Here is a post from my cousin Myrna Groff in response to Francis Chan's decision to leave a mega-church to go overseas to minister. It's a reminder from a small church pastor in the middle of Kansas what ministry is all about. She grew up in Salinas, Kansas. You would never know about Salinas unless you had a reason to be there. I visited once when I was a child and this small town had a profound affect on me. I believe I met this man she is speaking of.
When I was a child my mother & grandmother (Holland's great-grandmother) attended a small Baptist Church here in S W Kansas. The Sunday Sermon was the focus of the week, as was the "hymn of invitation" that was always offered up at the end...... of the service. No one dwelled on the songs sang, they were ALWAYS the same, wonderful beloved Baptist hymns, the flowers in the church (there were rarely any) or Mrs. Jones new hairdo or beautiful, colorful suit. The preacher was there for 1 thing on Sunday morning and that was to refill the souls of those who were already Christians and to ignite the fire of our Lord in those who had not accepted Christ our Savior into their lives.
He worked hard to bring new (and old) to dedicate or rededicate their lives to Christ. He never gloated in his looks, the sound of his voice or the glory his sermon brought him. He ministered to US, his sheep, much as Jesus ministered to those who followed him. Rev. Wilhite was a wonderful man, full of fire and brimstone and fear for the lord. What a priviledge it was to listen to him, just an ordinary preacher, that tended to his flock, because that was his one and only job.
Many years later I found out that Rev. Wilhite had passed away after a long battle with alzheimers, that horrible disease that took my mother away from our family. What a shame that the dear pastor who molded and formed my religious backbone had to live and die in that manner, but then I realized that after all, he was just a man, just a preacher... He was just like the rest of us, but he was sent to deliver a message to us here in this little town and to those who came after our little congregation.
Every minister, pastor or Reverend (whichever they chose to be called) has his glory, his ups and downs and his own "deamons" if you must, but only after much soul searching can each man/woman decide where his path will lead him. I have KNOWN some ministers who were "too popular, too well known" and those minister's usually wandered away from their home church and out into the world of fame and $$$.
Thank God that Rev. Chan has taken a breather to decide just what the Lord wants of him. More ministers need to do as he did, step back and take a look at themselves for the sake of their church and their "sheep" so they aren't the revered one, but keep God as the focus of their church and its people.
A few closing remarks...
I had someone once say to me I'm a "his churches name"-ite. You could fill in the name of your church or your whatever your "god" of choice is. You could be a Worship Life-ite or a Vineyard-ite or a Calvary Chapel-ite or a modern-ite or a traditional-ite. You could be uptight and outasight. I thought to myself, I just want to be known as a Christian... not as a "my church name"-ite. We need more pastor's like this in America. I hope to be one of them.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Marry Christmas from the Davis Family
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
10 Worship Guidelines from the Early Church (ARTICLE REPRINT)
10 Worship Guidelines from the Early Church
by Dr. Lee Martin McDonald
1. Worship Involves Sacrifice
In New Testament times, worship consisted initially of sacrifice (of animals). However, the focus of worship for Christians is on self-sacrifice in honor and adoration of Christ (Mark 8:34-36). Worship appears to be the total response of grateful persons to the grace of God that comes to us in the work of Jesus Christ (see Romans 12:1-2). It is no longer related to the temple notion of animal sacrifice, but rather, in Christ the whole Church has become a temple and a priesthood inhabited by the Holy Spirit or presence of God (see 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:19-22; and 1 Pet. 2:9).
2. Worship Is Spiritual
Even though worship does involve rituals, our worship, from a New Testament perspective, is essentially spiritual (see 1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 12:2). It was an internal attitude rather than a practice of external rituals. This understanding is also found in Isaiah 1:11-20 and Psalm 51:15-17.
3. However, Worship Did Include Specific Practices
Some of the rituals in the New Testament include baptism (Matt. 28:19), communion (1 Cor. 11:23-34), laying on of hands (Acts 6:6; Acts 8:17; 13:1-3), foot washing (John 13:5-17), lifting up hands in prayer and worship (Luke 24:50; 1 Tim. 2:8; see Psalm 134:1-2 and Psalm 143:6), the reading of Scriptures (1 Tim. 4:13), and contributions for ministry to those in need (1 Cor. 16:2). Because we are not given explicit instruction on how to practice these rituals, many variations of their practices emerged in the early churches. Of course, the early Church patterned much of its worship service after that of the Jewish synagogue service. Worship services at first were on the Sabbath (Saturday), but by the middle of the first century, many Christians were gathering regularly on the first day of the week (see 1 Cor. 16:2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10) out of respect for the time of Christ's resurrection. At first, however, followers of Jesus in Jerusalem gathered daily in the Temple for prayers (Acts 3:46).
4. Worship Was Filled with Charismatic Praise
The offering of enthusiastic praise and prayer under the influence of the Holy Spirit was characteristic of the early Church's worship. This was demonstrated through speech (1 Cor. 14:19) and tongues or ecstatic speech (1 Cor. 14:2, 6 ff.). Each person was given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7) and to build up the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-15).
5. Worship Was Didactic
The early Christians were a teaching community giving instruction in their time of worship (see 1 Cor. 12:8; 14:26; Eph. 4:11; 1 Tim. 3:2; 4:13; 5:17).
6. Worship Was Eucharistic
The early Christians were a community that was conscious of the need to give thanks to God (Eph. 5:19-20; Col. 3:17).
7. Worship Involved Koinonia
The Greek word, koinonia, means "sharing" or "participation" and is seen as the kind of giving in the fellowship that builds up the family of Christ (Acts 2:42-47). This is the focus of 1 Corinthians 12:1-7-each person was expected to come and share in the event of worship rather than simply listen to one person.
8. Worship Was Corporate
There was also a corporateness in worship in every sense (1 Cor. 12:12-26). The Church was consciously a body or a fellowship of persons who saw themselves as inextricably bound together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
9. Worship Included Music
The early Christians lifted their voices in praise to God. The New Testament frequently mentions the corporate singing which took place in their midst and also indicates some of their hymns and spiritual songs (e.g., Phil. 2:6-11; Eph. 5:19-20; Rev. 4:8-11; 5:9-13).
10. Worship Included Singing and Songwriting
There are a number of hymns or spiritual songs in the New Testament literature. Among many others, here are examples of Christian spiritual songs: Eph. 5:14 (three lines, first two rhyme in Greek, and the last is a promise), 1 Tim. 3:16, Phil. 2:6-11, Col. 1:15-20, Heb. 1:3. There are also the Nativity hymns in Luke: the Magnificat (1:46-55), the Benedictus (1:68-79), and Nunc Dimittis (2:29-32). Besides these, there are a number of well-known Christian hymns that date from roughly the early second century AD currently known as the Odes of Solomon, a collection of some 42 spiritual songs. One can see in all of these songs both praise and testimony to the greatness of God's activity in His Son in Jesus the Christ.
All of the above hymns relate to the person and work of Jesus the Christ. They sometimes mention His pre-existence or how He became a man and accomplished redemption (salvation) for the world through His suffering and death. The dominant motif in most New Testament hymns is that Christ is victorious over all of our enemies and is rightly worshiped as the image of God Who is over all.
The Good News
The above examples show us how the early Church lived out its life in worship of God. Worship, of course, was not a simple act done occasionally, but rather a way of life that involved one's complete dedication to honor Christ and give our complete lives to serve Him. Worship cannot be reduced to a few songs, a Scripture reading, a sermon, and a closing prayer. It is a whole life of submission to the call of God that comes to us in the proclamation of good news. Christian worship is good-news oriented, even when reflective music is sung. We serve a God who does not abandon His children when this world's challenges are overwhelming, but comes to us in all circumstances of life.
Lee Martin McDonald is the President Emeritus and professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the President of the Institute for Biblical Research. He and his wife are now living in Mesa, Arizona.
by Dr. Lee Martin McDonald
1. Worship Involves Sacrifice
In New Testament times, worship consisted initially of sacrifice (of animals). However, the focus of worship for Christians is on self-sacrifice in honor and adoration of Christ (Mark 8:34-36). Worship appears to be the total response of grateful persons to the grace of God that comes to us in the work of Jesus Christ (see Romans 12:1-2). It is no longer related to the temple notion of animal sacrifice, but rather, in Christ the whole Church has become a temple and a priesthood inhabited by the Holy Spirit or presence of God (see 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:19-22; and 1 Pet. 2:9).
