Your Journey Blog

Praying For a "Spirit of Generosity" to Move in Us and Through Our Churches

During the month of October we are going to be focusing on the theme of generosity.  In preparation I would like to share my thoughts on one of the nine prayers of missional leaders that will enlarge your heart for God's mission. "Father, pour out a generous spirit in my life and church."  You'll notice that the prayer was not, "Father let generosity be lavished on me and my church" but let me reflect a generous spirit.

One of the prevailing marks of every strong leader is that of a generous spirit. In Paul’s farewell message to the Elders in Ephesus he said these words, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35 NIV). Paul lived a generous life and appealed to others to be generous with the resources entrusted to them, both financial and personnel resources.  His appeal was based on the words of Jesus himself who was the supreme model of generosity.

Barnabas was another leader whose life was marked with a generous spirit. He was not only generous with his financial resources (Acts 4:36-37), but also with his investment in young leaders;  first Paul (Acts 9) and then with John Mark (Acts 13).

Three basic realities for seeing a generous spirit released though your church are:

1. Put God first by giving away a minimum 10% of your offerings.

As leaders we all teach church members the principles of tithing and first-fruits giving.  All too often, when the budget gets tight or challenging, leaders reduce their giving and we begin robbing God.  One pastor told me the following story.  The financial person in the church came to him and said, “If we pay our tithe this month we will not have enough money to cover the postage costs for our Easter mailing...which one do you want to pay?” The pastor did not hesitate, “Pay our tithe! I fear God more than I do the post office! We will just have to trust God to provide!”  That Friday he asked his assistant if she had checked their  P.O. Box for mail that week...she responded no. He asked her to check it to see if any checks had come it.  Well, guess want happened? You guessed it!  There was a check for $2500.00 (the postage for the mailing was $2,200.00!) Generous leaders are leaders of principle, faith and who understand that God must be placed first in the finances.

2. Expand your giving over time.

Excelling is a natural attribute of a leader.  They are always looking for ways to grow and strengthen themselves personally as well as professionally.  They seek ways to improve and move their organizations to the next level.  Paul wrote to the church in Corinth acknowledging their excellent growth in every level and appealing to them to excel in their giving.  “But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (II Corinthians 8:7 NIV).  As individuals and organizations we are called to excel in our giving; 10% is always just the starting place.  I remember a friend of my saying that his church was giving 30% of their offering away into missional endeavors and that his goal was to become a 50/50 church in that they would give 50% of their income into kingdom building ventures! On a personal level, Rick Warren just announced that he has become a "reverse tither" meaning that he is giving 90% of his income away and living on 10%.  God blesses generous hearts. God wants us to understand that we cannot out-give Him.  In my experience generous people are usually entrusted with more resources to give away. They understand the giving cycle always ends with giving. Our culture looks at the "giving to get" model but the biblical perspective is "giving, to get, to give more!" (II Corinthians 9:10) The biblical cycle always ends with giving.

3. Hold leaders and staff lightly.

Remember the church is to be in the sending business and you can’t send those you hold on to tightly.  In Acts 13:1-3, the leaders gave their two top leaders to God’s missional purposes in Barnabas and Saul, along with sending out an up and coming leader named John Mark.  I’ve worked with too many churches who grudgingly give up those leaders who sense God’s missional call to church planting.  These churches miss a huge opportunity to be a blessing to those being sent and to receive a blessing from God for their generosity.  I think that this was a big part of Paul’s message to the Ephesus elders, “Don’t hold on to me so tightly that you miss God’s blessing in my departure.  Remember what Jesus said, 'It is more blessed to give that to receive.'”  

As a leader would you dare to ask God for a generous spirit?  It is a prayer that will lead you on a soul stretching adventure.

