I Will Not Let Go

One of the great lines of the bible is when Jacob says to the angel/Lord in Genesis 32:26:

I will not let go until you bless me.

Whether you are in a place of spiritual leadership or in a position of spiritual "follower-ship," when was the last time you declared to God, "I won't let go until you bless me!"?

It's the pastor who prays, "I will not let go until you bring renewal to this church!"

It's the mother who perseveres, "I will not let go until you bring sobriety to my child with addiction!"

It's the student in bible study who pleads, "I will not let go until I get the book of Romans!"

It's the denominational excecutive who cries out, "I will not let go until you revive my church!"

It's the person seated in church on Sunday who claims, "I will not let go until you give me the gift of tongues!"

It's the family member struggling with loved ones who have yet to claim Christ, "I will not let go until my family basks in your love!"

It's the blogger who writes, "I will not let go until even these words bring life to people in the virtual world!"

What Is A "Wesleyan Evangelical"?

As some of you know, we will soon be looking for someone to head up our Discipleship ministries at Good Shepherd. After five years on staff, James-Michael Smith will be leaving us at the end of April to prepare for and then pursue his PhD.

But I'll blog more on that and on him later.

As part of our search for a new leader in discipleship, we're working with some volunteers from Good Shepherd who consult with companies around the world in the areas of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring. You can read about their firm here.

Anyway, as we were talking about the kind of person we'd like to hire, we moved to the subject of beliefs. What kind of theology and values do we want this person to have?

So I immediately popped up: "I want someone who is a Wesleyan evangelical."

Huh?

I realized that, even in a room full of people in the "know" in this church, I was speaking jargon. So we went through a very brief exercise to define "Wesleyan evangelical."

Wesleyan: Candidates for this (or any) position on staff will need to embrace the notion that God gives people free will to accept or reject his offer of grace. This is as opposed to our Calvinist friends who believe that God predestines individuals either to heaven or to hell. Both views are firmly in the Christian family; it's just that one works much better here, in what is after all a Methodist church.
When it comes to end times theology, Wesleyans by and large reject the dispensational theology made popular by the Left Behind novels and instead embrace either amillenialism or historic premillenialism. I personally lean amillenial while my good friend James-Michael is more of an historic premillenialist.

Evangelical: Calling oneself "evangelical" in the first part of the 21st Century can come with some baggage. We hope not here. When we identify ourselves as an evangelical congregation it boils down to two core beliefs: 1) that heaven and hell are real and urgent concerns; and 2) that the bible is, in a mysterious way, uniquely inspired by God.
These views are in contrast to those held by many in mainline denominations -- namely, the idea of universalism (all people will ultimately be saved) and that the bible is merely a human document with no compelling authority over our lives today.

So that's how we summarize what it means to be a Wesleyan evangelical. I hope we can have a church -- and a staff -- worthy of the label.

Voices Starts Sunday

Words have power.

They can wound and cripple. They can heal and inspire.

They can drive us to our knees or lift us off the ground.

Wherever we find ourselves, wherever we are in our story, we have been shaped by the words spoken into our lives.

You're no good. You are beautiful. You'll never make it.

In the noise of this life, there are a million voices. Voices that condemn. Voices that criticize.

But in the middle of it all, in the quiet beneath the loudness,

there is a still, small voice.

Slow down. Be still.

Hear the one voice that really matters.

Voices. An Easter series. Starts March 29. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Twins Separated At Birth?

People sometimes say I look like Coach K.

In fact, at Chick Fil-A on Wednesday night, the young man serving me my CFA sandwich, large fries, and fruit cup (see, the fruit balances out the fries), told me I look like Coach K.

"You get that a lot?" was his follow up question.

Well, sorta.

So look to the right, then look to the left and you be the judge.

Either way, I hope Duke beats Villanova tonight.

Serving Simply

Good Shepherd's focus on simplicity is changing how we do serving ministries.



We want to give the people of the church a simple, monthly, meaningful serving opportunity through what we call First Serve.