2. Worship Is Spiritual
Even though worship does involve rituals, our worship, from a New Testament perspective, is essentially spiritual (see 1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 12:2). It was an internal attitude rather than a practice of external rituals. This understanding is also found in Isaiah 1:11-20 and Psalm 51:15-17.
3. However, Worship Did Include Specific Practices
Some of the rituals in the New Testament include baptism (Matt. 28:19), communion (1 Cor. 11:23-34), laying on of hands (Acts 6:6; Acts 8:17; 13:1-3), foot washing (John 13:5-17), lifting up hands in prayer and worship (Luke 24:50; 1 Tim. 2:8; see Psalm 134:1-2 and Psalm 143:6), the reading of Scriptures (1 Tim. 4:13), and contributions for ministry to those in need (1 Cor. 16:2). Because we are not given explicit instruction on how to practice these rituals, many variations of their practices emerged in the early churches. Of course, the early Church patterned much of its worship service after that of the Jewish synagogue service. Worship services at first were on the Sabbath (Saturday), but by the middle of the first century, many Christians were gathering regularly on the first day of the week (see 1 Cor. 16:2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10) out of respect for the time of Christ's resurrection. At first, however, followers of Jesus in Jerusalem gathered daily in the Temple for prayers (Acts 3:46).
4. Worship Was Filled with Charismatic Praise
The offering of enthusiastic praise and prayer under the influence of the Holy Spirit was characteristic of the early Church's worship. This was demonstrated through speech (1 Cor. 14:19) and tongues or ecstatic speech (1 Cor. 14:2, 6 ff.). Each person was given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7) and to build up the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-15).
5. Worship Was Didactic
The early Christians were a teaching community giving instruction in their time of worship (see 1 Cor. 12:8; 14:26; Eph. 4:11; 1 Tim. 3:2; 4:13; 5:17).
6. Worship Was Eucharistic
The early Christians were a community that was conscious of the need to give thanks to God (Eph. 5:19-20; Col. 3:17).
7. Worship Involved Koinonia
The Greek word, koinonia, means "sharing" or "participation" and is seen as the kind of giving in the fellowship that builds up the family of Christ (Acts 2:42-47). This is the focus of 1 Corinthians 12:1-7-each person was expected to come and share in the event of worship rather than simply listen to one person.
8. Worship Was Corporate
There was also a corporateness in worship in every sense (1 Cor. 12:12-26). The Church was consciously a body or a fellowship of persons who saw themselves as inextricably bound together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
9. Worship Included Music
The early Christians lifted their voices in praise to God. The New Testament frequently mentions the corporate singing which took place in their midst and also indicates some of their hymns and spiritual songs (e.g., Phil. 2:6-11; Eph. 5:19-20; Rev. 4:8-11; 5:9-13).
10. Worship Included Singing and Songwriting
There are a number of hymns or spiritual songs in the New Testament literature. Among many others, here are examples of Christian spiritual songs: Eph. 5:14 (three lines, first two rhyme in Greek, and the last is a promise), 1 Tim. 3:16, Phil. 2:6-11, Col. 1:15-20, Heb. 1:3. There are also the Nativity hymns in Luke: the Magnificat (1:46-55), the Benedictus (1:68-79), and Nunc Dimittis (2:29-32). Besides these, there are a number of well-known Christian hymns that date from roughly the early second century AD currently known as the Odes of Solomon, a collection of some 42 spiritual songs. One can see in all of these songs both praise and testimony to the greatness of God's activity in His Son in Jesus the Christ.
All of the above hymns relate to the person and work of Jesus the Christ. They sometimes mention His pre-existence or how He became a man and accomplished redemption (salvation) for the world through His suffering and death. The dominant motif in most New Testament hymns is that Christ is victorious over all of our enemies and is rightly worshiped as the image of God Who is over all.
The Good News
The above examples show us how the early Church lived out its life in worship of God. Worship, of course, was not a simple act done occasionally, but rather a way of life that involved one's complete dedication to honor Christ and give our complete lives to serve Him. Worship cannot be reduced to a few songs, a Scripture reading, a sermon, and a closing prayer. It is a whole life of submission to the call of God that comes to us in the proclamation of good news. Christian worship is good-news oriented, even when reflective music is sung. We serve a God who does not abandon His children when this world's challenges are overwhelming, but comes to us in all circumstances of life.
Lee Martin McDonald is the President Emeritus and professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the President of the Institute for Biblical Research. He and his wife are now living in Mesa, Arizona.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Graceonmics (REPOST)
Gracenomics: Squaring off with the Grace Killers
Mike Foster: "If we truly want to unleash second chance living we have to show grace to the grace killers."
When Census worker Sherri Chesney approached a woman working in her garden, she politely introduced herself and showed her Bureau badge. The woman’s reaction? “I don’t need the blankety-blank government snooping in my business”—a declaration she punctuated by a metal patio table thrown at Chesney.
Shocking? Yes. But it isn’t even a singular occurrence.
According to Carol Morello of the Washington Post, Census takers have been “shot at with pellet guns and hit by baseball bats. They have been confronted with pickaxes, crossbows and hammers. They’ve had lawn mowers pushed menacingly toward them and patio tables thrown their way. They have been nibbled by ducks, bitten by pit bulls and chased by packs of snarling dogs.”
And it’s getting worse, not better.
In 2010, the Census Bureau reported 379 assaults on census workers, almost double the 181 recorded assaults made during the 2000 census.
Citizens’ backlash against the census captures a glimpse of the rising hostility emerging in our relationships.
Never before has GRACENOMICS FOR OTHERS been so needed. The census assaults didn’t shock me though because I often get a front row seat to observe hostility.
But in many cases, a spot close to the action isn’t something to brag about.
As I counsel others, it’s often like I have ring-side seats at a MMA match.
I hear every crack and thud of fist meeting flesh and occasionally I have to duck the blood and sweat flying my direction. Some people get off on that. I don’t.
The stuff I’ve seen as people bash out their conflicts is equally capable of making onlookers cringe:
Best friends rattling off tedious laundry lists of gripes and “hurts” they’ve been collecting against each other.
Leaders delivering torturous speeches shifting blame to scapegoat employees.
Couples ripping on each other’s inadequacies and lack of understanding.
Any one of these situations could be radically changed—and sometimes were changed—by just a little bit of grace.
That is, if grace was in more plentiful supply.
MONKEY TIME AND THE FORGIVENESS INSTINCT
The thirst for revenge is natural. Instinctive.
Hating on freeloaders, Wall Street types, and people who hurt us is…human.
Payback is in our DNA.
David McCullough, professor of Psychology at the University of Miami and author of the book Beyond Revenge, points out that western therapy often sees revenge as a disease. But actually, according to McCullough, revenge is a biological impulse that is part of a creature’s innate, hard-wired ability to fight for survival.
Take the Macaque monkey. If a Macaque is harmed by a stronger, more powerful Macaque, even though the victim cannot exact their revenge directly on his stronger offender, he will go out and find the relative of the higher Macaque and harm him instead.
Revenge is natural stuff, although—be warned—McCullough found it can lead to some very ugly behaviors in the long run.
But there is good news. The tendency to forgive is in our DNA too. “The forgiveness instinct is every bit as wired in as the revenge instinct,” McCullough said. “It seems that our minds work very hard to get away from resentment, if we can.”
And here is the best news of all. McCullough does not believe forgiveness is this enormous, impossible thing for humans to practice. Instead, he believes forgiveness is a built-in instinct seen in humans’ unique ability to cooperate with others.
McCullough maintains we already forgive in small, routine ways every day. We just need to feed and develop this instinct that is already at work.
INVISIBLE PRICETAGS
Another reality of the human species is that we love to judge, label and assess value.
Recently Newsweek did a feature story called The Beauty Advantage. In it, reporter Jessica Barnett wrote, “Economists have long recognized what’s been dubbed the ‘beauty premium’—the idea that pretty people, whatever their aspirations, tend to do better in, well, almost everything.”
Handsome men, for example, earn an average of 5% more than their less-attractive counterparts while good-looking women rake in an extra 4%.
They also found that “pretty people get more attention from teachers, bosses, and mentors; even babies stare longer at good-looking faces.” Can you believe even babies are in on it?
For some of you this is good news. For the rest of us it is pretty depressing, huh? But before all of us beauty-challenged folks get too huffy-puffy, we must first consider whether we participate in this system too.
I know I do. Sometimes I act as though it is somehow my job to determine people’s worth.
Good looks, lots of cash, a likable personality and the potential to help me in life? I whip out my pricing gun and tag them with a high value.
Run into someone who is a little on the f-ugly side, has low skills and has the potential to damage my reputation with their sordid past?