Excerpt from Gary's book: NextSteps for Leading a Missional Church

Ten Principles for Launching a Major Growth Thrust - Part 3

Do you believe that God wants to reach your community through your church?  As we continue this series of posts on Launching a Major Growth Thrust Part 1, Part 2, every leader must address the faith question.  As we have seen already, the disciples received the great commission by faith, they stayed and waited in Jerusalem by faith, they prayed in faith, they selected leaders in faith and they cooperated with the Holy Spirit by faith.  Peter preached God's word by faith, asked for a commitment to Christ by faith and as we will see today, he called them into the church and onto mission by faith. Cooperating with God will be a faith stretching experience.  Many times I have been on my knees praying the disciples prayer, "Lord, increase our faith." (Luke 17:5) As you plan and prepare for your growth thrust this fall may you be built up in your holy faith! (Jude 20)

Here are the final two principles for Launching a Major Growth Thrust:

9.  Call them into the community of faith.  Acts 2:42-47

When Peter called the crowd in the temple area to “Repent and be baptized…” he was not just calling them from something (sin, corrupt generation) but also to something (to Jesus, a new community of faith and to a new mission).

Peter’s words give us a beautiful picture of the “church.”  The Greek word for church is ekklesia which in its base form means “to call out.”  Isn’t this what Peter was doing?  Calling them out to repent, changing their minds on who Jesus was and what He had done for them.   He called them out to be baptized, to be dipped under water before the crowd, as a symbol of personal identification with Jesus and His followers.   He called them out to be marked by forgiveness and to receive the promised Holy Spirit.  He called them out from a corrupt generation that offered nothing but hopelessness.  In response to his calling out they gathered together in complete devotion, filled with awe and wonder, sold out to the God that saved them and to each other.  They had a clear sense of mission which was seen in their ability to add people to their numbers daily.

As pastors and church planters we have this same wonderful privilege as Peter.   As we launch a major growth thrust in our communities we have an opportunity to call people out to something greater than themselves. The Church. The Body of Christ. The Bride of Christ. God’s agent of change and hope for our world today. 

How do you do that practically?  What are the pathways of discipleship and involvement in your church?  Would a new Christian know what the next step for them was in the life of the church?  Would a returning believer know where to go to re-energize their relationship with Christ?  Would a growing believer new in town know how to get connected with the leadership and onto a path of service?

Clear pathways of discipleship are critical for having a successful growth thrust. George Barna in his book, “Growing True Disciples” writes, “Offering programs is not the issue. We discovered that surprisingly few churches have a well-conceived model of discipleship that they implement. The result is that churches feel they have fulfilled their obligation if they provide a broad menu of courses, events, and other experiences, but such a well-intentioned but disjointed approach leaves people confused and imbalanced."  

Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger in their book, “Simple Church” articulate that in order for a church to have good pathways of discipleship and involvement there needs to be four elements: movement, alignment, focus and clarity.  As you consider what you are calling people to, the following questions will guide you in simplifying the process.

• Movement: How would you describe the “ministry or discipleship flow” that exists in your church right now?
• Alignment: What type of alignment exists between your ministries to achieve your vision?
• Focus: How do these ministry opportunities help achieve our missional outcome?
• Clarity: Do those who attend our public worship service understand our process and the next steps they need to take?

10.  Mobilize missionaries to serve the world not just members to serve in the church.  Acts 2:47

The new term of assimilation is mobilization.  In the book of Acts we see that Peter not only called the crowd into the life of the church but also called them to be engaged in the mission of Jesus.  This is how ”…the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

In 2007 I wrote a post on the differences of church-centric and mission-centric philosophies of ministries. For years the church has practiced a church-centric philosophy of ministry where the goal was to create healthy members for the betterment of the church.  But in recent years there has been a paradigm shift where churches are embracing the need to be mission-centric, in that the goal for the church is to create missionaries for the betterment of society and cultural transformation.  In the early 90's I fully embraced the purpose driven model, of which I am still an advocate, because it is built on a solid missional principle known as modular training.  But I offer a small modification to Rick Warren's concentric circles model:

• Community: Those living around your church who never, or occasionally, attend.
• Crowd: Those who attend your church regularly but are not members.
• Congregation: Those who are committed to both Christ and membership in your church family.
• Committed: Those members who are serious about growing to spiritual maturity.
• Core: Those members who actively serve in ministry and mission in your church.
• Commissioned: Those members who are sent out of the church as local missionaries, church planters, pastors as change agents in our cultural.

