May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:5-7)

I am so inundated with thoughts of spiritual and moral recovery that I have created a “traffic jam” in my mind.  I could literally write a rambling list of, or inventory of, self-realizations, focus items, or epiphanies to run an endless ink well dry.  But, one thing is weighing heavy on my mind; now stay with me, this could be a delicate situation:

 I am genuinely happy to be a Christian neophyte.  I am happy to be curious, in wonder, a seeker of truth, and be laden with religious fervor.  For once in my life I am not hiding from a difficult pursuit.  But then again, this time I am not alone, I have Him. As a new convert I have eyes and ears that soak up everything.  This data is filtered through the maze of a person who is seeking to abide and live in a Christ-like way, yet tainted by a lifetime of old habits, thought patterns, and cynicism.  Also, I know I could be easily influenced, in both negative and positive ways, by the company I keep.  I really want to do “life” the right way now, but I know that I have to be careful and real with myself and with the new behaviors and patterns I adopt, especially by example from others.  So again, “Who do I count on to help me in my walk with Christ?”

 I have met so many incredible people in my short walk.  I have seen understanding and forgiveness that has made me literally cry.  I have seen unselfish deeds and generosity that makes me shiver with joy.  I have heard the praises of God that has made me melt with appreciation.  I have seen God work through others that makes me want to surrender all that I am, and have, just to be part of something that wonderful. 

Then I have seen the turmoil of the devil’s hand.

 I have met devout Christians who judge others, yet live without taking a self-inventory; I have met Christians who speak with a gossiping tongue, yet act without mercy against those who “bruise” their ears; I have met Christians who impose their will on others without accepting the will of God upon themselves.  I have met Christians who have put personality before principles, even those principles that are the very fabric our Saviors teachings.

 So at times it leaves me to muse:  “Who is really LIVING the Way verses ACTING the Way?”  I don’t want to be a hypocrite by assessing or judging others, but I do feel I should be wary of those who offer a warm embrace with their hands one moment then serve a self-righteous slap the next moment. Or maybe I’m all wrong here; I mean, maybe my whole observation and concern is moot.  After all, the one thing our Lord desires the most is for us to love each other unconditionally, right?  Maybe some of my Christian Brothers and Sisters, especially those with questionable behaviors and actions, are put before me to further my walk with Christ; to sharpen me; to teach me true love through grace, or ironically through the absence of grace.

I guess I can answer my own question now:  “Who do I count on to help me in my walk with Christ?”  Well, coming to know Christ, through the Bible, is my first step; after all it is the instruction manual for good living.  Good knowledge, coupled with earned wisdom, and even some common sense, will help me to embrace my fellow Christian Brothers and Sisters instead of “sorting them out”. We are all different.  We all need each other’s colors to complete the human rainbow. We should let God figure out who will share our walk with us. Accept each person as they are, if there is something that person needs, or could improve, or change, then give and guide them with love, wisdom, openness, and grace.

Like I said, I am truly happy to be a “new” Christian.  I never want to become complacent.  I would rather always be a wretch who needs God and is subservient from the constant barrage of self realized deficiencies, realizations, and in awe of His grace that He gives me than be “comfortable” with myself to the point where I stand against another Christian Brother or Sister.  So my answer to my own question is: “We all walk together”.

This morning, The Hartford Courant had yet another story about the ongoing debacle of priests with a history of pedophilia.  The story was concerning the Diocese of Norwich and its attempts to keep secret hundreds of documents pertaining to Thomas Shea, a retired priest accused of molesting as many as 16 girls at 11 different parishes over his 40 year career.  The potential scandal in this case is that one of the letters was sent to Joseph Ratzinger, the man who is now Pope, when he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the office that decides whether accused priests should have trials that could lead to them being defrocked.  Regardless of what is in those documents, the fact remains that this whole scandal is a black eye not just on the Catholic Church but on the very name of Jesus.

James, in the third chapter of his letter, writes that not many should presume to be teachers, because they will be judged more strictly (James 3:1).  In Ezekiel 34:2, God says “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?”  The warning is clear to anyone who desires to become a leader, teacher, or pastor of people in God’s church – don’t do it out of selfish reasons, be it prestige, honor, monetary reasons, or anything else.  And once you are in a position of leadership, your responsibility is to serve and care for others as a shepherd cares for his sheep.  Leaders in the church can be sure that if they misuse their position, they will be judged more strictly, for when others are harmed through their teaching or actions, leaders can not only hurt many people, but can also reflect poorly on the God they serve and do damage to the kingdom of God.

Certainly, we serve a God of great grace, a God whose forgiveness and restoration can extend not only to the victims of child molesting priests, but also to the child molesting priests themselves.  We should never become so self-righteous and judgmental that we forget that we are all sinners saved by grace, all capable of unspeakable acts of wickedness if placed in the right circumstances.  We are all desperately in need of God’s grace and mercy, and just as God used the murderer Paul to spread the gospel around the world, God is able to redeem even the most hopeless situation.  But do not presume on the grace of God by acting in sin because you believe that you can just ask forgiveness tomorrow for whatever you do wrong today.  The harmful effects on others and on the name of Jesus are worse than any fleeting pleasure you might receive.

