Little league practice tonight. Cloudy but not supposed to have flash floods tonight. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

A couple of years ago I heard McManus discuss the problem with leadership development in churches. Essentially he said, when churches are getting their upper leaders primarily from outside the organization something is clearly broken in this leadership development process. And for what it’s worth, I agree.

It seems most churches rely on outside leaders to step into their context to lead. But what could it look like if a church developed a leadership pipeline that trained that next great communicator, that next great disciple-maker from within their own ranks?

Everyone has their own mechanics for this process. I don’t think we have to merely mimic what others are doing (though there is no need to re-invent the wheel). The bottom line is this, discover a process and a plan to develop emerging leaders at every level of the organization. If you find something that works, then stick with it.

Might it be that the leader your church needs is sitting in the pew right now?

Who are the diamonds in the rough around you?

Have you developed the skill set to identify potential in others?

Superhero guide to pastor/leaders.  Check it.

Challies reviews the Books You’ll Actually Read series from Driscoll.  Check it.

Interesting quote on changing the metaphors for God.  What do you think?  Check it.

Pics of Info desk areas in churches.  Check it.

Kevin Cawley posts resources for studying Ephesians.  Check it.

New music project: NoiseTrade.  Check it.

Friends to become a movie.  Check it.

Mars Hills text experiment coming soon.  Very interesting.  Check it.

This is kind of cool experiment a church has pulled off to creatively add services.  I’ve personally never heard of anyone doing something like this.  Check it.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. (1 Timothy 5.17)

Before I jump into, what I think will be an encouragement to pastors (it has been for me this morning) I need to set the stage a bit.

Paul’s logic here indicates the two key activities of an elder: authority (rule) and teaching (1 Timothy 2.12; 3.1-7).  The second clause (”especially those who labor in preaching and teaching”) clarifies who the elders are.  “Especially” in this context is more likely rendered as an adverb creating an appositional phrase (”that is”), though you still retain this somewhat with “especially.”  This would be consistent with a prior use in 1 Timothy 4.10 (BDAG, 613).

The point isn’t that there are two different kinds of elders, those who teach and those who rule, all are to be able to teach (1 Timothy 3.2).  Rather, it indicates that within the elder team there are some who are especially gifted in preaching and teaching.

Okay, with that then get on with the encouragement, Jason.

The use of “labor” in the second clause is poignant for what most of us as pastors feel.  “Feel” is deliberate because this is more than just what we think, it hits on a felt need in my estimation.  It means to “exert oneself physically, mentally, or spiritually, work hard, toil, strive, struggle.”  Paul often uses it of mental and spiritual labor (BDAG 558).

Often, as I’ve mentioned on several occasions, people look at what you do as a pastor and think that it’s not hard work.  People will look at you and think they can do what you do, and probably think they can do it better than you.  People will at times even look down on your because you don’t have a “real job.”  They convey the message that you are a pastor because you couldn’t cut it in the real world.  And if you are really honest this cuts deep.

But the encouragement from God, via the apostle Paul, to you today is what you do matters. It’s hard work.  Just because you’re not swinging a hammer, just because you’re not making a sale, just because you’re not in the biz world doesn’t mean you don’t work hard.

God is encouraging you this morning, implicitly, to accept his view of you, not what the world is trying to beat in your head.  If you work hard at preaching and teaching you are worthy of double honor.

So study hard, pray hard, and look to the ultimate reward from God not the fleeting affirmation of those who do not understand what you do or how eternally significant it really is.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

I don’t know if this has a name so I have come up with one, the teenage girl syndrome. You know what I’m talking about. That girl who was always chasing some boy around pursuing and pursuing even though he never reciprocated.

_____

Aside: Ladies, don’t pursue dudes in this way. There are 2 things I can promise you in this situation. Either he’s not into you or he’s passive. If he’s not into you then you’re spinning your wheels. If he’s passive and just won’t muster up the gumption to ask you out you don’t need that either, trust me.

Passivity is part of the male sin nature that came with the fall. It’s what Adam suffered from when he didn’t stand up for his wife as that deceptive serpent attacked her (he stood by and watched it happen).

Aside #2: (while I’m at it) Sinful aggressive behavior is also part of the fall. A domineering spirit and attitude also marks the sin nature of men. So just because he’s assertive doesn’t mean he’s noble. It may be that he’s still living out of his sin nature. If he’s mean spirited, bossy, demanding, etc - watch out as well.

_____

Not sure what the solution should be for you. But maybe it’s the same advice:  just let it go. Forget about it. You’ve tried to set up half a dozen appointments with someone only to get rejected each time, move on. They may just not be into you. Not everyone is going to be your friend. So why continue pursuing?