Bzzt! My pricing gun assigns them a low value that sends them to the clearance rack.
I’m guessing we all get pulled into this sort of pricing game, maybe without realizing what it subtracts from the quality of our lives and relationships.
How many times do we let a misguided fashion sense or blemished complexion cause us to pass over someone who could’ve genuinely contributed to our development?
How many times have we failed to enjoy the moment we were in because we were so stuck to our judge’s clipboard?
The sooner we recognize human life is important—PERIOD—the sooner our lives start to feel more humane.
The worst part is, it’s not just strangers that we assault with our pricing guns. Often it’s the people we love the most that we treat most harshly.
When it comes to this, I stand among the guilty. I have an incredible wife and two kids who I genuinely cherish, so it stuns me (in retrospect) how I can somehow be so impatient and intolerant toward them.
It makes no sense.
And if you think we’re bad to the people we love, think about the people we used to love.
Take our ex-spouses for example. Isn’t it amazing how we can come to thrash on a person who we…
- once thought was the funniest, hottest human being on the planet?
- loved enough to make us rent tuxedos, dress up our friends in silly bridesmaid dresses, and drop thousands of dollars on wedding cake and finger sandwiches?
- got naked with and made babies with (or at least enjoy the attempts)?
But now, all of the sudden, these once fabulous, glamorous, intelligent people are the epitome of evil.
I’m not buying it. Our exes can’t ALL be mentally deranged monsters.
The more likely scenario is that we let the grace get sucked out of our families and marriages. And it all went downhill from there. Instead of unleashing second chance living we sent it packing.
DON’T TRUST YOUR BLINK BRAIN
You know what else sucks the grace out of life? Our obsession with speed.
In his best-selling book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Author Malcolm Gladwell encourages readers to use a technique called “thin slicing” to quickly gauge what is important based on gut instinct.
Thin slicing may come in handy in some scenarios, but I’m not convinced it’s a good philosophy for approaching people.
Our first impressions are often bigoted and prejudiced. And that squishy little sponge in our cranium can be easily tricked into drawing the wrong conclusions.
Take the first time I met my wife. I totally “thin sliced” her. She walked into an event I was at accompanied by a well-known Don Juan type. I was instantly convinced she was a “blonde floozy” with subpar morals. 5 years later I married her. This year we celebrated our 15th anniversary together.
My “blink” was dead wrong.
Or consider the time I first met Jud Wilhite at a retreat in Palm Springs. I dismissed him as a schmoozing-salesman-consultant type who was too upbeat for my taste. My blink brain whispered in my ears, “Don’t trust this dude! He is bad news.”
Dead wrong again!
Jud is now my best friend and my closest confidant. Together we founded People of the Second Chance.
Sadly, our rushed life has facilitated simplistic opinions, conclusions, and judgments about issues that are ANYTHING but simple.
People. Religion. Values. Sexuality. Race. Marriage. Immigration. Just to name a few.
So do your relationships a favor and slow down.
Do your long-term research.
Respect complexities.
It is key to effective grace giving.
42 OUNCES OF HATER-ADE
So grace for strangers, our families, ex-spouses, opponents and prisoners. We’ve pretty much covered it, right? Not quite yet.
See, once you adopt grace, the hardest people to show grace to are…the grace killers. The people who ignorantly, perhaps overtly tout their lack of grace.
Think picketers who show up at the funerals of servicemen to protest the United States’ engagement in Iraq. Or protestors who wave “God Hates Fags” signs at Gay Pride parades.
On his blog, my friend Pete Wilson noted the ungracious can be the hardest people to treat with grace.
“Grace to prodigals? Yep. Grace to screw ups? No problem.
Grace to self-righteous, pride filled, judgmental types? Ummmmmm, not so quick.”
I’ve got to admit this is a tricky one for me too. I have no patience with people who spew hate and disrespect others.
So when I come across grace killers I feel justified chugging down my own 42-ouncer of hater-ade and giving them a bruise or two to help them re-evaluate.
But GRACENOMICS FOR OTHERS says otherwise.
If we truly want to unleash second chance living we have to show GRACE TO THE GRACE KILLERS.
Why, you ask? Because if you don’t extend grace to the grace killers….well….you are one of them.
Mike Foster leads an organization called People of the Second Chance which provides innovative strategies on failure and crisis. Mike also serves as the Creative Principal at PlainJoe Studios in Southern California. He blogs daily at www.POTSC.com and is @MikeFoster on Twitter. More from Mike Foster or visit Mike at www.POTSC.comMonday, November 15, 2010
Worship Life Calvary Chapel.... is born
On November 8, 2010 I received a letter from Calvary Chapel Outreach Fellowship welcoming Roxie and myself and Worship Life Calvary Chapel into the Calvary Chapel family. This is such a blessing and a milestone in life of our church. As I look back on the history of our birth, I see the hand of the Lord. Just a couple of things come to my mind...
1. In June of 2009 Bill Stonebraker of Calvary Chapel Honolulu prophesied that we would be pastoring a church within the year.
2. In July of 2009 we were ministering at a couples retreat with John Milhouse from Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley. On Saturday morning, the speaker said he had a word from the Lord. He said the Lord is looking for a man to birth a new work through and he pointed his finger at me and said... Holland, You are the man... you are the man!!! We were shocked.
3. In November of 2009 Bob Botsford prayed Lord give Holland one option... close every door, but one. When I resigned from Ocean Hills, I had two booking agents and gave them a list of 100 churches that wanted me to come lead worship for them. One church in particular needed someone the coming Sunday. They came back after a couple days and said... no one wants you!!! Doors closed. I went back to Nashville to explore the possibility of starting a new record company with some very well known and well connected people... but I didn't sense that God was leading me towards that. Doors closed. I turned to my wife and I said... what about the possibility of starting a church. She said... I thought that's what we were doing... let's go for it. That was the open door.
4. In December 1994, Larry Randolph and Tim Sherman prophesied over Roxie and myself over 26 years ago in our second year of marriage that God would call us to pastor a church in the later years of our life. It was a very detailed prophecy that basically told us in advance the major events that would occur with regards to ministry. We've watched God fulfill His word to us over the past 26 years in stunning accuracy and detail. The part that struck us was a part that said... "when the cave of Adullam comes, I will give you the strength to run my son... Saul is not a part of you." In August of 2009, the pastor of the church where I was serving announced that they would start a study on the life of Saul and David in 1 Samuel in the fall. Roxie looked at me and said... the cave of Adullam is coming, you will be gone from here by the end of the year. She was right. On the night that we held our first Bible study as Worship Life Calvary Chapel, the pastor taught on the cave of Adullam. The Cave of Adullam came!!! And God had give us the strength to run with integrity and grace. The second part said... Saul is not a part of you. In my final meeting with the pastor it was told to me that my home church would not support my wife and I in any way or have anything to do with Worship Life or anything we ever did. We received no financial help, no prayer, no encouragement, no severance... we were left with nothing. We were not surprised, because God had told me that this would be done to us 2 years previous. It was God's plan. It was very painful and a dark time for us. But it was clear, Saul is not a part of us.
5. I went back to my pastor for counsel - Pastor Chuck Smith... In December of 2009 I met with Pastor Chuck and he gave us the blessing to start a Calvary Chapel... he said "go for it" and prayed for us that God would raise up a ministry in San Clemente that would preach and teach God's Word. That is our prayer for Worship Life. CCOF confirmed God's call in us in November 2010. We are a church plant from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.
6. Since then God has blessed us with equipment, trailers, the support of local pastors, sound systems, a congregation of people who love the Lord, great partners in ministry... it truly is a work of the LORD... a work of the Spirit and we are in awe of what He is doing. The first church to pray for us and bless us was Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley with Pastor John Milhouse. Crossline Church donated to us all their used portable church equipment so we could do church in a box and also prayed for us and sent us with a blessing.
7. In August of 2010, a random guy prophesied over us at a coffee house. I don't know if there is a sign over us that says... pray for us and give us a word from God.... but it happens a lot. The man said... it takes 9 months to birth a baby... in 9 months you will be born and told us some things that would happen in our first year... which I hold close to my heart. 9 months is 36 weeks... 40 weeks is a complete pregnancy... in week 38 we were informed that our articles of incorporation were accepted, our non-profit status granted and our church was accepted into the family of Calvary Chapels... a church was born in 9 months.
All this happened because we surrendered our lives to Romans 12:1,2 - the theme verse for Worship Life...
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
How awesome it is to see God's word fulfilled through our lives as we simply live according to the scriptures.
