solutions to virtual laziness

I would like to offer some solutions to the recent post in regards to my response to Zondervan's new soft ware known as "the city". Throughout my short ministry experience I have realized (either on my own but more than likely from my wife or friends) that gving an opinion is great, but you know, everyone has one, you know like noses, everyone has one. Below are some positive, (as positive as I can be), thoughts or solutions in regards to some of the problems I have brought up in regards to the lack of effort put forth by church attenders, lack of serving and overal laziness in the body. I also have added a few suggestions for church leaders in regards to some things we tried in my church in NY.





How can church leadership begin to empower the body to have more of a "giving attitude" as opposed to "taking"?- Goal- get the body serving....


1. Any good leader realizes he is only as good of a leader as the people in which he puts himself around. Meaning a good leader puts leaders around him. People that know him, that are different then him, that know how to steer him and direct him, and hold him accounatble. This act of leadership allows others to see the transparency of the leadership that they are told to (biblically) submit to. This tranparency should trickle down from the top, senior pastor, elders, to the deacons, to the body. The problem however is that when the leadership is not transparent and is not willing to lead by being transparent an attitude is shown, whether intentional or not, that the leadership has it all under control, it does not need any help, or worst of all, has it so much together that they may not even need our prayer. This type of leadership is often led with selfish motive. the result, twofold: lack of trust from the body and a false sense of what is genuine worship and service as a body. If the Body thinks the leadeship can do it all they will let them. If the leadership allows the body to think this, then we have an unhealthy body, an engine not functioning on any cylinders.


2. A good leader knows how to empower. Any good leader is secure enough to empower and develop the next batch of leaders. We have too many people sitting around doing nothing, particuarly young to middle age people. This can stem from the same old problem Timothy had in the Bible with Old people despising the youth. So much concern over the history that they had in Judaism or whatever, that there is a false philosophy painted that one must be over the age of 50 to serve properly. A leader must empower. Church leadership must empower the body to as Paul says, not let a part say to another, "we have no need for you" all parts need to be functioning. So transparent and empowering leadership is the goal.





The Body:


How do we empower the body to serve?


1. Teach Biblical Worship from the pulpit. Biblical worship today has been lost in the age of Grace. Jesus paid it all, and that is true but that does not deliniate us from responsibility. I guess I mean we have lost the "service" aspect of worship. Biblical Worship never existed without service. When Satan asked Jesus to bow down and worship Him he did not know what he was asking, Jesus knew worship was more than just a one time deal, worship involved service, work, responsibility and although satan would have been happy with Jesus one time act of worship whether kneeling down or whatever, Jesus calls him on it. He basically says you cannot have one without the other, for Jesus to worship satan would mean he would serve him too, and that is reserved for YHWH only, sorry man, no can do. Most people have no idea what proper worship and service entail. It is a good thing God gave us some gifts, or gift whatever your theological fancy. The problem is most people do not know what their gift (s) are. I recommend 2 things:

1. Know what your object of worship is- When Jesus meets the woman the well to discuss salvation and later worship, he meets her in an interesting place, right in between Mt. Gerizm, her place of worship and the Temple in Jerusalem. he meets her at Jacob'e well to make a point, this is where my Patriarchs worshiped me, out here in the sand, nothing made with hands. See the Samaritans worshiped in Spirit and the Jews in truth. The jews knoew the object of their worship but their hearts were not in it anymore. The Samaritans had the opposite problem, worshipping with their hearts, but the object of worship was false Gods. He meets her in the middle to say, both are wrong, someday the true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth. part of me wonders how much true worship is going on, and worse I am afraid we have lost sight of our true object of worship and replaced it with efficiency.

2. The Gospel must be included in worship- Jesus redirects the woman at the well to remind her Salvation is a life altering change, She says she wants the living water but she does not know why, she thinks it is so she can be accepted back into her culture, she is not yet ready to deal with her sin. Jesus holds back the Gospel and encourages her to go get her husband and deal with your sin. We have lost focus of dealing with sin and seem to be too wrapped up in making the Gospel efficient and friendly.



Two more thoughts:

1. Spiritual gifts teaching from the pulpit


2. Spiritual gift test





You know as much as I do that there are people in the church that are practicing "gifts" that maybe they think they are the only ones "gifted" in that area. They will only learn if we teach them, They will only learn if we empower them.



In regards to social networking I stand by my argument that this should solely be for the use of supplemental purpose only. Now show me a church that is so far ahead in the biblical model of worship with service, where they have it so right, they are saying, 'ok how can I make this more efficient now, how can I do this better and faster', In that case maybe they are ready for "the city", but when you are not there yet as a church, physically, when you are not utalizing your gifts, when leadership is not empowering the body and the body is sitting there with ther arms outstretched wanting more "milk", maybe it is time to reconsider what is really the issue as opposed to covering it with more facilitation of laziness.

