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The quote was from Mark Batterson — “Do you want to BE important or DO something important?” Thought-provoking… challenging… even sobering… But one of our amazing students, 17-year-old Jesi, read that and thought there was more to be said on the subject. With all due respect to Mark Batterson – and I have mad love for him and the things National Community Church are doing – I think Jesi really hit it out of the park:
I think that when you DO something important you will BE something important. The Bible says to do all great things in secret so God can see that you’re doing it all for the glory of Him. I think that when we try and BE something important our view becomes distorted and we lose sight of what really matters. But when we do everything for God and leave the rest of it up to Him – I think he rewards our humbleness and we BECOME someone. When we’re DOING God’s will… we ARE important.
Wow! Thanks Jesi, for being willing to think beyond a clever quote and expand on an important truth!
It was a sincere question: Am I sinning without knowing it? I mean, are there meals a Christian should or should not eat? I can’t figure out if there are some meals that are more appropriate to consume as a Christian than others. I love cheeseburgers, but if it’s a sin, I’d have to consider myself a bad Christian – I’ve eaten a lot of cheeseburgers!
I know Christians, Christians are some of my best friends, so I knew what was coming – I just wanted to see who would throw it out there. I didn’t have to wait long:
“The body is God’s temple, and too many cheeseburgers messes up the temple…” – a reference to 1 Corinthians 6
This section of scripture has become the catch all to prohibit almost everything a person does or consumes. It’s supposed to be the slam-dunk proof that it’s wrong to smoke, drink, dance, and chew, or to go with girls that do…
But I think that’s a wrong interpretation and a gross misapplication. At best, it’s simplistic and at worst it’s devious legalism.
1 Corinthians 6 isn’t about eating cheeseburgers, or smoking cigarettes, or drinking a beer. 1 Corinthians 6 is about sexual immorality. That should be really clear in the passage when Paul writes:
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-25
The way people misuse and abuse that passage totally drains it of its original intent and causes people to call things “sin” that God never did, leading to a neo-”do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” approach to faith that heaps up guilt for sins that don’t exist.
Trying to use 1 Corinthians 6 to prohibit every unhealthy behavior turns us all into hypocrites, with massive speck and beam issues – We’re the preacher who rails against smoking when he hasn’t seen his feet in 20 years. We’re the Sunday School teacher who told us drinking a beer is the same as “pouring Satan down your throat” who sat for four hours every week day watching her soap operas and wouldn’t allow anything short of the Second Coming to stop her.
Yes, we need to live healthy, but 99% of the time it’s a quality of life issue, not a spiritual one. Sure, some foods are clearly healthier to eat than other foods, and gluttony is certainly a serious problem, one with spiritual roots that have to be dealt with if we’re going to live free. The Proverbs writer said if we have strong appetites, we might have to hold a knife to our throats to overcome them.
The Bible does speak to the issue of “what can we eat?” in 1 Timothy 4:1-5
Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth. Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.
If someone chooses to eat in the best possible, most healthy way, they have my full support – I’m trying to move that direction more myself. What I will not support is those who treat others as “sinners” or sub-Christian because they choose to eat a big ol’ sloppy burger or a Krispy Kreme donut – or two.
Let’s give Jesus the final word:
“Don’t you understand… Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) And then he added, ”It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:18-23
All scriptures from the New Living Translation.
Hat tip to James Glasscock for excellent thoughts and helpful scriptures.
Thoughts bounce like tiny, flat pebbles across the pond in my head…
- What an AMAZING day! The weather was absolutely beautiful!
- We got started early at the Community Sunrise Service. Dave Kitchel and the Flora Community Choir did an excellent job helping us welcome the day with worship.
- I’m so glad we decided to put every chair we had in the sanctuary – the placed was packed!
- That coffee brewing in the lobby as we came in today smelled SO GOOD!
- Worship band flat KICKED IT today! The extra singers on the stage added so much – thanks Michelle, Mike and Jim!
- We had tons of first time guests – and if any of you are reading this, yeah, pretty much every Sunday is like that.
- Kicked off new message series, “The God Questions” answering the most important question, “Is God for real?” We managed to have some fun with a serious, and potentially “dry” subject – I don’t think folks will ever look at bananas, pop cans or alarm clocks again without thinking about the God who is crazy in love with them.
- Reading through the Connect Cards and so blessed to see how many people indicated that their “next step” was “Trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.” AMEN!
- Quote of the day from one who came down front for ministry: “I’m scared to death, but I’ve GOT to take this step of faith!” THAT, my friends, is why we do like we do…
- Larry Osborne’s latest book, “Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe” comes out this week… I’ve pre-ordered mine and it will definitely be added to my list right away – but for now, I’m digging into “It” by Craig Groeschel. I’m pretty sure our church has “it” but I’m reading to find out for sure…
- We’re gonna take a few days to catch our breath and de-compress a little, so I won’t mention Bible Beach Club – except to say it’s only 2 MONTHS AWAY!
Have a great week!
