Love
If you have been streaming The Chosen, you may recall a scene from Season 2, Episode 2 where Simon presses Jesus about the need for developing and documenting a clearer organization structure and better management and communications approaches with their growing ministry – all with the unstated, but obvious design of elevating Simon to a position of authority over the other disciples. (If you haven’t seen it, I have included a link at the bottom of this article.) Jesus – in a wonderful leadership lesson to us all – reveals his understanding of Simon’s true motives by first telling him how much he appreciates his attempts to make things better for the group, then reminding him he “could stand to be a little nicer sometimes.” I don’t think you will find this dialog in any translation of the Bible, but I can see it happening.
In fact, I have seen it happen here at NUMC. It ultimately led to an undesirable outcome for our church and caused me to stand before a town hall gathering of our congregation and make a promise that has defined my approach to church leadership from that day to this. My promise was to “think less about bringing what I have learned at my work to my church and more about bringing what I have learned at my church to my work.” The first step for me was to just be “a little nicer sometimes.”
I have spoken before about the concept of “core competencies.” It is a competitive business term that was originally coined to described something one company did better than any other in its market. It is that one product or service that sets the market standard and ensures competitive advantage for as long as it can be protected and maintained. In the minds of consumers, it is clearly associated with its brand – Coca Cola, Kleenex, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, etc.
Did you know Christ declared a core competency for the church? He did. Look at John 13:34- 35.
“ 34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The core competency of the church is love. Through Christ and by the power of His Holy Spirit, we can offer each other and the rest of the the world something no one else can – pure, unadulterated love. By that standard, the church should be widely regarded as the undisputed and leading purveyor of love in the world. So why isn’t it?
I believe the answer to that question can be explained using another business concept known as the “hollowing out” of a core competency. Hollowing out refers to one competitor’s ability to diminish another’s core competency by offering products or services that are better or very similar in nature, but better in other ways – cheaper, easier to get, etc. Think of companies, like Sears, IBM, Kodak, America On-Line, that have lost their core competencies to others, like Wal Mart, Apple, iPhone, Google. I believe many modern-day churches have allowed their core competency to be hollowed out by inferior substitutes for the love and acceptance the world around them continues to desperately seek. They, just like Simon and me, have often focused too much on protecting those aspects of our ministries we bring in from the world and less on being devoted practitioners of the Christian love and grace we can take into it. So people look elsewhere for love, too often after being hurt by our unwillingness to love them as Christ has loved us.
This was a key factor for me when I left church for nine years. I came back when I found a church that seemed to take seriously Christ’s command to “love one another, as I have loved you.” While we are not perfect here, we have at the very least committed ourselves to a vision of being Christ’s love to this community.
A few weeks ago, I began this three-part series by pointing you to the banners hanging on the eastern outside wall of our sanctuary. There are three of them and they read, “Light,” Life,” and “Love.” I explained that those banners describe the three elements of the NUMC church vision – “To be the Light, Life, and Love of Jesus Christ.”
A vision is simply a statement of WHAT we are working to BE. It offers a view of what we wish to become and what we hope to be known for in the community. As I said in the previous two articles on this subject:
“It is a leadership responsibility to articulate and cast a vision for the church, and it is our individual responsibility as members to interpret that vision in the light of what God is calling each of us to do to make it a reality. That can be a little challenging. What does it look like for a church to be the light, life, and love of Jesus Christ? It takes a lot of prayer, a lot of preaching, a lot of Bible study, a lot of service, and a lot of good discipleship to help us understand what the vision means to each of us and how it can inspire and energize our work. I am doing this series in the hope that sharing my personal understanding might make that challenge less daunting for some.”
My last two articles covered the first two elements of our vision – Light and Life. Today, I will complete the series with the third element, - Love. What does it take for us to be the Love of Jesus Christ to the world around us? I think He gave us the clear answer in verse 34, above – we must love them like He loved us. Jesus welcomed me into His family and allowed me to feel as if I belong there, before He ever asked me to change a single thing about myself. I believe the church that is Love will give others that same sense of belonging. It will:
Be open and welcoming to everyone. We don’t have to agree with people to love them. We don’t have to change them to love them. It will help a lot if we can untangle our politics from our mission to make disciples.
