The Beautiful Mess of Discipleship

Here’s something that I’ve been mulling over lately.

The Church is a messy place.  Don’t ask me how, but as leaders in the Church we have perfected the duplicitous thought that perfection is a requirement for leadership.  While 1 Timothy, Titus and other scripture lay out some very important ground rules for leadership, perfection is not one of them.  In fact, if it were we’d all be in big trouble!

I’ve found that as a Pastor it is sometimes easier to dismiss someone as not fit for leadership simply because their personality doesn’t jive with my own.  The same is true in relationship to my own calling.

As I hone in on my true calling as a Pastor (the great commission to “make disciples”), I’m realizing that the very act of dealing with personality conflict is part of the discipleship process.  It’s part of me becoming more like Christ and it’s part of them becoming more like me (in Christ).  To use a cliche song lyric, it’s really just a big “beautiful mess”.  So I’m finding myself repeating this phrase over and over in regards to myself and my leadership teams…

“Don’t confuse personality conflict with divine calling… or lack thereof.”

Hilarious Japanese Soccer Video

I haven’t posted anything in a while.  I really wanted to launch into a new season of blogging now that seminary is filling my head with so many amazing thoughts and ideas on God and life in His kingdom.  But this was too good to pass up.

I feel like life in the kingdom of God is sometimes like this.  You can see it, but it’s so hard to fully comprehend.  The unfortunate part is that because of our inability to completely understand God’s ways people continuously get hurt by our mistakes.  And then we’re too busy trying to find the ball and make the next play to even stop and see if they’re okay.

We must come to understand that in God’s kingdom people are more important than programs and relationships always supersede religion.

Thanks Vince

catalyst west forgotten – craig groeschel

craig groeschel

Wow… finally, the last of the Catalyst West Forgotten series.  I’m ready to talk about something else, as I’m sure you are as well.

I’ve got to tell you though, Craig Groeschel in particular impressed me more than any other.  I really believe that I’ve saved the best for last.  Then again, it could just have been because I just finished reading ‘Crazy Love’ by Francis Chan and ‘The Barbarian Way’ by Erwin McManus.  Here’s what I mean….

I was taught and I thought the Church was supposed to be a safe place.

It’s time for the Church to become dangerous again!

Let the word drive the creativity, not the other way around.

Don’t trust the package…  Trust the power of God.

I was taught and I thought ‘build the Church’.

Build the Kingdom!

Be a Kingdom Player…

Be good at what you do, not what others do!

Unite the Church.

I was taught and I thought that success was only found in the big numbers.

Get the right people doing the right thing!  Even if your numbers decrease.

Don’t blame yourself for the decline or you’ll be tempted to take credit for the increase.

3 types of Christians in our Churches today…  We want to get people to line 3
1. I believe enough to benefit
2. I believe enough to contribute comfortably
3. I believe enough to give my life

What kind of message am I preaching?

catalyst west forgotten – perry noble

Perry Noble

I’ve heard a lot about this guy over the years.  His Church is blowing up.  The reality is, he wasn’t anything like I had envisioned him.  Way more down to earth and incredibly funny.  Here’s what I got from his time at Catalyst West…

The size of the vision that God will give you is directly related to the amount of pain you are willing to endure.

Ezekiel – We always want to go to the place that is already rockin’ instead of building a place that is/will be rockin’.

1. Trust Him
Dryness will alwayslead you to desperation…  That’s why you are where you are…  And when you’re desperate, you are forced to go back to your first calling.

Have you ever prayed for God to move the storm?

2. Believe Him
You have never waited on God!  He’s waiting on us!!!

I didn’t bring you here so you can wait until a better gig comes along.  I brought you here to preach to these dry bones so that they may come to life!

We have nothing to fear if we truly believe that God is sovereign.

3. Don’t be obsessed with discovery rather than development.  Get obsessed with development rather than being discovered.

Leadership is as easy as listening to God!

We don’t have a 3 year plan…  We don’t have one!

God lead Moses one step at a time…

Get more concerned about repentance than attendance.

What would you be willing to attempt for God if You knew you couldn’t fail?

We’re obsessed with everything but the supernatural.

catalyst west forgotten – francis chan

Francis Chan

Okay… so this is why I love Francis.  When he speaks, he says one thing and he says it well.  No holds barred, engaging and to the point.  Just check out his blog… no frills, just blogging.  Love it!!!

So that being said, here are my notes from his session.

