Insight for the Journey

Does the phrase: “My life is my ministry” confuse you?

It is simply another way of saying that I am representing Jesus well everywhere I go. To do that well requires potency and proximity. Potency has to do with my spiritual strength, level of readiness and equipping. Proximity has to do with my closeness to unbelievers.

The formula goes like this: The greater my potency the greater my proximity can afford to be. But low potency makes high proximity potentially dangerous.

For instance, I am regularly asked questions similar to this: “Pastor Rex, as a Christian, should I still attend the block-parties with the neighbors on my street or the office parties with my co-workers?” When people ask that, they sound as though there is one answer that is appropriate for everyone.
There is not.

My answer is usually, “How high is your spiritual potency?” If they are well-grounded in scripture, walking victoriously with Christ, stable in their personal life, and generally mature, I’d say they need to be at those parties. That is the kind of spiritually potent Christian who is likely to make a positive difference. When neighbors or co-workers ask you to give a reason for the hope you have in Christ, you are likely to do it with clarity and confidence. The example you live out before them is also likely to be winsome and attractive. Why? Because you have high potency.

If, however, your spiritual potency is low, I’d caution you against too much fraternizing with people who may be cynical about Christianity. Your life may blatantly contradict much of what you are saying you believe and stand for. No one is ever a perfect representative for Jesus. But some are so bad it actually hurts the cause of Christ.

The ultimate goal of Grace Fellowship Church is to get Christians with high potency in situations of high proximity. That’s what it means to get the salt out of the salt-shaker.

The main reason we are on the planet is to represent Jesus Christ well.

We are His advertisements.

We are His hands and feet.

We are His mouthpieces.

We are His PR Agents.

We are His ambassadors.

We are His…

We are His…

The list could go on and on. The bottom line, however, is that we are His Church. And according to the Bible (Eph. 3:20-21) God wants the world to see His glory through us, His Church. When we represent Jesus well God’s glory comes through clearly. When we don’t represent Him well His glory is obscured.

For God’s glory (glory often refers to the fullness of God’s character, who He really is) to best be seen we must allow our lives, at all times and at all places to represent Him.

We don’t have a ministry.

Our life is our ministry.

This Saturday, March 21 is Grace Fellowship’s 16th Birthday. A few weeks ago I began talking about things I wish I’d known sixteen years ago before planting a church. The first one I named was the value of in-depth training. In this post I want to highlight another point that would have made a real difference.

I wish I’d known about “mission drift.”

I don’t know who first coined the phrase. But mission drift, for me, is that powerful tendency for churches to lose focus, to get priorities out of line, and to start doing things that contribute little, if anything, to the key mission. That is mission drift. You know it’s happened when people are very busy with “church activities” but with increasingly fewer Kingdom results.

How does it happen? I think it happens when we fail to run everything, and I mean everything, through the grueling filter that asks mission and purpose questions. “Will this cool new idea, whatever its upsides, detract from our main purpose and our reason for existing? At the end of the day, will it really help us make more and better disciples, or will it simply serve to keep saints busy with activity that sounds good but is not delivering the goods?”

Why didn’t someone beat me over the head and solemnly swear to me how important this is?

I’ve let some mission drift occur.

Don’t get me wrong. God’s blessing on Grace Fellowship is obvious and significant. Hundreds of lives have been positively and eternally changed. I could go on for literally hours explaining God’s impact through this congregation. Praise God.

But still, it has happened. We don’t have the sharp, 20-20 vision of the early days.

What should we do? Let’s get it back! As for me, I’m asking the hard questions again; filtering everything through that Spartan filter of mission and purpose. As we keep doing this, the most important things will become clearer and clearer.

Grace Fellowship is approaching its sixteenth birthday in March. We launched on March 21, 1993. Wow! That seems like an eternity ago!

As we approach another “birthday” I’ve had thoughts lately that I’ve seldom had before. In fact, I don’t remember ever having them. I’ve had the thought, “I’m sort of like a veteran now.” No, I didn’t get that thought because of a receding hairline or pain in my joints some mornings. No, I think it’s because I’ve been at this ministry thing a long time now.

That “veteran” feeling is bolstered by the fact that an increasing number of pastors and other leaders ask for input, advice, and opinions about various aspects of the ministry. On one level that is gratifying, but it is always sobering.

