I just read about a church in New Jersey which has supported a Haitain orphanage which flew down to the Dominican Republic, loaded food, medicine, water — and machetes — into an SUV and is prepared to cross the border one way or another to reach their orphanage.
The pastor asked “What would Jesus do?” His answer? “He wouldn’t be sitting in America watching television if he had any way to get to Haiti.”
I am moved by this radical commitment to a people devasted not just by an earthquake but by decades of corruption, tyranny, brutality, greed, and other human-made and “natural” disasters.
Today all Christians are Haitians. At Life Worth Living Fellowship, we will do what we can to literally move heaven and earth to rescue this people.
More and more of Life Worth Living Fellowship’s ministry is going to be available online. Our outreach, our sermons, our coaching and teaching — a lot will be available through various online technologies.
Well, the long election of our 44th President is over. Barack Obama has made history and become the first African American President. Let us pray for him and his new administration to do great things on behalf of the American people and the world.
But our job is not merely to be his cheerleaders, sitting on the sidelines of history. Our job is to make history also, to change the world also, to be transformers of our communities and the people in our lives. You are called by God to be JUST as successful in your own sphere as Barack.
So because both supporters and critics say Obama ran a masterful, virtually mistake-free two-year campaign, here is what you can learn from how he won:
1) BELIEVE — in your own calling. Some people said he was presumptuous, too young, too inexperienced, too… you name it. But he believed in his own sense of destiny and calling. You should believe in what God has called YOU to accomplish in this life.
2) PLAN FOR REALITY: Barack’s victory was no accident, and it was not due just to the economy. Or because he was black. Or even just because of Bush’s unpopularity. All of those contributed but this was also the most highly planned, well-executed campaign for President in American history.
And here’s a critical point: YOU MUST FACE REALITY when you plan! Barack’s people had no illusions about how hard the task was. Jesus said before you build a tower, sit down and plan for how much it’s going to cost. So be realistic about the obstacles in your path, and plan for them. Don’t wish them away. Wishing them away won’t get the job done. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN.
3) EXECUTE. The world is full of good intentions. I’ve hired lots of people who say they’ll do the job, but don’t. Or they start out doing it, then they get busy or upset or whatever and drop the ball. And they do this over and over again in their lives.
The recent well-known book “Execution” argues that businesses that succeed are not those who have a superior STRATEGY but have superior EXECUTION. I think both are needed but here’s the key point: BOTH ARE NEEDED!
Come to work every day on your dreams and calling and get it done — every day. As the Bible says, “faith without works is dead” — useless, as good as nothing.
4) PEOPLE POWER: You need a team or network of people committed to your success. Draw them in by your love, the power of your vision, your character, and your ability to execute and create wins. Then get them working on your behalf.
Today I preached a message related to the election called “He Reigns: No Limits to the Kingdom.” The whole thrust, regardless of who actually wins, is that Christ-followers have dual citizenship. We are citizens of this country, America. As such, we should vote and can be excited about who we think will best run the country.
But we are also citizens of the Kingdom of God, and that gives us REAL power and exciting benefits. Stay tuned right here for a link to the message later in the week. Everyone said it was very powerful.
We’ll be broadcasting it on Comcast Channel 28 this coming Sunday as well.
I’ve been preaching about “The Winner’s Edge: Mastering the Race of Life”, basically drawing life lessons from the Olympics and key passages in the Bible related to running a good race.
Today I preached about “The Winner’s Focus” which (excuse me I can’t resist) “focused” on the idea of focusing our lives. ALL of the literature today on personal productivity says that MULTI-TASKING is OUT! You are not as effective when you are doing multiple things at once. The trick is to work on the most important things at any one time. Then when that is done — or life interrupts and puts something else at the top of the list — you move on to the next most important thing right now.
Tip: Review your purpose regularly, decide what’s most important (in the light of your purpose) daily, probably several times a day.
Personal Note: I couldn’t preach this message until I had narrowed my own life focus. I try to practice what I’m preaching although I’m always only in process (like you too!). Used to be involved in several things making me LOTS of money. But now that I am responding to my call to pastor, I have been steadily shedding things that aren’t central to my call. I am in the process of pulling out of our nonprofit organization so I can focus on ministry.
So…FOCUS on what matters most. Given how much we all have on our plate, RE-focus might be more like it, constantly.
I want to comment, more or less as a private citizen, on thestunning achievement ofthe Democratic nomination of Barack Obama.
During the civil rights years and earlier, I think it was highly appropriate and necessary that African American and other churches took a lead in changing society. It was more about social movements and societal change than partisan politics.
Today I think it deplorable for the Church of Jesus Christ to promote ANY political party or leader. For one thing, African Americans don’t need the church as the central organizing movement for political change. We are far freer to organize other groups, or simply become active in existing political organizations. For two, I think the bellicose and arrogant bellowing of the “right wing” evangelicals has done more to harm the church than anything else I know (read the recently released book/research study “UnChristian”). People are turned off to it. And three, it is not our mission as given by Christ in Acts 1:8.
That said, I think there is a powerful, non-partisan lesson we can learn from Barack’s amazing triumph:
Today at Life Worth Living I talked about a harlot, a whore, a prostitute named Rahab who against all expectations became a forebear of Jesus Christ. God took this woman (in that society women had far less options than they do in this society) and put her in his special Witness Protection Program so that, when the Israelites invaded Jericho, everyone in her house was spared. The walls literally fell down around her but her house that was at the wall was spared.
