The Cup Has To Be Full To Overflow

Charles Spurgeon to his ministerial students:

You will not be able to extemporize good thinking unless you have been in the habit of thinking and feeding your mind with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at every available moment. Store your minds very richly, and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having arranged your good things upon the shelves of your mind, you will be able to hand them down at any time without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, folding, and preparing… Take it as a rule without exception, that to be able to overflow spontaneously you must be full.

Read the rest.  

10 Characteristics Shared By Great Leaders

David Murray summarizes some interesting findings about leadership from the recent book, View From The Top:

Although not an overtly Christian book, Lindsay regularly returns to the way the research can be read and utilized to encourage Christian leaders. 

I personally found many applications that could be made in ministry, especially in the areas of mentoring, EQ (relational intelligence), and servant leadership. 

But now to the 10 characteristics or features that most of these leaders had in common. 

1. A mentor Having a mentor early in a career is by far the most important contributor to a person’s success. It matters far more than a privileged upbringing, the college attended, extraordinary early life experiences, or what they did did in their teenage years. 

2. Two loving parentsThe majority of leaders interviewed came from households with two loving parents with the critical factor being the amount of time they spent with their parents. 

3. College Virtually everyone in the study graduated from some college. Only 3% of the leaders did not graduate from college, and among this small group, most attended for some amount of time. Many of the leaders who grew up in poverty had used education to neutralize their disadvantage. Two-thirds of the leaders attended state colleges/universities (i.e. non-Ivy-League). 

4. Sports A surprisingly large proportion of leaders were varsity athletes – 41% in high school and 23 % in college. 

5. Global awareness Most leaders had a wide worldview, often achieved through learning a second language or international travel. 65% traveled abroad for the first time between the ages of 16 and 30. 

6. Servant spirit The most successful leaders did not use their leadership primarily for personal benefit or advancement but for a greater cause. 

"Those who use their authority to control others or simply for their own gain are not leaders at all, but only power-wielders. 

Transformative power (at an institution, in a personal relationship, or in our daily work) almost always comes from great sacrifices. And moral authority—which is the leader’s greatest currency for influence—develops not through usurping power, as some might contend, but through self-giving sacrifice."

7. Generalist While increasing mastery of their specific field of expertise, the best leaders maintained a generalist orientation. They are “dabblers of sorts, conversant in other kinds of business, knowledgeable about current affairs, and able to connect across divides.” 

8. Exposure and Experience Leadership cannot be taught but it can be caught. The key to developing leaders is to expose students to leadership and to experience it. There is no substitute for trying to do it, and the earlier people try, the more likely they’ll get good at it. 

9. EQ (Emotional Intelligence) In leadership, IQ takes second position to emotional or relational intelligence.
Leading others is significantly easier when followers enjoy being around the leader, and interpersonally gifted people are at a significant advantage in power… The higher the level of the job, the less important technical skills and cognitive abilities were and the more important competence in emotional intelligence became.

10. Positive attitudeThey are positive about their work, exuding energy and enthusiasm. They are positive about people, investing in them and encouraging them, and they are positive about the future, tending not to look backwards but forwards. 

Get the book here.  

There is No Recipe For Church Growth

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.  And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.  Acts 9:31 

Ray Ortlund:

I’m not against strategic plans.  I’m for them.  They have their place, as a matter of wise stewardship.  But they cannot generate the astonishing outcomes described in the book of Acts. 

I remember hearing Michael Green at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974.  He asked us, Why don’t we see anywhere in the book of Acts a man-made strategic plan for evangelizing the world?  His answer: They didn’t have one. 

What then did they have?  Two things, for starters: the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 

In the fear of the Lord, they were teachable, they were humble, they were listening to the gospel, they were open and grateful and easily bendable.  They did not have a spirit of self-assurance.  They were eager to learn and grow and change in any way the Lord wanted them to. 

In the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were gladdened, they felt forgiven, they were reconciled to God and reconciling with one another.  They saw their sins and failures, but they also saw the far greater reality of Jesus crucified for them.  To put it in a secular way, they couldn’t believe their luck. 

Openness in a know-it-all world, comfort in an angry world – that ancient world simply could not resist these heaven-sent powers.  So the church didn’t just grow, it multiplied.
Those early churches had no master plan for their future.  But they were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and it worked. 

Church growth takes planning.  Let’s do it.  But church multiplication takes miracle.  Let’s be open to what only God can do.