One of the frequently asked questions is, “What do you wish you’d known when you were starting Grace Fellowship?”

So, for the next few blogs I want to reflect on some things I wish I’d known sixteen years ago before planting a church.

I wish I’d known the value of in-depth training.

When Debbie and I started Grace Fellowship, I had been influenced by the school of thought that says, “Because most of us are educated far beyond our obedience, we should not be concerned about enhancing a person’s biblical knowledge or philosophical understanding. When it comes to discipleship training, just keep everything real basic.”

It is certainly true that most of us are educated far beyond our obedience. But one of the reasons some people struggle with consistent obedience is that, deep down, they don’t feel confident of what they say they believe and why it is relevant. Their enthusiasm to obey Christ in every aspect of life would be bolstered if they had better discipleship training. If they really felt they could defend the faith theologically, philosophically, and practically many would be far more courageous and obedient servants of Christ.

From my current perspective, I’d say in-depth training is one of the most valuable, long-term things the local church can provide. The crisis in American Christianity is the overall lack of quality in “the product.” The product I speak of, of course, is the Christians themselves. We are the product. The problem with Christianity is us.

Unless the overall depth of character and quality of spiritual life of the “typical” Christ-follower is enhanced, I feel the cause of Christ will be greatly impeded. Our message will always be heard in context with our character.

That’s one thing I wish I’d known. It would have caused me to devote more effort on in-depth character development and training in the discipleship process.

The series is off and running! Last weekend we talked about “life working better plugged in”. It was the first in an 8-part series on the Holy Spirit.

As anticipated, the questions are coming fast and furious. I was inundated with questions after each service. This subject makes a lot of people nervous. Many, many people have “horror stories” to share about previous experiences where they were taught certain things about the Spirit they subsequently discovered are not true. Some told of outright “religious abuse”, that is, cult-like psychological control where people claimed to be speaking for the Spirit, but were really using it to intimidate the person and control the agenda. One young lady came in tears and was very fearful about this topic because it evoked many fears related to her childhood church where talks about the Holy Spirit were a weekly occurrence. 

Few subjects I’ve ever tackled evoke as much intrigue and as many questions as the Holy Spirit.

I have many goals, aims, and hopes that I pray God will accomplish during these weeks. But my main desire is that each of us would be able to unleash The Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.

This series is about the Holy Spirit and you. I want to change, and I want you to change.

How would you currently characterize your relationship with God, the Holy Spirit? If He is not a Counselor who daily motivates, energizes and illuminates you, my prayer is that you will discover the life-changing refreshment of seeking to live moment-by-moment in step with the Spirit.

Let’s do this journey together.

For many years, since I was a teenager, the seven days between Christmas and the start of January has been a special week for me. It usually meant a break from life’s grinding routine (whether school or job), seeing old friends, ball games on TV, family togetherness, great food, and more. Basically, I was still basking in the afterglow of Christmas and bolstered by the promise of a new year.

One thing that makes this week special is the tradition I developed over thirty years ago. Every year at this time I do some life inventory. Among the questions I ask are: Where am I on the journey with God? What regrets do I have from this year just ending? What goals for the new? Highlights for the year? Moments when I felt closest to God? Moments of greatest struggle? How many goals were accomplished? Wisest investment of time? Things I hope never to do again? Lessons learned? How healthy are my relationships? What micro changes does God want to make in me? What macro changes? What is God teaching me as this year comes to an end? What great (or small) advances have occurred? Two or three top books read? What issue(s) need resolution? What is the overall state of my soul as I prepare to enter a new year?

As the great philosopher said: The unexamined life is not worth living.

I’m into examination.

I realize that to some, such introspection is as exciting as oral surgery. For me, however, it brings a tremendous sense of satisfaction and peace. I am on pilgrimage with God. Finishing well is a major goal. Honest, healthy self-critic is vital.

So…amidst all the wishes of a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year I wish you a well examined life. To me, anything else seems hardly worth living.

God swings big doors on little hinges. That has become one of my favorite statements. I’ve seen it happen over and over throughout my own life.

