"If You're Not Serving, You're Not Growing"!

Christianity was never intended to be a spectator sport.  The Church was never intended to be a small group of ministry professionals serving a larger group of inactive consumers.  Certainly, as recipients of the ascension or five fold ministry gifts, we are called to feed and care for the flock of God but not as it is modeled in many places today.  Many leaders and pastors in particular,  have grown weary trying to get the members of the congregation to become activated into ministry and they have settled back into a role of entertaining, comforting and putting out fires as they erupt. 

There is a clear confusion in much of the Church world over patterns of ministry.  Too many still see the Old Testament patterns of Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha as the  a picture of "just what they would like to become!" Problem is, it's not a New Testament pattern. Jesus changed all that.  The Cross and Pentecost catapulted the real church, the Redeemed Saints bought and commissioned by the Blood of Jesus into a Resurrected Jesus mode.  Rather than camping at the foot of a mountain watching our great leader go up the mountain to talk to God, we are now "Jesus heirs"!  We are now empowered and sent out to do His work in His Power, with His Presence and this is promised for all who go and SERVE!  Yet, most pastors still struggle with "how do I get these folks off dead center and activated to serve?  How do we get some momentum going?  Well, let's look at Jesus.  What did he do?  He preached the pattern, he demonstrated the pattern and he led them to practicing the Jesus Work for themselves.  When someone leads a person to Jesus, the are changed.  When a believer lays hands on one person and sees them healed, they are changed.  

As leaders let's get activated more ourselves in doing the work of Jesus and less of the "keeping the nursery work".   Then, pick out a disciple or two to take with you when you go.  You will never preach people into serving!  You must preach it, teach it and do it.  We must disciple the disciples in serving.  If only 3 will follow, then go with those 3 and in time others will follow.  What produces momentum? The activation of the people brings momentum.  

A Chat With One of the Greatest Generation

Yesterday, I went to Brantley County, Georgia and spent the entire day visiting all my kin- folks.  After visiting a few relatives, I went to see my Uncle Alvin Shuman and Aunt Elizabeth.  He's 88 and still cutting firewood and selling it!  He's about the toughest man I have ever known.  He's not that tall but a little bull.  His hands look like they are two inches thick and all rough and cracked.  He was kicked by a bull two years ago and it fractured his leg but as soon as the cast was off he was back growing a garden and cutting wood.  He said, "I feel as good as I did at 40!  You gotta keep going!"(I don't think he's ever been off that farm from his birth except to go fight the war.)

I have never been around him that much. Not sure why. Anyway, he came out and couldn't see very well so he said, "who is it?"  I told him L. A. Joiner and he laughed and said, "come on in boy!"  We chatted awhile and I said, "tell me about the war".  I knew he had been on a tank over there.  Most folks that I have talked to were there in combat 6-12 months.  Alvin was there and reenlisted and stayed 28 months.  He was a gunner on his tank.  He actually rode the tank ashore coming off an LST (Landing Ship Tank) at Normandy on D-Day!  I never knew that.  He fought all the way through the region including the Battle of the Bulge, considered the fiercest fighting of the war.  He sits and talks about details like it was yesterday.  He told me on one day in the "Bulge" he fired his machine gun over 3,000 rounds and melted down five barrels, which would become white hot! They would take it out under fire and put on another barrel. He said, "I was just trying to tear up somethin!" He said, “even today when I drive my truck down the road I suddenly feel like I'm back there firing that gun again!” He asked a VA doctor how long before it went away and the doctor said it will never go away.  You were just a boy when that happened and it is indelibly printed in your psyche. He has a German helmet, an SS Knife, Two pistols including a Luger that he brought back as spoils of war.  I was fascinated as I sat and listened.  He actually marched in the parade at the liberation of Paris.  

 Aunt Elizabeth said (right in front of him), "one person asked me one time how I lived with him?"  She said, "he's steel, you can't bend steel!" (They celebrated their 65^th anniversary last year.) I was sitting there wishing all my children were there.  Then she said, "the Brantley Co schools ask him to come speak to the kids every year and tell them about the war.  His first year he took all his “stuff” and the administration said, "you can't take guns and knives in there and you can't talk about drinking alcohol."  He said, "what you runnin' here, a cloister for Nuns!"  

Then he said, "I wasn't saved the whole time I was over there."  I said, "it's just the grace and mercy of God that you made it!"  He agreed.  He came home with ulcerative colitis. He was in torment with pain.  My Great Grandmother Brinkley was a Pentecostal.  She brought him an anointed prayer cloth.  While he wasn't accustomed to this sort of thing, he said, " I pinned it to my under shorts and wore it every day to work."He then said, "that's how I got healed!"