Books by Ray Ortlund:

• Proverbs:  Wisdom That Works
• Isaiah:  God Saves Sinners
• A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans
• God's Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery
• When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today

Twelve Principles For Racial Integration

Why Playing it Safe as a Pastor Is the Riskiest Move You’ll Make

Eric McKiddie:

The call to ministry is a call to confrontation and controversy. It’s impossible to read the Bible and come to another conclusion. Moses, Jeremiah, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John each faced their share of conflict from within the community of God’s people, and from without. From above, they cheer us on in our own races, and we must press on for the joy of whatever cross we have been called to carry, following in our Savior’s track. 

With all the opposition we face in ministry, it’s tempting to play it safe. Evasive maneuvers often seem like the best course of action. Mitigate the risk, and live to minister another day. 

The irony is that while avoiding church conflict buys you time now, long-term—as I hope to show you—it guarantees failure. And anything that guarantees failure is the opposite of safe. It’s the ultimate risk, because you’re betting you will be the one-in-a-million pastor whose church problems go away all by themselves. 

If playing it safe isn’t safe in church anymore, then what is? Risk is. In ministry, risky is the new safe.

Read the rest.  

How To Avoid Burnout

Great wisdom here from Brian Howard.  I don't know many guys who know how to rest well.  We need to work really hard and rest really hard.  Laziness should never be part of the discussion.  This article contributes greatly to the resting part.

Brian writes:

These kinds of collapses are common in leaders:

• Physical Collapses - Sickness, Exhaustion, Insomnia, or Lack of energy.
• Spiritual Collapses - Spiritual discouragement, Lack of spiritual interest, Moral failure.
• Emotional Collapses - Anxiety, Depression.

Burnout might seem to come out of nowhere, but it really doesn’t. Burnout is often the by-product of poor choices on the part of a leader. There are patterns that lead to Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Collapses. These patterns involve not paying attention to what your body and soul really need. 

One of the most important strategies in avoiding burnout is to get rest. Without rest, burnout is inevitable. Without rest, collapse is certain.

Consider the following 4 strategies for rest that will help you to fight against Burnout.

Read the rest.  

Some Fear is Extremely Healthy, Some is Not

Radical.net:

Bonhoeffer points out that a preacher of the gospel will either be motivated or hindered by fear. The question we must ask is what kind of fear characterizes our everyday lives? Bonhoeffer reflecting on Matthew 10:26-28 writes,

They must not fear men. Men can do them no harm, for the power of men ceases with the death of the body. But they must overcome the fear of death with the fear of God. The danger lies not in the judgement of men, but in the judgement of God, not in the death of the body but in the eternal destruction of body and soul. Those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God, and those who have fear of God have ceased to be afraid of men. All preachers of the gospel will do well to recollect this saying daily.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 218

A Church Culture That Embodies The Implications of the Gospel is Hard to Find

Tony Reinke:

Wise pastor Ray Ortlund addresses this problem throughout his forthcoming book, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Crossway; April 30, 2014). He writes this on pages 82–83: 

A gospel culture is harder to lay hold of than gospel doctrine. It requires more relational wisdom and finesse. It involves stepping into a kind of community unlike anything we’ve experienced, where we happily live together on a love we can’t create. A gospel culture requires us not to bank on our own importance or virtues, but to forsake self-assurance and exult together in Christ alone. 

This mental adjustment is not easy, but living in this kind of community is wonderful. We find ourselves saying with Paul, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things” — all the trophies of our self-importance, all the wounds of our self-pity, every self-invented thing that we lug around as a way of getting attention — “and count them as dung in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:8–9). 

Paul did not regard the loss of his inflated self as sacrificial. Who admires his own dung? It is a relief to be rid of our distasteful egos! And when a whole church together luxuriates in Christ alone, that church embodies a gospel culture. It becomes a surprising new kind of community where sinners and sufferers come alive because the Lord is there, giving himself freely to the desperate and undeserving. 

But how easy it is for a church to exist in order to puff itself up! How hard it is to forsake our own glory for a higher glory! 

The primary barrier to displaying the beauty of Jesus in our churches comes from the way we re-insert ourselves into that sacred center that belongs to him alone. Exalting ourselves always diminishes his visibility. That is why cultivating a gospel culture requires a profound, moment by moment “unselfing” by every one of us. It is personally costly, even painful.

"No matter how right the cause is, the anger of man only makes things worse."