Early in 1989 I was scheduled to teach a four-week class in Auburn, New York. But on a last-minute urge I rescheduled myself to teach in Fulton, New York instead. It was there that I met Debbie Richardson, who later became Debbie Keener. What if I’d taught in Auburn instead? Deb and I would probably never have met.

Back in 1989, I came to Albany, New York for the first time. I was an employee of the Billy Graham Association, and was here for a preliminary meeting for an upcoming Crusade which was going to be held at Knickerbocker Arena (now the Times Union Center). I still remember driving here on I-90 East completely oblivious to the fact that God would call me to spend the best and the rest of my life in the Capital Region. Little did I know that God would lead Debbie and me to start Grace Fellowship Church. But God was leading providentially through the whole process.

Do you realize there are events unfolding right now involving people you’ve never met, places you’ve never been, and circumstances over which you do not have control, that are going to significantly impact your life and opportunities in the future? Years later, you may look back and say, “What if I hadn’t been home to answer the phone? What if I hadn’t met that person on the vacation? What if I hadn’t responded to that letter?”

For the true Christ-follower, these are not coincidences. They are God-incidences. He is directing and guiding circumstances to unfold and accomplish His will. God stands in the shadows keeping watch over His own.

A. B. Simpson said, “God is preparing His heroes and when the opportunity comes, He can fit them into their places in a moment, and the world will wonder where they came from.”

God has a purpose for your future that you may not sense at all right now. Behind the scenes He’s arranging the furniture. He’s creating the vacancy. He’s preparing your heart for you to step in. And you can be propelled into prominence in a moment. It’s important that you be alert. It’s vital that you continue to walk in His will and be faithful.

But most Christians have trouble doing that when they are walking in the shadows. They have trouble trusting that God will make all things beautiful in His time. That’s why Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” {KJV}

As you prepare to face 2009, don’t fret over what’s happening. Be faithful. Trust in God and He will direct you where He wants you to be in His time.

God swings big doors on little hinges.

Years ago I heard a story that impressed me so deeply at the time, I’ve never forgotten it. It goes something like this:

Lt. John Blanchard was a young soldier stationed at an Army Base in Florida during the first part of WWII.  One day he was reading through a book he had borrowed from the Base Library.  He was impressed with some of the notes written in the margin.  They were written in feminine handwriting and they were so tender and so thought provoking that he looked back at the fly-leaf to see who had been the previous owner of the book.  He found it was a woman named Hollis Maynell. 

Blanchard did some research and found her address in New York.  He wrote her a letter telling her how much he appreciated her insights in the book.  The next day he was shipped overseas but for the next thirteen months, John Blanchard and Hollis Maynell corresponded back and forth.  They developed a tremendous relationship through their correspondence and found they had much in common and they thought very much alike. 

They began to realize they were falling in love with each other though they had never met.  Blanchard asked Hollis Maynell if she would send a picture but she refused.  She wrote, “if you really care about me, it wouldn’t matter what I look like because it’s character and what’s inside that really counts.”

After thirteen months the day finally came when he was to meet her.  They made arrangements to meet at Grand Central Station in New York City at 7:00 p.m. on a particular night.  She said, “you’ll be able to identify me by the red rose I’ll be wearing in my lapel.” 

Lt. Blanchard waited with anticipation.  Finally, a group of people got off a train and were coming toward him.  Out in front was a slender, blond woman with great poise and beauty.  She came in a pale green dress that looked like the freshness of Spring and his heart leaped out of his chest as he started toward her.

Then he saw that she did not have a red rose in her lapel even though she was looking directly at him.  As she went by with a provocative smile she said, “going my way, soldier?” 

Suddenly, he felt a strong desire to follow her but then right behind her he saw Hollis Maynell.  She was over forty years of age, had graying hair and was vastly overweight but she was wearing a rose in the lapel of her wrinkled coat.  She had gray eyes and a kindly expression but he was so disappointed. 

Everything within him wanted to chase after the beautiful blond who was now disappearing.  But then he remembered the relationship he developed through those letters and even though this probably wouldn’t develop into marriage, he realized maybe it would develop into something very meaningful, a friendship, a companionship perhaps that he had not known before. 

So, without hesitation, he handed her the book which identified him to her and reached for her bag and said, “Are you ready to go to dinner?” 

