Month: May 2017

The Last Week of My 50’s

One week from today, I will be 60. (The Lord willing, of course!) That makes this the last week of my 50’s. Some would be moaning or decrying the reality that they are old. I am looking forward to my 60’s. I recently read a daily comment from Bob Biehl saying the 60’s ought to be one’s most productive decade. In addition, the alternative to aging is going to be with Jesus. I’m all for going to be with Jesus, and am ready right now. At the same time, I enjoy living here, and want to impact far more people than I have to this point with the Gospel, so if the Lord gives me another day, or year, or decade or two, it’s fine with me.

But this post and the next two are going to focus on the last week of my fifties. Anyone who has lived to his or her 60th birthday, has lived through  birth, toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and the transition years of the 50’s. As I look back I remember hearing a pastor who was in his 50’s preaching a sermon when I was in my teens. I don’t remember much about the sermon except a point he made about aging. He said, “If God were to give me the opportunity to become a day younger every day from this point forward, or to continue being one day older, I would never want to become a day younger each day.” I remembering thinking at the time the man was crazy.  Why would you not want to be younger and younger instead of older and older?

Having reached and lived my 50’s I’m in full agreement with the pastor. I have been learning some realities about myself and my relationship with God over this decade that I wouldn’t trade for reliving my forties, thirties, twenties or teens. In addition, were I to become a day younger each day, I would know one day’s less worth of what I know, and would have one day’s less wisdom with which to approach the day ahead. What I have learned in my 50’s is while physical prowess is a blessing, it’s a poor substitute for wisdom. I could work harder and longer when I was younger than I can today, but now I know better which work is worth doing.

What I’m saying in a nutshell is I’m grateful to God for every day He has given me, but I’m particularly grateful He has given me my 50’s, years when my maturity has given me a perspective on life that allows me to be far more helpful to others than I have ever been, and far more at peace with myself. Life is a precious gift, and eternal life is even more so. While I was saved when I was twelve, I understand both life and eternal life much more deeply than I did back then. It’s interesting that nearly every culture in history has valued the wisdom that comes with age, but as we move into the 21st century, it is less and less the case here in America, and it seem in many other nations as well.

We are so enamored with the new, the novel, the latest technological device that wisdom has been devalued. I’m not complaining, simply observing. But if there has ever been a culture that has been more dressed up with less of a place to go that matters than our current one, I’m not aware. My Dad died in 1996. For the last ten years of his life he often said, “This world is going crazy,” when he would watch some senseless act of violence on television, or hear of the latest fashion or cultural craze. I have no idea what he would think had he lived an additional twenty years. It seems as we have accelerated the rate of change, we have not accelerated the rate of wisdom or common sense to go with it.

Please, don’t hear that as sour grapes from an old guy. I don’t want to go back to the America I grew up in. I do want to see Jesus lifted up in every generation. After all, what’s the point of getting everywhere faster, getting the latest information instantaneously, and developing better systems and techniques if what we’re doing has little eternal value? As I live out this last week of my 50’s I’m becoming a bit nostalgic, but even more I’m grateful to God for the passing days, weeks, months and years. I’m grateful that I not only know more now than I did back then, I’m more certain of God’s goodness and love, of His grace and mercy in my life and the lives of others than ever before.

I’m also more aware my moment for standing in front of Jesus to hear Him assess my life is much closer than it’s ever been. I live each day to be ready, because I so want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant enter the joy of your Master’s Kingdom,” when that day comes. I’m not expecting that day to come in the next few weeks or years, but if it does I’m ready. When it does, it won’t be a surprise. That’s the benefit and blessing of having lived nearly 50 of my 60 years as His follower.

I pray you are living each day as if it matters, because it does! When we live each day that way as the weeks, months, years and decades pass, and we move from one milestone to the next, we can do so with joy and satisfaction.

Here’s to leading better, by taking time to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going–today!

Remembering Heroes…

It’s Memorial Day, the day we take time each year to remember and honor the heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifice, so we may enjoy so many amazing freedoms. Having visited a number of countries where the civil liberties most Americans take for granted are non-existent, and having seen the impact of not being able to gather public to worship, or to have a part in electing the leaders who govern, or to have ample supplies of food, housing, and other necessities of life, Memorial Day means more to me than it did as a child. Then it was just a day off school, a time to get out the boat for the first time, and have a picnic. Now, I’m reminded thousands and thousands of men and women from the 1700’s to our current day have given their lives as part of the United States Military in order that we might enjoy such experiences.