1. In June of 2009 Bill Stonebraker of Calvary Chapel Honolulu prophesied that we would be pastoring a church within the year.
2. In July of 2009 we were ministering at a couples retreat with John Milhouse from Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley. On Saturday morning, the speaker said he had a word from the Lord. He said the Lord is looking for a man to birth a new work through and he pointed his finger at me and said... Holland, You are the man... you are the man!!! We were shocked.
3. In November of 2009 Bob Botsford prayed Lord give Holland one option... close every door, but one. When I resigned from Ocean Hills, I had two booking agents and gave them a list of 100 churches that wanted me to come lead worship for them. One church in particular needed someone the coming Sunday. They came back after a couple days and said... no one wants you!!! Doors closed. I went back to Nashville to explore the possibility of starting a new record company with some very well known and well connected people... but I didn't sense that God was leading me towards that. Doors closed. I turned to my wife and I said... what about the possibility of starting a church. She said... I thought that's what we were doing... let's go for it. That was the open door.
4. In December 1994, Larry Randolph and Tim Sherman prophesied over Roxie and myself over 26 years ago in our second year of marriage that God would call us to pastor a church in the later years of our life. It was a very detailed prophecy that basically told us in advance the major events that would occur with regards to ministry. We've watched God fulfill His word to us over the past 26 years in stunning accuracy and detail. The part that struck us was a part that said... "when the cave of Adullam comes, I will give you the strength to run my son... Saul is not a part of you." In August of 2009, the pastor of the church where I was serving announced that they would start a study on the life of Saul and David in 1 Samuel in the fall. Roxie looked at me and said... the cave of Adullam is coming, you will be gone from here by the end of the year. She was right. On the night that we held our first Bible study as Worship Life Calvary Chapel, the pastor taught on the cave of Adullam. The Cave of Adullam came!!! And God had give us the strength to run with integrity and grace. The second part said... Saul is not a part of you. In my final meeting with the pastor it was told to me that my home church would not support my wife and I in any way or have anything to do with Worship Life or anything we ever did. We received no financial help, no prayer, no encouragement, no severance... we were left with nothing. We were not surprised, because God had told me that this would be done to us 2 years previous. It was God's plan. It was very painful and a dark time for us. But it was clear, Saul is not a part of us.
5. I went back to my pastor for counsel - Pastor Chuck Smith... In December of 2009 I met with Pastor Chuck and he gave us the blessing to start a Calvary Chapel... he said "go for it" and prayed for us that God would raise up a ministry in San Clemente that would preach and teach God's Word. That is our prayer for Worship Life. CCOF confirmed God's call in us in November 2010. We are a church plant from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.
6. Since then God has blessed us with equipment, trailers, the support of local pastors, sound systems, a congregation of people who love the Lord, great partners in ministry... it truly is a work of the LORD... a work of the Spirit and we are in awe of what He is doing. The first church to pray for us and bless us was Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley with Pastor John Milhouse. Crossline Church donated to us all their used portable church equipment so we could do church in a box and also prayed for us and sent us with a blessing.
7. In August of 2010, a random guy prophesied over us at a coffee house. I don't know if there is a sign over us that says... pray for us and give us a word from God.... but it happens a lot. The man said... it takes 9 months to birth a baby... in 9 months you will be born and told us some things that would happen in our first year... which I hold close to my heart. 9 months is 36 weeks... 40 weeks is a complete pregnancy... in week 38 we were informed that our articles of incorporation were accepted, our non-profit status granted and our church was accepted into the family of Calvary Chapels... a church was born in 9 months.
All this happened because we surrendered our lives to Romans 12:1,2 - the theme verse for Worship Life...
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
How awesome it is to see God's word fulfilled through our lives as we simply live according to the scriptures.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Top 10 Things that will drive you crazy about working for a church
There was a great piece by Tim Schraeder over at CatalystSpace this past week about the top ten things that will drive you crazy about working for a church. See if any of these resonate with you...
1. We are really good at burning people out.
The average church employee stays at a church for about 2 years before they peace out. We all need to learn one simple word: NO. Even though something may be for a great cause, it's not worth losing your soul to make it happen.
2. We focus way too much on what we don't have.
We need to focus on what God CAN do rather than what we have to work with initially.
3. We are afraid of change.
We need to give change time and be more concerned with what the voice of God is saying to you and let that influence you more than the voices of other people.
4. We use "let me pray about it" as an excuse to get out of making decisions.
Wow. So true.
5. We LOVE meetings.
For some reason, we think that things get accomplished in meetings. They make us feel good about our progress. 95% of the time, meetings are a waste of time.
6. We try to do way too much.
Tim says: "Most churches are hyperactive and never sleep. We thrive on activity. The whole "less is more" thing hasn’t sunk in yet." I agree that this is the case in some churches. In other churches (maybe the majority) though, I think we try to do too little. While some churches are hyperactive, many more are asleep... not trying ANYTHING great for God. (In this point, I disagree a little with Tim).
7. We try to be something we're not.
Tim says: "If I see one more 40 something pastor dressed in Abercrombie so help me…" Amen, brother.
8. We spend too much time looking at other churches.
Again... agree: "Your church has a unique and specific role it’s meant to play in the life of your community. If your church ceased to exist, what would people miss? Whatever that is should be where you focus your time and energy."
9. We worry about people leaving.
"We're quick to cater to the needs [or demands] of people who have been around for a while instead of focusing the needs of people who are new."
Why do we do this? Money? Pride?
I like what one preacher said recently. "Some people look better goin' than comin'." Couldn't be MORE true sometimes.
10. We don't feel trusted.
Tim says: "For whatever reason churches tend thrive in a weird culture of mistrust. It's not or conducive to a positive working environment. Some churches have crazy rules, policies and procedures that create layers of red tape that, while probably well-intentioned, communicate a lack of trust."
1. We are really good at burning people out.
The average church employee stays at a church for about 2 years before they peace out. We all need to learn one simple word: NO. Even though something may be for a great cause, it's not worth losing your soul to make it happen.
2. We focus way too much on what we don't have.
We need to focus on what God CAN do rather than what we have to work with initially.
3. We are afraid of change.
We need to give change time and be more concerned with what the voice of God is saying to you and let that influence you more than the voices of other people.
4. We use "let me pray about it" as an excuse to get out of making decisions.
Wow. So true.
5. We LOVE meetings.
For some reason, we think that things get accomplished in meetings. They make us feel good about our progress. 95% of the time, meetings are a waste of time.
6. We try to do way too much.
Tim says: "Most churches are hyperactive and never sleep. We thrive on activity. The whole "less is more" thing hasn’t sunk in yet." I agree that this is the case in some churches. In other churches (maybe the majority) though, I think we try to do too little. While some churches are hyperactive, many more are asleep... not trying ANYTHING great for God. (In this point, I disagree a little with Tim).
7. We try to be something we're not.
Tim says: "If I see one more 40 something pastor dressed in Abercrombie so help me…" Amen, brother.
8. We spend too much time looking at other churches.
Again... agree: "Your church has a unique and specific role it’s meant to play in the life of your community. If your church ceased to exist, what would people miss? Whatever that is should be where you focus your time and energy."
9. We worry about people leaving.
"We're quick to cater to the needs [or demands] of people who have been around for a while instead of focusing the needs of people who are new."
Why do we do this? Money? Pride?
I like what one preacher said recently. "Some people look better goin' than comin'." Couldn't be MORE true sometimes.
10. We don't feel trusted.
Tim says: "For whatever reason churches tend thrive in a weird culture of mistrust. It's not or conducive to a positive working environment. Some churches have crazy rules, policies and procedures that create layers of red tape that, while probably well-intentioned, communicate a lack of trust."
Friday, September 17, 2010
A Lesson From Joseph
19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. 21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
I’ve been meditating on this passage of scripture for the past few months. In many ways I feel like I’ve just been through an experience that is similar to what Joseph went through. Something that the Lord brought to my attention is how much I love to say… you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good… but I generally stop there. But if you keep reading the passage, Joseph ends up becoming a comfort and speaks kindly to the very ones that betrayed him. That hit me between the eyes.
I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to justify my attitude towards those who have done harm to me or treated me unjustly. I like to call it justice. It’s such a cry in our culture today. We need justice!!! Social justice!!! Justice for the wrongs that have been done against us!!! Justice Lord!!! But Joseph didn’t cry out for justice. If fact, when given the chance to demonstrate justice he did something that is contrary to our cultural norms. He showed mercy.