Always encouraging and helping those who need it. Our church has always been one to promote Christ’s love through social action. We acknowledge, as Christ did, the hurt and suffering that exists all around us and we commit ourselves to relieve it to the best of our ability. James 2:15-17 reminds us to love with both “works” and “faith.”
Build life-long relationships around small groups; Everyone should be able to find here family and friendships that last forever in trusting, discrete, and sensitive settings that promote growth, offer support for the difficult times we all face, and help us celebrate the blessings of God in our lives.
Give sacrificially; This may be the true test of our commitment to love others as Christ did. It was for Him. He gave everything so we could be reconciled to the Father, which is every person’s greatest need. While we find it difficult to give up our place in line at the supermarket, he threw off the privileges and comforts of Heaven to bring us back to God. There should be little we would not do to show someone the love of Christ.
Always choose compassion over judgement and seek to restore those lost to fellowship; Christ always looked upon the masses with compassion for the pain they endured because of their separation from God – not with the contempt we often feel for people who engage in behaviors we dislike. Let’s continue to recognize, whatever our levels of piety or depravity, we all need this Risen Savior and His redeeming love.
Bottom line - The church that is Love will be family for its community and it will love them like family. D.L Moody put it this way.
“Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community. In Chicago a few years ago a little boy attended a Sunday school I know of. When his parents moved to another part of the city the little fellow still attended the same Sunday school, although it meant a long, tiresome walk each way.
A friend asked him why he went so far and told him that there were plenty of others just as good nearer his home.
“They may be as good for others, but not for me,” was his reply.
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because they love a fellow over there,” he replied.
If only we could make the world believe that we loved them there would be fewer empty churches and a smaller proportion of our population who never darken a church door. Let love replace duty in our church relations, and the world will soon be evangelized.”
Our vision reminds us that is the kind of church God wants us to be—A place where love replaces duty or structure or power or control in our relationships with others. A place where our true core compentency is love. A place where we can all be reminded to just “be a little nicer sometimes.”
Grace and Peace, my friends.
Scene from The Chosen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhCPoQAYNu0
This is the Life
This is the Life
This year marked a significant milestone in my life - my 50th birthday as a Christian - and I can say without equivocation, I am a bona fide product of the Christian life. Yes, there is a Christian life, and it is not unlike every other life in its highs and lows, troubles and triumphs, failures and successes, laughter and tears, except in one very significant way. It is a life that has been informed by the work of the Holy Spirit in me and through each of you.
I was very fortunate to find Christ as a teenager, because it exposed me very early in life to people who understood my struggles and my new-found desire to please the One who gave His life to save me and promised He would stay with me to the “very end of the age.” You see, with Christ we receive a new family with the God-given mission (Matt 28:20) to teach us to obey everything Jesus taught them and to walk in the footsteps He still leaves on the pathways of our lives.
It will always be a mystery to me why God has has chosen to pour His precious Spirit into flawed, cracked, and empty vessels like us, but He does. First, “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). He set aside His own divine privilege, so He could walk in our shoes and be tempted and suffer as we do, even unto death. Then when He had gone, He sent the Holy Spirit to us, so we could do as He did – immerse ourselves in our culture, being fully in it, but not of it – bringing with us the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). His presence is the key to the life of the church. It is in and through the church that Christ encounters, calls, transforms, equips, and sends His people into the world. He has called the church to (1) introduce salvation to those who don’t know him, and (2) to nurture the faith and edify the life of believers.
Last week, I began this three-part series by pointing you to the banners hanging on the eastern outside wall of our sanctuary. There are three of them and they read, “Light,” Life,” and “Love.” I explained that those banners describe the three elements of the NUMC church vision –
“To be the Light, Life, and Love of Jesus Christ.”
A vision is simply a statement of WHAT we are working to BE. It offers a view of what we wish to become and what we hope to be known for in the community. As I said last week, It is a leadership responsibility to articulate and cast a vision for the church, and it is our individual responsibility as members to interpret that vision in the light of what God is calling each of us to do to make it a reality. That can be a little challenging. What does it look like for a church to be the light, life, and love of Jesus Christ? It takes a lot of prayer, a lot of preaching, a lot of Bible study, a lot of service, and a lot of good discipleship to help us understand what the vision means to each of us and how it can inspire and energize our work.
