Distinctives of a Contagious Church

As I read every chapter carefully and every word with deep thought - I get more and more convicted. With 5 1/2 years of church planting and lead pastoring under my belt I am more vulnerable to the insights of Chuck Swindoll than ever before. "Thank you Lord for giving me this guide to leading your church."


Though there are many nuggets of truths in this chapter. And by the way, I need to read this book once a year b/c there is way too much insights for me to digest. I come to this quote from Swindoll - "When considering church growth, we must think strategically, we must preach creatively and worship must connect. Absolutely. But we must also be careful. A marketing mentality and a consumer mind-set have no business in the church of Jesus Christ. By that I mean Jesus is not a brand...human thinking does not guide God's work...and the church is not a corporation. The church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual entity, guided by the Lord through the precepts of His Word. If we sacrifice the essentials of teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread (worship) and prayer on the altar of strategy, creativity, entertainment, and "relevancy," we have abandoned the main reasons the church exists. We should build on those essentials, not attempt to replace them." 


It is so easy for me and church leadership in general to sacrifice the "essentials" for a better way to attract the crowd. I have been more and more convicted and convinced through the last few months that I'm not here to appease the consumer Christians. Which comes down to 2 types of consumers: 7/11 consumer and the football fan consumer. 7/11 consumers: Go into the convenience store and pick what ever they need and then they are out of there. We have a lot of church folk like that. The football fan consumer: goes to "watch" the worship and the 10% do all the work. The football fans are the ones that will criticize the refs, the players, coaches moves and cheer from the stands but will never get into the game. 


I really believe that my role as a disciple of Christ and pastor is to equip, train, and nurture people who are willing to grow to be mature disciples of Christ. Christ declared through Peter's confession that, "Jesus will build HIS church..." and my job is to obey and execute the great commandment and great commission. I'm not here to appease the consumer Christian. 


Lastly, Swindoll, throughout the chapter indicates that we need to be in the right "context" to teach, fellowship, worship and pray. For example, a pastor can have the best prepared and the most eloquent delivery of the sermon but if he is not in the right "context" it will go south. So we as followers of Christ need to create the right environment of transformation. Focusing on the heart/soul of every individual rather than marketing strategies. Creating a  place where people feel welcomed, safe and challenged. A place for people to heal and experience the fullness of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This can only be done with people who are willing to defend the gospel, live out the gospel and ultimately die for the gospel. So will you join me? Will you help the kingdom of God expand through your love, joy, struggles and ultimately by suffering well?  


For the King of all Kings - Jesus!
Charlton 

Challenges, Struggles, Solutions, Priorities

Chapter 2 (Challenges, Struggles, Solutions, Priorities) from Church Awakening was so enlightening, encouraging, and convicting. It was as if God spoke directly to Church Swindoll to write this chapter for me. There is way too much that is said for me to reflect on everything, but I do want to reflect on what was essential for me. 

Toward the end of the chapter he has a sub-title called "Let's Always Remember Two Specific Principles." 1. The adversary will stop at nothing to disrupt, and if possible destroy the church 2. The Lord will honor and bless any plan that upholds prayer and promotes His Word. These two principles seem pretty basic to the average Christian, and especially to a pastor; but if you have been lost in pleasing people rather than Christ himself, these principles get compromised. 

Satan uses any means possible to destroy the church. He will use officials from the outside and will especially use Christians within the inside. Whether they are young/baby Christians, carnal Christians, pseudo-Christians he will use anything and everything to destroy the church. So how do we combat this? I can't help to reflect from 2 Kings 6:17 - "And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." The only reason why Elisha saw the chariots of fire and his servant did not is b/c Elisha was practicing the presence of God. Elisha was so in-tune with God's spirit that he saw that there were more angels, power and strength on God's side compared to his enemies. 

If we could really see what God was doing in the spiritual realm, we would live differently, act differently, speak differently and minister differently. We would recognize that God is more than able to do more than what we can imagine. But God can only open our heart if we are practicing God's presence, and practicing His presence can only be done by Swindoll's 2nd principle - upholding prayer and promoting His Word.

Practicing God's presence is simple as Paul said, "pray without ceasing," and as the psalmist said, "hide the Word of God in your hearts." As I struggled the last few months in my own spiritual life this is what lacked the most. I tried to do things with my own power rather than relying on the power of God - which is freely available to me. 

So these two principles is what should separate the church from any business or organization. God's house is not built by hands, crafty strategies or marketing plans BUT it is built through prayer and faith.

Christ is All...

Coming back to prayer

First of all, I'm a bad blogger as I haven't written in here for a few weeks when I declared I want to write about 2-3 times week. So that's my first failed resolution of 2011 already. But I'm going to do my best writing at least once a week - that's doable. 

