselves are separated from the ministry. Do you see the absurdity in that? It is funny when you read it in a “Dilbert” comic strip of an incompetent boss, clueless to their task and duties, only to supervise their employees out of ignorance and apathy. I do not see the humor when Christ’s church is the example!

The church needs leaders who are involved in the ministry they are supposed to lead,…

…and if they refuse, they are the incompetent fools “Dilbert” makes fun of. We do not need this in the church! People are the feet to the mission and vision of the church, the leader will lead by example, and not from a chair or bully pulpit. The vision and mission statement are the instructions to build the model. If we try to build a model and don’t use the instructions, we will have a lot of pieces left over, and it will not look like the picture on the box. And if we spend all of our time reading the directions and never reach for the pieces and glue, what good would that be? Yet this is what a lot of leaders in the church do and then feel good about it. Our Lord does not feel good about His children sitting in rooms talking in circles and coming up with excuses when there is work to be done, and His message to be spread.

Meetings are important and necessary to do His work. They are the planning and springboard for action that needs to take place.

We need to see the committee as a football huddle, the strategy planning for the game, to plan the next play of action. As our coach, the Lord instructs us from His Word and prayer.

Do not lower your standards or compromise key theological points or Scripture for personal gain or to please some politically correct whim. Churches that compromise with Scripture and with moral and value judgments will be very surprised at the end of the game when they are called home for Judgment! We must take our task and call seriously, and take God’s Word seriously too.

Remember all the aspects of leadership require the practice of care and love.

This is the fuel to the call and attitude we are to model. This is what God calls us to do, to have the attitude of love and caring. This is what people need, and what makes a compatible church that people want to attend versus a church we go to out of obligation or flee from!

Leadership, as with all things with our Lord, has grace to it.

I have seen churches so picky with its leader selection that they pass up a lot of good people. And I have seen total boneheads brought in and the mess that occurs under their leadership. We must take careful heed to the responsibility of being leaders, and the awesome power that is at our hand, and the people under our care. With the knowledge of discipleship and growth in our Lord will come more responsibility, we must acknowledge this importance and essential element of the Christian walk. When we turn our backs to the essentials of the call and replace it with the quintessence of our own self-focus, we are spitting in the face of the sovereign Lord of the universe and the Redeemer of our soul; not a good thing to do.

So we must strive to be our best for His glory, always learning and growing.

We may never be perfect, and we will make mistakes, but the grace and the love of the Lord will allow us to persevere. The key element is to be our best for His glory, not to our whims, then we will be the great leaders that Christ calls us to. Then we will have churches that are healthy, are reaching their neighborhoods, and are filled with people growing in Christ who want to be there!

© 1994, 2001, Richard J. Krejcir, Ph.D. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership, www.churchleadership.org

More here http://www.churchleadership.org/pages.asp?pageid=66919

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The Leadership Challenge P III

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Biblical Guy

 

The Training and Discipling of your Leaders must be a Priory!

Are your leaders effectively trained? Do they know what they are doing? If not why not?

Perhaps there has been no person in history who has had more influence on and instruction to the body of believers since the close of Scripture than Augustine. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo, who fought the decline of the Roman Empire and its lust towards self-destruction, and called Christians to an early reformation. He has had considerable influence on both Luther, who was an Augustinian Monk, and Calvin who quoted Augustine more than any other source, except Scripture. His “Confessions” is a must read for any serious Bible student and essential for pastors and leaders of the church!

Augustine knew human nature and the holiness of God well. He called God’s people to experience the Christian life with passion and the realization of our responsibility in the face of sin. He called leaders and pastors to “self watch,” that is to examine their spiritual condition, abilities, and sin. We must be intently aware of who we are in Christ and where we are in our walk with Christ to be effective leaders. If not, we will fail. It was true in Augustine’s time and is still true today. Because of our sinful nature, we require accountability to each other. We need to have people who know us, ask us about our prayer life, whether we’ve sinned, have been in Scripture and what we’ve learned.

Being accountable will incite us to grow further and not hide behind our natural laziness.

Accountability gives us the perimeters to be effective Christians because it forces us out of our self-desires and ourselves and into relationships with others, “as iron sharpens iron.” If the leaders of the church spend all their energies preparing themselves for their vocation, and virtually zero in preparation to be a Christian and a leader, how good and influential will they be? The disciplines of the faith will lead us to personal holiness and closer to our Lord. Time spent in Scripture and prayer, along with accountability, will hone the skill to be an effective force for our Lord and to further His Kingdom!

We must realize the responsibility we have as leaders and step up to the plate of challenge, with a surrendered will and passion to serve our Lord. Let our Lord reveal Himself to you in your devotions so it impacts who you are and how you are.

