iGod

10 Commandments for Church Planters and Pastors

A cracking top ten by Rich Nathan, Senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus, Ohio:

Pastors and church planters face enormous demands as we try to juggle family responsibilities, ministry, and often, school and part-time jobs. How can we live sustainable lives? We read of tragic pastoral failures on a weekly basis. Most pastors don’t last in the ministry for five years (perhaps the only way we pastors are like pro football players!). I’ve been a pastor for 25 years. Here are ten practices that have enabled me to pastor for the long-haul.

#1 Build a rock-solid daily personal devotional life with God. This simply means that you spend time every day soaking in God’s presence. You can handle an enormous amount of pressure, if your foundation is solid. Pressure is not the problem. Weak foundations are the problem. If your foundation is shaky, you won’t be able to handle very much at all. Maybe you’ve heard the expression: “You can’t fire a cannon out of a canoe.” If you are really going to accomplish something; if you are going to be able to achieve and do the great things that God has in store for you to achieve and do, you need a strong foundation. The cannon of your life needs to be bolted into granite. And the granite of your life is your rock-solid personal time with God every day.

#2 Choose a prayer partner, who is a peer and with whom you can be utterly transparent. What I have personally done in my own life for the past 20 years and what we require of every pastor on the staff of Vineyard Columbus is to have a prayer partner. At Vineyard Columbus we take one day every month outside of the office talking and praying with our prayer partner. We have a set of accountability questions that we ask each other such as:

a. Are you struggling with sexual purity in any way?
b. Have you seen any pornography, or anything on TV or in a movie that you shouldn’t have watched?
c. Have you done anything sexually you shouldn’t have done?
d. Are there any emotional attachments forming with someone who is not your spouse?
e. Have you handled your money and financial dealings with absolute integrity?
f. Have you experienced any breach in any relationship? Are you at peace with everyone?
g. Have you forgiven everyone for everything?
h. Are you experiencing intimacy with God on a regular basis?

#3 If you are married, schedule a weekly date night with your spouse. It is really important to stay current and to fuel romance and intimacy with your spouse. My wife and I have a regular date every Monday. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It could be coffee and a long walk through a park or a leisurely breakfast. But schedule a weekly date with your spouse outside your home.

#4 Get financial counseling from a professional financial counselor. Strongly consider (if you are married, with your spouse) going to a course like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Life is sustainable when your financial house is in order.

#5 Ruthlessly avoid all compromising situations with the opposite sex. There are few things that derail people from the plan of God more than sexual impurity. Jim Downing, who is one of the patriarchs of the Navigator organization, was asked some years ago: Why is it that so few people finish well? His response was profound. He said: “They learn the possibility of being fruitful without being pure. They begin to believe that purity doesn’t matter. Eventually, they become like trees rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm.” Live a sexually pure life.

#6 Take care of yourself physically. Join a gym. Get into the habit of walking with a friend. Watch your diet. It is not enough that you’re involved in ministry. It is not even enough that you grow in internal purity and intimacy with God. You are a whole person. Your life is integrated - body, soul and spirit. You cannot neglect your body or your emotional life and continue to do well. So, take care of yourself physically.

#7 Do not confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity. You are gifted. You may know a lot. You may help many people. None of those things are the same as spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a matter of your internal character, your honesty, your willingness to forgive everyone for everything, your joy during trials, your trust in the sovereignty of God, your endurance in hard times, and your unwillingness to compromise integrity. Don’t confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity.

#8 If you are married, take a great marriage inventory with your spouse and have a professional marriage counselor discuss the results with you. Here at Vineyard Columbus we offer a marriage inventory called LIMRI. We have regular marriage retreats. Do a marriage inventory especially at the front-end of pastoring, and every few years after that.

#9 Join a small group (and if married, join with your spouse). Christianity is a team sport. We cannot grow successfully apart from biblical community. Join a men’s group, a women’s group, a coed group, or a recovery group where you can know and be known.

#10 Cultivate the fear of the Lord and a fear of sin. We sinners always dreadfully under-estimate the cost of sin and dreadfully over-estimate our ability to manage the consequences after we choose to sin. Sin costs and once you choose to sin, the consequences are out of your hands. We read in Proverbs 14.26-27, He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children I will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.

Deuteronomy 10.12-13 says, And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Psalm 34.9 tells us this: Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalm 128:1 says: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.

 

ASD

"Don't panic!"

Recently the family and I decided to go to Bressingham Steam Museum. Well, actually when I say “we” it was my wife and I and the rest of the family had to comply. However the small voices of mutinous dissension were minimised at the back of the car, largely thanks to their iPods and Nintendo DS.

Bressingham is a great place to visit not least for Father’s Day. But beyond the working steam engines there is something you are not expecting – a Dad’s Army museum.

