Overflowing with Hope!

"I am the vine, you are the branch"

2011-05-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have preached from John 15 many times, and have looked at it from a personal point of view. In other words, I am a branch and I need to remain in Jesus Christ if I desire to be fruitful. The vine, however, has more than just one branch. I can't produce all of the fruit. The church is called to produce "much fruit,"

The church must remain in the branch, Jesus Christ. If not we will become ineffective just as Israel did. In Ezekiel 15 God uses his prophet to tell his people that the vine is no longer useful and doesn't even make good fire wood. It was a useful vine and now had turned unuseful.

God wants us to make much fruit. As the church we are to remain in Christ the one and only way to eternity. We cannot be connected to any other branch and be expected to produce fruit that will last an eternity.

Lateral Leadership

2010-04-19T13:52:00.001-07:00

Recently I attended a one day conference in which the term lateral leadership was used as opposed to CEO leadership. I thought it was an interesting term and one in which I wanted to explore. I asked myself who were some of the best leaders in the Bible that exhibited this style of leadership. I immediately thought of the Apostle Paul and I wanted to explore his ability to lead and particularly I wanted to look at his leadership and mentoring of Timothy.

Before I share what I found let me explain what I perceive this term to mean. Another word for lateral would be shared. I believe the most effective leaders have this kind of ability in that they share leadership among the leaders of an organization. The CEO mentality may appear to seek shared ideas but ultimately will say here’s how we are going to do it. Sometimes a situation may require that kind of leading. The weakness of this kind of leadership is when a CEO will manipulate the situation and has already a preconceived action plan and will force the team to move the direction the CEO has already determined. Often they will ask for ideas but regardless of the ideas they forge ahead on their predetermined agenda.

Lateral leadership would honestly listen to the team and would weigh the positives and negatives to the situation. The lateral leader will allow others to lead based on their giftedness and expertise. The lateral leader however must be the main vision caster and assures that the team has a common vision with goals striving toward a common purpose.

Here are some leadership qualities of Paul that I discovered in 2 Timothy 3 :10 - 4: 5

• A Teacher
• A Role Model (high standards and character worthy of emulating)
• Understood purpose, mission and vision
• Faith was and is the foundation
• Patience fueled major tough decisions
• Loved above all
• Endured leadership struggles with those who don’t understand and who will persecute and cause suffering. (Many who supported Paul abandoned him)
• Scripture based in all of the processes. (That process will require persistence even when you have to rebuke and correct. Persistence from the leader will also require encouragement on their part.)
• Kept a clear mind
• Evangelistic

I believe the most effective pastors in churches are those who have learned to balance this kind of leadership style. They know how to make tough decisions, but they also know how and when to share leadership with those who have been gifted to lead in positions of the church. I hope to discuss this further with our pastors in the days ahead.

I think the GPS campaign was a great success for our association. We gave out over 25,000 brochures which had the gospel presentation clearly printed on the inside. Many churches had significant increase of attendance over the Easter weekend. WaKeeney had their first worship service that Easter weekend and it was a privilege to attend that service. There were several guests there and two of them specifically came to the church because of the brochures. I believe the most effective part of GPS was that it mobilized people of the church to pray and to share their lives with the community where they lived. It made me personally more aware of my neighbors as I prayer walked the area. I noticed a small memorial in the front yard of a family that had lost a child. I stopped immediately and just poured out my heart and prayed for that family. The low impact evangelism of handing out the brochures allowed me to meet a few folks in my neighborhood who were outside doing household chores. Many of the pastors have commented that perhaps GPS was more about mobilizing our church people to go out among the city and to become aware of the culture and the people that surround them. So here’s a question for every church and every one that reads this letter, when was the last time you walked your neighborhood with the intent to pray for your neighbors? We don’t need a special campaign to mobilize our churches to continue to prayer walk. If we are to be successful of fulfilling the Great Commission, we must engage our neighbors and the world that surrounds us. We must show them the love of Christ and we must share with them the hope of everlasting life.

JOY

Keith

Why I Blog? Don't know. Maybe some Dry Bones will listen!

2009-12-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why I blog, because I'm sure no one reads them, at least not yet. Perhaps someday.......