When I think of Memorial Day, I always think of one of my Mother’s cousins, whose name was Joe. Joe served in the army during the Viet Nam era. I remember seeing him after he had served his third tour of duty there. During his second tour, the jeep his was riding in had been hit by some type of bomb. The impact of the experience was visible when Joe wore a short sleeved shirt–there were “craters” in his arms where muscle had been ripped away by the shrapnel. Joe’s hearing was impaired greatly by the concussion of the bomb. In truth, Joe ought to have left the army with a military discharge after his recovery. But Joe convinced an army doctor that he was fit to serve one more tour. Joe wanted to go back, because he believed in what we were doing, believed in providing freedom not only for Americans, but for as many others as we could.

You may disagree with the purpose of the Viet Nam conflict. You may believe we ought never have been there. What you cannot do, is disagree with the degree of commitment and sacrifice of men and women such as Joe, who have given their service and their lives for us, for their fellow Americans, who they believed had the right to disagree with what they were doing, and were willing to die to maintain that right. As followers of Jesus, we may fall at any point along the spectrum from pacifists to militarists, but wherever we fall on the spectrum, I hope we understand love and commitment. If you’re prone to cynicism and you’re thinking, “Many of those people who died were there because they were drafted, or because they volunteered, and it was just a job for them.”

The thought holds truth, but even those who were drafted or who volunteered for a job, who died in action still gave their lives rather than run away from the obligation. I find that honorable and commendable. That’s why I welcomed the opportunity to say something about those who served during our worship services this weekend, and to offer a prayer of gratitude to God. It’s why I was glad to pause for a moment of silence at last night’s Pittsburgh Pirates game, when the announcer encouraged us to do so, and then to sing God Bless America. I recognize my first citizenship is in heaven, but as the New Testament reminds us many times we are to obey the governing authorities.  My secondary citizenship as a citizen of the United States of America is a blessing that provides many opportunities the citizens of other nations only dream of having.

I hope you, too, have taken or will take a moment to remember those who served and gave their lives that we may have the freedom to express our opinions on anything and everything. God’s blessings on those whose families live with the loss of loved ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us.

Here’s to leading better by taking time pause and thank God for those who make it possible for us to live and serve Him freely–today!

Sabbath Revisited…

Today is my Sabbath.  What does that mean? Originally, the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, traditionally Saturday. God established the Sabbath as a reminder of His priority in our lives. God created the universe and all it contains in six days, and “rested” on the seventh. I put rested in quotes, because I’m certain God wasn’t tired. After all, He is God. The Sabbath was God’s creation for us, as Jesus reminded us during His earthly ministry. It’s purpose was for us to be renewed, restored and refreshed, as well as so we would remember who we are and whose we are.

When we work seven days a week, or when we’re on “24/7,” we find it easy to think the world revolves around us, that we are the reason so much is getting done. We are the reason our organizations or churches are  healthy, or growing, or whatever label we use to show forward progress. The truth is as John Eldridge puts it, “There’s a way thinks work.” In his book on prayer, titled Moving Mountains, Eldridge points out God has ordered the universe so that there’s a way thinks work. Simple examples are logs float down stream, and items dropped from a roof fall to the ground.

In our lives when we ignore the principle of Sabbath, over time our lives will stop working as they were designed by God to work. God created us for rhythms of work and rest. During the work times we are to give our best empowered by His Spirit, and when we rest we are to stop to be renewed, restored, refreshed and to focus on God, to remember He is God and we are not. As we rest and reflect, we will worship God praising Him for who He is and thanking Him for all He does. When we stop to remember He is God and has provided us with every good and perfect gift, we will be moved to thanksgiving and to supplication and intercession, to asking God to meet our needs and the needs of those around us.

Unless we pause for Sabbath, we run the danger of assuming too much about ourselves and too little about God. The too much we assume about ourselves is that we are the reason things work. We are the reason the organization is succeeding. We are the reason people’s lives are being changed. We must always remember: God uses us to accomplish all those things, but God doesn’t need us. He did create the universe in six days! I’m grateful for those who have pushed me to honor my Sabbath, to stop to be renewed, restored and refreshed, and to reflect on who God is and why we worship Him.

That doesn’t mean I never “do” anything on my Sabbath, but more and more, my goal is to break the routine of my weekly work schedule, to invest more time alone with God than I ordinarily do day-to-day, and invest some time with Nancy where we enjoy some aspect of God’s creation, or build our relationship or our relationships with another individual, couple or family not for church purposes, but simply to enjoy God’s presence among and within us.