Ray Ortlund:

Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Luke 2:10 

The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.  James 1:20 

A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  James 3:18 

Flee youthful passions.  2 Timothy 2:22 

The “youthful passions” in this context are not sexual.  Paul has in mind the passion for controversy, that feeling inside that relishes a fight and loves to be proved right and even prophetic.  Instead, “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, . . . patiently enduring evil” (2 Timothy 2:24).  But there is something about us, especially in our youthful immaturity, that lusts to raise protests and set the world right and make sure everyone cares as passionately as I do, because I’m on the side of the right, I’m the defender of the downtrodden, I get it more than others do, etc. 

In this world of blatant, horrible wrongs, it is not hard to get angry.  It is hard not to get angry.  But “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”  It just doesn’t.  Because it can’t.  No matter how right the cause is, the anger of man only makes things worse.  Sometimes the youthful don’t see how clever evil is, how easy it is for us to add to evil while intending good, how hard it is for us to be angry and not sin and complicate things further.  Exposing and confronting wrongs — real wrongs with real victims — is good, but not simple.  Not for us.  What is simple is creating more victims by rushing to judgment with guns ablazing and a golden heart pursuing a noble cause.

Read the rest.


Books by Ray Ortlund:

• Proverbs:  Wisdom That Works
• Isaiah:  God Saves Sinners
• A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans
• God's Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery
• When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today

"So let’s spend the bulk of our time explaining why our churches do what we do and where our churches are going. People will ask you about the what when they’re passionate about the why."

Important thoughts here from Trevin Wax.


 Books by Trevin Wax:

• Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope
• Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals
• Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All the Scripture

Idolatry in Corporate Worship

Bob Kauflin lists some possible options.

• Musical Excellence
• Musical Preference
• Preaching Skill
• Creativity
• Experiences
• Liturgy

Read the rest for his explanations.  Very helpful.  

Where Preferences Go To Die

Trillia Newbell:

I love my church. Without question it's a community unified in worshiping the Father, ministering to our surrounding environment, and encouraging one another to deepen our faith. In some ways, though, I'm nothing like this body of believers. I look different. I have a different cultural background. There certainly are churches I could run to where everyone looks like me. That might be easier. Or I could find a church that sings and worships the way I prefer to—or one with a preacher who addresses his congregation in my favorite style. 

But ultimately, I know all those preferential things are just that: preferences. If a church doesn't teach sound doctrine, after all, none of those preferences matters, since my soul could be at risk. I want to be in a place where I know I'll be fed the solid Word of God. This promise keeps me returning each Sunday morning; I need to be reminded that my greatest need is the good news, and that Jesus' redeeming love and resurrection is for today—for me today. 

Of course, I might be able to find a local church where everyone looks like me, where each aspect of the worship service is exactly how I'd desire, and where sound teaching is proclaimed. But is that really what I need most? How can we fulfill the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations if we all only seek churches that make us feel completely comfortable? Does God call us to have every felt need fulfilled?

Read the rest.  

What Not To Say to People Who Are Suffering

Recommended resources: 

• Suffering and the Sovereignty of God 
• When God Weeps 
• Suffering and the Goodness of God 
• How Long O Lord?

Three Myths About Small Groups

Philip Nation:

1. Small groups are just for fellowship. Small groups must be an environment where people grow closer but not just for the sake of friendship. As believers, our fellowship deepens when it is centered on the truth. Fellowship is one of the functions of the church but it is not the ultimate reason for small groups. Transformation is. Small groups draw people together with a higher purpose than just hanging out in the name of Jesus. We want to draw people around His Word so they can be fed and then transformed by it.

2. People in small groups should stay together indefinitely. In other words, breaking up a group is bad. The argument is made that “our healthy small group should not be separated.” But healthy group members will want to share with others what’s occurred in their lives. Conversely, it is also a myth that leaders just want to split every group for an underhanded reason; control, spitefulness, power-grabbing. In reality, we all know that healthy things grow and then multiply. As leaders, we also know that when things don’t grow, then they begin to drain energy from other parts of the body. Small groups are the same. Now, this is not to say that a small group that does not multiply is moldy, rotten, or cancerous. But it can be reveal an inward-facing spirit that runs counter to the mission of God. By engendering a spirit of multiplication, small groups will eventually reach more people for Christ and help more people mature in Christ.