Now, mercy isn’t overlooking a wrong. Mercy isn’t turning a blind eye to injustice. But mercy is a decision that looks injustice squarely in the eye and says… I’m going to release you from my desire to execute justice. I’m going to give you something that you don’t deserve, you didn’t earn and that you shouldn’t have. I’m going to release you from my desire for retribution… I’m going to give mercy.
Joseph even goes a step further than showing mercy, he extends forgiveness. What’s the difference? The Bible says the wages of sin is death. Every sin has a cost. When I sin against my brother there’s a cost. When my brother sins against me there’s a cost. At the cross, Jesus paid all the back wages that were due because of our sin. Not only did He pay the back wages, but He applied His limitless love to future wages so we can never be indebted to God again. We are free from the wage of sin. He paid our debt for us. When I forgive someone, I bear in my heart, my soul, my mind the penalty for their sin and I release them from payment… I release them from restitution… I release my right for them to make it right with me. So mercy is the release from retribution and forgiveness is the release from restitution.
When you extend mercy and forgiveness to those who have deeply harmed you, it sets you free. It sets you free to receive healing and restoration from God with regards to the harm that you have endured. It also sets you free to see those who have harmed you for who they really are. Broken individuals who are far away from God and in need of a Savior. It also sets you free to be an agent of God’s love in their lives… and like Joseph to be able to comfort and speak kindly to them.
I want this kind of love to flow from my life. I want to move past the pain and the disillusionment of those who I thought were brothers, who lied about me, betrayed me and left me for dead. But in order to do that it means that I step into the sufferings of Jesus and extend the same mercy and forgiveness that He has extended to me.
I want to encourage you to pray and ask God to search your heart. If there is someone you need to forgive. Forgive them. Release them from your need for justice. Release them from your need for restitution. Ask God to empower you to love as He loved and watch what the Lord will do in your life. Watch the Lord restore your joy for living, your excitement for His kingdom and your passion for worship. I can tell you from personal experience that this is a prayer that God is waiting for us to pray because it’s His desire that we walk in the same freedom that Joseph experienced when He was reunited with those that did him great harm.
May you experience the fullness of God’s love and forgiveness in your life as you generously extend the mercy and forgiveness that God has given to you.
Blessings…
P.HD
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Great Response To Dealing With Moral Failure
I recently read an article on moral failure that had this attatchment added to it. It is a response from Rick Warren at Saddleback Church dealing with a situation of moral failure in the church involving a pastoral staff member. I like it because it's biblical, candid and compassionate. Unfortunately, many churches tend to cover up and not deal with these situations which provides an atmosphere where the sheep are unprotected, the offenders continue to offend because they are quickly "restored" and repeat offend and the Body of Christ looses credibility.
MORAL FAILURE
One of the most painful experiences you'll go through is when a staff member fails morally. What do you say to your staff and how do you handle it? This is an inside look on how Saddleback pastor, Rick Warren, handled such an incident. You'll be reading the transcript as Rick speaks to his staff. Saddleback constructs the restoration plan around the issue the person is dealing with.
Rick:
It is with great sadness that I need to report a staff resignation due to an inappropriate relationship. That's all the details I'm going to give you. I ask you to try to not find out any more about it, because honestly, you don't need to know the details. You just need to know they had a moral failure. They have resigned. To talk about it would be gossip anyway. I would encourage you, if you feel like it, to drop them a note of prayer and encouragement during the next week or two as a brother or sister in Christ.
Having dealt with that, and that's really all the details I'm going to give, I want to talk to you about three or four major issues. I want to talk to you about maintaining integrity in staff relationships. I want to talk to you about the difference between forgiveness and trust. I want to talk to you about avoiding gossip. And I want to talk to you about what to do with potentially damaging information about a staff member or a member of a church. What do you do with it?
First off, I want to recommend that every one of you on staff, relisten to my tape "Maintaining Moral Integrity in the Ministry". It's one of the Leadership Lifters. It's a lesson I reteach our staff every single year. Some of you are new here at Saddleback and you probably have not heard that yet in the go around of the year. But that message "Maintaining Moral Integrity in the Ministry" has a series of what we call Saddleback Staff Commandments that have kept this problem from occurring. It's actually only occurred one other time in 21 years, in the history of our church. I want you to listen to that.
As a staff member you are both a minister and a leader of our church. I don't care what your job is. You are a minister and you are a leader.
The Bible says that leaders are held to a higher standard. And we are to be what the Bible says, "above reproach". That means I want to live my life in such a way that people have to make up stuff about me in order to accuse me of something. It's not a matter of what's black and white and what's gray, not staying out of the gray area and staying clearly living in the light.
We have a set of these ten moral standards, the Saddleback Staff Commandments that you need to be very familiar with. If you violate any of these Ten Commandments you will be disciplined. This may sound legalistic but I would rather go overboard than be thrown overboard. I want to live my life in such a way that it really is above reproach. I can say to you than in 21 years as pastor of this church I have never been - not for a single second - in a room with a woman other than my wife by myself with the door closed in 21 years. It's never happened. I will not even go down the elevator at the ministry center in our office with a female staff member. And Barb and Harriett you know that.
We always joke about who's going to go down first. I just have never put myself in the situation where I've never been alone with any woman, except my own wife.
There are other things besides moral failure. If you're drinking or you're gambling or if you're violating any other of the standards, you need to admit it as a staff member and you need to come to us and let us help you with your recovery. I need to be honest with you. If you have an affair you will be fired from this staff. In the first place, how could you minister if your life is livinga lie? You have to be living a life of integrity in order to minister and what does it profit a man if he keeps his job and loses his soul. What's far more important than you keeping your job is us helping you with your recovery because sin does not have to be the end of your life. But it does have to be a time of accountability, of repentance, of restitution, and of restoration.
Really when you think about it is what is worse about this situation is at the heart of any moral failure is deceit. At the base you end up lying to God, you end up lying to other people, you end up lying to yourself. When you lie to other people then you have lost your credibility and you have lost your trust. And that is what leadership is all about. All of leadership is built on trust. Once you've lost the trust of other people, you're not the leader. I don't care if you've got the position or not, you're not the leader any more.
The amazing thing about trust is it takes years and years to build trust and credibility. But it can be lost in an instant. It can be lost overnight. Then it takes even longer to rebuild trust, to rebuild credibility.
It doesn't really matter when the sin occurred. It could have occurred three months ago, six months ago, a year ago, two years ago or whatever.
If you cover it up then you continue to live in deceit. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs "He who covers his sin will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them gets another chance." You may have committed a sin and then you broke it off but if you keep covering it up, it destroys your fellowship with God and that makes ministry impossible.
Everybody has a past. Everybody on staff. I have a past, you have a past. But it's secrecy that destroys our lives and destroys our ministry. It's not the sin, it's holding the secret of the sin that creates a double life, a double standard and a life of hypocrisy. If you are struggling in any area as a staff member I beg you, I beg you to come see me. Let us talk about it, let us help you. I'd rather hear it from you than hearing it from somebody else. I don't want to have somebody calling me a year from now in another state saying, "Do you know 'this' about a staff member?" I want you to come and talk to me and let us work on it and let us work on a recovery program in your life.
You need to understand the difference between forgiveness and trust, because most of society has no understanding of these two concepts. Forgiveness is a personal issue but trust is a positional issue. It's a leadership issue, because as I said, all leadership is built on trust. Forgiveness is instant. The moment this staff member came to me and it was revealed, confessed, I immediately forgave them. Why? Because I have been forgiven. I will never have to forgive anybody else more than I have been forgiven by Jesus Christ. We live in a state of constant forgiveness. We are all trophies of grace. And the Bible says that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven and God forgives us instantly and God forgives us completely and so we are to forgive instantly and completely to others. Forgiveness is based on grace.
But trust is a different issue. Trust is rebuilt slowly and trust is not built on grace. Trust is built on behavior. For instance, if a woman is being battered by her husband and the husband comes to her and says, "Will you please forgive me?" She must forgive Him because of what Jesus commands. She has to forgive him because if she doesn't bitterness will be in her heart and then she is sinning. But she does not have to let him back into the house because he has not proven to be trustworthy. Forgiveness is instant. Trust takes time. Forgiveness is built on grace. Trust is built on works, it's built on behavior. And as I've said, you cannot lead people if they don't trust you.
Whenever a leader has a moral failure they need a time out. They need to get out of the spotlight. Always being in the spotlight blinds you and you cannot be in recovery and be in the spotlight at the same time.
