Tag Archives: risk

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A Children’s Song = the Plight of the Western Church

Moana...it's where we are!

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If you’ve spent any time in my house over the past 3 months you’ve noticed one thing above all others. We watch the Disney movie “Moana” at least once a day!

That’s because (for some reason) my 2-year-old LOVES the music and something about the water, beach, little girl, a big adventure – captures her heart. I love to watch her watch it… but the movie is wearing me out!

However, there is a 3 min song near the beginning of the movie that has been speaking to me for the past month as I’ve thought about the words over and over again.

It’s the song that Moana’s dad sings to her about the village. Here are some of the first few lyrics.

“The dancers are practicing. They dance to an ancient song
(Who needs a new song? This old one’s all we need)
This tradition is our mission…”

I know I’m a pastor, but these lyrics hit me right between the eyes as the state of the western church for the past 50-100 years.

Our traditions have become our mission!

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We (the Church) are the people on an island to ourselves and are SO SATISFIED with keeping things as they are. Our traditions have become our mission! We’ve lost sight of who we are and who we were meant to be as followers of God. Here’s some additional lyrics.

“We’re safe and we’re well provided. And when we look to the future
There you are, you’ll be okay. In time you’ll learn just as I did
You must find happiness right where you are”

There is something to be said for contentment. I believe that is a peace that comes from God. However, there is also a danger in becoming so stuck in a rut that, simply because our needs are provided for… we have been CALLED FOR MORE!

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The Messy Middle

What happened during "after a long time..."

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As we kick off another year of resolutions and clean slate thinking on our dreams and desires, I wanted to share a verse with you that has been floating around in my head.

Matthew 25:19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used what He had given them.”

Not the most inspirational passage – I know.

This passage is near the beginning of a memorable parable that Jesus taught as He was getting closer and closer to Jerusalem and all that would then transpire (betrayal, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension). Most people think it’s just a lesson about money,  and it is to some degree.  However, I get lost in this particular verse because of the grand narrative of life and the kingdom of God that Jesus is talking about. 

If you know the story, the master gifts 3 servants with talents (talent = amount of money) to use and invest for Him while He’s gone.  It then says in verses 16-18, that the one who received 5 talents went out and put it to work and got back 5 more.  The one who received 2 talents gained 2 more, but the man given only 1 talent went and hid his in the ground. Most people focus on the one who disobeyed and use this parable to make other people feel guilty.

However, that’s not what has had me pondering this passage for the last couple of months.

It’s these words that get me, “after a long time…”

You see, I think Jesus was talking about our entire lives, and the account we will give for the life we’ve been blessed (by Him) with.  We quickly RUSH to the point of the story where the first two servants DOUBLED their investments and get congratulated by the MASTER (verses 21 & 21 “Let’s party together”).

I get lost thinking, “WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MIDDLE?’ What happened during that period of “a long time…” the life that those persons lived? They obviously didn’t IMMEDIATELY double their investment.  This wasn’t a “one and done” action or decision.  It must have each taken their ENTIRE LIFE to see this come to fulfillment.

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My ONE WORD #whatif

"What if" Unlocks the Power of Possibilities!

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Failure

Every year, I choose ONE WORD that I feel God is giving me to use for the year to help filter my goals/resolutions.

2016 will be the year of “What if?”  #whatif

“What if?” unlocks the power of possibilities in your life!  It is the difference between almost doing something (which is nothing) and taking a step into your future.

With every #whatif possibility – fear will also show up.  Fear of the unknown…fear of being wrong… fear of failure!

With every #whatif possibility – fear of failure will also show up!

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However, if your goal in LIFE is to avoid FAILURES, then you have NO LIFE!

“If your goal in LIFE is to avoid FAILURES, then you have NO LIFE!”

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I’m looking forward to sharing more of my#whatif ideas, goals, and projects with you this year.  Stay tuned!

 

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Our Limits Reveal our Greatest Opportunities…

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It’s ALL about the Signs

A year or so ago when we were forced to remove our signs from our church building and property (during the week), we began to set more yard signs out in the community.  These can only be put out on the weekend now and the city has made it perfectly clear we cannot make people aware (through signs) about our building that sits on Brookway Dr.

Two weeks ago, all of signs we put out on the weekend were taken by the city of Cornelius.  We were informed we could not put them out at ANY TIME in Cornelius.  We thought the weekend was okay, but they said no yard signs, ever.

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The Early Lessons of Adopting “Better Experiments”

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“The future of the church is not going to be built on implementing Best Practices, but on our willingness to attempt Better Experiments” – Will Mancini

I love this quote and it has stuck with me for over the past 2 years.  As a matter of fact, I even added “Better Experiments” to a list of CORE VALUES we have in our church organization.  It’s not printed on the wall or stuck on the back of any bulletin – it’s just a core value that guides the WHY WE DO decisions of our organization.  I encourage our staff to step out into new directions and take risks as we move ministry forward.

However, this blog post is about the early lessons of adopting this value as an organization. I’ve spoken many times to our church about the freedom of being able to say “We don’t know” and walking into the unknown future with God leading the way – but it takes a certain mindset to be okay with tripping, falling, or even being launched into something bigger than you could possibly imagine with nothing but faith that God knows what He’s doing. For most folks, the loss of control (good or bad) is the loss of stability in an organization.  If we live by fear and make decisions that limit our risk in life – then we are not really living. 

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Close the Museum

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When Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 – the first thing he did was clear out the “museum” of old products and gave them to Stanford University.  He cleared out the archive because the company was stuck at looking at what it had done in previous years and trying to make changes FROM there.  He reminded them that the future is what matters THE MOST and thier job is to LOOK FORWARD and invent tomorrow.

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I think the church could use some clearing out of past methodologies (practices) and stop trying to tweak the already ineffective and LOOK FORWARD.  Most people disagree with this because of some rant about history or heritage of those before us.  I’m not suggesting we remove “baptism” or “communion” or “worship” from our methods – these are clear in scripture and are essential to our faith.   I am suggesting that more churches remember that the time as ambassadors of Christ is NOW and our future success of living out HIS MISSION of the Fame of God and Freedom of Men is NOW.  This will require us to “invent tomorrow” the paths, methods, and practices we engage in to reach every man, woman, and child with the gospel.
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Can you think of anything in the churches “museum” that we need to stop analyzing (or tweaking)?   What are some great examples of people or churches that are “inventing tomorrow”?
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PLEASE POST A COMMENT!
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Risk = Freedom

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Do we ever consider that risk = freedom?  That living a life at the edge of the unknown might not be the the most free we could ever feel in our lives.

I had the opportunity to speak at my church this past weekend about regret and I used a statement I had written several years ago about the definition of the Kingdom’s Path.

“Follow God with abandon at every age – with an eager expectation that God can use our lives for His purposes in the world.  Risk always: Never Completely Settle: Be Different, Be HIS, and Die Gloriously”

I didn’t spend much time the idea of risk this week because the sermon was on regret, but I couldn’t shake the idea of risk and freedom from my mind.