Having grown up on a staple diet of Dad’s Army comedy I can’t begin to tell you the fond memories it brought back. The kids, of course, had little respect for walking around the hallowed replica sets of Jones the Butcher or Captain Mainwaring’s office, but we forgive them.

Throughout the exhibition there was plenty of wartime memorabilia, but one of the posters particularly caught my eye. It read, “Morale: How to play your part.”

Today it is hard to, perhaps, understand the nation’s mood back then in such dark and desperate times. Anything we may feel today as a nation is pathetic in comparison such as, dare I say, Andy Murray losing Wimbledon. No, really.

Even though we are not at threat from the skies or the seas, there are other things that bring us together.

Take the steep rising costs of fuel, energy and food, along with cuts to local government services. They are undoubtedly starting to take their toll on most households. And life isn’t set to get any easier in the short term either. All these things can start to affect the nation’s mood, but as Corporal Jones would say. “Don’t panic!” It’s time to pull together.

When I looked at the wartime poster more closely I was surprised at what I read.

Firstly, it calls us to “Forget about yourself and help your neighbour.” Secondly, “Be a rumour stopper. Face the facts, don’t exaggerate. Faith, confidence and cheerfulness are as contagious as fear, depression and grumbling.”

But then the poster goes onto to say something really quite boldy, “The secret of steadiness and inner strength is to listen to God and do what he says. God speaks to the heart of every man and woman who is prepared to listen and obey. His voice can be heard wherever you are - in the home, in the factory, in the air-raid shelter, in the first-aid post.”

Now, be honest, you weren’t expecting that, were you?

But it is the last paragraph that really got me: “A British general who has fought two world wars said this: Telephone wires might be cut, wireless stations destroyed, but no bombardment can stop messages from God coming through if we are willing to receive them. To listen to God and obey him is the highest form of national service for everybody everywhere.”

Quite something, eh? When our spirits take a bashing God encourages us to turn to Him to be lifted up.  Morale in the dictionary is defined as being positive, confident, disciplined and willing to do tasks. Not to dissimilar to what it is to be a Christian.

St Paul the apostle writes to the first century Church that we are to be full of deep joy and hope. Also, we can receive a peace that ultimately only comes through his son Jesus Christ. It takes someone who is bigger than the situation to help us get perspective.

Whether our ongoing worries are about money, our job or whatever, we have a loving God that can help lift morale, so why don’t you try praying?

Meantime, if you do have any financial worries you might like to know that we have a team of trained Money Coaches available who are able to offer practical advice and support. Speak to our church office today (details on the Churches Services page). We’re happy to be of national service.

ASD

Learning to go slow to go fast (short article)

(Recently written for a local community magazine.)

There was a story of a man who prayed to God for patience. After about two minutes the man looked up at his clock and said, “Well?”

I must admit I am not a patient person by nature. If something can happen now, why wait? The only problem is living life always in fourth gear can be exhausting. We may appease ourselves by saying we have no choice but to go that speed, but more often than not there is a price to pay.

I read recently that a speed camera trap on the M6 has netted £3m. An incredible 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle. The previous year’s record was held by the M11, so obviously East Anglia must have slowed down a little.

Have you noticed that impatience can lead to anger? We may find ourselves getting irrationally cross when we are ill or when the car breaks down or when something unexpected steals our time. It can affect our nearest and dearest relationships, whether we are conscious of it or not. For instance, we can miss out on enjoying our marriages and families. Time lost forever.

When I wake up early every morning I can’t help but think of all the things I have got to do that day. It is very tempting for someone like me to get on the laptop straight away and start working, but over the years I have learnt to park my thoughts, be it temporarily and learn to be in the presence of God. So what do I mean by being in the presence of God?

Quite simply, it means saying some prayers and turning to a passage in the Bible and meditating on it. In my conversations with God I hand over my concerns, pressures and anxieties. I surrender my issues of time and human capacity and ask God to show me what is important, rather than urgent. It is amazing how easily we allow the lesser things to steal our time to stop the more significant things from being done.

I find myself naturally praying for wisdom and discernment. In my church tradition we call this a ‘quiet time’, but nowadays I tend to call this my ‘worship time’. The daily discipline gives me a constant reminder that I am not God of my life, but he is, if I will let him. This is my act of daily worship to someone who is infinitely greater than me and able to do immeasurably more if I only ask him.

John Wimber the founder of the Vineyard Church, my denomination, said famously to the church, “To learn to go fast you have to go slow”. We have to focus on being before doing. Take time to simply be. Or as I say to my leaders, in terms of spiritual growth, we are not about getting the job done, but the person finished.

Whether you are a church-going Christian or someone who just about believes in God I would encourage you to get a modern translation of the Bible, flick through the front index and find the book of Psalms. Maybe try to read one a day. You can then also look up the book of Luke and read about Jesus and the things he said and did.