I wanted to share my experience with Uncle Alvin with you. He's just one of thousands who paid the same price and many more with their lives.  We owe these tough old warriors  our very lives and prosperity.  May we train our children and grand children to give honor where honor is due.

When Average Exceeds the Exceptional

Have you ever looked at someone and thought, "what a gifted person?"  We all have.  One of the problems that goes along with that thinking is an assumption that without the gift you could never accomplish what the gifted person could.  Many of the most successful people in history were normal people with a resoluteness and a focus that wouldn't stop.  It's really amazing what normal people can do if they won't stop. A prime example is Steve Jobs:  born to an unwed mother, he was fostered out.  He never finished college.  Armed with sheered determination and hard work, and the refusal to bow down to failure, he overcame obstacle after obstacle.  History is filled with just such people.  Often the really gifted people never live up to their potential.  One reason is that things seem to come so easily for them. They never develop a work ethic.  There are a host of extraordinarily gifted athletes who never made it to the top because they didn't have to work at it!  I work with preachers a lot.  In preaching we talk about the qualifications of great preachers.  There is certainly gifting.  You can't do anything about that.  Then there is the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Yet there is another characteristic that is only determined by the dedication of the individual and that is hard work.  I'm not saying that hard work in itself can bring the anointing of the Holy Spirit yet I am saying that ongoing, never stopping  learning and applying what we learn to our craft is invaluable.  I have seen great and gifted preachers get surpassed by average preachers who never quit seeking God and learning how to better communicate.  

Regardless of your daily endeavor making yourself a continual learner and applying what you learn will put you ahead of most people.  Most people pursue a goal and get only good enough to meet the criteria to get by and then they quit.  You may make it on that philosophy but so many people, and especially in this rapidly changing world, are passed by.  Often the "exceptional are exceeded by the average." You may learn from a gifted person but if the gifted person doesn't build on their knowledge and skills they will be left behind and probably become obsolete.  Fifty years ago that wasn't a certainty but it is today.  You can even do it in your spiritual life.  The children of Israel had to gather fresh manna each day.  Yesterday's manna would get rotten and no longer produce life.  Let's press ourselves to a new and higher level.  Let's make our goal becoming all that God will allow us to be according to His will and our willingness to continue to pursue wisdom, enlightenment and understanding.  We all may have limits to our accomplishments based on gifting but let's not let our limitations be a lack of ongoing learning and application.  

Learning From the Moses/Joshua Transition

The period of leadership transition is one of the most dangerous times for any group or organization.  Even when everything is done right there are no guarantees for the future.  So many variables exists, from the future faithfulness of the new leader to the cooperation of those called to follow the new leadership, success is just not a given.  The world is watching that scenario play out right now with Apple and the death of Steve Jobs.  However, while there are no certainties, there are things from the successful transition of Moses to Joshua that we can learn.  

Most failures in transition seem to involve time.  In essence time is rushed.  It usually involves a lack of foresight.  You would think that any leader or leadership team would continually be looking faithfully into the future because it is the future into which we are called to lead.  Yet, most leaders only look into the future so long as it involves them and their part in the future.  It is difficult for leaders to see their group or organization going beyond them.  If a senior leader cannot see the success of their organization beyond them, they will leave the group ill prepared for the future.  The problem is that the thought of some future transition is painful.  Therefore, they bury their head in the sand and pretend the inevitable won't happen.  It always does in every endeavor.  Back to time.  Timing is rushed because the senior leader refuses to face the future transition until age, health or burnout forces the issue.  Then, far too late, transition must occur.  This process is then rushed and mistakes are made.  In a perfect world good leaders are selfless and are always building their organization to succeed without them and beyond them.  They are preparing others all along the way.

Moses trained Joshua for years.  It is difficult when you read the life and ministry of Moses not to see Joshua present.  At every turn Joshua was there serving and assisting Moses.  When you start reading in Joshua 1 the transition seems so flawless.  You might think that if you haven't read the life of Moses first.  There are so many examples in Scripture.  The reason it was easier for Joshua to face water to be crossed by a miracle of walking through on dry land is because he had seen it before. He had seen every aspect of leadership modeled before him and it was an invaluable asset.     

I have made the mistake in the past of keeping talented people landlocked in a particular job too long because they were doing such a good job.  If these people turn out to be your successor, you have damaged them and the group.  There are ways to allow people to function in a particular area of service while still involving them in the bigger picture.  This is critical for their expansion and the future of the group. 

If you are a senior leader, take time to lift your head above the fray and always be on the lookout for potential leaders and spend time preparing them by including them in the larger scheme of things.  The day will come when you will be glad you did!