How are you doing at keeping a Sabbath on a weekly basis? Do you break the routine of work with genuine rest, restoration, renewal, reflection, and honoring God for who He is? Take five minutes right now to ask yourself those questions, and respond honestly. Based on your answers, adjust your schedule to include a God-honoring Sabbath, and remember the Sabbath was made for you, by a God who loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

Here’s to leading better, by preparing for or participating in a weekly Sabbath–today!

Summer Slowdown?

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. So, are you planning a summer slowdown? Most churches across America assume summer will be a slow time. Many make changes that ensure that assumption comes to pass. Whether it’s dropping back from two services to one, or eliminating a Saturday evening service, or changing the regular service time to an earlier hour in order to give people an opportunity to get the most out of their Sundays, or shutting down children’s programming or youth programming, each of those actions ensures a slowdown.

Here’s a suggestion that will help you continue to reach as many people as possible. It’s important to remember many people move during the summer months, and may be looking for a church. If yours seems to be “shut down” for the summer, they might look elsewhere. So, the suggestion is: reduce your meeting schedule during the summer, but keep your services and programs going. We all need a little “down time” during the course of a year, and while summer makes sense as one of those times, the more we can keep things “normal” for the folks who come on the weekends, the less likely we will be to face a summer slowdown.

Yes, members of our church families will go on vacation this summer, but most of them won’t be gone for more than a couple of weeks. Yes, some folks go to camp or the beach every week, but it’s a minority. The reality is if the people know the church is “open” for the summer, they’re far more likely to be there, than if we give them signs that we’re not expecting them to be there. At New Life we’re giving folks a summer opportunity we’re calling New Life University or NLU. It’s a classroom style experience, that will run for ten weeks during June through August. While that may sound like a bad time to hold such a course, nearly 10% of our people have signed up to participate. I will be teaching the course, and have already outlined the course, so it will only be a matter of the actual hour and a half in class time each week that will be added to my schedule.

So what are you doing this summer to show your church family you’re open for their participation? Are you doing anything special? We’re having our second annual Fireworks Night on the 3rd of July . We held our first one last year on July 3, as part of our 15th anniversary celebration, and found out the community loved the idea. We realized that while there’s a good bit of volunteer time needed on the day of the event, since we outsource the fireworks, it’s a relatively simple event to host, and it has a high, positive impact in the community. You may not be able to do something like that, but you’d be surprised the goodwill you can generate with a brief, concentrated event that welcomes the community.

My point is simply to help all of us consider how we can maximize the impact of summer rather than defaulting to the summer slowdown.

Here’s to leading better, by being strategic about the upcoming summer–not just today, but from now through August!

The Pastoral Part of Leading…

Each of us who serves as a pastoral leader is first a pastor. That may have gone without saying thirty years ago, when I was a young pastor, but these days the emphasis has shifted to leadership in most areas of life. The reason is simple: leadership is lacking in virtually every sphere of life: government, business, the church, and families. For all the talk about leadership these days, and all that’s written about it, finding leaders with character, competence, and the courage to lead is a challenge. The truth be told more churches are struggling because of a lack of leadership than a lack of pastoring.

But pastoring is an essential part of who we are and what we’re called to do. Yesterday after worship, Nancy and I were on our way to the funeral home to visit a family in the church who had lost an elderly parent. I got my phone of the console of my car, and saw I had a text message. It was from another member of the church whose 35 year-old nephew had died that morning of an apparent heart attack. While the family isn’t directly part of New Life, they consider me their pastor, so that was added to the list of visits. Nothing can make a situation like that better, but as pastoral leaders, it is our task and opportunity to care and be present in the name of Jesus.

While that is a dramatic example of the pastoral part of leadership, we have opportunities every day to show a shepherd’s heart whether we’re the only pastor on staff or lead a large staff. In my role as the lead pastor of a large and growing church family , my primary shepherding takes place toward the staff. While my leadership gifting is high and my mercy/ compassion gift low, my role calls me to encourage, challenge, pray for and with staff members. Sometimes that involves a casual word in passing. At other times it’s part of our structured staff development time. Im not naturally inclined to see when someone is down or struggling as many of you may be, but it is vital to our long-term health as a staff, and ultimately then, as a church family for me to be aware of the overall climate of the staff as well as the health of the individuals who make up the staff.

How are you doing at the pastoral part of leadership in your church? Are you aware of who’s hurting and who’s doing well? Do you take the time to encourage and correct both casually and intentionally? Whether that means doing so primarily with with your staff, or with the church family as a whole, everyone follows the leader, and it will always be true in the pastoral area. When people see you caring in Jesus’ name, regardless of your spiritual and natural gifting, they will take their cures from you and do the same. The pastoral role in leadership is essential in order to have a healthy and growing church family.

