Effortless Education

I believe there are two types of learners. There are those who sit on a couch, at a desk, in a classroom, or on a campus, and wait for some new knowledge or revolutionary idea to come sit next to them and tell them about herself. Then there are those who go find knowledge and ideas, yank them out of bed and badger them until they understand and can apply that knowledge in a beneficial way.

I think that in one form or another we all fall into one of these two stereotypes. Now, I realize they are stereotypes and no stereotypes are 100% true, but allow me to take a bit of liberty here. I think that this generalization, if applied to everyone, would show a distinct difference between people, both current and historic, who are making a difference and who are not. If there is one thing that everyone who has ever done anything great has in common it is a lack of apathy when it comes to bettering themselves. They all have a "go out and get it" attitude instead of "wait till it gets here" one.

It is very easy nowadays to think of education as someone else's responsibility. It is either our teacher, or pastor, or mentor, or boss's job to make sure we are learning. That is simply not true. It is their job to make sure that there are constantly things that you can access easily to learn. The onus for education is primarily on the learner. This does not mean that teachers have no responsibility. It is their job to teach things in ways that facilitate learning and lend themselves to the context of the learner, but it is not their job to make that knowledge make a difference, and it is impossible for them to do so.

If we truly take seriously the call on each of our lives to become the best that we can be so that we can serve Christ the best that we can we must ask ourselves a few important questions.

What am I doing right now to become all that I can be?

Am I seeking knowledge or waiting for it?

Who am I seeking out to learn from?

Who is my accountability?

What difference is the knowledge I have making on myself and those under my influence? 

Discipleship and Parenting

First off, I'm not a parent, and I'm very happy with that. Part of my job description is to give teenagers Jesus and a RedBull and give them back, and I like it like that.

But there is a lot to be learned about parenting from working with teenagers, and I'm beginning to see distinct  parallels between parenting and discipleship. (maybe that's why the writer of Proverbs said to train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it. Maybe you could read it as: disciple your children in the way they should go and they will not depart from it.)

Lately I've been rereading a book from college called The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert Coleman. The book lays out piece by piece the plan of Jesus to reach the world. You could sum it up simply by saying God's plan to evangelize the world is by making disciples. In chapter 5, specifically, the author talks about demonstration. He basically claims that one of the keys to Jesus' discipleship was that he let people watch the way he lived.

In other words the heart of discipleship lies in living your life alongside someone so that they can emulate you. If 2 +2 still makes 4 then I'd bet the people we disciple the most are our spouses and our children.

The terrifying fact of the matter is that children and teens are sponges. They absorb everything. They either become just like the adults they are regularly around or they rebel against them, and the funny thing is that more often than not when someone rebels against something, they still emulate it.

Humans will become like whatever they feel the strongest towards, and teenagers feel the strongest towards their parents, in one way or another.

Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world." I would say "Be the person you wish your child (disciple) to become, because, more than likely, you are the person they will become."

Granted there are anomalies, children who push back against unhealthy parents and healthily become something different, but those children usually had another mentor to facilitate that.

The most powerful tool for changing a life and changing the world is becoming someone worth watching, and then letting someone watch. Let someone watch you succeed and watch you fail, and let them watch the grace of Christ lift you back up to keep pursuing Him. 

Hypocrisy and elephants.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the elephant in the room in the church. Nearest I can surmise the issue is the same thing we have been talking about as long as I can remember... the church is full of hypocrites. Same old very valid argument I have heard from jaded, frustrated, or uninterested people against the church. We don't live up to what we claim to be. For all of the holiness and morality we stand by we don't quite make the mark every time, and, let's be real, when the bar is where we have put it even the best of tries looks pretty pathetic.
So here's to the traditional response. The church needs to liven up! We need to be better. We need to love Jesus more, help poor people more, be abstinent more, and give more away. We also need to gorge ourselves less, look at porn less, cuss when we hit our toes less, and have road rage less. We need to be better.

Seems like we're trapped in a vicious cycle of raising the bar, but not quite making it so raising it higher.

And that's the most logical way to improve our image. That and hire more attractive worship leaders for good PR.

I think we have it backwards. We've spent so long denying that Christians are hypocrites and trying to do better, and frankly the world sees straight through our facade. We've forgotten the ever present fact that Christians have not arrived, we are all in route. We are all broken fallen people who have lots of issues that, by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, we are working on, and by His grace and mercy we are forgiven. We're not less broken and wounded than the world, we've just been found by the healer and we're on the mend. We still limp.

I believe, as a young and opinionated and inexperienced pastor, that the best thing the church can do for it's PR is to stop trying to do what we say and start saying what we do.

I am not implying that we should stop trying to be moral, have less road rage, give more, look at porn less, and love Jesus more. We are called to abstain from sin. We just forget that we didn't beat sin, Jesus did, and We can't be sin, Jesus did.