We will be effective leaders if we follow Augustine’s example. Augustine knows life well, as he spent the first 32 years of his life as the ultimate “partyer,” and then, at his conversion and realization of his sinful nature, devoted the rest of his life to show us the true way, not the self-centered party approach! The people we minister to will benefit greatly from us getting to know Augustine’s “Confessions!”

The best training is our realization of our dependence on God and each other. And the growth of our devotional life, coupled with our accountability, will make us the disciple that our Lord will greatly use. Is this not what the purpose and call of leadership is about, to serve our Lord and His people? We cannot serve Him unless we are His people and are His example in society.

The capable leader will be in tune to his gifts and abilities and will truly desire to grow in them. We need to read resources and attend seminars to further encourage and challenge us. I was asked at a recent youth pastors’ convention why I was there attending and not leading or speaking. My response was that I need to be learning too. If I spend all my time teaching, then I will not be learning effectively from other talented and capable people. Do not be the pastor or leader who sits in their office thinking they are better and do not need any training! We all need training and further education, and we cannot do this by being selfish with our minds and unwilling to yield from our pride.

 

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The Leadership Challenge P II

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Biblical Guy

Be a good leader who points to Christ and not to yourself!

All that it takes is a few wrong decisions where sin and desire have taken over the responsibility of our call. It will cause a ripple effect that will cost and keep costing until the church is distorted and destroyed, unless repentance and forgiveness places a firewall to end the shame. The leader has to ask themselves what will my decisions cost? Pride and immorality, and placing our desires over His has a price that can never be paid. We may think a quick prayer will be the cure all, after all God is love and my decisions really do not matter in the grand scope of the universe. This thinking is dead wrong! (Yes God is love, and then what do we respond to love with?) That cost will keep escalating with compound interest that only Christ can stop.

Clean strong leadership with a focus on Christ will bring riches. Sin will bring a cost that will foreclose on the ministry and joy of what we could have had. When we defy God, then all those around us for generations to come will suffer. Let us put a stop to this insanity with the firewall of who Christ is.

So how do we do this? Let God’s Word be the mirror to show your true character and response to His call and grace. This will allow us to see our own true selves and the areas we need to grow in and listen. Because the result of these characteristics is the care, nurture and the passion to grow in Christ, this is for the listener and the hearer. Our relationship with Christ gives us the motivation to be the “Lover of the Call.” Caring by listening gives us the motivation to be the “Energizer,” that leads to being an effective leader all stemming from “Following” and “Vision.” All these characteristics are synergistically combined to build the character and leadership “right stuff” that it takes to be a leader. If we leave out one of these characteristics then we will not be as effective as we can be and as we are called to be.

Do you make it easy for people to follow you, or do you make it difficult for them?

Ministry is not an easy task, nor should we expect it to be. However this does not mean we are to put obstacles in each other’s path for spite, no are we to put others down in fear they may be better than us. We are to create the path of least resistance, while challenging them to take ownership of their task and most importantly our Lord.

It is not always realistic to find people who manifest all of these characteristics equally and effectively. That is why a team mentality is necessary in leadership. Because there will be people who are weak in some areas that others are strong in. It is essential for the leader to be sensitive to their abilities and those of others so they know their weak areas and strengths. Therefore, an effective leadership team will have a combination of all these characteristics and be a synergistic powerhouse for our Lord!

It has been said recently by a prominent church growth guru that if the pastor is not a visionary, they should not be in the pulpit. To a degree this is true when vision is from the revelation of His Word. If the pastor, or any leader, is not capable of seeing the goal and call that the Lord has, what are they going to accomplish anyway? Not much. If the pastor and leader do not know where they are going or what to do, then they cannot possibly lead others. If vision is just a plan and mission statement to push ahead with what the latest polls say, or what the large church down the street is doing, then that statement from the church growth guru is harsh because that is not leadership. Mission and purpose are very important, but is no substitute for the pastor’s heart and the shepherd’s call.

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The Leadership Challenge P I

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Biblical Guy

Is it about our expectations or God’s characteristics? The answer is summed up on what is the purpose of your church? Is it painful, prideful and dysfunctional as to satisfy one’s ego and plans or is it Biblical and effectual, to glorify our Living Loving LORD?

Leadership expectations of pastors and elders are often unrealistic and not centered on what leadership is really about. Too often people confuse a strong-willed personality as an effective leader, leadership is not being strong-willed, rather having a strong sense of purpose that’s centered upon God.

The church of our Lord needs leaders, not petty instigators. There are too many churches that substitute a petty person for a godly person and see no distinction, because the people who put them in power do not know the difference. People who like to quote man’s ideas and not quote God, who like the social and psychological trends not God’s Biblical precepts, people who like to be in the spotlight and not be the light to point to the blood of Christ!

What are the Biblical Characteristics of a real called of Christ Leader?