The concept is similar to our Pathfinder approach to small group ministry. With Pathfinder, if you want to get involved in group life, simply come to one of our periodic launch events (the next one is April 22).



Same idea with First Serve. If you want to make your life count for something larger than yourself, if you want to be part of our ministries that serve the community beyond the church's walls, simply come to our monthly event (held on the first Saturday) and we will send you out and put you to work. Three hours every thirty days. Simple, focused, strategic.



Check it out here:







The ministry launches on April 3-4. You can sign up here.



------------------------------------------------------------------------



This week's posts on simplicity and church life are inspired by the book Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. I believe it's the best book on church leadership in years.

Methodism, Complexity, & Mediocrity

In yesterday's post, I drew a link between a church's complexity and its mediocrity.

Unfortunately, the typical Methodist Church is an inherently complex being. Here are just a few examples of the intricacies of the system:

• The pastor-in-charge reports to four different entities: the Church Council, the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee (ours is called the SPRT, or Staff-Parish Relations Team), the District Superintendent, and the Annual Conference through the Board of Ordained Ministry. Whew! A lot of masters! Who has the final say? Who knows? While some level of checks-and-balances is no doubt healthy, this reporting structure as currently configured brings about confusion.
• Most churches in our system invite every conceivable advocacy group -- men, women, youth, music, missions, and others -- to have their own ministry domains and to do their own fund raising. So you have built in competition for calendar time and congregational dollars. If you look at a typical church bulletin, it includes a long menu of ministry options as well as a calendar of upcoming fund raising events.
• The denomination itself invites its churches to do special offerings on a wide array of . . . you guessed it, denominational emphases. Peace With Justice Sunday, Native American Awareness Sunday, and One Great Hour Of Sharing are just a few of the myriad of promotional pieces we receive from UMC headquarters. With so many different caucuses and emphases, it is difficult for people in local church to know what their congregation focuses on.
• This is not a systemic issue but a personal one . . . most of us UMC pastors are such people pleasers that we will allow folks to begin ministries that are neither strategic nor effective. But we let them do it so they won't get upset with us and move on to a church that will allow them the role they envision for themselves.

The list could go on.

Here at Good Shepherd, we've still got much more complexity than I am comfortable with. But we've takens steps towards simplicity: 1) We have very few "interest group" ministries -- all our spiritual growth opportunities come under the larger heading of "Groups, Classes, and Events." 2) No fund raisers. Don't come to GSUMC looking for a bake sale, BBQ, or pumpkin patch. We do God's one appointed fund raiser -- the Sunday offering -- and spend the rest of the time doing ministry rather than asking for money. 3) We (me?) are getting better at saying, "no, we don't have that ministry here, but I can give you some resources that will accomplish the same thing."

And the results of this pursuit of simplicity? Greater focus, community, and effectiveness. Seeing how far we have come "simply" makes us recognize how far we have to go.

In-N-Out Burger & Church

Most of us on the East Coast aren't familiar with In-N-Out Burger, a California-based fast food chain. You can read more about it here.

The stores are known for their simple, focused menus. You won't find a chicken sandwich or a taco salad, for example, at any In-N-Out Burger. Instead, it's all burgers all the time.

So I love the philosophy of founder Harry Snyder:

"Do one thing and do it the best you can."

Music to my ears.

See, most churches tend to operate like the "family" restaurants you see with signs advertising "Chicken, Steaks, Seafood, Italian." That sign is a giveaway that the restaurant underneath it won't do any of those things very well.

In the same way, churches usually try to offer a wide array of programming, seeking to meet any expressed (or imagined) need. The typical result? By doing everything they guarantee they won't do anything with excellence. Complexity breeds mediocrity.

So at Good Shepherd, we keep emphasizing simplicity. For years, we were a "large menu" church; now we want to emulate the In-N-Out Burger model. While we can't do only "one thing," we can do just a few things.

And do them the best we can.