Here’s to leading better, by taking the time to be a pastor–today!

Gleanings: Chronological Snobbery

As we close out this week of reflecting on gleanings from my week of personal retreat, we come to the topic of “chronological snobbery.” I was first introduced to the term by C.S. Lewis. Lewis pointed out in every age there is a tendency toward chronological snobbery, that is to think the ideas of the current age are superior to the ideas of previous ages. Lewis thought chronological snobbery cost the people of his age a great deal, because much of value comes from the writings of the ancients and from those who have gone before us.

Lewis’ point is well-taken and never more so than in our era, when a new idea about just about everything comes out every fifteen seconds, or so it seems. The expansive access we have to information, and the instantaneous nurture of that access makes it seem that only the new holds merit. In a world where thousands of pages of information are being  written and uploaded to the cloud daily, why would we turn to the past for wisdom? The short answer is: if it’s still around it was of enough value to be preserved and passed on to future generations. The Bible is the ultimate example of old books with old ideas that are still relevant for today. Old books is in the plural because while the Bible is one integrated whole, it consists of 66 individual books written by dozens of authors under the guidance of the Holy Spirit so its truth is superior to anything ever written in any era.

As leaders who lead in Jesus’ name, we dare not think the latest leadership podcast, or book on time management has more to speak into our lives as God’s leaders than His written word. When we succumb to chronological snobbery we miss out on some of the most profound wisdom available to us. For example, I invested a great deal of my week of retreat re-reading, studying and dissection Watchman Nee’s Normal Christian Life, which was written in 1977–forty years ago.  I had read the book before, but as I re-read and compared what Nee said to the Book of Romans from which most of the content is derived I was amazed at the depth of Nee’s insight, and of how much I had missed both in Romans and in Nee’s work.

Had I decided only to take “new” books with me last week, I would have gained benefit to be sure, but it would have been nothing compared to the deep insight I gained by taking a classic off the shelf and returning to it. Even Nee’s work is “nee” by comparison to some of the classics of the faith written hundreds and even more than a thousand years ago. When we put together our reading or listening lists, we do well not to assume that if it hasn’t come out in the last six months that it’s out of date. If you haven’t read The Normal Christian Life, I encourage you to read it. You may be surprised how relevant the work is, and how powerful for the practical application and living of our faith in Jesus. After all, leading effectively always starts with living faithfully when it comes to those of us who are leading in Jesus’ name.

Here’s to leading better by taking the time to consider and delve into some of the classic works of the faith–today! (or in the near future!)

Gleanings: Plan Your Work?

Staying with the theme: Gleanings, as in ideas I gleaned from my retreat last week, today’s comes from the old expression, “Plan your work and work your plan.” The point of the statement is when we take the time to plan before we start our work, the work will be more effective than if we just have at it. One morning as I sat with my planner, thinking about what I was going to do that day, a thought came to me: If I plan “my” work and work “my” plan what in that statement has anything to do with God? If I’m a leader who follows Jesus wouldn’t it make more sense for me to to rely on God in the planning?”

As I thought about it, I played around with the wording until this sequence came to mind, which is actually a prayer: “God plan my work, and I’ll work your plan.” Immediately, it made sense. Yes, I’m a leader, and yes, I need to have a plan for my work in order to be more effective, but I want it to be God’s plan. The other advantage is it brings prayer to the planning process. Each day when I sit down to start my work, after my morning prayer time, I look over my schedule and calendar and offer the brief prayer, “God plan my work, and I’ll work your plan.” It’s making an impact on my focus. While I typically plan my week ahead on Saturday afternoon, I offer the brief prayer before that, and then each day.

I’ve never really been a great planner. I’m an activist and I want to get right to the work, but reminding myself to give God my schedule reminds me it’s His work I’m doing, and He has a better plan than I do. Maybe you already invite God to plan your work, but if you don’t I commend the idea to you. Taking the time to pause and get God to coordinate your efforts is a great way to focus your day on Him. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Here’s to leading better by taking the time to invite God to plan your work–today!

Gleanings: 1st Things 1st…

Last week’s retreat proved to be one of the most powerful week’s I’ve experienced in a long time. Being an extreme extrovert, being by myself isn’t typically a lot of fun for me. I gain energy from being around people and the prospects of a week in a cabin with just God and me is never at the top of the list of my favorite activities. Nevertheless, for the third year in a row, I committed to taking the second week in May and doing precisely that. I am so thankful I did. The week didn’t go as I expected. The first morning I sat down and outlined “productive” days for the Monday-Friday experience. It was a schedule that would have made the most OCD person envious, but by Monday afternoon it was already out the window.