I am doing this series in the hope that sharing my personal understanding might make that challenge less daunting for some. Last week, I began the series with the first element of our vision – Light. Today, I will continue with the second element - Life.
Here’s a heavy thought for you. Whether you totally get it or not, YOU and I are instruments for delivering His love and grace to the world, and that is our primary purpose. Whatever else we choose to do with the time we have here, there is no more pressing responsibility placed on our lives. When I open my daily calendar in the morning, the top priority on my to-do list better say, “be the hands and feet of Jesus in my world today.” I must do whatever it takes to remember I don’t just represent Jesus to this world. I bring Him. The “why” is simple - Jesus filled the church (that’s us) with His Spirit and put us here so He could be here.
So, here we are. What now? In last week’s blog, The Light of the World, I said that discipleship always begins with a rescue mission. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) gives us three clear tasks. The first is to go into world to make new disciples. We are to introduce the world to the saving grace of Jesus Christ and rescue them from the consequences of separation from God. Our second job is to baptize these new believers into the faith and family of God. The third task is to assume the life-long responsibility of teaching one another to obey His commands and to live the Christian life.
To put this process in life-cycle terms – the first two tasks are about birth or rebirth (we often refer to people in this stage as being born-again, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3-5). To me, this last task is about growing in that new birth. In fact, if I were sum up this last task in one word, it would be Growth.
So, the church that is Life will bring Growth. It will give the community a life-enriching alternative to the many competing systems that take far more from us than they will ever give. The church that is Life will build a place where learning and teaching is a priority and service is seen not just as a way of helping others, but as an opportunity to strengthen life-giving relationships. It will promote the Christian life, bringing people increasingly closer to their Creator as they age and offering a solid foundation and framework for overcoming the challenges common to us all, as well as the sins that beset us as individuals.
The church that is Life will provide a setting of openness and welcome; a place for dialogue, asking questions about life, sharing fears and concerns, and finding reasons for hope. It will allow believers to strategize together on how to engage the world in a better way to affirm all people, advocate for all people, and spread God’s message of love, acceptance, forgiveness and peace.
The church that is Life will facilitate a process of life-long growth that starts when we come to faith and does not stop until we go home to Jesus. I see the desire to be just such a church at NUMC, and I want to be certain I am doing everything I am called to do to help us realize this vision. As I regularly evaluate my readiness to support our vision, I find there are several areas where I am in continuing need of growth. They include:
• Teaching and studying the Word of God. The Bible establishes the foundation of everything we know about Jesus and His plan for humanity. Every one of the sixty-six books points the reader to Him in some way. How much do I need to know to teach His Word? Just a little more than the plethora of potential students in my life. I should also always study with the intention of teaching what I learn to someone else.
• Living as a witness to the peace and hope of the Christian life. I need to remember people are watching our lives closely. They know the genuine article when they see it. They also know the hypocrites when they see them. People sometimes ask why I wear the NUMC polo shirt almost everywhere I go. I assure you, it’s not because I’m a slave to fashion. To be candid, I wear it because the logo helps me remember whose I am in those many circumstances each day when I am prone to become frustrated and not so Christ-like. When I do fall short in my witness, I don’t want that to be last thing people see in me. I also want them to see that my failure is always followed by contrition and a desire for forgiveness.
• Teaching and coaching the next generation of the church. We are so blessed to have a church rich with seniors, who have significant experience living the Christian life. Sadly, I now find myself among them! What I love most about our seniors is their willingness to contribute the wisdom of their experience with the next (and next after that) generation. I want to be better at doing that the way they do – not through criticism or judgement, but by working side-by-side our younger people on every project we undertake.
• Offering and accepting loving accountability. I need to develop more relationships that are close enough survive the “rebuke of a brother.” We ALL need correction from time-to-time. Our zeal for Christ alone is enough to drive many of us over the line into behavior that hurts people or misrepresents Christ’s love for people. We will all sin and none of us should be willing to casually ignore or tolerate sin in someone we love – not just because it is repugnant to us, but more because of the damage it does to them. Christ has proven over and over the safest and most effective place for a loving rebuke is inside a healthy and trusting relationship.