3. Anyone can lead a small group. I want to tread carefully in this one because it is so close to true. If the statement read, “Anyone can learn to lead a small group,” then we’ve got it. But, as it stands, it is a bit naïve. It comes back to purpose. If you buy into myth #1, then anyone can lead a small group. Just be there to host everyone for a good time and a quasi-spiritual conversation. But, if you want to lead people toward transformation, then as leaders, we need to produce leaders. Rather than just throw people into the situation of handling whatever comes up on their own, teach/train/prepare them to be a great small group leader.

Read the rest.

Ditch the "Outreach Program"

Mack Stiles:

I was at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. The pastor, Juan, had asked me to do a seminar on developing a culture of evangelism. I talked and people asked questions. Then someone asked an elephant-in-the-room type of question: "Many Vietnamese are moving into the community around our church; what is the church going to do to reach out to them?" 

On the one hand, this was a wonderful question. A member recognized that she had the privilege and responsibility to reach out with the gospel, and she saw an opportunity to do it. On the other hand, the way the question was phrased seemed to imply that reaching out was the responsibility of the church, not the person who noticed the opportunity. 

But in a culture of evangelism the work is grassroots, not top-down. In a culture of evangelism, people understand that the main task of the church is to be the church; they understand that church, just being biblical church, is a witness in and of itself. The church supports and prays for outreach and evangelistic opportunities, but the church's role is not primarily to run evangelistic programs. The members are sent out from the church to do evangelism, the church does not do evangelism. 

I know this point may seem a bit picky, but it's really important. If you don't get this point right, you can subvert the church. We want church to be church, and members to be seeker friendly, not the other way around. 

Here's how I responded to the question at High Pointe: "It's really not the best thing for 'the church' to set up programs for Vietnamese outreach, but rather for you to think how you can reach out. So I would recommend you learn something about the Vietnamese culture, maybe by learning some greetings in Vietnamese, trying their food, and learning about the struggles they face living in the majority culture. Reach out and invite the friends you make to come with you to your homes, a small-group Bible study, or church. Then, perhaps, some of you should even think of moving into the Vietnamese community with the purpose of commending the gospel among that community." 

In return I saw from the faces in the room many blank stares and great relief on the face of Pastor Juan, who was grateful that I had not just singlehandedly set up an outreach program for him to run.

Read the rest.

Church = Not "What" but "Who"

Ever Wonder Why You Do What You Do in a Church Service?

This short post from Joe Thorn is very helpful for enriching your experience of Sunday worship.

This book from Joe Thorn is also very helpful.

Comforting Those Who Grieve Deeply

This is a powerful post from David Brooks on how to help people who have suffered greatly at the hands of sinful and broken world.

Please read and take to heart.   There are many gems in this article.  He writes:

I’d say that what these experiences call for is a sort of passive activism. We have a tendency, especially in an achievement-oriented culture, to want to solve problems and repair brokenness — to propose, plan, fix, interpret, explain and solve. But what seems to be needed here is the art of presence — to perform tasks without trying to control or alter the elemental situation. Allow nature to take its course. Grant the sufferers the dignity of their own process. Let them define meaning. Sit simply through moments of pain and uncomfortable darkness. Be practical, mundane, simple and direct.

Ashley and Mary went to Afghanistan a few months after Anna’s death. They remember that as a time out of time. They wept together with Afghan villagers and felt touched by grace. “That period changed me and opened my imagination,” Ashley recalls. “This thing called presence and love is more available than I had thought. It is more ready to be let loose than I ever imagined.”

Read the rest.

On Creatureliness and Limits

Zack Eswine:

To relinquish; to admit that some dreams are presumptuous; to acknowledge that some needs outlast me; to recognize my inability to fully supply what is lacking; to admit that I am limited; to say no to competition with brothers and sisters, and to give to others what I strongly desired for myself; and in it all to still take up the pen or give voice to preach Jesus— these indicate a surrender to noble limits.

Darryl Dash comments:

To summarize: you carry on you the bacteria that will take you apart when you die. Your dog may collapse and die today. And you must realize that many of your dreams and presumptuous, and the needs you’re trying to meet will outlast you. Happy New Year!
All of this could sound depressing, but look at it a different way. 

At the beginning of a new year, it is not my goal to be awesome. It shouldn't be yours either. We are here for a short while. We are not the Savior of anything. There are needs that we can’t meet, and there are things that we can’t control. We are limited at best, and dependent on God’s good grace every moment of every year. 