Please do not think that i am opposed to the usefullness of the web, but if I think if we were honest, we have a lot more work to do..

virtual laziness- social networking arrogance

Nice Title, I know, and before I start, I want to note that here I am writing on an Internet blog, arrogantly thinking someone will want to read this, so I am guilty of this as well, My concern however is true and I should probably right now be having relationship with someone on the phone, or more importantly taking time out of my life to go visit someone, but you know what? I think I will just text them. Below is the recent article in regards to Zondervan's new software called "the city" that allows people to, well, do more on line networking, but it is more than on line social networking, it is church on line life, well trying to do church stuff anyway. Email, small group forum interaction, prayer chains etc. and while I am thankful for the Internet and the ability to have 600 friends that I am so enthralled in their lives that I tend to neglect my own family, I am sad to say that I think we are mistaking this new age of communication with good old fashioned Laziness. Having a been an associate Pastor and now teacher I am aware of people's problem's in "getting involved" physically, I mean in serving, I mean in good old fashioned worship and service in regards to church. It is a two fold problem, First church Leadership does not help because it gives off the vibe that we are running things and you can just come and sit, so in the bodies defense it may feel like they are not needed or more commonly, "I do not have to do anything, it is done for me", On the flip side you have the lazy church attender, (which in my opinion is the major culprit) Lazy Church attender can not even sign up for a nursery, or utalize any gift whatsoever that the Lord has given he or she, They miss out blessing after blessing due to their uncommittal Nature to anything church related. In other words coming to church with an attitude of what can I get rather than what can I give. This has been a problem for years, forever. Has it improved?, maybe in some areas. But now let's add more lazy to the mix, with what I think is worse, giving the impression that we are "doing our part". The social networking monster has almost totally replaced social physical interaction. You do not want to call, then email, you do not want to email, then text. But now we reward this with soft ware that allows us to have small group from the privacy of our own home without even getting out. My best friend recently said after my wife threw his wife a baby shower, "I cannot believe she did all that by phone, no emails". It is true, now adays everything is done through email. Now rightly so to some extent, but church stuff, interpersonal relationship? i am not ready for that, i am not ready yet to feel more "special" getting a text rather than a call.

Another thought is the popular "Twitter" where people think so much about themselves that every hour or so they update their face book or twitter from their phone, "Hey world, I just took a dump, thought you might want to know", Hey world, I am spending time with my family, but not really, because I am updating my face book right now so you know what I am doing". 1. (like I said I am guilty, here I am blogging, )But number 1. is it not arrogant to think that the world needs to know what you are doing 24-7? and 2. What kind of person has the time to follow other people's actions everyhour, or check 600 friends on their face book? How much more could we be impacting God's Kingdom if we, instead of talked about it. just did it. Why do we want to succumb to the laziness of the social networking industry by making software for our churches to nurture the unrelational cyber communication world? I use internet all the time, I text, but folks, the age old issue of people not wanting to get involved is not going to be solved by now making it more accessable from their computers? Just because we are doing something doesn't mean we are getting anything done.

Worship and service has been drasticly altered since the OT sacrificial period. If you wanted to worship God there was service involved. There was never any confusion in who you were worshipping and what was required. If you wanted to worship you served. If you wanted to worship, you did not just go in the building, sit down, stand up for some songs , critique the service and then leave wondering why you did not feel like you did anything or worse did not worship God at all. In regards to the sacrificial system if you wanted to have "fellowship" with God, you brought an animal, you killed it yourself, you cut it up yourself, you and the priest put it on the altar, you got to eat some of it. You worshipped, but you served. We have a hard enough time serving in our culture, I mean hands on worship that involves service, easier soft ware to accomodate our lazy culture might seem like a great fix, but I am afraid this is a temporary band aid. In fact who are we really accomodating? Ourselves or are we really bringing God His due Glory?

A final thought, I am not saying ignore the culture, we need to live in it and thrive and proclaim as living sacrifice's the major reason why we are alive and not dead. We were and are made for relationship, personal physical interaction. I do not think we can forget that, to forget that is to reject whose image we are made in.

We see this in our kids who in our youth are more prone to solitude than ever, "no friends", "no one understands me", "I feel disconnected" HMMM interesting, those are major concerns i hear now from Seniors, (Troy you will agree with me), who have had adults invest in them for 8 years, and now when it seems like the time for the seniors to be investing in the younger, they selfishly decline and want more "milk" or in thie case "meat", or selfishly more for "ME" Yet they will go home and spend countless hours on line interacting with whomever they want, and seeking "relationship" with thousands of "friends", but are still empty....

Don't thow the baby out with the bath water, but there must be some balance in this as we move forward with the Gospel, the real, physical, life changing, personal, tangible Gospel..