• Engaging everyone in ministry and nurturing the growth of our future leaders. There should be no one sitting on the sidelines. I sat in amazement one morning about a year ago as I witnessed a man walk up to one of our previous staff members and say, “Is there anything I can do to help out today?” only to be told, “No, we’re good. We’ve got it covered.” I had to jump in and offer the man some work. Do I really have to say this in church – never turn down help! I want to always have something on my list that someone else can do. In fact this should probably be a list I publish somewhere! Service is at the very heart of discipleship. This is where we learn the most, grow the most, and love the most. Our young people are most eager to take up a cause and do some good. I want to give them all the opportunities they can handle, and one goal for me is to actively encourage more young people to consider careers in full-time ministry and missional service.
Whether it acknowledges it or not, our community is in a daily search for a spiritual mentor. Even with the current culture trying to convince us that the answers to our problems lie deep within ourselves, we instinctively know that’s not true. The church that is Life will be the spiritual mentor for a community that needs to know the Christian Life.
Jamel and I wrote a song about this Christian life. It’s called, “This is the Life.” My favorite verse is the one that describes how the Christian life lived on this earth changes our whole perspective on eternity. It goes like this:
Your mercies are fresh with every rising of the sun;
All things are new – another chapter has begun;
In a story that takes us to glory with Jesus as our Friend;
And happily-ever-after cause this story has no end.
Followed by the chorus:
This is the life you promised we would know.
This is the life of the redeemed;
You are the Way. You are the Truth.
And Jesus – this, this is the life.
I have lived it for fifty years. It is the only life I want to live. L’chaim!!
Grace and Peace, my friends.
Light of the World
"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is the Alaska Ranger. 5, 3, 5, 3 North, 1, 6, 9, 5, 8 West... We are flooding, taking on water in our rudder room."
It was 2:52 am on March 23, Easter morning, when Coast Guard Station Kodiak picked up the distress call from a point almost 800 miles west, in Alaska's frigid Bering Sea.
"Roger. Good copy on position... Request to know number onboard, over."
After a static-filled pause, the answer came through loud and clear: "Number of persons: 47."
Capt. Peter Jacobsen was in the crowded wheelhouse of the 189-ft. fishing vessel. When the trawler's emergency alarm had first sounded about an hour before, crew members descended below decks to see water rising fast in the ship's stern compartments. They had pulled out a pump, but the effort soon looked futile. Now Jacobsen, 65, a veteran captain who had been fishing in the Bering Sea for 23 years, was making calls to his ship's sister vessels, repeating the coordinates of the Ranger's position 120 miles west of the Aleutian Island port of Dutch Harbor.
Two hundred and thirty miles to the north, pilot Steve Bonn was in the middle of a late-night Xbox duel when the phone rang in the Coast Guard's tiny outpost on St. Paul Island. Bonn, 39, had served as an Army Blackhawk pilot before joining the Coast Guard eight years ago. He was now four days into a two-week shift at the isolated base, where squads of rescuers stand by for emergencies involving the nation's largest—and most danger-plagued—fishing fleet. Bonn rushed to the barracks to wake his crew. Within minutes, they had loaded into SUVs, sped through 3-ft. snow drifts to the hangar and were fueling up a 14,500-pound HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter.
Craig Lloyd, 46, captain of the Coast Guard cutter Munro, was on patrol near the ice edge south of the barren Pribilof Islands when the mayday call came through. He ordered engineers to switch the 378-ft. cutter from its standard diesel engines to Pratt & Whitney FT4A engines, similar to the ones that power Boeing 707s. Several of the 160 crew members onboard were jarred awake in their bunks as the 18,000-hp turbines kicked in, and the Munro began to sprint toward the sinking ship at a speed of nearly 30 knots, or 35 mph.
David Hull struggled to pull a bright-red survival suit over the sweats he had been sleeping in minutes before. The thick, neoprene "Gumby" suit, which looks a little like a child's footed pajamas, has a zipper up the front that is supposed to form a tight seal at the neck to keep the body dry. But as Hull stepped into the flopping legs of the oversize suit, he felt his thermal socks soak through. Inside, there was already standing water.
Hull had been asleep on his "rack" in the bunk room that he shared with three fellow fishermen when another crew member opened the door: "Get your suits on. We're flooding." Like the rest of the crew, Hull had reported to a muster station near his designated life raft on the ship's deck. Now the anxious men were cycling through 5-minute warmup shifts in the wheelhouse, where they could barely recognize each other in the bulky, hooded suits.