I fully believe that Rick Warren would embrace this modification because he wrote in the Purpose Driven Church, "A church's health is measured by its sending capacity not its seating capacity.  Churches are in the sending business. One of the questions we must ask in evaluating a church's health is, ‘How many people are being mobilized for the Great Commission?’"

Reggie McNeal reinforces this paradigm shift in his book, The Present Future  when he writes, “The first Reformation was about freeing the church.  The new Reformation is about freeing God’s people from the church (the institution).  The original Reformation decentralized the church.  The new Reformation decentralizes ministry.”  The only way we can decentralize ministry is by seeing each member as a missionary to be sent by the church into their personal mission field. 

Summary

Ten Principles for Launching a Major Growth Thrust

1. Our motives must be great commission driven.  Acts 1:4-8
2. Spiritual dependence is vital.  Acts 1:12-14
3. Select and build into leaders in preparation for outreach.  Acts 1:15-26
4. Pick a good day and time of year for launching the growth thrust.  Act 2:1
5. Launch out in the Spirit's power.  Acts 2:1-4
6. Create interest throughout your webs of relationships and throughout the community. Acts 2:5-13
7. Have bold relevant preaching of God's word.  Acts 2:14-36
8. Ask for a commitment to Christ.  Acts 2:37-41
9. Call them into the community of faith.  Acts 2:42-47
10. Mobilize missionaries to serve the world not just members to serve in the church.  Acts 2:47

The big principle I take away from Acts 1-2 is this, “Missionally focused leadership will not only lead the church towards missional evangelism but will also engage the church in missional edification; both are key to seeing the church continually engage in God’s redemptive purposes.”

Spiritual Warfare: False Signs and Wonders

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

10. False Signs and Wonders

"Loving and clinging to the truth are the keys to overcoming counterfeit activity of the enemy." – Gary Rohrmayer

 

Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 - The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

 

Problem: “Satan can do signs and wonders through a leader so that the leader looks as if he/she is empowered of God (apostolic workers also do signs and wonders).” J. Robert Clinton

 

Antidote: “Get discernment on apparent good teaching, apparent dynamic leaders. This may involve having to depend on people with revelatory gifts (discerning of spirits; word of knowledge; word of prophecy; word of wisdom, etc).” J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

• Why were the Bereans of more noble character than the Thessalonians? See Acts 17:10-12
• What are the implications of Acts 17:10-12 on Paul’s words to the Thessalonians in our text today?
• Why do church leaders feel uncomfortable in examining the teaching of teachers in the local church?
• What is one of the qualifications and duties of elders and deacons in a local church? See Titus 1:9; I Timothy 3:9
• How do the gifts of discernment, knowledge, prophecy and wisdom function in your local church? See I Corinthians 12:7-11

Prayer Response: Father of Light protect our church, the Bride of Christ, from the counterfeit actions of the enemy. May we be found as lovers of the truth, standing strong in the Lord with a discerning heart and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.  May the noble character of the Bereans be our example; they  received the gospel with eagerness and yet thoroughly examined the Scriptures to verify the message of the apostles. May you grant the church with the spiritual gift of discernment to verify the spiritual work in our midst. May we see ‘sound doctrine’ promoted and embraced throughout the church, may we learn to ‘think correctly’ and ‘practice the truth appropriately’ for Your glory and honor.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Next Week: Severed Conscience

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Ten Principles for Launching a Major Growth Thrust - Part 2