The elephant in the room would be much smaller if we realized one very important thing: Of course the church is full of hypocrites... you and I are in it.

Isaiah 64:6

Against being Against.

I think that you are wrong, I love you, but I am convinced that what you are doing is sinful and you shouldn't do it.

...

Do you remember that I said I love you? Or do you remember that I said you're wrong?

Lets try again.

I think that there is something far greater for you than what you are doing right now. I love you and think that what you are doing is harming you because it is holding you back.

...

Do you remember that I care about your well-being? Or do you remember that what you're doing is wrong?

It makes sense that when something that defines you is attacked you feel defensive, but when you are looked out for you feel safe. That is logical and human.

Maybe we miss that in the Christian world.

I wonder how many people have been won into the kingdom of God because Christians are against something? I wonder how many people have thought "Man! I want to see what they're all about because they are against abortion!"

There are things worth fighting for. There are things that damage lives and society that should be stopped. I will always be against substance abuse and divorce. But it is not because I hate cocaine or people with commitment issues.

It is because I am for life free of bondage and love that is selfless and pure.

Christians will never win a war fought against sin, abortion, hate, slavery, or same sex marriage. No one will change because you think they are wrong. But we will stand a chance when we stand for hope, life, freedom, and family. People will change because you can offer them something more beautiful and fulfilling.

We are against so many things. Things like sex, drugs, anorexia, porn, old boring churches, bad theology, old hymns, new choruses, bad lighting, "rock n roll" stage lighting, and each other. No wonder people don't see us as loving and kind. No so many think Jesus is against them instead of for them. We are so busy hating sin (and things that we dislike) we barely love sinners.

We must stand firm. We must stand for. We must not stand against.

The most abrasive thing about a Christian should be the love of Christ that exudes from their very being. If there is something louder and more attractive than this about them then they are distracting from Christ.

- Being against something will never move us any farther than whatever we are pushing against.
- If we are against, we will be known for being against and remembered for being against and no one will see why we were against. (how many of us know more about PETA than that they hate killing animals? I sure don't...)
- When we stand against something we will lose all influence when what we are against changes, moves, or disappears. (How much do you hear about Westboro Baptist when they aren't picketing? very little. How much influence does Martin Luther King still have after his dream has begun to come true, even posthumously? immeasurable amounts.)

Even when the world ends, Christ has returned, and the world is set right Love will still be here and we will still stand for it.
Be known for what you are for. Lead people somewhere. Lead to a place, for a purpose, to bring about a great change that will last.

Do not lead against something, because when that wall is torn down you will have no where to go.

Another Blog on Leadership

It seems like everywhere I look today I find another book, podcast, blog, or tweet about leadership. Especially in the church world. People are writing about everything you can imagine, leading change, growing your church, creative culture, engaging culture, reaching the unchurched, leading a team, and really anything else that falls under the vague and broad spectrum of church leadership. I guess I'm just adding to the noise.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it takes to be a good leader. I've been working on developing a program to train leaders through my church and this has forced me to step outside of my small perspective and think about what it truly is that enables a person to become a good leader.

The more I think and pray and read about this the more one idea is takes root in my mind: DO NOT lead from what you know. Lead from who you are.


This idea is illustrated poignantly in Acts 19 with the story of the Sons of Sceva. These men had a knowledge of who Jesus was based on the teachings of another man, but when they attempted to put that knowledge into practice it had no power. The demon responded that he knew Jesus and Paul, but did not know them. These men were acting from a knowledge of Jesus, not from an identity in Jesus.

My first priority as a leader is to become what it is I am trying to teach. Personal development is essential to being a good leader. I cannot lead what I do not live. I cannot take you where I have not been. In  the church world this means losing myself in Christ and in His love for me and for His church. Then when I am caught up in that love I can lead, because I am leading from what is natural for me to do, not what someone told me I should do. This principle applies to all areas of leadership, not simply the church. Lead from who you are. If who you are now is not what you want to lead others to then first develop yourself. Then you can be a guide, not a textbook.

Think Forward, Look back, Act now.

People are reactionary.
Human beings very seldom take drastic action apart from some action or initiating force that they respond to. This fact is present in most areas of life. We get angry because something happens to us that causes a negative reaction. We take action in defense of life in reaction to abortion. We go to war against terrorism when our country is attacked. We come to the altar when we hear a truth that convicts us. We take drastic religious action, positive or negative, because we are reacting to the message we hear, see, and experience.
People are reactionary.
The giant issue with reactionary thinking is that reaction is almost instant, generally poorly thought out, and directly related to whatever we are reacting to. For instance, someone bumps into me on purpose and doesn't apologize, I instantly get offended and ask for an apology which they do not give. When I do not receive an apology I feel attacked push them back without thinking about what would be best for everyone involved, in the end I wind up getting put in the hospital because I pushed a martial artist simply because he bumped me and didn't apologize. My reaction started instantly with being offended which led me to act offensively without thinking the entire situation through, and my action was solely based on the initiating action of the "bumper."
This is a hypothetical situation but I believe it  embodies many of the interactions we have on a regular basis and more importantly I think it embodies the way people throughout history, and in the church specifically have interacted.

