Does the Church Have OCD?

     We are talking about the people Jesus met on the street during our indoor soccer half-time devotions at church. Jesus never seemed to be too busy to stop and engage the people that he met along the road. Some of the people he met were wealthy tax collectors and rulers of the people. Others were poor beggars. Still others had broken homes, were prostitutes, outcast lepers or sick, lame, or blind. Jesus stopped to talk to all of them, and often did the unexpected. He ate with sinners. He healed the lepers. He forgave the prostitutes. He healed the sick. And he chastised the rich for thinking they could get into heaven because they were wealthy and successful.
     Jesus didn't seem to have a problem getting his hands dirtied by associating with people of the world. In contrast, the modern church seems to suffer from a bad case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Oh we are willing to get our hands dirty in the world, as long as we can get back to our safe little enclave where we can get cleaned up and wash off all the filth of the world. But we become very uneasy whenever someone with real problems wants to join our community. We don't know how to deal with that.
     It's really a sad commentary on the church that we have to go outside our four walls to find real people with real struggles in this life. We tell ourselves that we couldn't make it through life without Jesus, that He is the answer to all of life's struggles. But when someone from "the world" comes into the church with real problems, seeking help, we find ourselves washing the germs off the door knobs as they leave. After all, we don't want to be contaminated by the world...
     I am afraid we have not progressed much from the early church. In James Chapter 2, the half brother of Jesus chastised the church for making distinctions between people. Sadly, we still seem to be doing that. Hospitals are filled with sick people. And people who work in a hospital are there to help the sick get well. Everyone knows that. So why isn't the church of Jesus Christ known as a place filled with damaged, hurting, and lost people, who are seeking God? And why aren't church people known as loving healers who are doing everything they can to help the broken find Jesus. 

Doug

Looking Back to See the Way Forward

     I have always been fascinated by the way certain characters in the Biblical text stop at very important transitions in their lives and re-tell the history of the Jewish people. They often do this just as the people of God are embarking on some new adventure or plan for the future. That doesn't seem to be the way we do it these days. Modern leadership gurus tell us we need to focus on that end result, that thing that we want to achieve, that place where we want to end up. We hype up the crew with words of confidence about how we can get there. We tell them that we have the the unique experience, vision, skills, talent, etc to make it.
     The Bible likes to look backwards, re-telling the story of how we got to where we are today. But the stories don't focus on our great achievements. They don't recount how the 7 great wonders of the world were created. They don't talk about how humanity put together a "dream team" to solve the days pressing problem. The stories all focus on what God did. They talk about how when we were stopped in our tracks, God came through. They talk about when all was lost, God acted.
     How many times do we retrace what God has done in our lives? How many times do we do this as part of our plan for the future? One of the great things about being a missionary is that people are always asking us how we got to the mission field. We have told and retold the stories of how God brought me to the place where I would even consider missions. We tell the story of how God allowed us to go to new missionary orientation during the school year and how Ruth got paid time off to do that. We tell the story of how God protected me from a community that was intent of sending a message in no uncertain terms that they didn't want a new church in their community.
     As we move into this new phase of ministry and look to the future, I find myself wondering if it will become a reality. I wonder if I am up to the task. I wonder if we will have the resources to pull it off. And then I find myself retelling those stories in my head.... and I realize that I am only here today because God acted. And if I ever get to that goal in the future, it will also be because God acted. That is a comforting thought...

Doug

Leadership Essentials

     I was flying home from a leadership conference last week when I picked up the in-flight magazine and opened it to an article on leadership. Now I have read a lot of books and articles about leadership over the years. But there is something "new" in the leadership literature these days. Leadership trainers are talking about character as the basis for leadership and you can pay big money (up to $13,000 according to the article) to learn how to improve your character as a leader.