I am curious whether the ongoing child molestation scandal in the Catholic church has had an impact on you or on those you love.  Has it affected your faith in God at all?  Has it damaged your trust in church leadership?  If you have any thoughts or experiences to share, please leave a comment below.

Last week I reference an article in The Hartford Courant and asked the question of why we shouldn’t all just be spiritual people while keeping our distance from organized religion.  After all, with the options available to us today, it is possible to listen to your favorite preacher, worship band, and even to financially support your favorite cause, all from the comfort of your own home, without having to worry about the messiness of relating to other people.  Thank you to all who shared your thoughts on the blog or on my Facebook page.  Here are my thoughts on the matter:

(1) I certainly understand the draw towards being “spiritual but not religious,” worshiping God but not committing to a particular church.  The first reason is that, as with any other close relationship, there is always the potential for hurt and conflict when becoming a part of a church.  Why submit yourself voluntarily to that when you may already get enough conflict in your family or on the job?  Secondly, Jesus presents such a perfect ideal of what it looks like to live the life of faith that the church inevitably falls short of his standard.  And so we look around for another church that looks like they’ve got it figured out, only to find out that they fall short of Jesus’ standard in other areas.  When churches hurt people or act in a hypocritical manner, they often cause many to lose faith in the God whom they represent.

(2) One of the commentors on the blog wrote “It’s easy to look at all us sinners who make up the church instead of focusing on God.  When I look at people, I tend to get discouraged, frustrated, or cynical.  But I don’t go to church to check out the latest fashions or gossip.  I go to learn about and worship our Creator.  So I think if our focus is right, we’ll grow.”  Many people may lose faith in God because of the way His people act, but we have to try to resist taking that step.  The church is not God, and the failings of God’s people do not change God’s perfection, but only prove how much we all need a Savior to redeem us and the Holy Spirit to guide us.
 
(3) Instead of fixing our eyes on the people of the church, we should learn from the example of Jesus, who, when faced with a people so full of wickedness that they deserted him, betrayed him, mocked him, and crucified him, chose to willingly die for them in order to make them holy and beautiful (Ephesians 5:25-27).  I will say it again:  Jesus, when faced with a sinful group of people, does not reject them but does all he can, even to the point of death, in order to transform them into a holy, beautiful people.  Does that mean you should die for the church?  Not necessarily, but it does mean that a little perspective is in order as to how we should respond to imperfect people.

(4) One of my fears with the “spiritual but not religious” approach is how it turns God and church into just another commodity in our consumer culture.  By “church shopping” and asking whether or not a particular church works for us, we often exhibit an attitude towards God’s people that is opposite of a Biblical approach.  While it is legitimate to evaluate churches based on their fidelity to the Bible or what they are teaching your children, it is also important to recognize that God may bring you to a particular church because of what you have to give to them, not just because of what they have to give to you.

(5) One of the dangers of rejecting the church and choosing to worship God on your own is that growth in Christ-likeness often happens when we are in close relationship with others who can encourage us, challenge us, and point out our blind spots to us.  When we attempt to be spiritual on our own, we can mistakenly think that all is well in our discipleship, instead of being challenged towards much needed growth.

(6) Finally, the biggest reason we need the church was something I addressed in the Pulse on May 12th of this year (you can read what I wrote here).  When you cut yourself off from other believers, or surround yourself only with your friends, you limit your experience of and worship of God.  Each believer has experienced God in unique ways:  some may have testimony after testimony of God’s provision; another may be able to speak to God’s healing power; another can speak to God’s ability to restore a marriage; and yet another to God’s ability to transform even the hardest heart.  The church, in all of its weakness, is a collective testimony to the majesty of God, and to cut yourself off from that is to leave yourself with a small God.

What do you think?  Can you give any other reasons why being a part of the church is worth the potential hurt and disappointment?  I’d be interested in your thoughts.  If you have an opinion, post your comments below.

 I have a few thoughts on this trend, but I would be interested in hearing your thoughts as well.  My first thought is that, even though I am firmly part of the machine that is “organized religion,” I came close to saying hearty Amen to the man who said “organized religion has no appeal.”  I think that I, along with many people, have an ideal of what Christian community can be like, only to find that the reality is that any community is made up of humans like ourselves: full of rough edges and immature areas and self-centered agendas.  Many of us have certainly said at one time or another, “wouldn’t it be better just to worship God on our own?”  You know – put on your favorite worship CD, listen to your favorite preacher on your iPod, and send off your tithe to a missions organization you would like to support?  Wouldn’t we all be happier that way? 