And you cannot minister and really lead while you're trying to rebuild your life because it divides up your energy. It's like a bunch of light bulbs. If you've got one light bulb plugged into a battery it will go for a long time. If you put in two light bulbs, it drains it in half the time. When you've had a major failure in your life, you need to put all your energy in restoring your fellowship with God, restoring the fellowship with those you've hurt, making restitution, and you don't need to have any energy going out for anything else. So a leader needs a time out.
I want to say this very clearly. Restoration to ministry or restoration to leadership is possible. I believe that. It is definitely possible. I do believe in the God of second chances. But it should not be assumed. It requires a long time track record of proving several things. Proving accountability, proving responsibility, proving repentance, and proving most of all humility.
Why do I say most of all humility? Because the thing that allows us to change after a major failure is grace. Grace is the power to change after we've stumbled. Where do you get grace? The Bible tells us "God gives grace to the humble, but He resists - He opposes - the proud." When I'm prideful, God is not just looking the other way. I am living in opposition to God when I'm prideful. And of course, when I cover up my sin what is that? It's pride.
It's very humbling, it's actually humiliating, to admit a failure, particularly a moral failure. But in that very act of humiliation we find the grace to change. The very thing we hate the most - having people find out, having people know, feeling humbled by that is the very attitude that will make the change in our lives and will allow us to grow and let God bring good out of bad and have our character rebuilt and our lives restored.
It does take these issues of accountability and repentance and humility.
When a Christian leader sins - and I'm talking about leadership now, as I said, everyone of you as staff members are leaders - they need to step out of the spotlight and they need to get a secular job while they work on their marriage, while they work on their relationship to God.
This is not something I just made up. Everything we try to do here at Saddleback is based on the Bible. The Bible is very, very clear about what to do in this situation. In 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 you can find it all spelled out there and I hope you'll study this passage after this meeting. Let me read some of it to you out of the Message paraphrase.
A situation like this occurred in the church in Corinth. Paul was talking about the moral failure of a leader in that church. He says in verse 1 "I received a report of scandalous sex within your church family. Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our master." And that's what Paul says to do.
He says bring it out in the open. One of the reasons is it gets rid of gossip and we'll talk about that in a minute. He says, "Assemble the community. I'll be present with you in spirit and our master Jesus Christ will be present with you in power. Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can. If he can't, then out with him. It will be totally devastating to him of course and embarrassing to you but better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the master on the day of judgment." Paul goes on to say, "You pass it off as a small thing but it's anything but that. Yeast too is a small thing but it works its way through the whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of the yeast. I wrote you in my earlier letter than you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing to do with outsiders of that sort or crooks whether blue or white collar. I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do but don't we have some responsibility for those without our community of believers? God decides onthe outsiders but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and if necessary, clean house.
"Those are pretty painful words but we have to do what God says. I don't like disappointing people. I don't like getting people's disapproval.
But there is something that I fear more than the disapproval of other people. And that is the disapproval of God. I am jealous for the integrity of this church. I would rather die - I mean this! - than hurt this church. I'd rather stick a knife through my heart than harm the reputation of this church. The Bible says when you have to clean house, you have to clean house.
So when anybody has had a moral failure, they need to be taken out of the spotlight of ministry. People say, "Why don't we just keep them on staff and try to restore them while they're on staff?" Because the Bible says not to. The Bible says they need a time out. And they cannot be working on their life at the same time. You can't just crash your life and keep on working no matter who or what you confess to. The sooner, obviously, you confess the better. That way you get it out of the deceit phase.
What I'm saying is this. Forgiveness is immediate but restoration after adultery always takes time. And I have found in now over thirty years of public ministry that it takes at least a year. At least a year, for people who have stumbled in ministry with an affair. And it takes deep and very painful growth. You cannot rush your return to ministry no matter how much you or I or anybody else would like that to be possible.
Let's talk about the issue of gossip for a minute. When you become a member of Saddleback church you sign a membership covenant. You promise to keep that covenant as a member. The first item on that covenant says, "I will protect the unity of my church by not gossiping." You make a promise, not just as a staff member, but as a member of this church not to gossip. Gossip destroys churches faster than any other single issue. The second is dissention but number one is gossip.
What is gossip? You've probably heard me say this many times. Gossip is when you're sharing information and you're neither part of the problem nor part of the solution. If I'm not part of the problem and I'm not part of the solution and I'm talking about it then I am gossiping. The Bible has a word for that. It's called sin.
Gossips are always very needy people who get their power from sharing secrets and withholding secrets. By holding on to information they draw the attention to themselves. It makes them the center of attention and that's why they do it.
When someone comes up and gossips to you, instead of participating in their sin you should avoid them. In fact, you should encourage them to seek council. Do not enable them. Did you know that by law if you accept stolen goods and you know they're stolen goods by law in America you could be held accountable for the same penalty as if you stole them yourself. When you listen to gossip that's stolen information. When you continue to listen to gossip instead of stopping it, or instead of leaving the situation God says you're as guilty as the one who was just speaking.
So I am begging you as a church leader, as a staff member, it is your duty to confront and stop all gossip immediately when you hear it. You don't just walk away from it, you stop it. Whether it's from other staff members or it's from members of the church you say, "This is gossip. We shouldn't be talking about it." That's all you have to say. This is gossip, we shouldn't be talking about it.
When you're in a small group. Small groups often couch gossip in the phrase, "Prayer request." Small groups should pray about their own problems not the problems of other people. Gossips ina small group should be confronted. The Bible tells us in Titus that they should be warned twice and if they do not change after being warned twice the Bible tells us in Titus they should be asked to leave if they persist. They should be asked to leave the church or leave the group.
When somebody comes to you and they start to tell information never, never promise to withhold information told to you by a gossip. What it does is it makes you a party to their sin. If somebody tells you something damaging about another person and you can't help it and then they ask you to keep it a secret then you must take it to a pastor who can help. Because you don't want to be holding on to information that makes you a partner in crime or a partner in sin.
That brings up this issue: what do you do when you hear rumors? And there are lots of them in a church of Saddleback's size. What do you do when you hear rumors? Or you hear potentially damaging information about a staff member?
You've got two choices.
One you can go directly to that person in the spirit of Matthew 18. In Matthew 18 it tells us the formula for biblical confrontation. It says if you've got something against your brother or they've got something against you, you go to that person directly and you confront them. Then it says if they don't listen you go get another person and you go back and you confront them again. Then it says if they don't listen to that, you take it to the elders. The elders of Saddleback church are the pastors of Saddleback. The word elder, pastor and bishop are all used interchangeably in the New Testament to refer to the same church leader.
That's what the Bible says to do. I didn't say that, Jesus did. You go to them directly. If they don't listen you take another person. And if they still don't listen you say, "Since you're not listening to us, we're going to take it to a pastor." And you go directly to them.
That's your first choice. If you don't want to do that or you don't think you can do it you just go ahead and go directly to a pastor. What you don't do is take it to a small group and say, "We need to pray about this." Then you have just become a gossip.
What do you do when maybe a staff member is struggling in an area, and maybe they come to you and they talk to you about an area of sin? This is not gossip. It's their coming to you. Now you know information that could cause them to either be disciplined or if it's an affair could cause them to lose their job. What do you do in that situation?
You encourage them to go talk to a pastor. I'd say, "I think you need to go talk to Pastor Rick about this. I think you need to go tell Pastor Glenn about this." My door is always open to our staff. So is Pastor Glenn or Tom or Doug or Brett or John or Forrest. Any of our pastors would be more than happy. We do it all the time. We really do. You'll never know about it because we keep confidences.
If you say, "I think you ought to go to Pastor Rick and talk to him about it." Give them a week and then tell them, "If you don't do it I'm going to come back to you in a short time. And in the spirit of Matthew 18 I'm coming with another person to convince you to do that." Then if they still don't you bring it to the pastor.
These are difficult days. My heart is broken over the situation. I've already cried a whole lot. We're working with those involved and we're praying for restoration and healing in their lives - their personal lives and in their families. But for you, let this be a warning. The Bible says, "Let him who stands take head lest he falls."
The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" That means my heart is deceitful. Rick Warren's heart. So is yours. We're kidding ourselves if we don't think we could stumble.
Given the right situation, any person is capable of any sin given the right circumstance. That's why we do not come to this with a spirit of pride or arrogance or self-righteousness. The Bible says, "Let him who is spiritual gently restore those who have stumbled." And that's what we hope to do.