I promise you, prayer and the Bible do transform us, but you need to have patience. Maybe, like me, that is your first prayer. I encourage you to give it a go. You can buy a Bible through our church website bookshop or from WH Smith. Prayer is free.

ASD

Performance versus participation in church services

I have been reading Todd Hunter's new book The Accidental Anglican (Baker) where above other valuable insights he speaks about his transition from Vineyard USA National Director to Episcopal bishop. There is a lot to take away from here for sure.

Todd makes a point quite early on about the danger of a spirituality that is performance-led, something that does not require participation from the congregation beyond turning up. Todd argues that there is a powerful case for a rediscovery of liturgical worship in the contemporary evangelical tradition to enrich the good among us that the Spirit brings. He comments:

"Liturgical seekers cherish the confidence that comes from historical connectedness, from theology that is not tied to the whims of contemporary culture, but to apostolic-era understandings of Christian faith and practice.

"Our frantic lives make us yearn for rhythms and routines that build the spiritual health we seek. For many of us the architecture, theatre seating and structure of our former churches said to us: 'Sit back, relax and receive what comes to you from the stage.' While having no need to criticise that, there is a hunger in many churchgoers today for a Sunday ethos that says, 'Sit up, be alert and participate.'"

I think it can be said that Evangelical Charismatic churches makes a fundamental mistake if they promote "freedom in the Spirit" as simply being an escape from formal liturgy. Todd says it must be possible to embrace liturgy and not be seen as religious or duty-bound.

I have recognised the need for "rhythm and rountine" in my daily devotional life, which is why I keep a simple daily office first thing in the morning to help create space to be alone with the Lord and to be disciplined in praying for others. I hasten to add this is not a fad for me, I have done it for years now, being from the Anglican tradition myself. Furthermore, I have never felt the need to renounce it, even being a Vineyard pastor!

Todd is right, Evangelicals (usually from an Anglican heritage) are ever so slowly rediscovering the richness and beauty of liturgy. Shane Clairborne and company seem to illustrate this revival with their new book Common Prayer.

I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable with "Christian celebrity".  Not least because I find some aspects of it quite appealing because it offers an easy, if lazy spirituality where I can come to just take, rather than give.

For instance, I wonder how many of us scan the details of an event to see who is speaking or leading worship before we consider seriously booking? We might be sub-consciously thinking, have they got a book out? Have they got a worship album? Do I know any of their songs? Have they played on main stage at a well known summer conference? Do they go to one of the big lively churches?

Where I live in East Anglia we are unlikey to get the overseas travelling speaker with a book, DVD and promotional tour visiting. You see, we just don't have the same attraction or status as some London churches or organisations. But, you know, I am glad. I would rather church was organic and built from the bottom up with normal people. It keeps the whole thing real.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard and the guy who kicked-started the philosophy to a lot of today's contemporary worship, said famously that when we come to the Lord we worship to an audience of one. It is all about Jesus. It was only about Jesus. Nothing else should motivate us.

As an unabashed card-carrying Evangelical Charismatic maybe a rediscovery of a participative act of worship would protect us from the dangers of a performance-led spirituality where once in a while the congregation may get a look in.  Maybe then "everybody would get to play" - beyond valuably serving in church life.

ASD

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try this Life Vision exercise as you start 2011

Every new year I encourage our church through our HOME groups to carry out an audit on their life with a view of moving on in the next. Personally, I have found it invaluable to start January by being accountable to myself in every area of my life.

Now I recognise that life is tough and some of us maybe glad to put the previous year behind us, but I think we also can take some encouragement from marking progress in our lives, not just in a devotional sense but in a holistic sense too, remembering that Jesus was wonderfully and paradoxically fully God and fully man. The flesh matters!

So here an exercise that you may find useful to start the year on a right footing. Have fun!

A. Your Life Now

1. Ask yourself: where are you at in your life at the moment?

• Spiritually
• Relationally
• Physically

1. What have been your own personal disappointments in the last year?
2. What have been the highlights?

 

B.  First steps to a new Life Vision

1. Pray about it
2. Write your goals down
3. Be honest with yourself
4. Make realistic goals, not idealistic ones
5. Be bold!

Now get typing or write out maybe 4 or 5 single-sentence goals with an action by the side of each under 3 headings:

• Spiritual life
• Home life
• Work life

 

C.  What now?

1. Make yourself a coffee and go and pray over your goals
2. Stick up your goals and and actions on the kitchen pin board, mirror in your bedroom, fridge or, if you prefer, put it in the front of your BIble
3. Aim to review your progress at 3 months intervals throughout the year
4. Importantly, don't give up! Stay encouraged.