So what do you think?  We’ve all heard it said:  “You don’t have to go to church to be a spiritual person.”  So, why not become one of the “Nones” (not to be confused with the “nuns”) and just be spiritual while keeping your distance from “organized religion”? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Leave a comment below if you have an opinion.

2) I get to make an eternal difference every day – It is such a blessing and humbling honor to know that every time I preach the gospel or share Christ with someone, that God may be using my words to bring someone into a relationship with Him, to free them from sin and make them more like Jesus, or to help them see God in a way they had never known Him before.  Although one of my strengths is public speaking, I know that it would be very hard for me to use that gift to sell or promote things that I know are not as life-changing as the gospel.  I believe whole-heartedly in the power of the gospel, and am blessed beyond measure to be able to communicate the gospel of God’s love and salvation for sinners on a regular basis.

3) I get paid to spend time with God – I still remember saying this to the congregation at NewLife when I was first hired as the youth pastor back in 1998.  The biggest blessing, as I saw it, was that I was essentially getting paid to commune with Jesus, to learn from Him, become like Him, know Him Word, and share it with everyone.  Over time, I have realized that this is more challenging then I first expected.  I have noticed that it is very easy to get into the habit of reading the Bible with an eye towards how to teach it instead of how I can conform to what God is saying.  My prayer and devotional life can be about how I can be a better pastor instead of how I can deepen my relationship with God.  In short, a relationship with God can become part of work instead of part of life.  Sometimes God wants to deal with me on things that are just for me, not for sharing with others.  For that reason, I long for this to be my attitude, that my highest calling would be to know God more every day, and so, somehow, to become more like His Son.  As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

 I am blessed to be a pastor, and thank God for the continual grace and mercy He has shown towards me in allowing me to serve Him in this way.

Ahh, the pastor’s favorite words to hear.  To those unfamiliar with church life, it may seem that the pastor does little more than stand up on a Sunday and speak for thirty minutes and then shake hands with people as they live.  The reality, of course, is quite different.  The pastor’s job is one of the most unique jobs out there, in my opinion, and I thought it might be instructive to share five of the challenges that are unique to the pastor’s job.  Next week, I will share some of the blessings that are unique to this calling.  What I write is not meant as a complaint; rather, I believe it will help you know better how to pray for me and my family, and will be helpful to any of you who are considering going into the ministry.

1) The ideal pastor has to be skilled at many different things.  He has to be an engaging public speaker, a visionary leader who can raise up and inspire volunteer leaders, a manager who knows how to oversee and administrate a church full of volunteers, a counselor capable of helping people through their life issues, a social worker able to help people find tangible help for their needs, a scholar capable of reading ancient texts in foreign languages and bringing their meaning to today’s world, a mentor who can help others grow in their faith, and, of course, a mystic who understands what it means to know God and help others experience Him.  And in a smaller church like ours, it will help if the pastor has some understanding of maintenance and repair, real estate, legal issues, and many other things.  Of course, no pastor is all of those things.  A classic strategy used by churches who are searching for a new pastor is to solicit opinions from the congregation on how they expect their pastor to spend his time.  Typically, after the list has been constructed – preaching, pastoral care, visitation, administration, evangelism, leadership, meetings, building relationships with other pastors, and so on – the congregation finds that they are expecting a pastor who will work 80-100 hours a week!  What this means is that the pastor is bound to disappoint people when he is not both the inspiring leader and the sensitive counselor, or both the engaging public speaker and the gifted administrator.

Personally, I am stronger in the mentor (shepherd), scholar, and public speaking areas; weaker in the social worker, leader, and manager areas (not to mention the maintenance, real estate, and legal areas).  What this means for me is that I need to align myself with people who have gifts in areas that I am lacking, especially those of administration, and do my best to learn from them and, where appropriate, to give them responsibility.

2) It’s one of the only jobs where your family essentially comes to work with you and knows everyone at your job.  I can think of few other professions where the boundaries between home and work are so blurred.  With many other jobs, there is a natural divide between home and work, and your employer does not care what happens at home unless it begins to affect your performance at work.  As a pastor, however, everything that happens at home matters, because it speaks to your character and maturity as a spiritual leader.  In fact, one of the central qualifications of a church leader is that he manages his own family well (1 Timothy 3:4).  Therefore, if there are marital issues or parenting problems, it could be grounds to lose your job.  And, of course, you are your family’s pastor, which has its own challenges.  Congratulations kids – he’s not only your dad, he’s also your pastor.

When I took the position at NewLife, the reality is that my whole family was called as ministers to the church.  In a very real sense, then, the church became a part of our family.  Where do you draw the line between work and non-work when dealing with people who you consider family?  Is it considered work every time I spend time with someone from NewLife?  Or only if it is someone I wouldn’t naturally spend time with if I were not the pastor?  Is prayer time work?  The pastor has a real challenge figuring out where to draw the boundaries between home and work, and I know I have yet to figure that one out.