So be praying for our staff and be praying for the families involved and be praying for our church and be praying for yourself and your own family. That we will walk with integrity and we will walk with humility, that we will not allow gossip to dominate our church but we will follow the biblical prescriptions of dealing with sin when it occurs. We shouldn't be shocked because we are all sinners, we're all saved by grace. But we all need to live lives that are worthy of the trust and respect that leaders are given and realizing that sin doesn't just hurt one person but it always hurts many, many innocent people
MORAL FAILURE
One of the most painful experiences you'll go through is when a staff member fails morally. What do you say to your staff and how do you handle it? This is an inside look on how Saddleback pastor, Rick Warren, handled such an incident. You'll be reading the transcript as Rick speaks to his staff. Saddleback constructs the restoration plan around the issue the person is dealing with.
Rick:
It is with great sadness that I need to report a staff resignation due to an inappropriate relationship. That's all the details I'm going to give you. I ask you to try to not find out any more about it, because honestly, you don't need to know the details. You just need to know they had a moral failure. They have resigned. To talk about it would be gossip anyway. I would encourage you, if you feel like it, to drop them a note of prayer and encouragement during the next week or two as a brother or sister in Christ.
Having dealt with that, and that's really all the details I'm going to give, I want to talk to you about three or four major issues. I want to talk to you about maintaining integrity in staff relationships. I want to talk to you about the difference between forgiveness and trust. I want to talk to you about avoiding gossip. And I want to talk to you about what to do with potentially damaging information about a staff member or a member of a church. What do you do with it?
First off, I want to recommend that every one of you on staff, relisten to my tape "Maintaining Moral Integrity in the Ministry". It's one of the Leadership Lifters. It's a lesson I reteach our staff every single year. Some of you are new here at Saddleback and you probably have not heard that yet in the go around of the year. But that message "Maintaining Moral Integrity in the Ministry" has a series of what we call Saddleback Staff Commandments that have kept this problem from occurring. It's actually only occurred one other time in 21 years, in the history of our church. I want you to listen to that.
As a staff member you are both a minister and a leader of our church. I don't care what your job is. You are a minister and you are a leader.
The Bible says that leaders are held to a higher standard. And we are to be what the Bible says, "above reproach". That means I want to live my life in such a way that people have to make up stuff about me in order to accuse me of something. It's not a matter of what's black and white and what's gray, not staying out of the gray area and staying clearly living in the light.
We have a set of these ten moral standards, the Saddleback Staff Commandments that you need to be very familiar with. If you violate any of these Ten Commandments you will be disciplined. This may sound legalistic but I would rather go overboard than be thrown overboard. I want to live my life in such a way that it really is above reproach. I can say to you than in 21 years as pastor of this church I have never been - not for a single second - in a room with a woman other than my wife by myself with the door closed in 21 years. It's never happened. I will not even go down the elevator at the ministry center in our office with a female staff member. And Barb and Harriett you know that.
We always joke about who's going to go down first. I just have never put myself in the situation where I've never been alone with any woman, except my own wife.
There are other things besides moral failure. If you're drinking or you're gambling or if you're violating any other of the standards, you need to admit it as a staff member and you need to come to us and let us help you with your recovery. I need to be honest with you. If you have an affair you will be fired from this staff. In the first place, how could you minister if your life is livinga lie? You have to be living a life of integrity in order to minister and what does it profit a man if he keeps his job and loses his soul. What's far more important than you keeping your job is us helping you with your recovery because sin does not have to be the end of your life. But it does have to be a time of accountability, of repentance, of restitution, and of restoration.
Really when you think about it is what is worse about this situation is at the heart of any moral failure is deceit. At the base you end up lying to God, you end up lying to other people, you end up lying to yourself. When you lie to other people then you have lost your credibility and you have lost your trust. And that is what leadership is all about. All of leadership is built on trust. Once you've lost the trust of other people, you're not the leader. I don't care if you've got the position or not, you're not the leader any more.
The amazing thing about trust is it takes years and years to build trust and credibility. But it can be lost in an instant. It can be lost overnight. Then it takes even longer to rebuild trust, to rebuild credibility.
It doesn't really matter when the sin occurred. It could have occurred three months ago, six months ago, a year ago, two years ago or whatever.
If you cover it up then you continue to live in deceit. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs "He who covers his sin will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them gets another chance." You may have committed a sin and then you broke it off but if you keep covering it up, it destroys your fellowship with God and that makes ministry impossible.
Everybody has a past. Everybody on staff. I have a past, you have a past. But it's secrecy that destroys our lives and destroys our ministry. It's not the sin, it's holding the secret of the sin that creates a double life, a double standard and a life of hypocrisy. If you are struggling in any area as a staff member I beg you, I beg you to come see me. Let us talk about it, let us help you. I'd rather hear it from you than hearing it from somebody else. I don't want to have somebody calling me a year from now in another state saying, "Do you know 'this' about a staff member?" I want you to come and talk to me and let us work on it and let us work on a recovery program in your life.
You need to understand the difference between forgiveness and trust, because most of society has no understanding of these two concepts. Forgiveness is a personal issue but trust is a positional issue. It's a leadership issue, because as I said, all leadership is built on trust. Forgiveness is instant. The moment this staff member came to me and it was revealed, confessed, I immediately forgave them. Why? Because I have been forgiven. I will never have to forgive anybody else more than I have been forgiven by Jesus Christ. We live in a state of constant forgiveness. We are all trophies of grace. And the Bible says that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven and God forgives us instantly and God forgives us completely and so we are to forgive instantly and completely to others. Forgiveness is based on grace.
But trust is a different issue. Trust is rebuilt slowly and trust is not built on grace. Trust is built on behavior. For instance, if a woman is being battered by her husband and the husband comes to her and says, "Will you please forgive me?" She must forgive Him because of what Jesus commands. She has to forgive him because if she doesn't bitterness will be in her heart and then she is sinning. But she does not have to let him back into the house because he has not proven to be trustworthy. Forgiveness is instant. Trust takes time. Forgiveness is built on grace. Trust is built on works, it's built on behavior. And as I've said, you cannot lead people if they don't trust you.
Whenever a leader has a moral failure they need a time out. They need to get out of the spotlight. Always being in the spotlight blinds you and you cannot be in recovery and be in the spotlight at the same time.
And you cannot minister and really lead while you're trying to rebuild your life because it divides up your energy. It's like a bunch of light bulbs. If you've got one light bulb plugged into a battery it will go for a long time. If you put in two light bulbs, it drains it in half the time. When you've had a major failure in your life, you need to put all your energy in restoring your fellowship with God, restoring the fellowship with those you've hurt, making restitution, and you don't need to have any energy going out for anything else. So a leader needs a time out.
I want to say this very clearly. Restoration to ministry or restoration to leadership is possible. I believe that. It is definitely possible. I do believe in the God of second chances. But it should not be assumed. It requires a long time track record of proving several things. Proving accountability, proving responsibility, proving repentance, and proving most of all humility.
Why do I say most of all humility? Because the thing that allows us to change after a major failure is grace. Grace is the power to change after we've stumbled. Where do you get grace? The Bible tells us "God gives grace to the humble, but He resists - He opposes - the proud." When I'm prideful, God is not just looking the other way. I am living in opposition to God when I'm prideful. And of course, when I cover up my sin what is that? It's pride.
It's very humbling, it's actually humiliating, to admit a failure, particularly a moral failure. But in that very act of humiliation we find the grace to change. The very thing we hate the most - having people find out, having people know, feeling humbled by that is the very attitude that will make the change in our lives and will allow us to grow and let God bring good out of bad and have our character rebuilt and our lives restored.
It does take these issues of accountability and repentance and humility.
When a Christian leader sins - and I'm talking about leadership now, as I said, everyone of you as staff members are leaders - they need to step out of the spotlight and they need to get a secular job while they work on their marriage, while they work on their relationship to God.
This is not something I just made up. Everything we try to do here at Saddleback is based on the Bible. The Bible is very, very clear about what to do in this situation. In 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 you can find it all spelled out there and I hope you'll study this passage after this meeting. Let me read some of it to you out of the Message paraphrase.
A situation like this occurred in the church in Corinth. Paul was talking about the moral failure of a leader in that church. He says in verse 1 "I received a report of scandalous sex within your church family. Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our master." And that's what Paul says to do.
He says bring it out in the open. One of the reasons is it gets rid of gossip and we'll talk about that in a minute. He says, "Assemble the community. I'll be present with you in spirit and our master Jesus Christ will be present with you in power. Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can. If he can't, then out with him. It will be totally devastating to him of course and embarrassing to you but better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the master on the day of judgment." Paul goes on to say, "You pass it off as a small thing but it's anything but that. Yeast too is a small thing but it works its way through the whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of the yeast. I wrote you in my earlier letter than you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing to do with outsiders of that sort or crooks whether blue or white collar. I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do but don't we have some responsibility for those without our community of believers? God decides onthe outsiders but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and if necessary, clean house.
