In the movie, “Saving Private Ryan”, the German army has pinned down the Allied forces on the beaches of France and the soldiers are forced to hide behind anything that offers protection from the barrage of artillery fire. All around them, soldiers are being cut to pieces by machine gun fire and then the character played by Tom Hanks says something that is really profound. He tells them, “We cannot stay here. We must get off this beach! We are dead men if we stay here!”

At first that must have seemed odd to the soldiers who heard him. It is natural as humans to stay huddled in the safe place and not charge ahead in the face of uncertainty and danger. I think many of us are huddled on the beach right now, taking fire from our enemy who wishes to steal, kill and destroy us. God is giving us a clear command today – “Get off the beach! Take the land!”

I don’t see myself as a survivalist. I don’t spend much mental energy thinking about how to protect what I have. I like to see myself as the captain who is encouraging his troops to charge forward.  However, for the past several months as the economy has teetered on the verge of collapse, many of my conversations with friends have been about survival and not advancement. I am not sensing a great deal of fear in my friends and I have not discovered much fear in my own heart. What is missing is the raw faith to believe for God’s provision and blessing when everything around us is being shaken and in some cases, overtaken.

God needs us to reclaim the lost vision that has been taken from us. We need to start dreaming again and ask for the bold plans that will take us to the new ground. We cannot stay in neutral. We cannot stay hidden behind false shields on the beach! We must get off the beach and engage the enemy of our faith. We cannot make decisions out of fear. We must believe the truths of Scripture and put them to the test.

The soldiers in World War II did not stay on the beaches of Normandy. With great courage and tremendous sacrifice, they charged ahead and liberated France from the tyranny of the Nazi regime. As followers of Christ, we have all the weapons we need to rout the enemy and take the land. But first, we must get off this beach!

“Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10: 43-45 NIV

Serving is not natural for humans. We prefer to be preferred. We are born as helpless beings that need constant attention and care. Parents meet all our needs, photograph us more than presidents, and come running anytime they hear but a whimper. As we grow older, most of us believe we are the center of the universe and everyone else is paying rent.

It was no different with the 12 disciples. They were always clamoring for status and position. They wanted the choice seats at dinner, and to stand right next to Jesus as the crowds cheered him. Mark records the above conversation and with three verses, Jesus shatters the paradigms that had become cemented in their thinking.

Notice they were not scolded for wanting to be great or desiring to be first. In other conversations, Jesus encouraged them to lay up treasure in heaven and to do good works.  The disciples, like many of us today, were focused on what they could get from God and others and not what they could do for God and others.

This is completely counter-cultural because society tells us to get ahead at all costs and to promote ourselves at every opportunity. Instead, we are expected to do good things for people we may not like and expect nothing in return until we get to heaven.  The problem is heaven seems so distant and we want instant returns on our investment. This is why most people talk about serving but never become servants.

I have met true servants and I want to be one someday. Right now, I wrestle with selfishness, ego, narcissism, and an addiction to comfort. However, I am allowing the Holy Spirit to change my heart and I invite you on the journey with me. Servants can change the world but there are so few of them right now.

What keeps a leader from moving forward with the plans and designs God has given them? What are the forces that neutralize a leader? What schemes has the enemy devised to prevent leaders from leading churches, companies and families to the Promised Land?

I don’t have all the answers and I am no leadership expert, but I am experienced. More importantly, I am determined to learn from my experiences.  In the past 20 months, I have walked through transition, trauma, attacks, and victories. I have also discovered new levels of demonic attacks and subsequently, new degrees of God’s power.

Every leader who is a Christ follower is a target of the enemy. If leaders stop leading, the enemy wins and the Kingdom of God stops advancing.  The three strategies most often used against Godly leaders are diminishment, discouragement and distractions.