3) You are often the only paid employee working with an “organization” made up entirely of volunteers.  This has a couple of important ramifications.  The first is that the pastor has to come to terms with the fact that while many things are high priority to you, especially since your livelihood depends on church ministry, the same things are often not a high priority for anyone else.  Everyone else can drop out, say no, and put things off, because other things in life will be higher priorities.  As a result, the pastor and his family will often be left holding the bag, picking up the pieces, and patching things together. 

The second ramification, of course, is that motivating people changes when you can’t just fire them or dock their pay.  In the working world, if you give someone a deadline and they do not come through, they should expect some measure of discipline and there could be real fear of losing a job.  In the church world, however, what do you do when a volunteer consistently misses deadlines or doesn’t follow through?  The pastor is often faced with the choice between making do with what you’ve got, doing it all yourself, or having nothing at all. 

4) No weekends off.  Of course, the most obvious challenge that is unique to the ministry is that Sunday is always a day of work.  Going away for the weekend just isn’t an option, save the few Sundays off the pastor gets.  I take Mondays off, and am off some Saturdays as well, and since our kids are still preschool age, we make it work, but once they are going to school on Mondays, I know it will be harder to carve out extended family time.

5) The job is never done.  One of the biggest challenges I have found is that the job of being a pastor is never done.  Sermons may come and go every week, but the work of helping people become like Jesus is never done until the day you die.  The pastor has to be able to say “that’s enough for today” and be content with the lack of closure, or he can easily work an 80 hour week.  Once again, this means that the pastor has to resign himself to disappointing people, because he will never be able to give everyone all the time that they want.  It also means that the pastor has to learn to trust that God is fully capable of changing people’s lives, with or without the pastor’s help.

I hope that gives you a little insight into the unique challenges faced by the pastor, and helps you understand why I am always asking for prayer for good boundaries between home and work.  Next week, I will share some of the blessings that are unique to this job.  If you have any thoughts or feedback, please feel free to post a comment.

Program helps homeless get back on their feet

By Shaun Hittle
June 14, 2009

Cecelia Mora-Benimon knew she was homeless.

But it took what she calls a “breakdown” moment for it to really sink in.

It was last December, and she and her 2-year-old daughter, Essence, had recently been accepted to the Family Promise program, a Lawrence-based nonprofit organization that has been providing shelter to homeless families since November.
Mora-Benimon was in her car waiting for a staff person from Family Promise to return from lunch.
It was cold, and her car’s heater was broken. She was out of formula for her daughter. Her gas tank was empty.
It was then that she really understood her situation.

“I had nowhere to go,” Mora-Benimon said.

Her journey through homelessness began when she moved back to Lawrence from North Dakota to finish her degree at Haskell Indian Nations University. She was staying with family, but when her relatives lost their housing, she and her daughter were without a home for the first time in her life.

“I never thought I’d ever be homeless,” she said.

But after seven months in the Family Promise program, she won’t be homeless for long. Through a federal transitional housing program, Mora-Benimon will be moving into a two-bedroom house in east Lawrence with her daughter this week. She’s eligible for the transitional housing for at least two years, but said that her ultimate goal is to pay for housing without any assistance.

Mora-Benimon joins two other Family Promise families in the past few weeks to become the first to “graduate” from the program and move into their own housing.

It’s a sign that the program is working and making a difference in our community, said Executive Director Valerie Miller-Coleman. “Lives are being changed,” Miller-Colman said.

The program faced some initial obstacles regarding city shelter regulations, but the City Commission in February backed off proposed regulations that would have required the churches involved to make expensive alterations to their buildings. Miller-Coleman also said that some of the initial concerns from the community about potential problems in the neighborhoods around the churches had not been an issue.

Participants in the program spend their days during the week at a home in Lawrence that also functions as the Family Promise’s headquarters. Family Promise staff members and volunteers work with participants during the day on life skills and job searching, as well as assist with day care and transportation so that participants can attend appointments and interviews.

Miller-Coleman said that all of the families set goals for themselves and the services the program provides is tailored to the needs of participants.

Miller-Coleman said she asks two main questions when participants enter the program: “What do you want for your family and what do you need to get there?”

Participants then spend their nights at area churches staffed by volunteers.

Morningstar Christian Church, 998 N. 1771 Road, is one of 13 area rotating host churches that transform their buildings into homes for the participants for a week at a time. When the church hosted the families last week, the building looked like anything but a shelter. Volunteers and participants roamed the building playing games with the kids, working with the parents on their goals and making dinner for the group.
The home-like environment is part of the plan for the Family Promise, which attempts to provide families with stability as they work on their goal of permanent housing.

But finding permanent housing can be a frustrating and complicated task for participants who are dealing with a variety of issues and who have faced many setbacks.

Program participant Carla Starnes, 30, has been homeless for two years and says she’s bounced around four shelters in several area counties. Starnes is at the program with her 1-year-old son, R’sean, and she said that until she entered the Family Promise program, she had nearly given up on getting her life back on track.