I'm still taking my time through "The Church Awakening" by Chuck Swindoll but chapter 2 "Challenges, Struggles, Solutions, Priorities" is pretty long so I'm breaking it up into a few parts. But I write today b/c I couldn't even get past the first quote and first scripture in chapter 2. 

The reason why I couldn't get past it is b/c of the current place I feel I am at and where I feel Compass is at. I've been clear in my intentions and communication to people that we are all called to as followers of Christ to become disciple making disciples. I've been laying out plans, objectives and the vision for my own life and for Compass. And to reflect on the last 5 1/2 years of being a pastor for Compass it's been the greatest blessing and greatest challenge to say the least. But I see the next 5 years of Compass to be the most critical in laying out the right foundation for the years to come. So I really believe God has been putting the right books, sermons, people, and conferences to lead me and Compass in the right direction. All of the sermons, books, people and conferences have been saying the same things - disciple your leaders like Christ discipled his 12, be selective and have a plan. And in the middle of planning, talking, reading, meeting I was struck with this quote: 

"What the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more novel methods. She needs men whom the Holy Spirit can use - men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men...He does not anoint plans, but men-men of prayer." E.M. Bounds

So this quote literally brought me to my knees. I have been praying but have I been a "man mighty in prayer?" Have I been asking God to anoint the plans rather than me and the men/women that I serve with? These are hard questions that I need to ask myself on a weekly - no, daily basis. The reason I know is b/c the scripture that I was hit with in chapter 2: 

"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange things were happening to you. 1 Peter 4:12

As a followers of Christ we go through fiery ordeals - the church goes through fiery ordeals. So how can we combat this? How can we walk through the fiery ordeals of life? Through prayer - mighty prayer. 

So the plan is, yes we still need to plan and vision out what we will do for our lives and the church but we need to pray. I have clearly set out times in my days and weeks to pray more individually and pray with people more. Because I know that God's heart will not be stirred by us planning more but by praying more. 

On my knees, 

Charlton 

The Church: Let's Start Here

In chapter 1 of “The Church Awakening,” Swindoll starts off saying that our churches today are starting to erode. And the 3 simple truths about erosion are: it’s always slow, always silent and always subtle. And the effects of erosion is not only a concern to us physically, it’s an even greater concern spiritually. I do feel this is what is actually happening in many churches today where everything seems relatively healthy, but the roots of the church is not firmly embedded in the gospel. A church does not suddenly dissolve in one day; it takes time as Swindoll quotes CS Lewis, “Instead the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”  So Swindoll is contending that we need milestones to keep us focused and on target with what the original intent of the Bible was with the church, and the original intent of what the vision and goals were for our church.

Before we look into what scriptures really say about the church, I couldn’t help to stop and relate with Swindoll when he says, “Admittedly, like a mother with too many kids, I was a pastor with too many people…so I delegated too many of the responsibilities to others. They were good individuals, but I discovered some of them did not share my heart or vision for ministry. I realized I had delegated without mentoring, training, or shaping the thinking of those leaders…when I finally realized all of this, the erosion was well under way.” Although I may not be in the same position as Swindoll, this resonated with me. Especially, “without mentoring, training, or shaping the thinking of those leaders.” I’m very convicted by this statement but before I get into what that looks like I want to delve into what scripture says about the church.

In Matthew 16:13-18, Jesus declares that, “and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” Swindoll says, “Jesus made it clear from the beginning that the church as God intended it would have Christ as the Architect. Make no mistake about it – He is the Originator of the church. It was His idea. He protects it. He leads it. He alone is the Head.” This is the most infallible truth that we have about the church today. Jesus is the Head, the senior pastor, the boss, etc. This truth alone could have squelched many squabbles, divisions, in-fighting’s if it was truly applied.

In Acts 2:42, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Swindoll says, “In this one verse we have the lowest common denominator or a church. This is ground zero…When the first body of believers gathered together, they devoted themselves to four essentials…teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. This verse is not only descriptive of what the early church did; it is also prescriptive of what all churches must do.” These are the exact four essential elements of a church that needs to be foundational or it will cease to be a church. Teaching – “Today the church has the apostles’ teaching represented in the complete Word of God – the Bible.” Fellowship – “The Word of God is not only learned through teaching…it is lived through fellowship.” Breaking of Bread – “refers to the Lord’s Table, which was observed when the church gathered…we understand that the early church devoted themselves to the two ordinances commanded by Jesus: baptism and the Lord’s Table. The first represents our conversion to Christ, and the second our lifelong communion with Him. An acceptable, all-inclusive term would be worship.” Prayer – “They spent time as a body of believers adoring their Lord, confessing their sins, interceding for others, petitioning God to provide, and thanking Him for His blessings…For a church to be the kind of church Jesus promised to build, there must be prayer.”

