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DC Email – Pride: Check Yourself

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Here’s my email to elders and deacons at Crestview on 9/24/13:

Reading through the recommended reading from our last Dangerous Calling video, I came across this quote from chapter 11 (pp.153-154).  Read through this slowly: “I am afraid that there is a whole lot of pride in the modern pulpit. There is a whole lot of pride in the seminary classroom. There is a whole lot of pride in the church staff. It is one of the reasons for all the relational conflict that takes place in the church. It is why we are often better theological gatekeepers than tender and humble spokesmen for the gospel. It is why pastors often seem unapproachable. It is why we get angry in meetings or defensive when someone disagrees with us or points out a wrong. We are too self-assured. We are too confident. We too quickly assess that we are okay. We too quickly make heroes out of ourselves and others. We too often take credit for what sovereign grace produced. We too often assess that we don’t need the help that the normal believer needs. We are too quick to speak and too slow to listen. We too often take as personal affronts things that are not personal. We quit being students too soon. We don’t see ourselves as needy often enough. We have too little meditative-communion-with-Christ time nailed into our schedules. We confidently assign to ourselves more ministry work than we can do. We live in more isolation than is spiritually healthy. Pastor, there is ample evidence all around us that we tend to forget who we are and that we allow ourselves to be defined by things that should not define us.”
Today, I encourage you to remember the obvious: we are sinners in the process of sanctification and very much as needy as those we serve.  Let’s flee to the only remedy for our souls, then, the cross of Christ.  That’s our standard of acceptance and being right before God.  Let’s boast in Christ and His work rather than our own and be leaders who serve the body well. 

With you in this…

LRC Email – Soup Weather

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alums this AM, 9/23/13:

Hey All,
Yes, it hit.  Fall is here.  Soup weather is close (sure it’s in the 80’s this week, but when you’ve had a summer like we’ve had, 80’s feel cool).  Soup is a big illustration for helping us make progress on the issues we care about.  We served soup Friday night at home.  My boys were picking out the veggies and saying they didn’t like the way it tasted and we reminded them that the elements of the soup no longer have individual tastes, but taste differently in the soup. 
That’s what our community’s like.  On any given issue, there are lots of different viewpoints/individuals that see things a certain way.  The challenge in community life is coming together for progress.  In the KLC world, we define these viewpoints as different factions on an issue.  We’re:  “using the term ‘factions’ deliberately to uncover conflicts in the system.  Factions refer to groupings of people who assume differing, and often competing, viewpoints and perspectives on an adaptive issue.  More importantly, factions represent below-the-surface loyalties, values and potential losses…faction mapping can be useful in diagnosing the situation, especially in pushing against one’s own default interpretations and assessing the degree of disequilibrium existing in the system.”
In seeking to diagnose our situation and the factions that exist, we may ask questions like:
  • How does the adaptive challenge look to people in these factions?  What story are they telling themselves?
  • What are their loyalties (peoples, ideas, etc.), values, and potential losses?
  • What would success look like to people seeing an issue from a different viewpoint?

I say all this to say that our leadership in our community is like vegetable soup.  There are lots of competing flavors vying for attention.  They each have a value, loyalty, and want success to be found a certain way.  Our acts of leadership must engage these groups, consider them, and use this information in diagnosing the situation, so that our skillful interventions are most effective. 

Leadership isn’t easy, but when we’ve walked through diagnosing the situation effectively, we can indeed be used to move others to accomplish difficult work, and we just might walk away from our diagnosis smelling like that onion or flavor that we didn’t understand before.  Hope this helps you make progress this week…

Weekend Recap – Strategically Reckless

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My 9/22/13AM sermon, Reckless, from Philippians 3:1-21 is now online.  This sermon sought to interact with Paul’s words in Philippians 3, compelling people that their best life isn’t so much in the here and now (Paul considered his life in his flesh as rubbish) but of the citizenship that is ours in heaven.  Because Christ is better, we can live our lives with a loose hold, knowing that this stuff doesn’t matter.  This sought to unpack a missions value entitled “Strategically Reckless.”  They define it as: “We forsake our security and comforts in this life to fulfill the Great Commission and to seek our everlasting joy in Christ.”  I hope this sermon helps you live this way.
 

DC Email – Ministry Mediocrity and Our Hearts

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Here’s my email to Elders/Deacons at Crestview on 9/17/13:

In Tripp’s Dangerous Calling, Chapter 10 “Mediocrity,” we’re called to levels of ministry excellence because of who God is and the awe that He deserves.  Tripp’s contention is mediocrity isn’t so much about this or that resource or the latest and greatest things, but “Ministry mediocrity in any form is always an issue of the heart.  If this describes you, then run in humble confession to your Savior and embrace the grace that has the power to rescue you from you and, in so doing, to give you back your awe.”  Our service and ministry aren’t what define us.  We’re defined by the relationship that God has initiated toward us in the Gospel.
Today, then, take a look at your service in the church, your labors, your works, and be honest, does this reflect the awe that your heart feels before God?  Might it be that you need your awe rekindled?  Grace is found at God’s throne and it’s a merciful grace there for every moment.  Let’s collectively run there to find Him today and have our ministry hearts recalibrated. 