“I felt like there was no hope,” Starnes said.

That’s changed in her one month with the program, she said.

“There’s a lot of people behind me,” Starnes said. “I never knew people could be so nice.”

Mora-Benimon has also faced her share of setbacks while in the program. She’s been denied housing three times, and had many of what she calls “give up” moments. But the support from the program and others in the Lawrence community have kept her going.

When she needed extensive dental work, Lawrence dentist Marvin Heinbach donated thousands of dollars in dental care. When she didn’t have money for Christmas presents for her daughter, volunteers bought presents for her and her daughter. When she needed a car to get to work, one of the churches gave her a truck.

The benefits of the Family Promise have gone both ways for the roughly 1,000 volunteers who have helped out with the program, said Peter Luckey, the senior pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church, one of the host churches for the program.

A positive byproduct of the program has been bringing the volunteers closer to social issues that may not affect them personally, he said.

“We live segregated lives,” said Luckey of the divide between the homeless and the Lawrence community. But the program has helped volunteers understand that homelessness happens to people not that different from them, he said.

“(The program) really puts a human face on it,” said Miller-Coleman, adding that real and lasting friendships develop between the participants and the volunteers.

In addition to finding housing, Mora-Benimon has been making progress in her other goals. She is scheduled to graduate next spring from Haskell with a degree in business administration, and she secured a paid internship this summer through the university. She said it’s all been made possible through the new network of friends and support she’s developed in the program.

“I’ve never met so many people who give,” she said.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Some people show up at our church doors because they are new to the area and are looking for a place to worship.  Others come because they want their kids to have a good Biblical education.  Still others come because they have heard good things and want to see what we’re all about.

But every Sunday, you can guarantee that someone is coming because they just really need God.

Maybe their marriage is falling apart, or they have reached the end of their rope with the troubles they are facing.  Perhaps they see no hope in their future, or are weighed down by guilt.  And maybe it took everything in their being to pull themselves out of bed and drive down to NewLife, hoping that just maybe God would meet them there and lift them out of the pit.

Do you have the eyes to see these people?  Or are you just a lifeguard, there to celebrate with your friends, oblivious to the drowning man behind you?

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Many people who come to our church are not looking for more acquaintances.  They are not looking for more people with whom they can talk about the Red Sox, or discuss hobbies and pastimes and the economy.  They are looking for someone with whom they can talk about what is really going on in their heart, in their marriage, in their life.  They are looking for someone who will minister the healing love of God to them and walk beside them to freedom.

Will you be that person? 

It can be difficult for some people to get beyond the surface level, to find the questions that invite another person to open their heart to you.  If this describes you, may I recommend a few questions?

How is your spiritual life?
What are some of the challenges you’re facing in life right now?
How can I pray for you?

Or, maybe, you just need to take the lead and share from your heart about how you are really doing, the challenges you are facing, or how you could use prayer. 

Whatever it takes, remember that if you know Christ, then you know the one who is capable of saving drowning men.  Do not allow men and women to walk into our church, sit there surrounded by lifeguards, and slowly sink deeper and deeper under water.  Be the one who will reach out and lend a helping hand and lead them to the Savior.

In our pluralistic society, it is one thing to have faith in the God of the Bible and to commit your life to being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  But it is another thing entirely to be a missionary and to spend your life trying to live out Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18-20, to go and make people of other nations, cultures, and faiths disciples of Jesus Christ.  Seeking to “convert” people, while true to the last words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, will win you few friends in the world, where thinking your religion is superior to another is in many minds one small step away from being a terrorist. 

 But if Jesus was right, and if His life, death, and resurrection is the only cure for our broken world, then we have a lot to learn from those fearless men and women who devote their lives to reaching those who have never heard of Jesus, even if they may be anonymous or even hated in the eyes of the world.  One such man was Ralph Winter, a great man of God who died this past week at the age of 84.  I would encourage you to learn more about this man and his contributions to the modern missions movement and to the kingdom of God (you can learn a lot about him at www.ralphwinter.org).  Let me briefly share two of the ways Ralph Winter impacted the kingdom of God.

 The first was Winter’s realization that most missions organizations were wrongly assuming that simply by establishing a church in a country, that they had brought the gospel to that nation.  What Winter realized as he listened to missionary after missionary come through his classes at Fuller Seminary was that most countries of the world were comprised of so many different people groups with their own languages and different ethnicities, that each instead of treating them all as the same, missionaries would need to see each people group individually.  Most countries were not a “melting pot” like America where people groups would assimilate into the larger nation.  As a result, Winter began to promote the idea of “unreached people groups,” in order to communicate to churches and mission organizations that reaching a nation for Christ was more than just setting up a church, but building a church in each different people group. 