"Those are pretty painful words but we have to do what God says. I don't like disappointing people. I don't like getting people's disapproval.
But there is something that I fear more than the disapproval of other people. And that is the disapproval of God. I am jealous for the integrity of this church. I would rather die - I mean this! - than hurt this church. I'd rather stick a knife through my heart than harm the reputation of this church. The Bible says when you have to clean house, you have to clean house.
So when anybody has had a moral failure, they need to be taken out of the spotlight of ministry. People say, "Why don't we just keep them on staff and try to restore them while they're on staff?" Because the Bible says not to. The Bible says they need a time out. And they cannot be working on their life at the same time. You can't just crash your life and keep on working no matter who or what you confess to. The sooner, obviously, you confess the better. That way you get it out of the deceit phase.
What I'm saying is this. Forgiveness is immediate but restoration after adultery always takes time. And I have found in now over thirty years of public ministry that it takes at least a year. At least a year, for people who have stumbled in ministry with an affair. And it takes deep and very painful growth. You cannot rush your return to ministry no matter how much you or I or anybody else would like that to be possible.
Let's talk about the issue of gossip for a minute. When you become a member of Saddleback church you sign a membership covenant. You promise to keep that covenant as a member. The first item on that covenant says, "I will protect the unity of my church by not gossiping." You make a promise, not just as a staff member, but as a member of this church not to gossip. Gossip destroys churches faster than any other single issue. The second is dissention but number one is gossip.
What is gossip? You've probably heard me say this many times. Gossip is when you're sharing information and you're neither part of the problem nor part of the solution. If I'm not part of the problem and I'm not part of the solution and I'm talking about it then I am gossiping. The Bible has a word for that. It's called sin.
Gossips are always very needy people who get their power from sharing secrets and withholding secrets. By holding on to information they draw the attention to themselves. It makes them the center of attention and that's why they do it.
When someone comes up and gossips to you, instead of participating in their sin you should avoid them. In fact, you should encourage them to seek council. Do not enable them. Did you know that by law if you accept stolen goods and you know they're stolen goods by law in America you could be held accountable for the same penalty as if you stole them yourself. When you listen to gossip that's stolen information. When you continue to listen to gossip instead of stopping it, or instead of leaving the situation God says you're as guilty as the one who was just speaking.
So I am begging you as a church leader, as a staff member, it is your duty to confront and stop all gossip immediately when you hear it. You don't just walk away from it, you stop it. Whether it's from other staff members or it's from members of the church you say, "This is gossip. We shouldn't be talking about it." That's all you have to say. This is gossip, we shouldn't be talking about it.
When you're in a small group. Small groups often couch gossip in the phrase, "Prayer request." Small groups should pray about their own problems not the problems of other people. Gossips ina small group should be confronted. The Bible tells us in Titus that they should be warned twice and if they do not change after being warned twice the Bible tells us in Titus they should be asked to leave if they persist. They should be asked to leave the church or leave the group.
When somebody comes to you and they start to tell information never, never promise to withhold information told to you by a gossip. What it does is it makes you a party to their sin. If somebody tells you something damaging about another person and you can't help it and then they ask you to keep it a secret then you must take it to a pastor who can help. Because you don't want to be holding on to information that makes you a partner in crime or a partner in sin.
That brings up this issue: what do you do when you hear rumors? And there are lots of them in a church of Saddleback's size. What do you do when you hear rumors? Or you hear potentially damaging information about a staff member?
You've got two choices.
One you can go directly to that person in the spirit of Matthew 18. In Matthew 18 it tells us the formula for biblical confrontation. It says if you've got something against your brother or they've got something against you, you go to that person directly and you confront them. Then it says if they don't listen you go get another person and you go back and you confront them again. Then it says if they don't listen to that, you take it to the elders. The elders of Saddleback church are the pastors of Saddleback. The word elder, pastor and bishop are all used interchangeably in the New Testament to refer to the same church leader.
That's what the Bible says to do. I didn't say that, Jesus did. You go to them directly. If they don't listen you take another person. And if they still don't listen you say, "Since you're not listening to us, we're going to take it to a pastor." And you go directly to them.
That's your first choice. If you don't want to do that or you don't think you can do it you just go ahead and go directly to a pastor. What you don't do is take it to a small group and say, "We need to pray about this." Then you have just become a gossip.
What do you do when maybe a staff member is struggling in an area, and maybe they come to you and they talk to you about an area of sin? This is not gossip. It's their coming to you. Now you know information that could cause them to either be disciplined or if it's an affair could cause them to lose their job. What do you do in that situation?
You encourage them to go talk to a pastor. I'd say, "I think you need to go talk to Pastor Rick about this. I think you need to go tell Pastor Glenn about this." My door is always open to our staff. So is Pastor Glenn or Tom or Doug or Brett or John or Forrest. Any of our pastors would be more than happy. We do it all the time. We really do. You'll never know about it because we keep confidences.
If you say, "I think you ought to go to Pastor Rick and talk to him about it." Give them a week and then tell them, "If you don't do it I'm going to come back to you in a short time. And in the spirit of Matthew 18 I'm coming with another person to convince you to do that." Then if they still don't you bring it to the pastor.
These are difficult days. My heart is broken over the situation. I've already cried a whole lot. We're working with those involved and we're praying for restoration and healing in their lives - their personal lives and in their families. But for you, let this be a warning. The Bible says, "Let him who stands take head lest he falls."
The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" That means my heart is deceitful. Rick Warren's heart. So is yours. We're kidding ourselves if we don't think we could stumble.
Given the right situation, any person is capable of any sin given the right circumstance. That's why we do not come to this with a spirit of pride or arrogance or self-righteousness. The Bible says, "Let him who is spiritual gently restore those who have stumbled." And that's what we hope to do.
So be praying for our staff and be praying for the families involved and be praying for our church and be praying for yourself and your own family. That we will walk with integrity and we will walk with humility, that we will not allow gossip to dominate our church but we will follow the biblical prescriptions of dealing with sin when it occurs. We shouldn't be shocked because we are all sinners, we're all saved by grace. But we all need to live lives that are worthy of the trust and respect that leaders are given and realizing that sin doesn't just hurt one person but it always hurts many, many innocent people
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
New Church In Town...
Pastor / songwriter Holland Davis to start Calvary Chapel
Pastor Holland Davis knows the importance of song when it comes to spirituality. A former music executive with Maranatha! Music, Davis was the originator of the gold selling Top 25 Praise Songs CD, and now is bringing his successful mix of music and religion to San Clemente in the form of the new church Worship Life Calvary Chapel. The church, a nondenominational Christian church, will be opening its doors on February 14 at Vista Del Mar Middle School in San Clemente.
“I met Jesus at a Young Life meeting while my dad was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan when I was thirteen,” recalls Davis, founder of Worship Life, Inc. and a featured writer for Technologies For Worship magazine. “Jesus became so real to me that I simply surrendered my life to following him all the days of my life.” After his career in worship music, Holland served as the worship leader at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This new church will be affiliated with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.
To learn more about the church visit worshiplifecalvary.com
-- article from the San Clemente Times
Pastor Holland Davis knows the importance of song when it comes to spirituality. A former music executive with Maranatha! Music, Davis was the originator of the gold selling Top 25 Praise Songs CD, and now is bringing his successful mix of music and religion to San Clemente in the form of the new church Worship Life Calvary Chapel. The church, a nondenominational Christian church, will be opening its doors on February 14 at Vista Del Mar Middle School in San Clemente.
“I met Jesus at a Young Life meeting while my dad was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan when I was thirteen,” recalls Davis, founder of Worship Life, Inc. and a featured writer for Technologies For Worship magazine. “Jesus became so real to me that I simply surrendered my life to following him all the days of my life.” After his career in worship music, Holland served as the worship leader at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This new church will be affiliated with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.
To learn more about the church visit worshiplifecalvary.com
-- article from the San Clemente Times
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Knock And It Shall Be Opened
When you stand before His gate, knock loudly and boldly. Do not knock as a beggar knocks, but as one who belongs to the house. Not as a vagabond, who is afraid of the police, but as a friend and an intimate acquaintance. Not as one who is apprehensive of being troublesome, or of coming at an improper time, but as a guest who may rest assured of a hearty welcome.
Dr. F. W. Krummacher
Dr. F. W. Krummacher
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