LoveDare Week Four

LoveDare has its finale this week.

I happen to think we've saved the best for last.

It's called After The Thrill Is Gone and it will be all about the impact of your mind on your closest relationships.

Once again, this series has showed us the power of branding and focus. Branding -- from the moment you walk into the lobby of the Worship Center, it is obvious what we are talking about. The visuals, the music playing in the background, the bulletins themselves all begin communicating the message even before the praise and worship starts.

Focus -- it's the only thing we've talked about for four weeks. Sermons, study guides, Pathfinder groups, counseling sessions . . . they've all focused on love and its dares.

So it wraps up this week.

Bring the thrill back.

Sunday. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Madness Memories

In honor of today's start of March Madness, here are my top NCAA basketball memories. A good number of them happened well before the term "March Madness" was even coined. That means I'm old.

• Bill Walton of UCLA going 21-22 against Memphis State in the finals of the 1973 tournament. This was the last of UCLA's eight in a row -- and I hated them. I was sure Memphis State was going to win. Uh, no. The dunk was illegal in college basketball back then, and Walton and his teammates mastered the alley-oop pass with a delicate drop-in lay up. Even I had to admit it was a thing of beauty.
• North Carolina State's upset of Walton and UCLA the very next year in the semis. At last my dream came true! David Thompson, Tom Burleson, and Monte Towe made it happen.
• If NC State was my dream in 1974, they were my nightmare in 1983. Lorenzo Charles' buzzer beating dunk to edge the Houston Cougars remains a bitter pill to swallow. I hated to see such a talented team choke so badly. Sorry, Wolfpack fans. A team from Texas has still never won the NCAA basketball championship . . . and I don't think SMU will do so anytime soon.
• Princeton-Georgetown, first round,1989. With Alonzo Mourning leading the way, Georgetown was a number one seed; Princeton was a 16. At the beginning of the ESPN broadcast that night, Dick Vitale stated (screamed?) that the Ivy League should no longer have an automatic bid to the tournament. By the end of the game, he was wearing orange-and-black Princeton garb. Princeton led most of the game, had the ball down one with mere seconds to go, and Mourning fouled Kit Mueller on the potential game winner . . . but of course the refs didn't call it. The shot missed and Georgetown won. It's still the closest a 16 seed has come to winning.
• Duke-Kentucky, Elite Eight, 1992. Two seconds to go. Christian Laettner. Full court pass. Swish. What else can I say? Still the best game I've ever seen. I knew history was being made as I was watching it.
• Princeton-UCLA, first round 1996. Talk about good karma (not that I believe in karma, mind you). My alma mater beats the defending-national-champion-team-I-hated-as-a-kid with a backdoor-cut-layup at the buzzer.

Those are mine. What are yours?

Vision Over Visibility

There is a masterful line in U2's "Moment Of Surrender" off the new CD No Line On The Horizon:

At the moment of surrender,
of vision over visibility . . .

So vision is different than visibility. Vision sees what fog obscures. Vision turns the "not yet" into the "will be."

As a pastor, I've often been asked about my "vision" for the church I serve.

Many times, I fumble around in search of an answer. I want to appear confident without being arrogant. I also want to make sure my vision is in alignment with God's vision. And I don't want to be one of those pastors who has a vision no one else in the congregation shares or cares about.

But I've had seasons where I didn't have a vision . . . but a vision had me.

That's certainly true of our church's move towards "full color." The impression that God wants us to be a place where every tribe, tongue, land, and nation gathers under one room worshipping the one true God, well, that's a vision that has me. That worship here really would look like worship in heaven.

It's vision over visibility. And isn't it great when vision becomes visible?

Watch & See That The Lord Is Good

There are two schools of thought when it comes to what the music portion of a Sunday service should be like in terms of engaging people who are in the worship space but don't yet believe in Christ. (By the way, we hope and pray we have many such people each week.)

One approach says that praise and worship should be brief with an emphasis on the excellence of the band. Since most people who don't yet believe in Christ feel awkward while singing, congregational participation is a low priority.