The second contribution was that once Winter realized the need to promote missions to every tribe, tongue, and nation, he took a giant step of faith at age 51 towards creating a missionary training organization that would work towards fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission.  Beginning with no backers, no mailing list, and only $100, but armed with a great, Biblical vision, he began what would eventually become the US Center for World Missions, of which he served as General Director from 1976-1990, and William Carey International University.  Of this decision, Winter writes:  “After we made the decision to leave Fuller we did not at any point in the next thirteen years, during which we paid off the campus, feel that God had promised us success. We only felt that the value of the goal was sufficient justification to go all out, sink or swim. I coined the phrase, ‘You do not evaluate a risk by the probability of success but by the worthiness of the goal.’ We were willing to fail because the goal we sensed was so urgent and strategic.”  From that humble beginning, the Center eventually became self-sufficient, enrolling over 6,000 new students a year and drawing upon over 900 professors and teachers from all over the country, and sending missionaries all over the world.

I encourage you once again to learn about the life of Ralph Winter, and to learn about other men and women who devoted their lives to missions, keeping in mind Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:58:  Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

But there is a definite danger to this mindset as well.  If church planters are typically people of vision, dissatisfied with the churches they have come from or that they see around them, so are many of the people they will initially attract.  People of vision are often people with clear conviction as to how a church should be run and what it means to know God and follow Him.  And to people with clear convictions, a church plant often looks like the perfect place to bring their vision.  After all, the church plant is still new and flexible, and more likely to be open to their vision than an older, established church. 

Last week, I shared some of the history of NewLife, and this week I wanted to reflect on one of the greatest lessons learned from the way NewLife began and the subsequent history.  The lesson is this:  be very careful about church transfers, especially when they have come out of a church split or left with unresolved issues!  NewLife began in 1992, and I did not show up until 1997, but I know that the majority of the founders came out of churches going through unstable periods – some from Glastonbury Community Church, some from Pilgrim Baptist, others from First Congregational Church of Hebron, and still more from Church of the Living God.  It should not have been a big surprise that with such a beginning, NewLife would eventually have issues of its own that would cause many people to once again become dissatisfied and leave for greener pastures.

To those who are planting churches or pastoring small churches, I would counsel you to be wise and discerning about those who join your church out of difficult church situations.  First of all, the church leadership needs to be clear on its vision and theology and philosophy of ministry; otherwise, it is possible for strong-willed people with clear vision to come in and begin to shape the church to their liking.  Secondly, do not be so eager for growth that you just welcome everyone to your church unquestioningly without learning about their background, what church they have come from, and why they have left.  If your vision is clearly different than that of those entering your church, it may be best for them to move on and find a place better suited to them, even if it keeps your church small.  And thirdly, if someone is going to stick with your church, help them to deal with any unresolved issues they may have with a former church or pastor.  If the issues are not dealt with, you can rest assured that they will likely surface again.

And to those of you who are changing churches or thinking about changing churches, there is nothing necessarily wrong with moving on if you are not able to worship or serve at a church in the way you feel God would want you to.  But if you do move on, move on well.  Talk through your issues with the pastor or church leadership.  Try to reach some level of understanding, and agree to disagree where necessary.  And finally, do not badmouth them or gossip about them when you leave.  Instead, leave with dignity, blessing their work and trusting that God is the judge who in the end can sort out right from wrong.  As Paul writes in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  Take the high road, for the sake of God’s good name.

I would love to hear your comments, if you have experience in this area that could help edify us. 

While Pastor Mark of the Worship Center was very supportive, the rest of the church leadership at the Worship Center decided not to involve the church in birthing this new Glastonbury church, so the Alexanders and the Dewberrys began a home fellowship in Glastonbury with a few others in the hopes that God would bless their little group.  Peter began to make connections in the area in order to discern how God might be leading their little group.  Through the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Hebron, Peter wound up teaching regularly at a Sunday night home fellowship made up of members of that church.  As some issues caused division in First Congregational Church, this group eventually decided to join the Dewberrys and the Alexanders in pioneering a work in Glastonbury.  The two other original elders, Peter Baldwin and Ron Say, came out of this group. 

The young church, which decided to adopt the name “NewLife Christian Fellowship,” began worshiping in the basement of the Gallery Restaurant on New London Turnpike in 1992.  But after a short time there, they sensed the need to find something a little nicer, and moved to Academy School on Main Street, where the church began to grow and find its niche in the community. 

From the very beginning, NewLife demonstrated the ability to hold the Bible in high regard as the Word of God, while believing strongly that the Spirit of God can and does speak to us today.  As a result, the church has always been open to the Holy Spirit and flexible to new ideas and initiatives, while remaining true to the Bible.  Another important characteristic was that the church was a friendly and accepting group, a characteristic that has continued to the present day.  I still remember my first day at NewLife in 1997, and feeling like I had never been a more welcoming church.  The early NewLife also placed a great emphasis on family life, but balanced it with a sincere desire to reach out to the Glastonbury community. 