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Zondervan-Acquires-Online-Community-Building/story.aspx?guid=%7b57A05E7B-FDDA-4C24-B774-2C8AC5A9A82E%7d

Present Day Sanctification

For this is the will of God your sanctification.... I Thess. 4. 3a. Selfishly when I interpret this verse I have a tendency to think, for this is the will of God that I am sanctified. I have been reminded once again that I am not sanctified but rather am in the process. Paul is adamant in regards to the terminology that he is using here. God is adamant about the terminology that he revealed to Paul. For this is God's will, His general will, here it is are you ready... "that we recognize that we are in a process. I think we forget this, I don't know about you, but I am not crazy about processes. Rightly so when I hear teaching on sanctification it is most often discussed in the terms of a process rather then lets say a system. Now a system, that is something I can handle. You know I do a then b then c then d, and the system flows nicely, in theory that is. In a system you would never want to go from f to b or from c back down to a. That type of thinking fits better with a process, a process allows some learning, it is like we are not done yet, we have not arrived. For this is God's will that we are sanctified? Yes but are we there yet, no, so maybe if I focused more on the process and the present rather then envisioning the finished product, (super me), I would be able to fair better in this process, See our terminology plays a big role in how we think and feel in regards to how we are doing in our sanctification and theology in general. If I believe that I am sanctified then I maybe might spend too much time living in the future or maybe the past. That is where we spend most of our time. We live in the past and the future. What if it was God's will for us, after justification, after the recognizing the work of Christ, after being set free, what if it is God's will for us to now realize what we may have gotten ourselves into by following Christ. For this is God's will, your sanctification, almost as if it is God's will for us to recognize that we are in a process now, and it is not tme to take the armor off, it is time to put it on and leave it on. And sometimes it is not pretty, victories are few, failures are many, (thank goodness my justification is not based on my victories and failures) maybe God wants us to try, if we can, to think outside the box, recognize some things outside of time, you know where He is. What if God wants us to remember that the process we are in right now is past present and future and he sees it all at once. For this is God's will, our process, our journey with him, not earning, but giving effort, like any good relationship should.

This thinking whether you buy this mumbo jumbo or not helps me to live in the present, today now. The past is only good for reflection, regret, pride, lust; the future only good for selfishness, pride and mostly worry. If we spend all our time living in those two: past and future, we are useless for the present( by the way the devil knows this too, helping to convince us to render ourselves useless today), and do you know what takes place in the present? Everything..... Relationships, smiles, love, acts of kindness, sin, lust, touch, sex, honesty, manipulation, hot, cold, my wife, my daughter's kiss that I covet like nothing else, my sons cry, as it seems to change daily, my forgiveness, my temper, my hate, my insecurities, my addictions, my turmoil, His grace, His name, my identity, my interations, my reality, my life. For this is the will of God that you recognize that you are in this process of sanctification, right now this moment till we are all one day perfect and mature lacking nothing..... then we can take the armor off, then we can think about the past and future, but by then we will not want to, for we will know better...............

Death of a Father

Two of my sophomores lost their dad last night. I guess it was pretty quick. I guess it was a siezure and shutting down of organs. It happened fast. I got a call at 10pm. The next morning I found out he had died at 12 midnight. So while I was on the phone listening to my messages about a father of two of my students at 10pm, he had only two hours left on earth. In my class I am teaching about God's will for our lives. Most people do not know God's will for their lives because they want to just know his specific will for their lives like, who do I marry, what job do I take, what college do I go to, should I have more kids. I do not think God cares, I think he wants us to pick, I mean if we are seeking him first, His general will that is, if we know and strive for his general will, I think he wants us to pick our specific will, give us the desires of our hearts. But we do not want to take the time to learn what His general will is, we just want specific, we just want selfishness, it is all about me. God's primary general will is found throughout the Bible, it is the same for me as it is for you. It is God's general will that we all know Him. Now we all will not know Him because some will choose His pursuing and others will reject Him, but this is the will of God that none should perish but have everlasting life, (Timothy). You can then find general wills like "it is God'e will that we are living sacrifices" (Romans) That we proclaim what he has done for us, we worship Him, Also, that we are sanctified and that we recognize that we are are in a process of sanctification, and that in the process we will face battles with sexual immorality, but that we should abstain (Thessalonians)

So you get the idea. Anyway I was thinking about funerals, all different kinds of them, Christian, methodist, Catholic, non religious, you know you have been there. I started thinking about how at a non- christian funeral I always seem to hear alot about the person, alot about what they have been doing, like what a good person they were, and "she was a saint", anyway at the end of all of them there is like this awkward statement like "And we trust and pray, or and we hope and pray that we will see them someday again" as if there is a chance that they do not know where the person is. And honestly they do not. The Christian funerals as you know are different. The service is centered around God and Christ and not the person, they know where the person is not because of what the person has been doing for the past 40 years, but because of Christ. And it is a celebration to some extent.

I started thinking about my students dad that died and how he presumably new the Lord. I started thinking about God's general will for our llives is that we know Him, and how that is what I think that you are thinking about right before you die. I doubt you are thinking about your car or your money, or even your family, but whether or not you understood and have accepted God's general will for your life. It is not a coincidence that before you die, in your last thoughts you are thinking about, (probably) what God's general will is for your life, the question is are you thinking about it with comfort because you have accepted it or are you thinking about it because it is too late...