Outside, the deck was slick with ice, and waves were beginning to crest over the stern. The temperature was only 12 F. As Hull leaned against the front window of the wheelhouse, awaiting his turn, the Alaska Ranger went dark. Oddly, it seemed to shift into reverse. Then the trawler took a sudden, violent list to starboard. Hull lunged for an icy rail and held tight as crew members clinging to the rail below him gazed up in horror. "Don't let go, don't let go," he heard someone yell. If he lost his grip, Hull would hurtle down the deck like a bowling ball, knocking the men into the sea.
Amid the chaos, the captain issued the order: Abandon ship. The men struggled to launch the ice-crusted life rafts. They had been told that they would lower ladders to board the rafts in an emergency. But because the Ranger was moving astern, the rafts shot toward the bow instead of floating in place near the side of the vessel. Hull watched them drift away. Then he jumped. He swam for the closest raft, hauled himself in, then peered out of the tented shelter. All around, the lights attached to his friends' survival suits were spreading out in the 32 F water, blinking in and out of view as the men bobbed up and down in the 20-ft. swells.
One of those lights belonged to Ryan Shuck, a soft-spoken 31-year-old from Spokane, Wash., who had joined the crew of the Alaska Ranger 10 months earlier. Shuck had been one of the first to jump. He'd leaped from the middle of the ship—and was quickly sucked under and beyond his raft. Now he was farther downwind than anyone else. Gazing back in the trawler's direction, he could see the tiny, solitary beacons flickering among the waves and, by the light of the moon, the outline of the vessel bulging out from the ocean. Shuck watched as the bow of the Alaska Ranger turned up toward the sky. Eerily, the lights in the wheelhouse flickered on for a brief moment. And then, in a matter of seconds, the ship disappeared, sinking swiftly below the waves.
Not a movie, not just a story. Before dawn on March 23, 2008, the Alaska Ranger sank in America's deadliest waters. As 47 souls fought for survival, the US Coast Guard launched one of the most daring and dramatic rescues in history, saving all but five of them. If you want to read the whole story, pick up a copy of Kalee Thompson's book, Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History. The excerpt above is from an article she published in Popular Mechanics Magazine, June 30th, 2008.
I am a huge fan of the US Coast Guard. I served in the US Air Force for 12 years, and I am not ashamed to say the Coast Guard is my favorite of the US armed services. In my previous career, I held several contracts with the Coast Guard and became very familiar with the work they do both here at home and around the world. I know at least one of our church members, Rick Koch, is a Coastie and, if you know him, you know he represents very well the characteristic selflessness and bravery that flows freely in the veins of all his service brethren.
Because of my business relationship with the Coast Guard, I believe I have been made more acutely aware than the average American of stories like these. I have watched press conferences where rescued survivors described through tears the trials of despair they endured in the darkest of nights, the fears that welled over them like the waves that held them hostage; and the unspeakable joy of spotting that first tiny flicker of light on the horizon. The stories I heard may all have varied in detail, but one constant ran through them all. The grateful survivors always thanked the Coast Guard, but it was the Seamen who pulled them from the deep they all hugged and kissed. How could they not? When you think even for a moment of the risks these heroes take, the safety and security they gladly lay down, and all they sacrifice to save just one of us, all that’s left to feel is utter gratitude – for the rescuers and for the ones who sent them.
I think if the Apostle Paul had been called to start a service-related branch of government, he would have founded the US Coast Guard. I say that because of what I read in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 where Paul describes his determination to set aside his own rights, his own comforts, and his own glory for the benefit of others and reveals his strategy for making disciples for Christ in verse 22, “…I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”
You may have noticed the banners hanging on the eastern outside wall of our sanctuary. There are three of them and they read, “Light,” Life,” and “Love.” What you may not know is that those banners describe the three elements of the NUMC church vision –
“To be the Light, Life, and Love of Jesus Christ.’
A vision is simply a statement of WHAT we are working to BE. It offers a view of what we wish to become and what we hope to be known for in the community. It is a leadership responsibility to articulate and cast a vision for the church, and it is our individual responsibility as members to interpret that vision in the light of what God is calling us to do to make it a reality. That can be a little challenging. It takes a lot prayer, a lot of preaching, a lot of Bible study, a lot of service, and a lot of good discipleship to help us understand what the vision means to each of us and our work here – and once complete, all that must be done again, and again, and again, as we grow in our knowledge of and our service to the Lord.