The second approach recognizes that worship is a gift to God from people who believe. Therefore, there is a high value on participation, movement, and expression. Even if searching people think such expressiveness is a bit weird, it's still worth it.

At Good Shepherd we've opted for the second approach.

But get this: I think such honesty is more evangelistic. Here's why: when people who are unsure of the faith see Jesus' followers caught up in worship, when they hear "shout outs" to the Lord, when they find their own hands raised in praise in spite of themselves, then they know they are in the presence of Someone supernatural. They are more likely to believe.

We've recently had an outpouring of exuberant worship, especially at our 11:30 gathering. Am I worried that more claps, more shout outs, and more hand raising will somehow alienate new people?

No way.

It will bring more in.

So bring it on, all you Without Limit worshippers.

Theological Jealousy

In its current issue on Ten Ideas That Are Changing The World, Time magazine lists the rising influence of Calvinist theology as idea #3.

I have to admit that my heart sank upon seeing it.

In case you don't know, Calvinism is a stream in the larger river of Christian thought that emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the sinfulness of humanity, and the predestination of our eternity. Calvinism's roots stem both from Scripture and from John Calvin, a 16th Century European theologican and pastor. The signature doctrine of Calvism is predestination -- the notion that from eternity in the past God has elected and determined who is going to heaven . . . and who is going to hell.

Calvinism is intellectually rigorous, highly logical, and deeply faithful.

I happen to believe that in many of its most basic tenets, it is also quite wrong.

Now: this is a discussion between Christian friends. There is no "you're not a Christian" in any of these conversations.

In fact, some of my best friends . . . Well, you know how we use that phrase in other areas, don't you? But the very first church I ever attended as a new follower of Jesus was not just Calvinist, by its own definition it was super Calvinist!

Yet somewhere in the weekly drumbeat of predistination/election/Calvinism that I heard as a new Christian, I grew a longing to find a group of Jesus' followers who were smart, biblical, and believed that God gave us free will. I started a journey in search of a people who did not believe that God elected some to heaven and some to hell, but believed instead that God's heart longing is for all to come to salvation.

That journey led me to Methodism.

Methodism has always stood in a different stream in that river of Christian thought than does Calvinism. A stream with roots in Scripture, in the thinking of 16th Century Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius, and in the rhetoric of John Wesley.

You can read a reasonably good comparison of the two points of view here.

So one of the reasons I'm glad to be a Methodist is that I identify so strongly with the Wesleyan-Arminian understanding of the desire of God and the free will of people. As I Timothy 2:3-4 says it: " . . . this is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth." How could God want all to be saved yet set up a world that by his design frustrates his own longing? Anyway.

But back to my theological jealousy.

It's Calvinism on the cover of Time and with a highly complimentary essay on the inside.

And Arminianism is on the outside looking in.

For now.

Maybe I'm just predestined not to believe in predestination.

The Power Of Focus

Last night I served as a "guide" for our Pathfinder LoveDare group. Fourteen of us met in a private room at a local Chik-Fil-A (who knew CFAs even had private rooms?!).

Do you know what was the best thing about the group? The Chicken Sandwich dinner with cole slaw as a side? No -- though I have to admit that was pretty good. The fact that one man in the group made a CD of classic love songs for every couple there? No -- though that act of generosity was entirely unexpected and much appreciated. The conversation and laughter? No -- though I was glad to be in the middle of the camaraderie.

The best thing about the LoveDare group was how seriously all the couples are taking the material. They are listening to the sermons. They are reading the LoveDare devotions at home. And they are doing the actual daily dares which are designed to strengthen marriages and families.

And it's working. The consensus in our group was that this concentrated attention on marriage was helping to improve their relationships.

It's the power of focus. We are talking about one thing on Sunday mornings: LoveDare. Couples then read spiritual material around one idea: LoveDare. Then they come to a small group in which we talk and laugh and cry about one subject: LoveDare.

