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