Not So Deep Thoughts

A few years ago, I read Simple Church by Thom Rainer.  It was a life changing book for me.  It really helped to alter a lot of what I believed about church for the good.  Previously, I believed that the way I grew up was the only way to do church. (Arrogant…I know)

Since then, I have embraced a new philosophy.  The more simple, the better.  I’m not talking about content but about programming.  Why do we need a different ministry for every little segment of the population?

Here’s what I’m realizing:  that when people are given too many choices, they choose nothing at all.

At Freedom, we’ve chosen to do just a few things but to strive to do them well.

I have recently had a couple of people say to me, “I’m dreading going to work today. Just have to go put in the hours and get the paycheck.” I’ve been there. I’ve had a job that I hated and it was a chore to get out of bed to get to work.

That is certainly not the case now. There has not been a day when I have not been excited about the privilege of working at Freedom. I get the opportunity to serve with a great team at a great church.  I’m loving life!

In the words of Kris Kross… this is what ‘I was born to do!’  Doing anything else would be ‘wiggity wiggity wiggity wack!’

We all have them.  Whether it’s a church staff, your family, or your friends, you expect certain things from them without ever having a conversation about those things.

Among our staff, we attempt to voice those expectations.  Lots of our frustrations with other people come as a result of unspoken expectations.  I expected one thing.  They delivered something totally different.  I get frustrated and then realize that I never told them what I expected.

The bottom line is this:  the only thing that can come out of not voicing your expectations is disappointment.  Save yourself and everyone else a little time and tell them what you are looking for.

What expectations do you need to make clear today?

It’s ok Superman.  We know that you can’t do it alone.  Why don’t you just untie the cape?

When we don’t bring people alongside us for the journey, I believe it is a form of pride.  We feel that we’re the only people who can do this task right.  We think the whole world is going to collapse if we don’t complete the current project by the end of the day.

Look for high capacity people and bring them on the journey with you.  You’ll be glad you did.  Besides, the journey is so much more fun when you involve others.

Oh, and about that cape, don’t forget to untie it.  I just took off mine.

I am constantly reminded of how much I need to change.  I am also realizing that it is much easier for me to change you than to change me.  It’s easy for me to come up with a solution for other people’s issues.  It is much harder for me to have the necessary discipline to change myself.

Does anyone else have this problem?  Maybe we should start a support group…

Here’s the scene in 1 Samuel 24:  King Saul is trying to kill David.  David catches him ‘relieving himself’ in a cave.  David sneaks up behind him and cuts off the corner of Saul’s robe.  (Must have been a long one!)  David basically does this so that he can show Saul that he could have killed him if he wanted to.  God convicts David in a huge way and he realizes that he has dishonored the King, even though Saul has tried to kill him.

This causes me to wonder about how we treat those in authority over us.  Do we chop off parts of their robe just to show them we could undermine their leadership if we want to?  Do we do things just to show them that ‘we don’t need them’ or ‘just to show them who is boss’?

I never want that to be true of my life.  I am blessed to have a Pastor that gives me the ability to lead.  He gives me a lot of freedom (no pun intended).  I want to be sure that I’m not guilty of undermining his leadership.  I want to complement him, not compete with him.  The bottom line is that God has called him to be the Pastor.  God has called me to be the Executive Pastor.  I’m perfectly ok with that.  In fact, I feel like it was what I was born to do.  I pray that God would help me not to do anything that would chop off a corner of Pastor J.R.’s robe… especially while he is going to the bathroom:)

I ran across this verse the other day.  It is the type of verse that I do not want to characterize my life.

They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt. (Psalm 106:21)

Please do not let me guilty of taking the blessings of God for granted.  Help me to always be mindful that God has blessed me in ways that I cannot even describe.  We have so much to be grateful for!  Even if God didn’t do another thing for me, he has done enough to keep me thanking Him for an eternity!!

Our staff is currently reading through Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Pastor Jim Cymbala of Brooklyn Tabernacle.  I read this book almost 9 years ago and remembered that it was a good book.  However, I did not remember how powerful the principles in this book are.

As a result of this book, God is doing something special among our staff in the area of prayer.  One of the thoughts that was really powerful to me was that prayer leads to more prayer.  It’s not just one of those things you check off your to-do-list.  Prayer leaves you craving more prayer.  As a result in the increased prayer, I can sense that God is up to something big here at Freedom!

If you get an opportunity, I would recommend you read this book.  It might just change your life!

I just re-read the story of Gideon found in Judges 7.  Here’s a quick version of the story, with a few of my observations:

Gideon has 32,000 men and is prepared to go to battle against the Midianites who have 135,000 people.  God tells Gideon that he has too many men.  He wants to remove some of them to ensure that He gets the glory.  He trims the group down to 10,000.  From there, He cuts the group down to 300.  These 300 guys defeat the Midianites by making lots of noise and causing this huge army to start killing each other.

Here are my observations:

*In my opinion you can never have too many men when you are going into a battle.

*Could it sometimes be that God needs to remove some people and/or stuff from our lives so that whenever people look at the situation they can only give the credit to God.  I want to be a part of God doing something so huge that people realize that it could not be manufactured!

*Gideon had to be a great leader.  Imagine telling 300 people that you were going to win the battle when 31,700 people just walked out on you.  Morale probably wasn’t at an all time high.  He was able to motivate them to move forward with only a trumpet in one hand and a torch in the other.

*He had 300 people + plus a vision that God had given him.  That was enough to be obedient, which led to victory!

*Just because something/someone is making a bunch of noise, doesn’t mean that the situation is as big a problem as you think.

*God was glorified in a HUGE way!

In my Bible reading one day this week, I read the following verses:

Joshua 21:45 Not one of all of the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Psalm 89:1 With my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

Psalm 89:2 You established faithfulness known through all generations.

Psalm 89:8 O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty and Your faithfulness surrounds you.

Prov. 13:15 Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.

To be honest, it makes me a little nervous when God is reminding me so much about His faithfulness.  However, He may be reminding just how incredible He is!!