God had different plans for the week, which turned out to be mainly about putting 1st things 1st. As leaders whose first allegiance is Jesus Christ, we ought not be surprised that the first things, weren’t things and they weren’t plural. The first thing was the first One. During Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He reminded us all of the principle of the first One–Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything you need will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). We all know that, but knowing and doing aren’t always the same time. I typically put God “first” by scheduling Him first in my mornings, by getting up and having a time of prayer with Him. But there are those mornings, more in number than I care to admit, when I “have” to do something before I get to the prayer. There’s a message I need to finish, or a meeting plan that needs to be completed, or a blog post that must be written, so I sit down at my laptop “for a few minutes,” and the next thing I know there’s not enough time to invest an hour with God before the rest of the day’s activities. I squeeze in ten or fifteen minutes with Him and then it’s off to the races.

What God showed me this past week was quite simple: Nothing is more important to you than I AM.  Nothing. Each day I got up and invested the first hour and a half or more to prayer and listening to the Bible. (I find I focus more on the Bible when I listen than when I read it.) During those times, I practiced most of Dr. Dick Eastman’s 12 aspects of prayer. (They can be found in his book The Hour That Changes the World.) The most powerful aspects were always praise and waiting on the Lord. After that time each day, the tone was set for the rest of the day. In fact, on the second day I was reminded of the old adage, “Plan your work, and work your plan.” As I reflected on it, something struck me: the word “your.”  Why would I want to plan “my” work and work “my” plan?

After all, I’m the lead pastor of a large and growing church. Wouldn’t I want to work God’s plan for New Life rather than mine. That’s when it hit me: God plan my work, so I’ll work Your plan. I’ve been starting each day with prayer, and not just a cursory or obligatory moment, or ten minutes, or even an hour, but the time it takes to be certain God is first. As I’ve praised God, waited on Him, confessed my inadequacies and called on Him to fill me with His Spirit and guide me throughout the day, something powerful is happening. On Friday morning I woke up at 3:33 am. It was one of those times, I’m sure you’ve experienced when I knew this wasn’t just an interruption to my sleep just to go to the bathroom. I was wide awake and the first thought that came to my mind was: This is how the three  Scriptures for tonight’s service go together.

We were to have a “Believe Gathering” at New Life that night, and Pastor Brad French had given me the three Scriptures we would be using so I could be ready to offer a 20 minute meditation on them. When I had looked at them I thought, “Those seem to be random.” I didn’t see a theme, a progression, just three unrelated Scriptures. But as I lay there in bed a story came to mind to illustrate the first Scripture, then the tie in to the next, and finally a powerful reminder that the last shows us how one day we’re all going to be worshiping the only one worthy of worship forever: Jesus. By then it was 4:00 am. One of the worship songs we sing at New Life came to my mind, but I couldn’t remember all the words, so I googled it, and a YouTube video popped up. I listened. After that, another song was suggested. I listened. I repeated that for the next hour.

That never happens. I’m a word guy, not a song guy. But as I worshiped God by listening and singing along it was a holy moment. Then I got up and went prayer walking through the woods. I’m not an outdoor guy. I’m an activist, thus the prayer walking. It usually doesn’t matter to me whether I’m walking on my treadmill, or outside, as long as my body is occupied, my focus turns to got much more readily. This time, though I was aware of the birds singing, the beauty of the trees and even the greenness of the grass. The point isn’t that I’m becoming a naturalist, but that putting God first made everything different in a good way.

Friday night’s message was powerful. In fact, the whole day was powerful, even driving home from the retreat center. The test will be what about now? What about now that I’m back to “real life”? Here’s the question: what is real life? Real life is putting God first. That’s what God reminded me last week. As long as I put Him first every day will be better. It won’t be like a week-long retreat, but it will be better.

Where is God on your priority list these days? Is He first? Is He the first One you think about in the morning? Does He wake you up to tell you something you need to do on a given day? Are you investing enough time with Him that He believes it when you tell others He is first? It doesn’t really matter whether anyone else believes it. After all, He’s the One that matters. My prayer for each of us is we will put Him first, because unless He’s first, it doesn’t matter where He is, because He won’t be second. The promise is when we put Him first, He’ll meet our needs. That’s a promise worth living.

Here’s to leading better by putting the first One first–today!