“Young man, I don’t know what this is all about,” she said, “but that blond woman begged me to put on this red rose and she said if you asked me out to eat with you I should tell you that you were suppose to meet her in the restaurant across the street.  She said it was some kind of test.”

Lt. John Blanchard passed the test.  Would we?

I have a growing concern about how we view salvation in the evangelical church. Many people see it as simply a transaction that is slick, quick; no fuss, no muss. I pray a little formulaic prayer, get my spiritual barcode, and never think much about it any more since I know that now I will slide right through God’s “scanner” on judgment day.

Is this really how God intends us to view salvation? Hardly.

Biblically speaking, salvation is spoken of in three phases: past, present and future.

Speaking in the past tense it is appropriate to say “I was saved” meaning that God saved me from the penalty that my sins deserved.

Speaking in the present tense it is appropriate to say “I am being saved” meaning that God is increasingly saving me from the power of sin in my daily life.

Speaking in the future tense it is appropriate to say “I will be saved” meaning that God will one day save me from the very presence of sin in heaven.

Salvation past is justification.

Salvation present is sanctification.

Salvation future is glorification.

Come with me now in your imagination.  We are going to go way back to 1850.  The place is Colchester, England.  It’s a relatively small community, maybe 50 or 60 miles northeast of London.  It was the second Sunday in January.  There was a terrible snowstorm.  Now, it doesn’t snow much in Britain, but there was a snowstorm that day!  It was almost a proverbial whiteout.  Trudging along the street that Sunday morning was a young 15 year old lad.  Had you been there, you would say, “what in the world is that teenager doing out on a crazy day like this?” You would never believe it.  He was going to church.

You see, at the age of 6, because he was an incredibly precocious child, he had gone through that great book by John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress and there was a burden on his shoulders that he just could not bear any longer.  He determined, “I’m going to go to every church here in Colchester and maybe some preacher or some person will tell me how this terrible burden can roll off into that grave that I read about in Bunyan’s great classic.”

Trudging along, he passed a little dead end street called Artillery Street and then he remembered, “you know, my mother told me that there is a little, Primitive Methodist church down this street.  And man, it’s a long way where I plan to go and it’s such a miserable day, I’ll just turn in down there.”

Now, in that little church building you could drop about 5 or 6 of them here in our sanctuary at Grace.  He became the 15^th worshipper that day.  He sat about two thirds of the way back on the preacher’s right.  Well, it was such a miserable day that even the pastor didn’t show up that day.J  And an old, kind of lanky, rather illiterate layman got into the pulpit and began to preach.  I’ve got to tell you friends, he didn’t know how to preach a lick.  All he knew to do was to quote his text, make a few comments, quote the text again, a few more comments, quote the text again and around and around he went.  His text was that beautiful passage from the Old Testament, “look unto me all the ends of the earth and be ye saved.”  And he droned on, “look unto me all the ends of the earth and be ye saved.  Now, ye don’t have to have a thousand pounds in the bank to look.  Why, you can be a pauper and look.  Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved.  And ye don’t have to have a college degree and a great education to look.  Why, you can be stupid and look.  Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved.”  And he just churned over in that fashion for about ten or fifteen minutes until suddenly, he spotted that 15 year old kid back there.  Now, he did what a preacher really ought not to do.  He stopped and he sort of stepped aside from the pulpit, pointed his finger right at the young man and said, “Young man!  You look terribly miserable!”  That young man later said, “Oh I was so miserable.”  The old preacher went on, “yes, and you’ll be miserable in life and you’ll be miserable in death unless you obey my text young man.  Look to Jesus!  Look!  Look!  Look!”

Later he said, “I did look… and clang, went every harp in heaven and I lived!”

Four years later, at the age of 19, that young man became the pastor of the church that met in the beautiful big structure in the south of London called The New Park Street Baptist Church.  But guess how many people heard him on that day?  The church was in bad times and only 80 people showed up.  Well, he was only 19 years old. But 37 years later, that church became the largest evangelical church in the world.  Charles Haddon Spurgeon stands today as probably the greatest English speaking preacher who ever lived. 

How do you account for a pastorate like that?  Listen to Spurgeon’s words.  “I take my text and I make a bee line to the cross.”

He kept the focus on the gospel.