Next week, I will continue my reflection on the history of our church, meditating on what we can learn from the way NewLife began.  If you are in the area, we invite you to come to NewLife this Sunday.  We will be using our morning worship service to celebrate what God has done in our church as we place our trust in Him for the future.    

The Old and the New Testament both have great stories that illustrate the importance of delegation.  In Exodus 18, we find Moses serving as a judge for the people of Israel from morning to evening every day, hearing all the disputes in the land.  Fortunately, his wise father-in-law Jethro sees what he is doing and tells him that what he is doing is not good, that he is going to wear himself out.  He tells Moses to select capable men to be officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, to serve as judges over the simple cases while reserving the most difficult cases for himself.  In this way, Jethro helped Moses find balance in his life as well as raise up leaders among the people of Israel.

In Acts 6, we find some widows are being overlooked in the distribution of food in the early church, causing the people to complain against the twelve apostles.  But the apostles wisely realize that if they are to attempt to meet every need, they will neglect the more important ministries that they have been called to:  prayer and the ministry of the Word.  And so they allow the disciples to choose seven godly men to take care of the needs of the community.  In doing so, the apostles are able to keep first things first, while not neglecting the important needs of the community. 

Delegation is such an important skill in a leader, and unfortunately has been something that I have always struggled with.  A church that understands delegation recognizes that the leader’s role is to raise up other leaders, to give away responsibilities to those who are ready to take on challenges, and to support those who are doing the work in order that they might be successful.  Many people would be shocked to find out that the word “pastor” only appears once in the Bible, in Ephesians 4:11-13, where Paul writes, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  Notice what the role of the pastor is – to help equip the people of God to serve in the ways God has gifted them, so that the whole body might be built up and reach maturity.  The role of the pastor is not to do everything himself, but to delegate, to equip, and to support others as they do the work of ministry.

If our church is to grow into maturity, then we have to get the hang of delegation.  As the pastor, I need to grow in my ability to recognize areas that people can serve, identify people who are willing to serve or could use the challenge, and then equip and support them so that they succeed in doing the work of God.  And the ministry leaders in our church need to begin to see leadership in the same way, so that leadership does not equal “do it all myself,” but “help others do the work while I support them.”  The challenge the leaders of our church have is to think through the ways people can lead or serve, from the smallest thing to the biggest:  from providing a snack to making a phone call, from leading in prayer to sharing a testimony, from folding bulletins to leading a discussion group.  Find as many ways as you can to get people involved, to give people ownership and responsibility, so that the body of Christ at NewLife might be built up and reach maturity. 

On Sunday, January 25th from 3:45-5:15, there will be a leadership training where we will put more practical thought into how to create more of a culture of delegation and raise up more leaders in our church.  All of the ministry leaders have been invited, and you are invited as well if you are interested in learning more about leadership at NewLife.  If you are interested in coming, please let me know – there are so many ways to serve and so many ways to lead, and we believe that God has gifted every one of us to serve and lead in different ways at NewLife and in the community. 

 Keeping that promise in mind, as well as this month’s focus on the persecuted church, and with Thanksgiving coming up this week, let me share another story of what is going on in this mad, mad world (courtesy WorldNet Daily):

Hindu extremist groups are offering money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes.
The violence is nothing new in Orissa, India, where India’s Communist Party estimates that more than 500 Christians have been killed by Hindu mobs in Orissa since late August, 12 times more than official government claims of only 40 homicides.
But now the stakes are even higher – and pastors have a bounty on their heads.
Faiz Rahman, chairman of Good News India, said Hindu militants are targeting Christian leaders, the Christian Post reported.
“The going price to kill a pastor is $250,” he said.
Rahman, a head of several orphanages in Orissa State, said he’s helped 25 pastors to leave refugee camps, but 250 Christian leaders are still in shelters.
“All of the pastors are high value targets,” Rahman told the UK-based Release International. “We’ve got to get them out of the refugee camps.”
An All-India Christian Council spokesman said, “People are being offered rewards to kill, and to destroy churches and Christian properties. They are being offered foreign liquor, chicken, mutton and weapons. They are given petrol and kerosene.”
One official said he personally authorized “cremation of more than 200 bodies” found in jungles after Christians were blamed for the death of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on Aug. 24. They continue to be persecuted even though Maoists openly admitted to murdering Saraswati.
Thousands of homes and churches have been destroyed, and an estimated 50,000 Christians have been forced to flee the violence. Mission Network News estimates 5,000 Christian homes have been burned and 200 churches ruined. According to the Christian Post, 30,000 people remain in government-operated refugee camps. Tens of thousands are living in forests – many seriously wounded.
Father Manoj, based at the archbishop’s office in Bhubaneshwar, said Christians remain in hiding.
“They are too scared to go home. They know that if they return to their villages they will be forced to convert to Hinduism.”
Religious rights group Barnabus Fund told the group Hindu militants “forced” Christians in Orissa to “convert” to Hinduism by threatening them with rape if they refused.
Neighbors reportedly gang-raped a Hindu woman after her Christian uncle refused to renounce his faith, according to reports.
Another Christian woman named Jaspina was told by neighbors, “If you go on being Christian, we will burn your house and your children in front of you.” She and her family were forced to eat cow excrement to “purify” themselves of Christianity.
Other Christians were doused with gasoline and told to participate in conversion ceremonies or be lit on fire.
This week, Hindu extremists said they have set a deadline for the capture of Saraswati’s murderers. If the killers are not caught by Dec. 15, they promised to begin a massacre on Dec. 25, Christmas day.
According to the latest report, Orissa’s Catholic bishops wrote an ominous letter to the state’s chief minister. It read, “This conflict is a calculated and pre-planned master plan to wipe out Christianity from Kandhamal in order to realize the hidden agenda … of establishing a Hindu nation.”