When I look at these four essential pillars for the church I can’t help to ponder why do we need to add more. I really believe if we applied these principles to heart and action, we couldn’t keep the doors of our churches closed. People would want to break in because they want to experience Christ in that place. What if God’s word was really taught that people would walk out thinking knowing they heard God’s voice and didn’t have any other choice but to repent and change? What if fellowship was not about eating after church but about doing life together through Scripture. By encouraging one another, lovingly rebuking one another, admonishing one another... What if worship really occurred and people saw the majesty of Jesus Christ through our worship? What if prayer really occurred to the point where people were healed, prayers were answered, chains were broken and experienced freedom?

Lastly, Swindoll, from the study of scripture realized 3 principles and 3 imperatives that all churches should examine and apply. 1. Clear, biblical thinking must override secular planning and corporate mentality. Imperative: Think spiritually. 2. Studied, accurate decisions must originate from God’s word, not human opinions.  Imperative: Stay biblical. 3. Wise, essential changes must occur to counteract any sign of erosion. Imperative: Be flexible.

These principles are a great challenge to me. I pray that God will give me the strength and courage to really meditate, pray and then apply these principles and truths that I have gained from this chapter. I really believe God wants His church to be awakened and experience His joy and grace. I want to be in a place where the church comes in our broken state experiences true revival and healing; but I know it can’t come without biblical teaching, true fellowship, worship and prayer. This is not a sprint but a marathon that is worth running…

For the glory of our King! 

The Church Awakening

My official start to my journey into devotions, critical thinking and meditation through blogging. Off the bat I'm a slow reader b/c I can't speed read - I can't retain that much information all at once. I prefer to chew on things a little at a time. As a read the intro to "The Church Awakening" by Chuck Swindoll I realized off the bat God brought this book into my life. I saw advertisements on it through Amazon, at the Desiring God conference, magazines, etc. I decided to buy it at Sam's Club, to only discover that I had a free copy of it through a member's subscription at Catalyst. I returned the book to Sam's club and then began to read it knowing that God wanted me to have it for free!

Anyways, Chuck introduces that he is approaching this book with the fact that the church has slipped into the postmodern world - to be more specific - Christian era to a post-Christian-era. The hint of it comes from his observation that, "Our world is not only ignorant of the basic facts of the Bible, most now are skeptical, convinced there is no such thing as absolute truth. The deception is so subtle we can be led to believe that what is wrong is right, and what is bad is, in fact good. And, tragically, most people don't realize either until it is too late." 


I see that in our churches today (I'm not just calling out Compass either). This type of thinking has (whether a person knows it or not) has produced apathy and indifference towards the living gospel of Jesus Christ. There are several reasons for this but I believe at the top of the list is tolerance of sin. At some point we have allowed the "acceptable" sins to be more acceptable. Don't get me wrong, I want to run far from legalism but I also want to equally run far from cheapening God's Grace. I really feel in our post-Christian era sin has become diluted and accepted to the point that we can't see through the eyes of God anymore. 


As Chuck Swindoll defines postmodernism he takes it a step further, "Postmodernism thrives on chaos. It desires to destroy all moral criteria and replace it with no criteria. It seeks a world in which everything is relative, where there is no truth and perception alone is reality. Since God's eternal truth has no place in such a world, with the rise of postmodernism we witness a commensurate decline in biblical knowledge."  


Decline in biblical knowledge: One truth that I took away from the recent Desiring God National Conference (theme - "Think for the glory of Christ") was that God used the written word to speak to us. Not verbally/orally or through media, He used people as His conduits to write out what He wanted to say. Therefore we need to read, meditate and apply God's word on a daily basis to combat the decline of biblical knowledge so that we can discern what is true and to what is relative. 


So I pray that we as follower's of Christ can take scripture daily and immerse ourselves into His absolute infallible truth to know that God is really speaking to us and wants us to apply that truth to show that He really does live, move and in us have our being... 
Christ is ALL!

Purpose of my Blog

Off the bat, I'm not a writer but I do want to write more b/c I know it helps me organize my thoughts and think a little more critically. As for the purpose of my blog, it's really not for you - it's more for me hence my first sentence. However I would love to interact with whoever wants to follow my posts. But blogging gives me an avenue to meditate, think, write, share my devotions, write summaries of books and chapters I am reading, wrestle with theology, etc. I'm excited for this writing journey - I'm hoping it's not one of those things that I start well but don't finish well (which I do a lot). I want to blog around 4-5 times a week if possible...until next time.