8000 easter eggs
3 sky divers
420+ kids
1000 people, total, at the event
and all this in a town of 2200!
We had an AMAZING day! Thanks to our Jubilee volunteers, Air Indiana Skydiving Center, Dr. Sayers and Principal Huckstep of Carroll High School, John Terhune of the Journal & Courier, and WLFI-18!
Lafayette Journal & Courier coverage here
Carroll County Comet’s coverage here
On a forum I am active in, a fellow member, and pastor, wrote this:
A local minister on Sunday rose and told the congregation that he would be taking a sabbatical with his wife. They had had problems and the marriage was suffering greatly – they were crashing. The leaders allowed them to take some time away. If when they return things have not improved then he will resign his position. It is sad for this guy. He seemed like a nice guy. Always active in many things. But in the end the one thing that should have mattered suffered.
Too often the flock in our immediate reach go untended and then the wolf attacks them scattering them to far off places. It is even more a wake up for me. This guy had kids who were out of the house and on their own, so they did not have to take care of kids on top of everything else. My wife and I, on the other hand, do. Though we have managed to keep boundaries intact for now, the fact remains we must be careful.
I immediately went back in my mind to a national Pastor’s Conference I attended 20 years ago. A well-known and successful pastor of a large church was speaking to us. I don’t remember most of what he had to say that morning, but I will never forget his eyes welling up with tears when he said, “For almost 30 years now I have done ministry the way I was taught, the way it was modeled for me. I went to every meeting of every group and committee in the church… I made every hospital and nursing home visit… I attended every service and function even remotely related to the church… I knocked on thousands of doors… I answered every call and went everywhere and anywhere anytime anybody in my church needed anything. On top of all that, I prepared two sermons, a Sunday School lesson, and a Midweek Bible study every week. Today my church is large, and some would say, influential… But I have no relationship with my wife, and my daughters basically grew up without my involvement in their lives.” At this point the man broke down and began to weep openly. In a moment, he recovered enough to say, “Please don’t allow yourself to get so caught up in your work that you neglect your family… I would trade everything I have today to get back the time I missed with my family.” It was one of the most sobering experiences of my life.
God never called anyone into ministry to neglect their family. Our spouse and children are our first flock. They need us even more than the folks in the other flock.
And so, a few somewhat random thoughts related to all this:
- Protect your time off. Sunday is NOT an off day, Pastor! Take, at minimum, one complete 24 hour day off every week, two days is better, one and a half days is a fair, doable compromise in most situations.
- Take your vacation time. You’ve earned it and deserve it. Go away somewhere nice if you can afford it, or just to visit relatives or friends. If “everything will fall apart” if you go on vacation, your situation is probably already so bad that you NEED to get away!
- Spend time with your family. Please don’t give me the tired, old “quality time vs. quantity time” stuff. None of us is good enough at quality to make up for a lack of quantity. Our families spell “love” T-I-M-E. If you have to choose between a meeting and a child’s activity – pick the child. Block the time out on your calendar or daily planner, and let nothing other than death derail it. A good rule of thumb is to spend as many nights at home with the family, or in family activities as you do in church related activities each week.
- Date your spouse. Take them to lunch, or dinner and a movie. Take some sandwiches to the park, hold hands, walk and talk. Try not to talk about church business or problems with church people. Use the time to reconnect with your most important ministry partner.
I know most of the people who will read this already know this stuff. The question is, are you doing it? Pastors, we cannot succeed in the ministry if we fail with our family.
Some takeaways from the panel discussion during the last session – it was Q&A, so I didn’t take great notes. I may come back to this when I get my CD’s from the conference.
Jon Ferguson – “Everybody who walks through your church door needs relationships and a responsibility.”
Dave Ferguson – “Count and measure for evaluation- Keep score to know when you win. “
Scott Chapman – “How do you help people form relationships in the first 30/60/90 days in a way that is natural and not programmatic?”
Larry Osborne – “Learn how to keep church small enough (through small groups) to give people the relational connections they need.”
“Creating a “Christian version” of what a community group, service org, etc. is doing is not as effective as partnering/cooperating with the existing group.”
“In multi site the guy on the screen is not the pastor, he’s the teacher – you have to have a pastor for the multi site flock.”
Scott Chapman is pastor of The Chapel in Libertyville, IL, a church he co-founded in 1994 with Jeff Griffin
Small is the New Big
“A healthy church reflects Christ and connects to the culture around them.”
- Their church was growing numerically, but had no spiritual transformation – and they were losing stickiness and struggling to integrate people into the life of the church.
- Small groups were struggling, couldn’t get enough volunteers, giving declined, people were starting to slip away. They seriously began to question whether this big, growing church could survive…
- Made several critical discoveries…
1. People were falling into “practical atheism” – believe God exists, behave as if He does not. They need to find a way to help those exploring faith and those who were building faith.
2. People wanted what a large church provided, but loved how a small church felt.
- They had seen multi-site as a church growth tool – began to envision it as a church health tool.
- A “sticky church” is a church that people want to stay in – multi site allows that.
