Competition or Teamwork?

I am a competitive person. For those that know me, this is an understatement. I thoroughly enjoy the excitement of competition on the basketball court, tennis court, video game or anything else! I think it is a fun and enjoyable thing to be competitive. But, competition can become an idol in life that controls feelings and emotions. The sudden ending to a sporting event reveals a winner and a loser (besides soccer). The temporary excitement of watching your favorite football team win is fun. As leaders, we need to stop competing against other churches. Scripture never says one church in the kingdom is the only "crown jewel" of the overall kingdom. We need to start teaming up instead of competing against other student ministries, churches and relationships. Satan was the first to compete with God before the garden of Eden! This then led to Satan tempting Adam and Eve to compete against God's commands. On and on we see the dangers of competition that is based on pride and not the grace of God.

Is it true that the same attitude from playing sports has seeped into the hearts of ministry leaders? I remember playing flag football in Bible college. Future church leaders would treat an intramural flag football game as if it was the Superbowl!? Competition was an understatement. I really enjoyed the fun and exciting competition between my classmates (besides a few instances)!

But what happens when we apply this same intensity and excitement to comparing other churches or ministries to our own? I think it creates walls of separation and creates "little kingdoms" instead of serving the actual kingdom of God. It creates an "elitist" attitude that comes out of competition with other ideas, strategies and churches. As leaders, we should always pursue excellence in everything we do but not at the motive of demeaning other leaders that are serving God. What would happen if leaders quit competing and started encouraging each other to improve in ministry?

Paul exhorted and rebuked the early church on the dangers of competition:

  "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building." 1 Corinthians 3:1-8

I'm thankful for the friends in my life that continue to walk with me through ministry. It is about the relationship of running the race of ministry with other leaders that encourages me the most. Helping each other personally is to help each other with their lives and personal relationship with God. Why does everyone want to only talk about their attendance numbers, music style, or size of church?

^"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism." Colossians 3:23-25

Check out what Craig Groeschel says, I agree completely:

As leaders, we are in this together. Let's be competitive about helping each other succeed in our calling to serve the church. Success to God is faithfulness to the calling on our lives more than the numbers, sizes of buildings and bank accounts. Encourage each other and focus on the relationship more than performance. We all need encouragement right? We are on the winning team if we know and serve Jesus Christ! Let's be a team for the kingdom of God!

Highs and Lows

I need to be honest and transparent. I enjoy writing. Many times when I begin writing a blog, message or Bible study, I want to lay out the complete truth of what I think and believe. In leadership there are highs and lows. In ministry there are definite highs and lows. In my short seven or so years in ministry, I have experienced many highs and lows personally. My first two years as a full-time student minister I was about to marry my wife, Cassidy when my brother Jordan was dealing with cancer. It was a time of strong emotions and questions while leading in ministry. How am I supposed to lead when personally I am completely discouraged, struggling emotionally, financially, and personally. I was learning a ton about myself and how to lead in ministry. I was trying to invest time, energy, prayer and encouragement into students. Months of encouragement, teaching and praying for different ones and then they would turn their back on me. I would say even now, seven years or so later that the most heart-breaking issue in ministry is pouring your life into people through the Lord's strength and they simply "shrug it off", block you on twitter/Facebook, ignore you and act as if God is non-existent. It breaks my heart and more importantly, God's heart. I still do not have a good grasp on how to handle this in ministry. I think this is the hidden truth of the ministry that many either do not talk about or just leave the ministry. I'm now in a place in my life that I want to help other leaders who are starting out (I'm praying about writing a book on ministry). I want to encourage leaders to never base faithfulness to God on how people respond to the love and truth of the gospel. God is teaching me to minister, serve, and pour out his grace into others without the expectation of it in return. Isn't this what Jesus did? 