If we look throughout the history of the church generally what we will see is a reactionary pendulum that is swinging back and forth with every great change that has taken place in the church. The most obvious example of this pendulum is the reformation. During this time in church history change needed to take place. Change was necessary. But what we see in the history books is that instead of taking slow calculated action to bring about constructive change we reacted to the wrong we saw and tore the whole building down instead of filtering through the structure to find what was sound.

In more recent history we can see reactions from Boomers to millennials in the church, from modernists to post-modernists, from traditional to contemporary to whatever we would call the current popular church genre. Each new generation looks back before us at something that was done wrong and we react to it. In this drastic reaction we instantly act, without thinking it through well, and we act based solely on the item causing the reaction. And when we react instead of act we always swing to the other side on our pendulum and set the next generation up to do the same thing to us.

These are my questions in all of this: Where are we swinging to?  What are we reacting to instead of acting on? What are we setting up the next generation to react to? and How can we lead in a way that allows the next generation to build on what we have done instead of tear down what we created?

Whenever God interacted with the Israelites in the Old Testament He was proactive and not reactive. When His people would sin against Him and forget all that he had done he acted based on His prior covenants that told clearly of the punishment for such actions, He acted based on His character and for His glory, and He acted on behalf of the generations to come. God never wiped out Israel, He brought punishment and necessary change so that the next generation could have a foundation to build on and return to Him. He was acting now based on the past for the future.

As leaders we must be forward thinking. When we loose sight of where we are going we become stagnant, but we must also look back. When we bring about change we must look back and ask if we are reacting to something we didn't like or acting to build on a foundation. Are we throwing out years of truth because of one severe wrong that we see? When we create models, lead people, build structures, and whatever else we do we must do so knowing that change will come. We must lay a foundation that the next generation can work with instead of building a structure they will just have to tear down.
Finally, we must act now. The beautiful thing about church history is that no mistake anyone has ever made has messed up God's plan or blessing on the church. He still uses us even when we don't get it right. For all the times we have had to tear down and rebuild God still has His hand on us and He still chooses us. The worst thing we can do is nothing.

First Step to Leading Change

Change is one of the hardest things to lead or be a part of in ministry. People, on the whole, don't really like change at all. We all get set in routines and blocked in to the way things always are and when something gets in the way of that routine it messes everything up.
I think that potentially the reason we dislike change so much is that it is virtually impossible to just make a small change, or for a change to just affect one area of life. We change what time we get up which changes how quickly we have to shower which changes how late we are to work which changes the mood our boss is in all day which changes the mood we are in when we get home to relax and spend time with family which changes the time we go to bed that night.
Even little changes seem to have drastic effects on life, so it makes sense that people would not be too excited about change, especially if they don't have a say in what it is that changes.

It seems that there is a deeper issue embedded in the hearts of people than simply a dislike for changing.

There is something inside of us that causes us to balk at the idea of having the routine broken and the normality upset.We see this illustrated beautifully in the story of the rich young ruler. A young eager man runs up to Jesus asking him what it is that he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds with an answer the man would have been thrilled to hear. "You know the commandments, follow them!". That was nothing new. He had being doing that since he was a boy, he probably did that out of habit and knew the laws inside and out. Jesus next words would have been crushing. "Then sell all you have, give the money to poor, and follow me."

Jesus did not ask him to do some extreme act of penance.  That would not have been all that out of the ordinary. He did not tell him to simply donate a large amount of money to the poor, it could be expected that this man gave regularly of his possessions. He told him to sell all that owned and follow. That is the key. This was not just a man who owned many things, this was a man who owned much land. The word translated as possessions or properties (ktema) is directly defined as property, lands, or estates. Jesus was asking him to give up his normality, the place and things that made him comfortable, to follow someone that was unpredictable.

It seems that the root of issue of change is not helping people accept a new idea, but guiding people in a lifestyle of constant change. Guiding people in a lifestyle that holds loosely to the things that make us comfortable and tightly to He that makes us righteous.

As pastors and leaders we must understand that it is not simply carnality that holds people back it is fear. It is not malicious intent that causes some to undermine and some to refuse to budge, it is a brokenness that is found in all of us manifested in the desire to be in control and the refusal to step into the unknown. Those that are complacent and hypocritical are just as loved and are offered the same grace by Christ as those that the complacent are judging and the hypocritical are condemning. We must also understand that we are just as likely to refuse change as they are. When we hold so tightly to our new plans and visionary goals that we cannot follow an unpredictable Savior down an unknown path we embody the mindset of the rich young ruler. We have many possessions that make us comfortable, and we rely on them.