Focused. Simple. Powerful.

There's more where that came from this Sunday. LoveDare, Week 3: Biggest Fan. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Best Songs You've Never Heard Of

Occasionally you come across songs that are so good, so powerful, and so unknown. There are a couple of reasons for this: a) they come from obscure artists; or b) they are forgotten tracks on an otherwise popular album by a major artist.

Whatever the case, here's a list of some of my favorite songs you've probably never heard of:

• Never Been Any Reason by Head East. When a song comes from an album with the title Flat As A Pancake, you know you're headed for obscurity. Except this relic from the 70s is a great song -- infectious groove, strong bass line, and surprising vocal harmonies at the end. I have no idea what it's about, but who cares?
• Hawkmoon 269 by U2. It comes from the Rattle & Hum album, which most critics and even some fans panned. I liked it. And I love this underrated song: driving drums, memorable riff, and soaring vocals. How can I not like a piece that sings "like a preacher needs pain . . . I need your love"??
• I Still Believe by The Call. OK, nobody has ever heard of The Call. Even in the 80s, this pseudo New Wave band struggled for notoriety. It never came. But this song deeply influenced my return from spiritual wilderness into passion for God. The Call was one of the first groups that showed me you don't have to be a "Christian" band to sing about profoundly Christian things. Through this song, I realized that I still believed as well.
• For All The Wrong Reasons by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Yeah, some of the Heartbreakers called the song Re-Falling for its resemblance to Free Fallin'. But this track off 1991's Into The Great Wide Open still features Petty at his haunting, ironic best. It is so unknown, however, that the best YouTube link is a cover by some guy with a guitar, backing track, and camera.
• Everything Is Different Now by Don Henley. By 2000, when this song came out, Don Henley was so much yesterday's news that no one paid attention. They missed a great song. Who would have ever thought than an Eagle would give such an indictment of the libertine life and an endorsement of marriage? The gospel choir brings the song to an unexpected, exalted conclusion. Even better live.

The Real Competition

I am hopelessly, helplessly, relentlessly competitive.

The easy explanation is that my competitive streak stems from a lifetime of trying to become the number one ranked tennis player for kids my age in Texas. And you don't do that or get there without beating other players.

But the truer explanation is perhaps more problematic. Like it comes from my insecurity. Or it comes from sin.

Because my competitive nature rears its head now primarily in the area of . . . church. I am forever comparing myself with other pastors and Good Shepherd with other churches. In a real sense, I want us to be better at what we do than "they" are at what they do.

So I begin to see other congregations in the Charlotte area as our competition. If people from our church start attending another church, we're losing. If people from other churches move here, that's a win.

Ugh.

In most best moments, as my best "self," I recognize that other expressions of the Body of Christ are not our competition. They are not the enemy.

The real enemy is active enough: "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (I Peter 5:8).

Perhaps I should spend more time in battle with him than I do in competition with them.

Time Well Spent

I spent most of Monday at a seminar with other pastors from the Charlotte District of the United Methodist Church. Gil Rendle, a consultant with The Alban Institute, led our time together, and issued a number of provocative observations about leadership in the local church. Here are some of his greatest hits:

• Leaders get in trouble when they start giving answers to questions the congregation is not asking.
• Much of our problem solving merely takes our congregation back to the place of comfort it had before the problem arose . . . problem solving rarely takes us forward.
• People don't fear change. They fear what they'll lose in change.
• Management asks, "are we doing things right?" Leadership asks, "are we doing right things?" (nothing groundbreaking there, but it leads to his next observation . . . )
• Congregations and denominations want pastors to do leadership. But they will reward only management.
• At the moment a congregation says it will move into the future without losing any members, it has already decided not to move into the future.

Those one-liners alone were worth the time I spent learning and listening. Some of them might even find their way into Sunday morning; I hope all of them will find their way into my leadership Monday through Saturday.

More Cool, Free LoveDare Stuff

So yesterday was the second week of LoveDare.