It is a routine part of my walk to measure my calling with respect to our church vision, and I thought it might make that challenge less daunting for some if I shared my current approach and interpretation. I will do this in three installments of this blog from today through October, covering all three elements of our Vision statement. Today, I will start with the first element, Light.
For me, the church that is Light will bring Illumination. Where the Coast Guard mission depends on bringing physical light, the church’s light must illuminate much more than just our physical surroundings. It must shine into places we cannot see with our eyes. There is an effort in keeping that light as bright and as focused as possible, and I think my experience with the Coast Guard can offer some ideas that will make that effort more effective. Maybe I can follow their example and:
Do my homework. Whether I like to look at the world in its present condition or not, I must make the effort to understand the real problems and needs of my community. I need to understand more about the people that need God’s help and the environments into which He is calling me. I should know my neighbors, read the paper, stop avoiding social media, and get to work with others in my small groups to regularly engage with the community in some way. It is important to learn about my world and get to know the people in it.
Be prepared. A committed disciple will never stop growing and learning in Christ. I can keep my spiritual and physical muscles strong. Read that Bible, listen to that sermon, and be in church when the doors are open. Join a small group and combine all of the spiritual gifts in that group to build unstoppable teams. Train for those rescues that will occur and stay sober of mind and spirit.
Be in constant search for the hurt and lost. Stay tuned-in to hear the cries for help and to recognize the signs of danger. Use technology as a force multiplier and ask daily for discernment from the Holy Spirit to lead me to people and their needs. Remove those concerns in my own life that serve only to block my reception of the faintest of distress signals.
Run toward the suffering and unchurched offering help, encouragement, and the peace of the Gospel. Don’t just try to draw people to the church. The first action verb of our mission in Matthew 28:18-20 is “go” – so go out and get them. Yes, I abhor what social media has become, but that’s where the people are. So suck it up and get back out there. Find places on line and in town to get involved with unchurched people and take the love and grace of Christ with me. Be ready to drop what I am doing, anytime day or night, to answer the bell.
Remember the light I carry is to be shone on others, not on myself. Like Paul, set aside interest in my own comfort, safety, security – even be prepared to give my life – so others can be rescued, and as he demonstrated, “be all things to all people, so I might save some.”
Two verses later, in verse 24, Paul inspires us to press on with these words:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
I do not claim to know what that prize will be, but for me, I hope it will be walking through the gates of Heaven to find a long line of rescued souls waiting anxiously to throw their arms around my neck and to say “Thank you! – to me and to the One who sent me.
One of my very favorite songs is Lauren Daigle’s, “Rescue.” Perhaps, we can get Jamel to let Hailey Neely sing this song one Sunday. This is the last chorus of that song:
I will send out an army;
To find you in the middle of the darkest night, it’s true;
I will rescue you.
I will never stop marching;
To reach you in the middle of the hardest fight, It’s true;
I will rescue you.
Below is a link to this song for those who have not heard it.
That army she sings about…that’s us. As we carry out our mission to make disciples, we can never forget that every act of discipleship always begins with a rescue mission. As the Light of Jesus Christ, our church will be the spiritual first responder for our community, and – as we know from our own experience - that light we bring with us is the only one that can pierce those darks nights of the soul.
Grace and Peace, my friends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6xJxeaHODo
Why Am I Here?
Please forgive me as I begin this blog with a rundown of my credentials on the subject at hand. It is not intended to be self-serving, but merely a means of demonstrating some expertise in the arguments I will make here. I admit, there was a time in my recent past where that would not have been the case – a time when I was hard at work building a kingdom for myself. Today, the Lord has given me work that is worthy of His calling and the grace to live it out the words of Jeremiah 9:24.
“But let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the Lord who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the Lord.” AMP
So, I offer - as background only - the gifts and experiences He has given me to do His work, both in the church and in the culture. Whatever I have contributed to the world, I assure you it was only made possible by his grace and it is merely a fraction of the many failures His grace has overcome.