I said God opens a window of opportunity for us if we’ll have the faith and courage to believe him and his plan for our lives. Despite obstacles, despite overwhelming odds, despite all that our eyes can see, God can give us a new future.
To move boldly into your future, trusting God despite what circumstances look like, is, to quote Obama, the Audacity of Hope. And if you need a modern day parable that you CAN achieve great things with your life, that a window into a brighter future CAN open for you, that you CAN succeed no matter the odds, then let Barack Obama be that reminder to you whether you want him to win or not.
The Bible is full of Obama-style miracles. So is your own life if you look for them. But in this difficult world and life, one more miracle — lived before our very eyes on daily television — is welcome indeed. Yes We Can!
On Sunday I preached about the apostle Peter being very comfortable in his Jewish world with his Jewish identity and his Jewish customs. But what he didn’t know is that God had MUCH BIGGER plans for him.
So our Jewish boy — who has done quite a lot so far in his new career as a Jesus apostle, like heal a lame man, in fact heal people with just his shadow, preach a sermon that got 3,000 people to cross the line of faith, and even raised a dead girl (not bad for a resume, eh?!!) — kicks back one sunny afternoon, and catches some zzzss.
Then God interupts his snooze with an Instant Message alert (don’t you just hate that! I turn the sound off my computer when I need to …em…rest. ‘Course then the phone rings.). Anyway, God wants to chat. His subject: He wants his nice Jewish boy to go hang out with the gentiles (us non-Jews) and tell them the good news too. Here’s the transcript of their chat after this point:
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Peter Says: OMG. LOL. NO WAY, JOSE GOD. U got to be kidding. Ha ha.
God Says: Go to the Gentiles. I love them 2.
Peter says: If u love them, then u go. Wouldn’t be right for me 2go IMHO. Got a nice gig right here. 2GTBT if u ask me. Not even tryin’ to deal with THOSE people.
God says: Wake up. I decide what’s right and I decided U R my man.
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So here’s my question: What is God IMing you about? God ALWAYS has an Instant Message for us. What is he trying to break you out of?
Me? you ask. ME? MOI? Ok, one world I’m venturing into is FACEBOOK. I love technology, the web, etc., but I haven’t used social networking sites to expand my connections or ministry, so if you’re a FACEBOOKer, come be my friend.
People are shocked when I, a pastor and long-time Christian, say that I really don’t like church. So often I have found church to be boring, irrelevant, full of super-spiritual sounding tripe and super-spiritual looking people who I know are really, really struggling. Watch my confession below:
Sound familiar? And I HATE LONG SERVICES! Really, Hollywood spends millions to keep your interest for 2 hours or sometimes more (so what makes us think we can do it as a church week-after-week?). They study how to engage people in a drama and concentrate on every detail. And yeah, yeah, I KNOW what the Christians reading this post are thinking … but church isn’t for entertainment.
Wanna bet? How about this. I’m a psychologist and a former professor for 15 years and there is a concept in the educational field called “Edutainment.” The idea is that you can educate people not just through their minds but in ways that they find engaging.
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I think the Bible has stories that are SO full of drama, of human emotion, of human stupidity, of human suffering — from wars to sexual affairs to murder to arguments to you name it. If it happens to us, it happened to the people whose lives are recorded in the Bible.
So WHY then should we take a book that is so full of what human life is all about and make it just a bunch of spiritual platitudes that don’t really help people from week to week???
Ok, so this is a rant, I admit it. But really, life’s too short to get all nicely dressed on a Sunday morning and sit through boring.
Of course, African American churches can sometimes make the opposite mistake: All entertainment and no REAL help. Great singing, fab sermon, lots of fireworks up there, but for all practical purposes, useless for what I’ve got to face this week on the job, in my family, where I really live.
So…I have an absolute principle for Life Worth Living: I may not whoop (nothing wrong with it) but I do want to ENGAGE your mind and your heart and your senses in a fascinating discovery of what God says about how you can have a life that is worth living.
When you go home around 12:00 on Sundays (we aim for a 90-minute service), I want all your senses to be reeling with some real insight and beginning plans for how you are actually going to be able to make a step forward in your life this very week. I want you to know what your next step is and I want you to feel empowered to take it.
If we haven’t done that, better to just stay home, rest up, go play golf. We wasted your time.
So hold me and my pastoral team accountable for designing a service God can really use to help you make the changes you need to make to reach your dreams.
Today I preached about The Place God Blesses. My essential point, from 1 Kings 17 (Elijah) is that we are walking along life’s road and it may be a bad stretch and we’re really struggling. But unbeknownst to us, God has appointed a place just down the road where he will bless us — blow our minds with something good, something that turns around our lives.
Moral: keep walking. Because just around the corner, just up the road, your breakthrough, your provision, your turnaround is waiting for you.
But what if you’re a church plant and someone breaks in and steals virtually everything your church has? Is that kind of event, where you really get body-slammed to the ground by someone, a step forward?
The Pastor of Kinetic Church thinks so. Someone stole all their stuff. Watch his reaction.
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