Tiger ...

Here he comes ... and the rest of them know it ...

It is still alive

About 5 or 6 years ago I was asked to write a book helping churches rethink their strategy. I thought it dead by now, but John Gardner told me today that some of the new materials sent out by LifeWay are promoting the book again.

We had worked with many churches across the country and several on an intense level locally to help them re-think who they were and how they were going to accomplish their mission. I was honored to be asked to write the book. I hope some churches have found it helpful.

But here's the thing. If you have ever written a book, you know what I mean. There are some things I would change if I were writing on the same subject today. But once you put it in writing and it is published, there is no retraction. The changes would not be dramatic, but there are some adjustments I would make to the content. Anyway, sounds like the LifeWay team feels it is useful enough to continue to provide it to churches.

You can read a synopsis and gander at the cover here. It's my only book ... so far :-)!

Preparation for the Inevitable

I shared something last night at the end of our Bible study I will share here. We are studying the life of Abraham. We were in Genesis 23 last night where Sarah (the life long wife of Abraham) died and Abraham mourns and walks through the funeral arrangements and the funeral.

God's timing is impeccable. I was to leave the Bible study time to be with a couple who had lost an adult son. So, as you would imagine, my mind really was on death, dying, and things related. Not necessarily a pleasant subject, but a necessary subject. As I stated last night, statistics are astounding ... 1 out of every 1 person will die!!

Fact is, most of do all we can to avoid discussions about the subject though every one of us will face it (if Christ does not return before). I closed the study with several thoughts on preparation for death.

1. Get comfortable with the idea of death. It's going to happen. Talk about it with your family. Of course you don't want this to be the subject at every meal. In fact, you probably don't want to talk about it at meal time at all. But, I can't tell you how many funerals I have been a part of in which the family is scrambling to put together thoughts and plans for something they have not thought about, but now make decisions in the midst of grief.

2. Get your house in order. Is your living will up to date? Is your insurance in place? If you are a parent of a younger child, do you have it clearly spelled out as to who will take care of the children should something happen? Does your spouse know where to find all the information they will need to contact insurance companies, banks, etc.?

3. Clear up relationships. Unresolved anger, unforgiveness, bitterness all make things complicated when someone passes away. This might be the biggest issue of all. If you have been distanced from a family member do your best to mend the relationship.

4. Build your friendships now. If you lose someone you love, you don't want to be left alone. If you are in a church, connect to those in some kind of small group or Sunday School class. If you lose someone you love, they can support you.

5. Prepare spiritually. Ask yourself if you are prepared to confidently stand before God. Will you spend eternity in heaven? Are you sure? On what basis are you sure? One nano second on the other side of death's door is too late to find out the answer to this one. Prepare spiritually.

I know this may not be the most uplifting post you read today, but it could be the most important.

Guilty as charged

This may only make sense to pastors, their wives, and their children ... but I stand guilty as charged. This is funny ... but not as funny as my wife thought it was :-).

This is all I know about this video. I picked this comment up from the blog from which it was sent to me.
"This video was produced for an annual church retreat where the Florida Hospital Church enjoys a Saturday night program geared to laughing at themselves. Last year's "Adventist All-Star Trading Cards" was produced for the same reason. Stanley Pomianowski is the gifted media producer for both, and Caitlin Rushing (the fiance' of a member) is the extremely talented singer on this year's video."

A good read ...

Most of you know I was part of the LifeWay team before coming to ClearView. Here is a post recently posted by Dr. Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay. A big amen from me on this one! The constant pull is to go another direction. I appreciate the affirmation this gave me today as I discovered Dr. Rainer's article. You can find it in its original location here.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., 5/5/08 -- I would consider pastoral malpractice among the greatest treasons a minister can commit against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, it is practiced weekly without inhibition.
What do I mean by pastoral malpractice? I mean ministers who stand and preach a gospel other than God’s rightful need for punitive justice against our sin and His wrath being appeased by pouring out upon Christ judgment intended for us. He in turn sets us in right legal standing before Himself, through faith in what Jesus has done, while simultaneously giving to us His holy righteousness.

Regrettably, too many evangelical churches have become centers for motivational speaking where congregants learn that "God helps those who help themselves;" that sin is something that keeps us from reaching our full potential, not an infinite offense against the Creator who demands from His creation unblemished righteousness.

The apostle Paul tells us that humans inherently know we are separated from God by our sin and we try to suppress that truth through drugs, sex, greed, power, alcohol, etc. Sadly, too often when desperate individuals arrive in our churches looking for a solution they get messages about how to improve their lives or their relationships, but the Gospel is absent in the remedy. J.I. Packer, in his quintessential work, Knowing God, correctly writes:

"We have all heard the Gospel presented as God’s triumphant answer to human
problems – problems of our relation with ourselves and our fellow humans and our
environment. Well, there is no doubt that the Gospel does bring us solutions to
these problems, but it does so by first solving a deeper problem – the deepest
of all human problems, the problem of man’s relation with His Maker. And unless
we make it plain that the solution to the former problems depends on the
settling of this latter, we are misrepresenting the message and becoming false
witnesses of God."

The reality is that fewer people are showing up in our churches to get even a watered down Gospel because the age of attractional evangelism is rapidly dying, as recent research shows. It is not enough to throw the doors open and shout at the culture, "Come in." Gospel malpractice goes beyond the pulpit and is a trait of a complacent church that limits the mandate of the Great Commission to an invitation to come when we are clearly told to "Go!"
How contemporary is Paul’s letter to Timothy?

"But know this: difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be
lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without
self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of
religion but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:1-5; HCSB).

I believe with every fiber of my being that the transformation of the church lies within the pages of the Bible. If individuals and churches are going to become effective incarnational witnesses in culture we must dig in. Paul, again to Timothy, says:

"…you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to
instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is
inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting,
for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped
for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

How my heart pleads with God to transform our churches to being training and equipping centers that send people out into culture to be Jesus’ ambassadors. I’m not talking pious moralists who point people to their sins, but servants who through humility and loving relationships point people to an all-sufficient Savior.
We must meet people in their context, but we must share the Gospel. Morality does not reconcile people to God; it comes through the Gospel of Christ.