Running there with you…

LRC Email – Caring For Yourself and Others

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alums today, 9/16/13:

I know I’ve been on a managing self kick in recent emails, but I thought it was good to come back to the idea of taking care of yourselftoday.  One reason is that I’m rather drained after the amazing month I’ve been privileged to live recently.  Another is that as I visit with others, I get inspired by those who have the wherewithal and insight to pull back.
In 2012, the KLC did a conference call “On the Balcony” and thought about what it means to take care of yourself that I highlighted in some emails.  The big point: “Leadership is risky.  You stand a better chance of succeeding when you’re at your best.”  Caring for yourself means recognizing when you need to take care of yourself, finding what balances you, and having kindness and compassion for yourself and the work you’re doing.  Some warning signs that you need to take care of yourself were: you become restless, irritable, and discontent, you can no longer meet people where they are, you start forgetting things, you become physically sick and/or you take things personally that were meant as constructive criticism.  The remedy came in three ways: 1) Take quiet time for yourself: prayer, reflection, meditation.  2) Care for your physical needs: get enough sleep and exercise regularly. 3) Ask for what you want or need.
So, today, this is as much for me as anyone, but if I know anything about hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone Kansans, it’s that we easily forget to manage ourselves by taking care of ourselves.  So, today, I free you take care of yourself, so that you can engage in more effective acts of leadership, helping our community make progress on the issues we care about deeply.

With you in this… 

Weekend Recap – Shining as Lights

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My 9/15/13AM sermon, Shining as Lights, from Philippians 2:1-30 is now online.  This sermon was part 2 in a 4 week launch of a new cross cultural missions direction at Crestview.  The missions committee (H2Go team) has a website for those interested: CBCH2Go.  In this sermon, I tried to help encourage engagement in the big work that God has called us to: advancing the Gospel.  The heartbeat of the CBCH2Go team is giving the congregation “handles” or opportunities they can grab a hold of and engage.  This sermon helped move people in that direction.  I’m blessed to get to play a part in this launch and hope the sermon helps you.

DC Email – War of the Heart

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Here’s the email I wrote to elders and deacons at Crestview today, 9/10/13:

As we continue to think about Tripp’s Dangerous Calling book, we were encouraged to read Chapter 7 and I was reminded of this section of Tripp’s talk in the last video:
“Ministry is always shaped by a war between the kingdom of self and the kingdom of God, which is fought on the field of your heart. The reason this war is so dangerous and deceptive is that you build both kingdoms in ministry by doing ministry! Perhaps some theological background would be helpful here. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Jesus came so that those who live would no longer “live for themselves.” Paul is arguing something significant here, something that every [leader] should remember. He is arguing that the DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin inserts me into the middle of my universe, the one place reserved for God and God alone. Sin reduces my field of concern down to my wants, my needs, and my feelings. Sin really does make it all about me.” 

Beware of the tendency to make ministry more about you than about God.  We will tend to drift into this naturally, I think.  But, fight this.  There’s a war going on for your heart.  Honor God by serving in a way that is distinctly about God’s kingdom, not yours.

LRC Email – Intentionality, Words and Self

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Here’s an email I wrote to Leadership Reno County alums today, 9/9/13:

I was thinking this morning about using words and the inherent power they have.  A popular workout regimen was claimed to have “terrorist” tendencies, people that disagree with us are labeled as “intolerant” and there’s a host of other uses of language that come out in print or from our mouths that may or may not be helpful.  There’s a tension here, isn’t there?  On the one hand, at times we’re compelled to raise the heat through our words.  On the other hand, we can manage ourselves to such a degree that we would never use our words to raise heat (although there’s quite a good bit of talking happening between our ears which may or may not raise the heat internally for us).  And, both of these tensions intersect in managing self.  So, for those who tend to be heat-raisers with words, is there a degree of intentionality in what you write or say?  Or do you tend to fly off the handle?  Maybe you need to manage self for more effective interventions.  And, if you tend to be one who talks more to yourself rather than others, maybe you need to manage self by intentionally intervening and asking that conflictual question or pushing back on that prevalent interpretation.

Today, let managing self be seen in the words you use and see if that doesn’t help us make progress toward the things we really care about…

Weekend Recap – 9/8/13

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My 9/8/13AM sermon, Purposeful, from Philippians 1 is now online.  In this sermon, I started introducing our congregation to the new missions direction of our church by orienting to the realities that are their’s in the Gospel.  I hope it encouraged them and hope it encourages you if you take time in it.

In the evening, we are meeting in Small Groups and studying David Brainerd’s Biography by John Piper.

Hope you have a great Sunday.