The story of the rich young ruler ends with Jesus explaining how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. I wonder if he was referring less to those physically rich and more to those who's hearts say "I am rich and in need of nothing." We who spiritually refuse let go of control and follow the unpredictable, yet completely trustworthy, Savior.

The first step to leading change is living a lifestyle of change. Living a lifestyle that only holds tightly to one thing, and that is Christ. The steps that follow are the steps of the Savior.

And the only thing harder than leading change is following something that is changing. 

Identity

We live in a world that is doing everything it can to define us. We are surrounded by things telling us who we are, what we do, and who we want to be. Whether it's a Nike add, a song on the radio, a movie, or any number of other things it is hard to go anywhere without being forced to question whether or not we are comfortable, confident, and content with who we are.
It's hard to be any of those things. It's really hard to be confident in the abilities I have been given when I have not and will not be able to do the things that I see around me bring happiness and honor.
It's hard to be comfortable with myself when my self doesn't look very much like his self and his self is the one everyone is talking about.
It's hard to be content. We are told that we should never be content with how we are because we could always be something better. We could do more. We could be more successful. We could be more athletic.
I could be a better teacher. I could have a bigger business. I could have a faster growing ministry. I could... I could... I could...
But every time I get anywhere I find out that I'm not quite where I could be, because I could still go even farther than I thought I should a few months ago.

The fact is I am told what I should be and could be, and create what and who I want to be, because I am not happy with who I was created to be.

In fact, I don't even know who I was created to be.

Because I barely know Him in whose image I was created.

In Genesis chapter 3 we find a chilling story that sets a trajectory for the rest of time and sets the foundation for this confusion that we continue to live in. Here we find the story of the very first sin, and the very first lie ever spoken to humanity. In this story Eve is not given a piece of fruit that pollutes her mind she is told that her identity is in question. Adam, beside her, hears the same lie, and so begins the downward spiral that is the fall of humanity. The first lie ever spoken was a lie of identity. The serpent told Adam and Eve that they could be something more than God created them to be.

And to this day that lie is seeping through the world around us blurring and distorting the grace of God and convincing us that we need to do more and be more and say more than we are now because we are not what we could be. When really the greatest we could ever be is nothing more than looking into the eyes of Jesus and accepting His redemption.

We are convinced, even as Christians, we are not good enough. We constantly falter between being incredibly unsatisfied with who we are and being incredibly arrogant with who we are. We seem to either be convinced that we are worthless and no one needs us, or that we are glorious and in need of nothing. Whichever place we fall in we must realize that what we need is to see God, because it is His image in which we were created and we will never know who we are and be confident in that until we know who He is and are confident in that.

We can be nothing more beautiful or powerful than who God created us to be. It is His image we bear and it is His glory we carry. Our identity is not wrapped in what we do, but in what was done for us, in the love of Christ.

The only way to find ourselves is to seek Jesus, and seek Him with all our hearts. What we find then will truly satisfy.

New Things

I love new things. New cars, new clothes, new music, new climbing gear, new anything. Even used things that are new to me. I even like things I just bought from goodwill that aren't anywhere near "new" they are just new to me. I love new things.
I think God loves new things too. He created a world brand new. He made a covenant, then He made a new covenant. He made people, and he made people who continually make new people. In fact He created a world that is continually creating and producing and changing and renewing. It seems that God finds beauty in new things. But I think there are things more beautiful to God than new things, and I think there are things that compel humanity to more awe and wonder than new things. I think the greatest beauty is found in renewed things, in redeemed things.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says that in Christ we are new creations. The old has gone. The new has come. It's beautiful. But it's not beautiful because a new thing is born, it's beautiful because something is being re-born. Something is being renewed.
There is little on earth that rivals the birth of a child, new life, except for the renewal of life. The only thing in life that is more beautiful than a child entering this world is a human entering new life.
The only thing that is more beautiful than a new place, is a renewed place.
The only thing more beautiful than a new anything, is the old one renewed.
There is something deep inside of every human that loves seeing something that is broken being fixed and renewed. As much as we love new things we long to see that which is already here become all it could ever be. In our hearts lies a dream of redemption, and it is a slight glimmer of the heart of God still found in us. Even in the depths of our fallenness we can see the image of God, and that is beautiful.

I'm about to start something new. I'm moving across the country to a new city and new church and new friends. But really I'm just in a renewal process that will continue as long as a live. God wants to renew things in this church and city, but he also wants to renew things in me.

I'm excited about new things, new horizons, but I'm more excited to see the remnants of the image of God being renewed in a church and in a people and in me. I'm going to a new place that has been there for a long time. We are just being made new.

The Old is Gone.
The New is come.