The 11 Principle Leadership Characteristics: Vision, Knowledge, Energizer, Learning, Perseverance, Maturity, Love their Call, Spunk, No Fear of Failure, Followers and Listening:

  • Vision: A vision will have your primary call from Scripture, to hear and obey His Word!
  • Knowledge is being assured that what Christ did is relevant and impacting, and is a reality that must be accepted and committed to.
  • Love their Call is Passion, it means there is nothing better you would rather do than…
  • Energizer is the importance of influence, and being attractive with Christ who gets excited and is joyful for Him!
  • Learning is to learn and grow from the experience the Lord gives us so we are an example for His work!
  • Maturity is to know that our need is to be in Christ, and not to be to ourselves!
  • Perseverance is to continue in our state of grace so we live it out in our lives and walk with Christ to the end for our eternal reward!
  • Spunk is the willingness to take a risk and go beyond ourselves, our experience and knowledge and into what is best for the body of Christ!
  • No Fear of Failure is the ability to take a risk and keep the focus and attention on our call and obedience!
  • Followers is knowing that you cannot lead where you have not been, unless the leader is a good follower of the Lord they cannot lead others effectively!
  • Listening knows to be an effectual leader, you must know how to listen, all its takes is the will to turn it on and let it work.

None of the characteristics will work unless a foundation of maturity and Godliness is the foundation of the leader. Without a growing love relationship with Christ, you will have conflict and strife, and be running a nursery for adults instead of the church for Christ. If we choose not to grow and live for our Lord, then we are choosing to live for ourselves. So prepare yourself to be a baby-sitter in a nursery, who constantly puts out fires of hurt feelings and misdirected expectations causing all kinds of problems, all leading away from the call of Christ. You will not able to function as a leader, but will be functioning as a bitter, frustrated, unfulfilled, immature individual. And I do mean individual, because you will be going it alone without the support of the Holy Spirit and of our Lord because you will be acting contrary to His call and moving forward in the direction of your own will.

 

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Other Significant Growth Factors that come from these top Seven

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Biblical Guy

That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5: 19

8. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ have leaders who focus on Christ and serve Him. Their leadership style is not by will; it is by being a servant. “Servant Leadership” is modeled and practiced.

9. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ have people that are disciplined and growing in Christ. This is the reason they are loving and caring, practicing the “one another” passages. They are enamored by God’s presence in their church and life, and thus place Christ first, acting on His character and call! They are not selfish or inwardly focused, but care for others and focus on their community and world.

10. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ have a system of pastoral care. They train their staff and leaders to immediately respond when they hear of a church member in need. They hire licensed, qualified people and/or train and assign trained deacons or care workers; also, a key person is in charge.

11. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ have effective evangelism, stewardship, and discipleship. These programs come from those top seven factors! As people are transformed, they can be taught and motivated. They also tend to spend at least one-third of their resources of budget and talent in outreach and missions.

12. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ have a well thought out, biblically empowered vision and mission statement. This is clearly defined by a purpose that points to Christ, and strategies on what God has called them to do and be. In addition, the people know this and are willing to act on it. It is one thing to write it out, but another thing to act it out. The vision does not lead the church; rather, it s a motto that encapsulates the work of the Spirit and the precepts of Scripture that calls, empowers, and employs the church. A vision is a sign to show what is happening and help others see the direction of the church so they know where to go. A vision will not motivate or lead, just as placing a label for soda on a can of water does not make it a soda.

13. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ tend to organize and mobilize their people according to their Spiritual Gifts! The people are more content and motivated so serve in a team manner when they serve in their area of their giftedness. The quarrels and apathy will dry up as the energies are redirected and channeled in a godly way. People will function less in their own strength and more in the power of the Holy Spirit.

14. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ empower the people in their care. They are training, discipling, recognizing, and encouraging their people, especially those in critical roles. They do not see or use volunteers just as helpers or as people to control and manipulate, but as the essential tools and prime resources with which to glorify God, enablers of the goals of missions and needs to be reached. These churches see the pastor as the trainer for the congregation. If the senior pastor feels they do not have the gifts and abilities to equip and train others to do ministry (what the biblical principle of a “pastor” is), the church hires or build teams around them that do! If the training is not done, the church will fail! Some pastors are great teachers, but cannot do anything else. A pastor must operate in his gifted area, and encourage others who will compensate for him in the areas where he is weak or does not have the time.

15. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ are willing to and do confront sin, evil, gossip, slander, manipulators, and heresy in the church—immediately! The leadership puts down gossip and solves conflict quickly. Healthy churches move ahead in purpose and unity.

16. Healthy churches that are growing in Christ have pastors who are real, joyful, and authentic, and lead healthy, disciplined lives. Their leaders are learning and growing in community with one another, willing to go beyond their prejudices and fears and embrace Christ. They are willing to publicly repent, apologize for past mistakes, make improvements, and change. They do not have thick skin as much as loving hearts, and they give people grace and room to grow. They are not afraid to step on the toes of others, but remain loving, listening, and firmly uncompromising to the Word.

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