The sermon focused on I Corinthians 13:5: "[love] is not rude." I talked about the reality that many of us say things to our families, behind closed doors, that we would never say to people in public. How sad. My prayer is that the message and then this week's dares will help people bring needed correction to their lives and marriages.

The sermon ended with this video from John & Cynthia Agnew. The Agnews moved to Fort Mill way back in 2000, and started attending Good Shepherd shortly thereafter. They've long been some of my favorite people. Here's their story:



I love their honesty, lack of pretension, and genuine faith. I believe the Agnews' story will help other couples and families at Good Shepherd craft the same kind of story with their lives.

LoveDare Week 2 -- Finishing School

This is a door.

And it has everything to do with Sunday's message, which is called "Finishing School."

It's the second in the LoveDare series.

To see what in the world it has to do with a door, you'll want to be at Good Shepherd.

Sunday.

8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Not So Much

One day last week, I had a rather breezy post on things that I appreciate about life.

For today, not so much.

Here are some pet peeves:

• When, in an attempt to be grammatically correct, people get their personal pronouns all wrong. The worst is "God so loves you and I . . . " It's "you and me"!
• When, in another attempt to be grammatically correct, people make "its" possessive when it shouldn't be. As in "that dog is chasing it's tail." No.
• When people talk on their cell phones while working out at the Y.
• When Don Henley rejoined the Eagles.
• When leaders in some mainline Christian denominations don't have the courage to admit that they really are Unitarian.
• When I forget an appointment and get a call that someone is waiting for me at the office.
• The disappearance of serve-and-volley tennis and the rise of the two-handed backhand. Or: when Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer.
• When people give lists of their pet peeves.

The Burden Of Potential

The phrase "you've got a lot of potential" is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it is certainly an encouragement to know that you have talents and abilities that are just waiting to be unleashed.

On the other hand, a lot of people allow their "potential" to become an excuse for complacency.

The key, I believe, is to use potential as motivation to work harder as opposed to using it as an excuse to get by on natural talent alone.

I believe the church I serve has almost unlimited potential. Because of our location, size, facilities, and congregational DNA, we have kingdom-sized impact just waiting to be unleashed. Whatever success we have had to this point only highlights how much more we are able to do.

That's why we are pretty relentless is trying do things better here. More focused. With more simplicity. And greater impact.

Because I don't want us ever to be the kind of church or people who had potential . . . and then didn't live up to it.

LoveDare, Week One

Here's the video that closed our service Sunday:



Jerry & Eleanor helped bring home the point that is the foundation of LoveDare: lead your heart, don't follow it.

If you haven't signed up for the LoveDare Pathfinder Group launch on Wednesday night, there's still space available. You can sign up here.

Snow Day Reflections

This is what Charlotte looks like today.

So I spent the first half of the day at home before venturing out this afternoon.

It all got me thinking to snow days gone by.

Growing up in Dallas, Texas, we didn't have too many of them. In fact, I remember several very serious ice days -- when the city would be covered in a sheet of ice. We'd play ice hockey on Rosedale Avenue, the street where I grew up.

Me and hockey. Not much of a combination.

When I went to college in New Jersey, snow days of course became a regular occurence. I was so ill prepared -- the wrong kind of coat, the wrong kind of boots, the wrong attitude for survival when the temperature went below zero. And because it was a pedestrian campus, we never missed class because of the weather. I just kept falling on the ice while on the way to the lecture hall or tennis practice. You wonder why my call to seminary came with a call to escape New Jersey?

In ministry, preachers want one of two things when it comes to snow and Sundays: 1) A full blown blizzard that cancels services and lets you preach that same sermon the next week; or 2) nothing. The worst is a half-hearted storm where it's not bad enough to cancel but still uncomfortable enough that attendance will be way down. That's sort of what happened Sunday morning -- we were down by about 250 people compared to our average for the year. I was frankly amazed and grateful that anyone came out.

So for next Sunday . . . prayers for cool, clear weather.