A second thought is you should grab hold of and value those relationships where people are cheering you on and actually interested in your life. The teenage girl syndrome should show us how valuable it is to have people who want to spend time with us. Don’t neglect those relationships.

Thoughts?

1. It must be said that Paul is not referring merely to the church at Ephesus or else he would have used the 2nd person plural instead of 1st person plural.
2. Paul is not merely talking to Gentiles alone in this section because he lumps himself in (and consequently all believers) and Paul is a Jew. In my mind this is important because a corporate election has to have a black and white distinction here for it to work. But it seems throughout Paul is speaking to all believers, not just Gentiles.
3. Even if this is a corporate view (which surely we see this in some way) there still must be a view for the individual within the larger sphere because the goal of election is “that we should be holy and blameless. We can’t blindly say Paul is simply saying Gentiles are in view and now added to the sphere of God’s redemptive plan because not all Gentiles are heading down the holy and blameless path. One might also point out this unqualified corporate election could logically lead to some form of universalism (again, if individuals are not in view too).
4. Corporate election (without individuals in view) downplays the fact of individual sins and the severity of individual sins. This seems to run counter to the rest of the book. Again, there is surely a corporate elements but it doesn’t seem we can lose sight of the individual viewed corporately.
5. NB: okay, going to get slightly technical here…I will have to disagree and say that there is something significant in the language used in verse 4. “He chose us” seems best taken in the middle voice. This indicates personal interest in the one chosen (not random impersonal choice; contra Barth’s assertion). And this personal interest seems to indicate an interest in the individual, not just the corporate entity (corporate entity alone is far more impersonal).  It is at best redundant and at worst counter-productive and confusing to lay this on the whole of humanity.  Why not say things in a more straight forward way if solely the corporate entity is in view.
6. To come full circle, Paul is writing to a church (not an individual) so using the plural pronoun (”us”) is normal. So one cannot simply go to corporate election based on the use of the plural alone. And again, it is 1st person plural, not 2nd plural. So Paul includes himself in the corporate entity, so seems unlikely this is advantageous for corporate election view.
7. To draw attention to one of Matt’s statements: “This carries much weight, particularly if the author is in fact Paul, because it essentially declares that all people, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, man or woman are all welcome to follow Jesus, a lifestyle that is by its nature, blessed and predestined.” But this is not what the text says.  It doesn’t say a certain way of life is chosen and predestined but that people are chosen and predestined to a certain way of life.

Those are some thoughts that came to mind in the last few days. Whatchu think.

Go.

Malphurs on Stetzer’s blog yesterday.  Check it.

My friend Bill Victor is starting a series of posts on worship in the NT.  Check it.

Using a Moleskine for scripture memory.  Anything that utilizes a Moleskine is intriguing to me.  Check it.

Rumored yesterday that Starbucks will close 600 underperforming stores.  Check it.

Made official today that Starbucks will close 600 underperforming stores.  I wonder if any are in KC.  Check it.

Have you heard about the Florida outpouring?  I’m always skeptical about this kind of weirdness.  And yes, when you talk about kicking someone in the head to heal them I think it qualifies as weird.  Check it.

William Lane Craig’s book Reasonable Faith is coming out in a third edition.  This has been a very important book in my life since first reading it as a college student.  Check it.

Perry Noble and 4 Leadership Questions.  Check it.

Easy file uploading for WP.  Check it.

Words that Work 2.  Check it.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

If you aim for nothing you will hit it every time

I know too many people in ministry who strive for nothing tangible.  They are just doing activitity (in the hopes that ministry happens) but have no real aim.  Sure they have some vague idea about making disciples, growing people in faith, etc.  But they have no clear plan or process to get them there.  And the “goal” is so ill-defined no one would know if they got there anyway.  What would it look like to see success in making disciples and growing people in their faith?

Why are so many people are anti-goal-driven? Often I hear people blaming the Holy Spirit.  “If you set goals then you aren’t spirit-led.”  As if The Spirit is impotent to guide us in the process of goal-setting and follow-through.  What I like to say is don’t blame the Holy Spirit for your aimless pursuit of mediocrity.

There is another group who are just unaware.  Let’s face it, all of us are unaware at some point, in some area.  I think there are a ton of people out there who would be wildly successful for the kingdom if they merely took simple steps to seek God in goal-setting.

At LifeConnection we’re trying to take the bull by the horns and set some tangible, measurable goals.  We’re listening to God.  We’re listening to our community.  We’re praying.  We’re dreaming.  And we’re going to live out what he has called us to in the city.  And this entails goal-setting.

Over the next few days (maybe week) I will set out some of what we’re doing as a way to become intentional in this regard.  I’m excited about what is on the horizon.  And we’re trusting God for some big things.

How do you go about setting and following through on goals in your context?

What’s your take on all this?