Here are a few things I do when I'm faced with the highs and lows of ministry:

 - Spend time alone crying out to God. Get alone and write out your prayers. Ask God to forgive you in certain areas. Thank Him specifically for the blessings and relationships in your life. - Share the highs or lows with a trusted friend. Share the needs by being vulnerable and transparent. Ask for encouragement and prayer. - Celebrate those who ARE obeying Jesus and living for Him instead of complaining about those who are not. I believe this is important! Invest in those who are hungry and quit catering to those who think they don't need to grow aka "the church kid who acts as if they own the church". - When salvation and baptism occur, celebrate and encourage the person! - Speak truth into people's lives with grace. Challenge the status quo, but never choose to win the argument over the possibility of losing the relationship. - As a leader don't base your worth on how much money you make but on how many lives you impact for eternity. Money does not equal happiness. - Focus on who people are becoming instead of who they are right now. It takes time. Pray for God to move.

What I am not saying is neglect the students who need extra encouragement and especially those who need Jesus. What I have found is that the ones who cause the most problems in a student ministry and church is the students/adults who have been there for a long time and see no need for change in their lives. They are apathetic and have a "what can you do for me" mentality. This attitude is what is killing the church across America. Selfishness that is disguised in being comfortable basically tells those outside of the church to go to Hell.

I believe that a majority of my time in ministry, I have been "tilling up" the hard soil for the gospel to take root. It is hard work but no matter who spreads the seed or sows the fruit, it is vitally important for people's lives to be changed. If you are in ministry in some way, don't give up! Through the highs and lows God IS and will ALWAYS be faithful. I'm thankful God allows you and me to play a role in His story. Never give up on God's calling on your life!

Book Review: "Purpose Driven Church"

Rick Warren’s strategy is biblical and clear in its process. The style of his writing helps the reader make sense of setting the plans and goals of the church. God has set forth principles in His Word that lay out the priorities of the church. Purpose Driven Church helps put the biblical principles and communicate it so people can wrap their lives around the mission. PDC helps transfer the principles of the Purpose Driven life into the DNA of the church. The importance of the church have a strategic plan that stems from a strong foundation in scripture is vital. The book clearly lays out the steps of the church to be balanced and biblical. The strategy begins with a focus upon a question of, “What drives your church?”  The book focuses upon a clear question to begin evaluating what is most important for the church to build a strong foundation. One important aspect in the beginning of the church strategy is to not build it upon a personality, tradition, events and more. It is to align itself with God’s principles of fellowship, discipleship, worship, evangelism and ministry. It must be a specific, biblical and measurable strategy that builds off of biblical principles. One great statement in the book says, “Don’t focus upon growing a church with programs, focus on growing people with a process” (PDC, 108). Warren lays out the importance of not being a church led by personality, tradition or by finances. Purpose found only in the Great Commission and the Great commandment will honor God. I believe that it is one of the most biblical and transferable strategies for the church to follow. The important part is taking the principles and making it clear and applicable to each churches unique congregation. Ideas that come from a church in southern California will probably not work in rural Mississippi. Leaders must know the people in their congregation and be able to articulate the vision in a way they can grab hold of and live out in the community and world.

The church is to be focused upon these principles: a) Churches need to grow:  1) warmer through fellowship, 2) deeper through discipleship, 3) stronger through worship, 4) broader through ministry, 5) larger through evangelism. Warren does a good job explaining the importance of health within the church. The church must be willing to make changes if their programs or direction does not have these five principles.

Communicating the strategy is an important part of the process. If people cannot put the vision into practice then it is not understandable. I think that many people look at this book and compare the size of the church to Warren’s writings. The fact that a church grows and reaches many people does not mean it is an unhealthy church. I believe that God can use these principles to help people come to know Christ and grow in Him. Although I do not agree with every approach that Warren states, I do think the church can learn important aspects from this book. The simplicity and clear illustrations that Warren uses is understandable. I have found that many books on church strategy can be vague, but PDC gives a clear picture of churches being held accountable to biblical principles (Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Fellowship and Ministry).

Lastly, I do think each leader needs to be willing to learn from any other resource and be able to challenge the process so that the cobwebs are cleared and people are coming to know and grow in their relationship with God. I say this because most leaders criticize other leaders if they are a part of large churches. It is trivial and condemning to throw stones at other leaders who are in the ministry. Humility and being teachable is a trait that I desire to have in ministry because I can learn anything from anybody at any time.