My hope is that every church would experience a season of dramatic growth like the church in Acts 2 did, but the reality is that most are unwilling to pay the price for that type of growth and impact. A major growth campaign in your church will cost you something.  It will cost you your comfort, it will cost you time, it will cost you money, it will cost you your sleep and it will even cost you some relationships because everyone is not going to embrace this journey with you.  The following are three more principles we are gleaning from Acts 1-2 for launching a major growth thrust. (Check out the previous post)

6. Create interest throughout your webs of relationships and throughout the community. Acts 2:5-13

Three thousand people were added to the church in a single day but the big question is how many people were impacted by the miracle of the disciples speaking in different languages?  God in a miraculous way created a buzz throughout the community through this miracle both relationally and attractionally.  There was so much buzz that it caused a reaction in people.  The crowd asked three questions and made one accusation.

• "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?"
• "Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?"
• "What does this mean?"
•  Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had to much wine"

Here is a big principle that most churches don't understand.  If you are going to have a major growth thrust you must, in a big way, gain the attention of your community in such a way that it causes people to react.  They will react out of curiousness, out of sincerity or even out of anger or jest. 

When was the last time your church caused a community reaction that led to redemptive activity?  Many churches are great at creating buzz in the Christian community but what about the community of the unchurched or dechurched?  Its like the church that only promotes their events through Christian media.  Who are they trying to reach? Learning how to grab the attention of your community at large is central to launching a major growth thrust.

Here are a couple of posts on sowing seeds of awareness through relationships and throughout the community.

• Sowing Seeds Through Your Webs of Relationships
• Sowing Seeds of Love in Your Community
• Sowing Seeds Through Servant Evangelism #1, #2, #3
• Sowing Seeds Through Marketing #1, #2, #3

7. Have bold relevant preaching of God's word.  Acts 2:14-36

I remember a well-known pastor say that 85% of the people stay in a church because they made some type of connection with the person bringing the message that day.  We can have all the latest technology, the greatest music, the warmest people, the best children’s ministry but if people don’t connect with the message and the messenger they will move on.  Many a pastor has spent hours on preparing the service and outreach strategy but only minutes on preparing their message. This is to their detriment and is dishonoring to God.

Two things we learn for Peter's sermon 1) He responded to the questions and reaction of the crowd.  The bulk of the sermons preached in the book of Acts are responses to people's questions. HT If we are going to do a effective job of touching the hearts of people outside the church we must address the questions they are asking. We must understand their "heart language."  We must understand what moves them.  Do you know the primary heart language of your community?  2) He boldly proclaimed the word of God in providing an answer to their questions. Paul writes to Timothy, “Preach the word.” (II Timothy 4:2 NIV)  The foundation of any church is to be based on strong biblical preaching, not motivational speaking; an undying commitment of bringing the unshakable Word of God to a world that is falling apart at its core must be the underlying conviction for every pastor.

8.  Ask for a commitment to Christ.  Acts 2:37-41

The key to getting commitment is clarity!  Peter's conclusion to his message was crystal clear, "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."  (vs 36)  His call to action was specific and realistic, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."  (vs 38)  His appeal was filled with passion and urgency, "With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.'"  (vs 40)

Remember that this major growth thrust, at its core, is evangelistic in nature.  Our preaching must be evangelistically focused.  David Murray describes evangelistic preaching as plain, simple and clear. He writes, "Evangelistic preaching will be plain. If we love sinners and we are anxious for them to be saved, we will be clear and plain in our structure, content, and choice of words. If we can use a smaller word, we use it. If we can shorten our sentences, we do so. If we can find an illustration, we tell it. Everything is aimed at simplicity and clarity, so that, as it was said of Martin Luther, it may be said of us, 'It’s impossible to misunderstand him.'" HT

At some point during this major growth thrust we must passionately lift up the person and work of Jesus Christ.  We must challenge our audience with the implications of His claims as Lord and Savior.  We must make it clear on how one becomes a true follower of Jesus.  Check out the David Murray post on the four kinds of evangelistic sermons.

Next week we will finish this series with the final two principles in launching a major growth thrust from Acts 1-2.