That being said, I will say I am an educated and experienced expert in organizational leadership. That is a factual, though not-so-humble-sounding, way of saying I know a lot about how organizations tick, how to turn them around when they are failing and how to help them grow when they are not. I started in this line of work as a business troubleshooter for a large corporation when I was thirty, helping revive struggling divisions across the company. That work evolved into a long and rewarding career as an organizational turn-around specialist.
This field in which I have practiced for more than 35 years, is where we get organizational concepts like mission, vision, core values, and strategy – words you may have recently heard around here at NUMC. Like most every organization in the world, we are implementing a formal approach to planning and growth, and I am very grateful for and proud of the work of our brother, Brad Williams, and the Strategic Planning Team he has been leading for about a year. In case you didn’t know, it was this team working with our amazing staff that codified the need for the renovation of Hildreth Hall as the new home of our children and youth ministries. If you haven’t been over there to see it, please stop by for a tour. It is quite spectacular.
As we venture into this process, however, I am given to pause and reflect on the question at the top of this blog – why am I here? I have done this work across the spectrum of organization types – mom and pop companies, small non-profits, Fortune 500 companies, state and federal government, private sector, and churches. Most of the projects were successful, but not all of them. I do not have any empirical data to prove my claim, but – in my experience – the group that has benefited the least from rigorous strategic planning is churches and the sharp decline in the church’s influence on our culture has been the result. It’s not because churches don’t try it. They do. Try to find a church in this area without a published mission and vision statement. So, why does it often not help?
I’ve heard many arguments, most of which attempt to draw sharp distinctions between spiritual and secular experiences and attack the folly of trying to use natural processes to effect supernatural change (which is NOT what strategic planning attempts to do). I don’t buy these arguments. I believe the answer is much simpler than all that. My theory is this – the success of any strategic plan is dependent upon the way leaders and working level members of any organization answer the critical question before us today – why am I here?
When I assess an organization, I ask participants to answer the question, “Why are you here?” I grade the answers in a range from Level 1 to Level 5 (a concept of leadership I learned in Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great.) Level 1 leaders and workers will always give answers like, “great pay and benefits,” “good working hours,” “nice people,” “close to home”, etc. As good as they might be at their jobs, these people are not truly “all-in” and will quickly change their viewpoints when the execution of strategic plans inconvenience them.
Level 5 leaders and workers will answer more like this - “I believe in the mission,” “I have found a sense of purpose here,” “I can contribute something good to the world,” “I make a difference,” and “I am called to this work in this place.” These folks are all-in.
Ask the average church member on any given Sunday why they come to any particular church and you are bound to get answers like, “I feel loved here,” “The people are so friendly and welcoming,” “The music is amazing,” “My kids love it,” or “My family feels safe and supported here.” All great answers and exactly what we want to hear from newer people - who Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians are here to be fed - but not from longer-term members who should not only be self-feeding, but feeding others, as well.
From them, we should expect to hear “This is where I have grown close to the Lord,” or “I found a place here where God can use my gifts, talents, and passions to bring the love and grace of Jesus Christ to a lost and hurting world.” If you ever hear anyone say something like that, get that person on a leadership track right away!
My theory postulates that the success of any church plan is based on the ratio of Level 5 to Level 1 participants who have been regular attenders for more than one year. That is why I have such great hope for the future of NUMC. I believe our ratio is very good! This is partially shown to me by our general response to the changes we have seen just in the past two months – and a lot has changed in that short time. Yet, with few exceptions, we have been able to set aside our individual parochial interests to accommodate the redemptive work we do - and wish to do - all across our community.
God has blessed us with people who are here for the mission. If you aren’t convinced, pay a visit to our Thrift Store, or sit down with our children and youth leaders. These people are all-in, Level 5 leaders and workers.
Thank you for being a church that is willing to take risks and break new ground for the sake of the Gospel. As we go forward, we will need everyone on the team. More changes are around the corner, I’m sure. I’m also sure our commitment to Christ’s ongoing mission here in Navarre and everywhere else will be tested again and again.
Why am I here? The short answer is to glorify God. God created us for His glory; our purpose is to glorify Him and, in this fallen world, to make Him known to others (Isaiah 43:7; Matthew 28:18–19). Of course, this is the answer that should always be in the hearts of Level 5 believers. So, our question today is one each of us should ask and pray about regularly. If you don’t want to do that, you can just wait for the inevitable day when our ever-evolving church plan brings some change that will affect you. Your response will tell you – and maybe others – exactly where you stand.