The other day we were at church and our four year old grandson was spending the weekend with us. We weren't sure how he would like our church and we took plenty of objects with us to keep him busy during the sermon. (crayons, toy trucks and spiritual things like that) During the worship music he stood beside us in the chairs and the music was lively and he really got into it. He looked behind us and there was a precious baby girl. He wanted to hold the baby. Grandma Net went and asked if we could hold the baby and our grandson was so enamoured with this baby. He loved on that baby and moved his hands around the babies head and gently expressed his joy of seeing up close a new born . It was a precious moment for Pop and Net. Soon the sermon started and he got out his spiritual toys and begin to quietly discern the message. Now you think I jest, but the truth is he proved to us that something special was going on. He had managed to get to the floor to do his best spiritual learning. We are one of those multi site locations that are accused of watching TV during our sermon time. Our pastor is a great communicator and to prove my point during his sermon that Sunday as he usually does he asked the congregation to repeat certain points, phrases or words during the sermon. On not one, but several occasions, when the pastor asked us to say a word or phrase our four year old grandson would repeat the phrase. Grandma and Pop were astounded that our grandson was listening to the sermon. When we were eating lunch we asked our him if he liked our church. He said yes, and we asked what his favorite part was to which he said, "that funny guy on TV!"

This may give some of you fodder to argue against video multi sites, but for me I was completely affirmed by my grandson that we area absolutely headed in the right direction to connect with the next generation of students. You see my four year old grandson already beats me on Wii games. He will understand the workings of a computer way before I ever will and the use of video and TV doesn't bother him at all.

The point is this, we need to communicate the gospel effectively. Just because we have always done church a certain way doesn't mean it can't be done differently. In fact I would argue that we must continue to find new and creative ways to reach a world that needs to hear the truth of God's word.

God used dry bones to encourage Ezekiel. "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!"
If God can use dry bones, certainly he can use video screens and projectors and computers to spread his word.

Ever ask God why?

2009-05-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Ezekiel 4 is an interesting chapter. Why did God have Ezekiel lie on his left side and then place the sins of Israel on him for 390 days? He had to lay on his side one day for every year of their sin. Then Ezekiel had to spend another 40 days for 40 years of sin that Judah committed. There is probably a lot of significant reasons God did this and without further study I don't have the immediate answer. However, from purely a New Testament perspective, this certainly points to Jesus and the atonement for our sins.

But there is much more here than just that. God ties him up and he puts him on a rather meager diet. He pleads with the Lord over a defilement issue of using human dung vs. cow dung and the Lord hears his request and grants it.

Bottom line is this, sin hurts. The nations had defiled themselves by turning their backs on God. Sin requires some kind of payment. There must be an atonement for sin. The symbolism is obvious to me. The reality of the suffering for sin is difficult for any one.

So what is the practical lesson for you and me. Love God! Love Him with all of our heart and do not turn from Him. The consequences of turning away from our God are significant and they hurt.

JOY

Ezekial Was Appointed a Watchman

2009-05-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

What is the job description for a watchman? What's the purpose of a watchman? God set the description and the purpose statement for Ezekial in chapter 3 and verse 16-21. Basically it was Exekial's job to warn the people of God's word and God's judgment. ""Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel, Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately." (NLT) Failure to heed the message was costly for those who would not listen. Failure to deliver the message was just as costly. This was serious stuff!

Verse 20 sets the tone, "If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavoir and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in thier sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths." (NLT) How would you like that job? Talk about accountability and responsiblity!!!!

I have just a couple of thoughts, 1) There is a righteous standard to live by and 2) Failure to adhere to that righteous standard is costly.

Here's the problem in our world today 'who determines the standard of righteousness?'
The short answer is God. The longer response is that God already has set the standard before us and it is recorded in His Word. He uses his prophets and preachers to proclaim that message. It's not to be taken lightly by the messengers due to the high level of responsiblity if we don't do it. People die without hearing the word. Flipant response on trivial issues within a system of a denomination can get in the way of delivering the message. So much so that we can be off message. It's not my job to judge any preahcer or prophet. My job is to be faithful to the great commission of Jesus Christ. We need to stay on message. Each local church has a huge responsiblity to stay on message, "make new disciples".

Pray that God will loose our tongues with words of righteousness. We must speak the truth in love and compassion, but none the less we must speak the truth. Our sin is a failure to proclaim the truth of God as he has revealed himself through Jesus Christ and through his Holy Spirit. We must stand boldly before the world and proclaim the message of Christ.

Trying it again!

2009-05-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not much of a blogger, but I thought I would try it again for those who just might take a look now and then. I know I will be an infrequent blogger, but sometimes I just need to say a few things.

I just finised 16 weeks of classes through an online seminary. The class on Apologetics was fun and the New Testament class renewed my thinking on some of the old criticisms that I had kind of turned away from. In any event the old noggin got a few cob webs loosened up. Overall it was a great experience and I hope to take more classes on church planting. However, the work really keeps me busy and does not allow much time for anything else. I'm glad I have the summer to get some things done around the house.

I'm also preaching at my home church for a while since our pastor resigned last week. I must admit this will be a new challenge for me, but one I'm excited to be a part of.

Hopefully I will do more in the days ahead for now that's it.