Remember Paul's words to the Philippian Church, "I can do all things in him who strengthens me." (Phil 4:13 RSV)

ASD

 

Pray for those who have no-one to pray for them

As part of my morning devotional I use Common Worship Daily Prayers. This week I was struck afresh in the intercessory prayers section for the day where it said, "Pray for those who have no-one to pray for them".

This struck me as odd, then sad. I imagined going through life with no-one ever bothering to pray for me. I wondered how this would might make me feel. Of course, for the non-believer that might not seem an issue, but the more I thought about it I realised that a lot of my prayer time is acutally praying for Christians. it made me consider if I should be more outward-focused in my praying for others just as much as those within the church.

If we believe prayer works and feel blessed when others pray for us, maybe we should be a bit more intentional in praying for others, whether they are aware of it or not.

Whether someone else believes in the power of prayer or not it should make little difference to our own attitude towards them. We give of ourselves with no strings attached. I believe this is partly what it means to be generous with the gospel. As grace has been lavished on us, surely we can find the inspiration to lavish the same grace on others?

ASD

 

 

 

WordLive now available as an iPhone and iPad app

Scripture Union had just launched their new Bible reading service WordLive with an app. And good it looks too.

My only niggle is it is it isn't free like the online experience, but I guess they are a charity and they have been through a torrid time of late. But I do wonder if it might be more attractive to someone wanting to casually look at the Christian faith without having to pay for it. Just a thought.

However, for those of you who, like me, value WordLive and have £2.99 to spare, then there are worse things to dig deep in your pocket for, i.e a £3 bet at Ladbrookes on England getting through the World Cup without at least one game going to penalties.

Well done, SU!

ASD

3rd Person Christian

I have come across a term this week: third person Christian. In essence, it means Christians who think a message is not for them, but for another. Now don't rush for your dictionaries because it is a made up expression, but I quite like it all the same. It kind of works.

Mark Batterson makes the point that when people hear something pertinent it is for them to give to someone else. How many of us, if we are honest, think this?

There are times when I have really felt a passage speak to me as a pastor and automatically think it is for another person or the whole church. However, when I have time to reflect I can realise it is actually for me! Can you believe that? This can be a hard thing to concede when you are not in the frame of mind to listen for yourself.

I think for those of us in leadership this is a hugely important thing to be aware of, especially when we are giving out all the time.  Of course, God wants to speak to us about our own character issues. He wants a one-to-one relationship with us first before we give out. How dense can we be?

So let me ask a couple of questions: do we always make a point of first reading the Bible for ourselves before others? Do we hear from God with a view of having a word for others or ourselves? Tough isn't it?

I find when I don't carve out personal devotional time to reflect, pray and worship I put myself in a precarious place. It takes humility and discipline to put it right.

In fact, I would have thought it is nigh impossible to lead others in the presence of God if we are not to be found already in that place ourselves hearing first hand.

ASD

Prayer life

One of the greatest Christian prophets of change and social action the world has ever seen was Archbishop Helder Camara of Brazil. I learnt that he used to spend from two to four hours every day in prayer. He said, "No Christian is greater than their prayer life."

I don't know about yours, but I am afraid it puts my own prayer life into perspective. However, I found myself pondering that if I prayed for that period everyday, being bi-vocatinal, what would happen?

Would I get more tired? Would my health suffer? Would I miss trains, meal times and meetings?

Strippng those things away, would I do it if I could?  He has undoubtedly set the bar high, but all the same I wouldn't half minded being in his church.

ASD

Inaugural Prayer by Rick Warren

If you like me caught the Inaugural Prayer by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church this week you might have been incidentally judging his performance. It's hard not to, isn't it?

After all, we are conditioned to judge performances through a TV screen. It makes a big part of the schedule nowadays. It gets the ratings.

However, I have felt, like Mark Driscoll, quite uncomfortable with some the criticism this guy has been getting. As a Brit watching an All-American event I tuned in as a casual observer and putting aside my cultural deference, I recognised that Rick Warren did something that I never would have the guts to do - pray in front of millions of people all over the world. He is to be applauded.

Apparently there was some discussion online and in newspapers whether he would pray in Jesus' name or, even more fundamentally, was the right person for the job. Yet, when the big day came I believe he did a pretty good job.

It is every pastor's fear and discomfort that their performance is being judged every time they get up and open their mouth. Yet, we still get up and do it. Why?  Because the rewards to seeing lives affected by our actions when we stand up in His name far outweighs the negativity we sometimes have to endure.

Rick Warren is just flesh and blood like you and I. Whether we like his style, theology or churchmanship is neither here or there. I believe his heart is in the right place and he loves Jesus.

Unfortunately for Rick he has been put on the highest Christian pedal stool in the world, perhaps after the See of Rome, so the potential for disappointment and criticism was proportionally higher too. At the end of the day, he was always going to offend somebody, but I doubt very much that he offended God.

As my 11-year-old daughter says, Chillax!

ASD