Grace and Peace!
Calling Big Jake
It may not be popular or politically correct in these posthumously judgmental and unforgiving times, but I am a big John Wayne fan. I guess it would be more accurate for me to say I am a big fan of the characters he played. Rooster Cogburn, Cole Thornton, Major Daniel Xavier Kirby, Col Davy Crockett, Wil Anderson, Col Mike Kirby, John Bernard Books, John Elder and more than one hundred and fifty others. The reason is not difficult to understand. As they did for so many other boys of my era, these characters had a great deal to do with teaching me what a man should be - tough on his enemies, loyal to his friends, a gentleman with women, and deeply committed to those he loves. We learned that men should always act with courage and honor, never shoot anyone in the back, and always be tough but fair, whatever the cost. To this day, I still have occasion to ponder how a John Wayne character might handle a situation in which I find myself. No - my WWJD bracelet is not about the “Duke,” but there are days when it could be.
It is difficult for me to choose one favorite John Wayne character, but clearly in the running is the man he played in the movie, Big Jake, Mr. Jacob McCandles. Released in 1971, Big Jake is not considered one of Wayne’s classics, but it has been a favorite of fans for more than fifty years. The Rotten Tomatoes summary of this movie goes like this:
“The avenging head of the McCandles clan returns to his estranged family and leads the search for his kidnapped grandson. Big Jake sets off, his sons in tow, to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers, but has little intention of handing it over without a fight.
It is a splendid movie with a great character, but that is not why I bring it up here. The real reason is a running dialog imbedded in the movie I could not get out of my mind during Annual Conference last week. You see, a major premise of the story is that Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles is generally thought to be dead, but he is really wandering the west as a gunfighter. So, there are several scenes where his character is told: “I thought you were dead,” to which McCandles responds in the negative, declaring: “Not hardly.”
It offers some light comedy relief for the movie, yes, but what in the world does it have to do with Annual Conference? Well, sometime during the conference, I read an on-line article that said the United Methodist Church was dead. Finding myself in one of those WWJD situations, I thought about the falsehood people were sharing with Jake McCandles and instinctively answered, “Not hardly!”
Our denomination is under attack by the enemy, and everybody knows it. When I tell someone I am Methodist, their eyes close, head bobs up and down and they say something like, “Oh, too bad what’s going on there.” They are right, but it is not as bleak as the tales on the grapevine would lead one to believe.
It’s true the last few conferences have been dominated by the dreaded “D” word – disaffiliation. For many churches, this issue has diverted attention away from Christ’s mission for the church and crippled ministry across the Annual Conference, but not everywhere, and certainly not here. While the media was on the outside portraying us all as going for one another’s jugulars, inside our Conference last week I witnessed God’s people disagreeing with civility, love, and grace in keeping with the spirit of Ephesians 4:31 – 5:2, which says:
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
And now, a new “D” word is taking hold in our Conference – discipleship! Here are a couple of examples.
We learned last month that AWF Conference has launched a new Ministry Strategy Team and appointed our District Superintendent, Jean Tippet, as its Director. Rev. Tippet’s team of “ministry cultivators” will lead our conference in planting new faith communities, as well as coaching our existing churches to reach new people in new ways. There are already eleven new ministry startups in progress, two of which are being spearheaded by former NUMC ministers. Check out https://www.awfumc.org/newsdetail/new-beginnings-two-churches-launch-to-serve-communities-offer-hope-17274744
I also ran into a former NUMC Associate Pastor at the conference. She is currently serving a church in the Florida Conference that chose not to disaffiliate despite the urging of its leadership. When disaffiliation failed there, the pastor and some of the leaders started a new church in the same town and took some of the old congregation with them. Today, these two churches are cooperating – working together to serve the needs of their community, while maintaining personal relationships and ministry connections – and both churches are growing! What the enemy meant for harm; God will use for good (see Gen 50:20).
The media does not understand. The United Methodist Church will not be going away. Out of death comes new life. That is at the heart of every Christian’s story, and I believe it will also be at the center of the UMC story. So, take those stories that say, “those Methodists are destroying themselves” or “that whole denomination is imploding” or “the UMC is dead,” with a grain of salt. I can confidently say, “Not hardly!”
Grace and Peace