Playing a Leadership Game

     Most of the character traits these big time consultants talk about can be found in the Bible... but you probably already knew that. I have been in a lot of leadership workshops, and we usually talk about character as one ingredient for leadership. But last week we spent most of the week talking about character and wrestling with who we are, what we believe, and how that affects our leadership. That is how important it is. It isn't the things you say and do. It's what really motivates those actions and words, deep down in our hearts that makes a good leader. It's called authenticity. It means that we aren't just saying and doing the right things in order to be a leader. It means we're a leader because people want to follow someone with deep personal convictions and character.

     Young people will catch on to our authenticity or lack of it right away. I think that's why we are losing so many of our young people... why they are leaving the church in droves. Our lives just don't seem real to them. Too many of us in the church wear a mask and say "everything is fine here", yet up close you can still see the cracks, the flaws, the defects. Authentic people admit they don't have it together. They show the cracks and flaws. They admit that they struggle with life's issues. Authentic people take off the mask and trust that God will heal the defects.

     I certainly have my flaws and I am painfully aware of them. How about you? Let's all try to be just a little more authentic in our lives. Who knows, an unbeliever might even get an up-close look at us and decide that he or she doesn't have to be perfect to follow Jesus either... 'cause if that was the requirement, none of us would make it
....

Doug

Do You Want to Please God or Trust God?

Two Paths.... Which One Will You Choose?

     I have been reading The Cure, by John Lynch, Bruce McNicol and Bill Thrall.  They talk about two paths in the Christian life, the path of pleasing God and the path of trusting God. They suggest that most Christians choose the path of pleasing God in their life. It certainly sounds good. We all want to please our heavenly Father. But pleasing God rests on the premise that I must do the right things to make God happy with me, my life, my work, my family, etc.

     The other path, trusting God, is much more difficult to comprehend and, because of that, is the less chosen path. What am I supposed to do to trust God? What does trusting God even mean? How will I know when I am trusting Him? Trusting God means knowing that we can't please God, but that God has made us pleasing to Him. It is knowing that I can't do anything to change the circumstances in my life, but He can. It means getting to the point where we say, I know I can't do anything about this Lord, but I know that you can.

     I have come to this point many times in my life. I have hit a roadblock in life where I have tried and tried to resolve things and it just isn't getting better. Then I just have to sit back and say, OK God this one is for you... I tried. I can't make do it on my own. You take over. But wait.... Is that trusting God? Do I only trust God when my own efforts fail?

     I hope that one day I can trust God BEFORE I run out of my own options. I have some big ideas for future ministry. I have a great passion for telling others about who Jesus is. But my greatest desire right now is that I can trust God to take my ideas and desires, and mold and shape them into what He wants them to be. That's a tough thing, because if things are not going the way that I have them envisioned in my head, then I feel like a failure. Why? Because I am trying to please God?

     So.... Are you pleasing God or trusting God in your life?

Doug

It's Not About the Techonology

A World of Technology

     "It's not about the technology." That was one of my favorite mantras while I was the Media Director for HCJB Global in Latin America and I drilled it into our staff as often as I could. And it sounds pretty strange coming out of my mouth, being that I am an engineer and worked on state of the art radar technology in the defense industry before going to the mission field 20 some years ago. Even now, as I do research on how to use the new technologies of internet, cell phones, and mobile devices to communicate with people, I have to remind myself that its not about the technology.

     So what is it about? It's about having a message, a saving message, that we need to communicate to a world that hasn't yet heard the news. In days gone by, that communication had to happen face to face, or maybe by writing a letter. But the messages traveled slowly and two way, long distance conversations were laborious. Radio and television changed all of that. Suddenly, we were able to communicate around the world, into remote areas, behind political and geographic borders. Today we are seeing a new revolution in communication technology... rapid two-way communication using the internet, cell phones, and mobile devices.

      But it is still about the message.... We can sometimes get wrapped up in the latest and greatest technology, but what good is the technology if we have nothing to say? Knowing how to communicate the saving message of Jesus Christ effectively is still the most important thing. If you can't do that, the technology won't do it for you.

     So how are you doing? When was the last time you articulated the Gospel to a friend or neighbor? Can you respond with love when someone ridicules your faith or argues with you about the authority of the Bible? Remember... it's about not about the technology... it's about the message.

Doug