Depressing? Only to the extent that we've lost sight of reality. These truths are actually freeing when we understand them. It’s especially freeing because all of these realities are met in God, and more. God is awesome. He needs no resolutions. He is the Savior of everything. There are no needs that exceed his ability; he is eternal and he withholds nothing good from his children. Even death, which is not good, has been overcome. Everything sad will become untrue. And I am here, now, to enjoy what he's given me, with the hope that there is even more for me when I'm gone. 

If I have a New Year’s Resolution, it’s not to be awesome. It’s to rediscover my creatureliness and limits, and to rediscover God’s awesomeness and the richness of his grace. 

So far I’m off to a good start. Dragging a limp dog across the road sure seems to help. But if I finish the year more aware of who I am, and who God is, then it will have been a year spent in the best possible way.

Read the rest.

How to Guard Against Mission Drift in 2014

New pastors and/or church planters have extremely high aspirations for maintaining the purity of their church's mission. All those churches they used to work for got too messy, complicated, and unfocused. "This church won't be that way!" they vow to themselves and other leaders.

This is easier said than done. For most, after a few years of ministry, the challenges of mission drift come fast and furious.

Jesus is clear that our job as Christians is to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-10). Any church that doesn't have this aspiration as a focal point of their mission simply disobeys Jesus. But mission drift happens even in organizations with clear goals and objectives. Consider the following points to help guard against this tendency.

Be ruthlessly redundant. I recall a time when I was giving announcements during a church service concerning an upcoming marriage retreat. It was the third week in a row that I made this same announcement. After the service I saw my friend Laura and asked her if she and her husband would be attending the retreat. I know she was present in the service all three weeks I made this same announcement. Yet she said to me, "Marriage retreat? I didn't know there was a marriage retreat!"

We have to over-communicate everything for anything to be heard. So dare to be ruthlessly redundant. We have to learn to creatively over-saturate people with various modes of communication so they truly know our values and what we are collectively doing in light of those values. The bigger your organization the harder you must work to keep everyone on the same page. It helps to keep your mission statement simple. Because if no one can remember your mission, you won't have to worry about mission drift, because you won't have any mission.

Put the right people in the right place. Is everyone on your team fully convinced of the mission? If not, you're simply waiting for mission drift. I know that most leaders can't simply remove people from their team without causing huge conflict. Nuanced and difficult situations demand wisdom, patience, and prayer as you handle the complexity of hiring and firing. If you can't change the team, at least you must be careful about who gets added in the future.

Say no to some very good things. Make the mission of your church the filter by which you determine your yes and no. You will need to say no to some very good things that don't hit the bullseye of what God is calling your church to do.

Prepare for people to get mad, leave your church, or write you angry e-mails. This is the cost of a focused mission, but make no mistake—the payoff is beautiful. "Don't spread yourself too thin" is a cliché for a reason. Everyone has a tendency to do it. But if you are in the habit of saying no to some really good things it will most likely free up space for you to accomplish your church's calling.

Remember that you are not accountable to people who leave your church or write you angry e-mails. You will answer to God alone on the day that he has fixed. That judgment should provide the needed motivation to stay focused on your vision and mission.

Drip mission in every sermon. Larry Osborne writes in his book Sticky Teams about how he used to think that the most important aspect of casting vision was his yearly "vision sermon." Over time this sermon proved challenging because people didn't show up and faithful members tended to tune out since they heard the same message, with the same point, the year before. Now he practices a new approach to guard against mission drift:

Rather than blasting it all at once, I drop vision and core values into every sermon I preach. The result has been far greater congregational alignment. Dripping core values and vision into every sermon makes them unavoidable. Anyone who would have missed my vision series or who would have tuned out because they'd heard it before is now stuck. Each week I plant a seed or two and then move on, long before they have a chance to tune out or put up their guard. And if they missed this week's sermon, I'll get them next week.

Beware personal drift. Most organizations reflect the values and personality of their leader(s). How's that for a scary thought? Is there mission drift in your life? Can anyone around you diagnose this drift? If there is any disconnect between the stated vision and mission of the church and the life of the main leader(s), is it any wonder the church drifts from it?

Leading any organization is hard work. Staying aligned to our core calling to make disciples takes continued focus. This can be exhausting at times. Remember, in the end, Jesus will build his church. When we fear that everything is falling apart, that is the time to fall apart in prayer to the Father. As we faithfully pursue him, he will provide what we need to make sure that his church (not ours) will be focused on the right things.

**This article is cross-posted at The Gospel Coalition blog.**