Me – There is a spirit of timidity in our Churches today.  But God didn’t give us a spirit of timidity…  hmmm…

Francis – Pray for boldness…

It’s all up to God!

catalyst west forgotten – rick warren

Rick Warren

I have to confess that since my Calvary Chapel roots are so deep I’ve never really been a big Rick Warren fan.  Over the last few years I’ve learned to respect him (how can you not respect a guy whom God has used to reach so many people…?  duh!) and at this conference when Andy Stanley interviewed him he pretty much won me over.  Here are the notes…  brilliant!

You cannot win your enemies to Christ…  but you can win your friends!

@ Saddleback this year there were 50,000 people @ Easter Services, over 100,000 names on the roster @ Saddleback, 2600 new people in the last 2 weeks and they’ve baptized over 1,000 people in that last 2 weeks.

A lot of people would rather be cute than effective

Pastors should…

Divert Daily – what re-energizes you?  If you work with your mind, divert with your hands (garden)
Withdraw Weekly – take a day off (Sabbath)
Abandon Yearly – don’t take your laptop or cellphone…

You cannot build a healthy Church fast..  You can gather a crowd but a crowd is not a Church.

It’s not Rick’s way, it’s Jesus’ way

Never compare to anyone else, but learn from everyone

Everything didn’t start in 1990!

“…3rd most educated place in America!  And yet the simpler I preach the more God blesses it!”

Purpose never changes, but terminology does!  “I hate the term ‘Purpose Driven’”

To move people from unbeliever to missionary you must have an incremental plan!

“Come and see”  Start there and begin to turn up th heat…  “You’re my disciple if you eat my flesh and drink my blood…  Take up your cross…  Come and die!”

Are you a come and see Church?  A come and die Church?  Or all of the above…?

catalyst west forgotten – nick vujicic

No Arms, No Legs

Ummm…  Wow!

That’s pretty much all that I can say about Nick.

Here are my notes from his presentation…  not a whole lot because I was pretty much speachless.

“I’d be dishonoring God if I didn’t believe that I was here to change the world!”

1. Pray – There was a study done with 10,000 couples who were ready for divorce.  They comitted to 40 days of prayer together for 5 minutes.  Only 1 couple actually got a divorce!

2. Thank God

3. Trust God

So pretty much everything that came out of his mouth made me say…  “wow”.

See for yourself.

catalyst west forgotten – Brian Houston

Brian & Bobbie Houston

First off, let me say that United rocked the house on Thursday.  And then their Pastor spoke and rocked my heart!  Here are the notes…

“Be a Church Builder instead of a Church Critic”

1 Chornicles 22:5-7 “I had it in my heart to build a house for God”

1 Kings 9:3-4 “My eyes and my heart will always be there”

Psalm 42:5 “a festive throng”

“don’t waste your energy trying to build the house that God said He would build…”

Catalyst West Forgotten – Judd Wilhite

Judd Wilhite

So the second message I forgot about was Judd Wilhite’s (Central Christian Church in Vegas).  It was titled “What do you see when you look in the mirror.”

Here are the notes that I took…

Photobooth – What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Guilty
Ugly
Small
Alone
Failure
Not Enough
Unworthy
Unloved

He wrote these on a glass mirror as he spoke on them.  Then he asked the question, “what does God see?”  He then proceeded to preach on the following and broke the mirror.  Underneath the mirror was another mirror with an encouraging message on it…  I think it was “hope” or “Jesus” or something.  What I remember most was the fact that he accidentally hit the mirror too hard and almost broke the second one as well!

Ephesians 1:3-14

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:5 having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,9 making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him10 unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say,11 in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,– in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Life Church (Circa 2002)

So I was planning on sticking with the plan to only post about my forgotten experiences at Catalyst West, but I woke up early today and have been listening to an old CD that we made when i was at Life Church in ‘02. For those of you who don’t know, we moved to the Temecula Valley in ‘02 to start a Church that we named Life Church (not affiliated with the Oklahoma Church).

When we began the Church I had never really lead worship with a band before. And as I sit here listening to this CD from that first year my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude. So I thought I’d take some time to say some “Thank Yous”…

Thank you John Ruhlman for your leadership in those early years and for taking a chance on me and our team.

Thank you band for truly carrying me through the huge learning curve. I don’t think I ever realized how talented you all really were!  Man, what I could do with a band like that today… 

Band:
Mike Meyerpeter – Bass
Dan Verkade – Keys
Rich Kettner – Egtr
Mike Huffman – Egtr
Brian McNeil – Drums (all the best drummers I’ve played with say they’re not drummers)
Amanda Smith – Vox
Crystal Johnson – Vox
John Matthews – Sound

Thank you to my wife for embarking on this crazy adventure that we call “Church Planting”!

Thank you to the C&MA & Don Brust for believing in and supporting us.

Thank you God for not striking us down with lightening when we messed up and wounded your people because of our arrogance!

Good Times!