I simply can’t imagine being a wanted man simply for being a pastor.  $250 to have a pastor killed?  Are we really that dangerous?  I thank God that I do not face such opposition here in America, and pray for my brothers and sisters abroad that God would strengthen them in the face of such persecution.

Lord, we continue praying for your church around the world, especially those who find themselves persecuted simply because they are following you.  We know your heart breaks at the violence with which your children destroy each other, and we long for that day when the nations will finally experience healing.  Until that day, give us and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world the strength and perseverance we need to follow you to the end.  May your justice and righteousness reign in India, and your kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen.

 This past Sunday was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  As we sit in church each Sunday in our comfortable chairs and hang out afterwards drinking coffee with other believers, it can be hard to comprehend what it is like to live in a land where going to church means risking your life.  We Americans often get squeamish when speaking of the judgment, the justice, and the wrath of God, but in places like China, India, and Iraq, where Christians are routinely persecuted and killed, there are few things more important than knowing that God is a God who will judge those who commit such atrocities. 

Consider this story from the Voice of the Martyrs website, one of numerous examples of persecution (in some cases state-sponsored) of Christians around the world:

The U.S. Department of State released a statement detailing its serious concern about the brutal beating of Pastor “Bike” Zhang’s sons by China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) on October 23. They also condemned the harassment and recent imprisonment of Pastor Zhang by the PSB.
“We are gravely concerned by the brutal beating of Pastor Zhang “Bike” Mingxuan’s two sons by public bureau officials. We are also deeply concerned by continuing official harassment of Pastor Zhang, a prominent Beijing house church leader, including his arbitrary detention and the forced relocation of his family,” said Robert Wood, The U.S. Department of State, Deputy Spokesman in a press release.
Wood’s statement called on the Chinese government to release Pastor Zhang and permit his family to return home. “We call upon the Government of China to condemn the violent acts committed against his [Pastor Zhang's] sons, and to bring to justice those individuals responsible for such acts,” the statement said. “We are concerned about a pattern of intimidation of religious freedom and rule of law advocates and their family members. We urge China to honor those international human rights instruments to which it is a signatory that protect the rule of law, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.”
On October 16, PSB officials severely beat Zhang Jian, the elder son of Pastor Bike, after they entered Pastor Bike’s home, secured the exits. The officers beat him with iron bars for nearly half an hour. As Zhang lay bleeding profusely, his mother called an ambulance. The receptionist told her a higher government authority had directed them not to dispatch an ambulance to rescue Zhang because he is related to Pastor Bike. Xie Fenglan next called her younger son, who rushed to the house. Authorities also then beat him.
“We are encouraged to see the U.S. government speaking out on behalf of this persecuted Christian family,” said Todd Nettleton, VOM’s director of media development. “We join with the State Department in calling on the Chinese government to release Pastor Zhang and to allow his family to return to their apartment.”
This incident is the latest attempt by the Chinese government to stop Pastor Bike and his family from sharing the gospel in China. In August, two days before the Olympics, Pastor Bike was arrested along with his wife and a co-worker. The Voice of the Martyrs and China Aid Association launched an international petition drive advocating for their release. More than 58,000 people signed the petition, and it was delivered to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong in Washington D.C. Shortly after the petition was circulated and the Olympic Games ended, all three were released.
VOM encourages you to pray for the release of Pastor Bike and the speedy recovery for his sons. Ask God to protect and encourage them and all believers in China during this challenging time.

 In Revelation 6, there is a depiction of martyrs in heaven.  They are shown under the altar, like burnt offerings that have been slaughtered, crying out to God for Him to judge the world with His justice.  This week, we join those martyrs in asking God to bring His justice to this world, that His kingdom of righteousness and love might come on earth as it is in heaven.  We pray that God might strengthen our brothers and sisters around the world who are persecuted for their faith, and rejoice that the gates of Hell will not prevail against God’s church.

For more information on Voice of the Martyrs, visit www.persecution.com.