What makes multi site sticky
- Gives people large church experience
- High quality ministry experience
- Huge Kingdom vision
- Gives people the small church experience
- Spiritual mentors – campus pastors function as small church pastors
- A church family – to be known and know others
- A church in their community – close to home, invite friends to, addressed local needs.
- To be needed – their service and giving making a noticeable difference
Dave Ferguson is the lead pastor of Community Christian Church in Napierville, IL, and co-founder and director of the NewThing Network.
- Exponential explosion of technology… With bombardment of info, how do we make our message – “You matter to God” – stick?
- Shouting at culture will not work. Christianity is perceived as hypocritical and judgmental – we have an image problem.
- We cannot assimilate all the info we receive – The church is known for producing volumes of info, not so much for taking action.
- We ask our children, “What did you learn in church today?” – “ummmm.” But wouldn’t we get the same answer if they asked us?
- The problem is all the little ideas and distinct messages we receive from church…
- “When multiple ideas pile up too high, they begin to cancel each other out.”
- More info = less clarity… less action…
- People aren’t apathetic, they’re confused… (Obama had single big idea – “change”… McCain – ???)
- One BIG idea – more clarity and action
- Correlation between 1 big idea and people putting it into action. Give people one idea and there’s a better chance it will stick.
- Jesus’ one big idea – “follow me.”
- The mature person responds with swift obedience
- The bigger and more clear the idea – the speedier the obedience
- The goal of the big idea is to accomplish the mission of Jesus – not through information, but transformation.
Over at the Resurgence blog, Tim Chester has a great post on the differences between churches that are communities of performance versus those that are communities of grace… Here are some excerpts
Communities of performance may talk a lot about grace, but they value performance – Christians who have it all figured out, churches that run smoothly, meetings that are accomplished. And so they communicate that what matters is that you perform well.
Here are some diagnostic tests that help tell whether your church is a community of performance or a community of grace…
Communities of Performance
- The leaders appear to have it all figured out
- Meetings must be a polished performance
- Failure is devastating, because identity is found in ministry
- Actions are driven by duty
- The focus is on orthodox behavior (letting people think they have it all figured out)
Communities of Grace
- The leaders are vulnerable
- The community is messy
- Meetings are just one part of community life
- Failure is disappointing but not devastating, because identity is found in Christ
- Actions are driven by joy
In performance-oriented churches, people pretend to be okay because their standing within the church depends on it. But this is the opposite of grace. Grace acknowledges that we’re all sinners, all messed up, all struggling. And grace also affirms that in Christ we all belong, all make the grade, all are welcome.
Read the entire post HERE – hat tip to Kevin Martineau over at Shooting the Breeze for putting the post on my radar!
Larry Osborne is the founding pastor of North Coast Community Church in the San Diego area. He’s the author of several books including Sticky Church. These are my notes, not his, and anything that isn’t clear is most likely my fault.
- Don’t try to be us – be a better you
- The “stickiest thing the church has to offer is close and tight personal relationships. Retention is the measure of whether or not you have those relationships.
- If we don’t hold on to people long enough, we cannot fulfill the second half of the Great Commission.
Moving from leaky to sticky – 4 New Priorities
- Development of a healthy leadership team – get and keep everyone on the same page. Develop the leaders you have in order to reach the people you want to reach in the future.
- Shepherd the flock you already have – if we don’t care well for them, why would God give us more people? It’s hard to close the back door if you only love the charge-the-hill leaders.
- Become believer targeted/seeker sensitive.
- User friendly – Get rid of in-house jargon
- Seeker expectant – make it clear you’re expecting guests…
- Understanding the importance of fostering long term, Christ centered relationships. “My friends are there.” Relationship is the focus, then discipleship…
Lessons that I’ve Learned
- Stickiness starts with church health – Disunity repels, burnout is scary, (in the Pony Express – the ponies are the most important, not the mail.) and lack of spiritual growth bores people.
- Stickiness has two important aspects
- Visitor retention- assimilation (Shortcoming of “special event” approach – people show up cold, because of the flyer, and not on the arm of a friend.)
- Long term retention – discipleship. Weak ties=fun, task specific, but have an end point. Strong ties = frequent long-term & vulnerable. No stickiness in weak ties. Connect people tightly and create new groups for new people – new people have lots of “connectors” open.
- A fancy front door can hide a leaky back door – as long as the front door is bigger than the back door, we will think we’re growing. When the back door matches the size of the front door, growth stops.
- Most of our programs and ministries are designed for casual and/or short-term relationships (Weak ties) Vast majority of small group ministry models in America are just flat broken.
- We get what we measure and what we celebrate. Retention seldom makes the list – but it is the best measure of true health.
- Increasingly difficult to reach and keep people with a one size fits all approach to ministry. The future is ambience and subcultures.
- Spiritual growth is seldom linear – so why are most of our attempts at spiritual development?
- New small group relationships need easy on and off ramps – if you don’t have a easy, soon approaching off ramps, people will weasel out.