Diminishment

Diminishment is the overwhelming feeling that everything around us is weakening, being reduced in strength, shrinking and becoming cheapened. The enemy uses trivial evidence to convince us that our momentum is a façade and in fact, we are losing ground.  The truth is every healthy organism experiences loss. Our bodies shed millions of dead skin cells every day and are designed to eliminate waste. Our hair falls out while new hair grows in it is place – at least for most of us.

The enemy wishes to focus all of our attention on these losses while hiding our eyes from the remarkable growth that is also happening.  Leaders must be aware of everything that is happening around them but not become fixated on just the losses. Make sure there are people around you that point out both the losses and the wins. Keep a balanced outlook and you will not fall into the trap of diminishment.

Discouragement

If you are stuck in the dungeon of diminishment, you will then fall prey to a much deadlier foe – discouragement. This is when we have lost all courage and all hope. We simply stop dreaming and stop trying because the challenge seems impossible and the risks too dangerous. It seems the air has left your sails, never to return.

Throughout Scripture we see leaders who battled discouragement. Moses was discouraged because he led a rebellious and stubborn people. Joshua was discouraged because the walls of the cities were thick and guarded by giants. The disciples were discouraged because their leader had been murdered. But in each case, these leaders turned their hearts toward heaven, confessed their discouragement and suddenly a new wind of heaven filled their sails so they could move forward. It seems that God likes leaders who admit their human weakness and declare their absolute dependence on Him.

Distractions

If the enemy cannot convince us of diminishment or lead us into discouragement, he will try to distract us. He will try to convince us to do good things instead of God things. Recently, I became aware of a huge distraction in my life. I tried to do a good thing for the right reasons, but it caused me harm and hurt. I realized that I had become distracted by something that seemed noble, but in reality, it was a snare.

This requires leaders to be really alert and discerning. We must remember our primary purpose, and remind ourselves to stay the course and not divert off the main path. We must stop giving so much time to meaningless mental conversations about people we were not called to lead or problems that we were never called to solve. Our emotional tanks will be emptied if we continue with the distractions and that is not how God designed for us to live.

Leaders must lead and the enemy must be exposed. Go forward fellow leaders. Take those who are assigned to you to the green pastures God has prepared for all of us. Do not believe in diminishment, do not be discouraged and refuse to be distracted.

Power and Purpose

I spent a few days in northwest Wales this past week exploring the idea of a church plant. This region of the UK once had a number of flourishing churches and was a world leader for evangelism. In fact, the Welsh Revival of 1903 had a profound influence on the Azusa Street outpouring in Los Angeles which ignited the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements that many of us are a part of today. Sadly, most of the Welsh churches today are either closed or dying and the leaders are greatly discouraged.

From what I witnessed on my visit to Wales, it seems the church lost ground when it stopped praying for the power of the Holy Spirit and ignored its purpose of pursuing the lost. If a church loses these two ideas, death is certain.  These simple truths propelled the First Century church from an illegal group of ragtag Christ followers to a powerful cultural force that changed the world. Notice what happened in Acts 2 in the very first moments of the first church. The Holy Spirit baptized the believers with power and thousands of people were saved on the first day the church ever existed.

In Wales, the church became too formal and refused to change its ideology to reach a 20^th Century Welsh culture that was going through radical cultural shifts caused by two world wars.  The church became obsessed with chapels and steeples instead of people. The church’s theology did not emphasize prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit or a passionate pursuit of the lost. Therefore, the church lost its relevance and now the only ones attending are a few committed followers, most over the age of 60. If substantial changes are not made soon, the Welsh church could become extinct.

However, I sense something new and fresh is about to happen in Wales. There is a group of young leaders and mature visionaries who are leading a movement to plant life-giving churches throughout the land. They are committed to power and purpose and, therefore, I believe they will succeed.  They are realizing that stagnant days call for radical action and fierce faith. 

The church in America must learn from what happened in Wales or we will repeat the mistakes and find ourselves irrelevant and powerless.  I am leading New Life back to the fuel source – passionate prayer that brings power from heaven and a focus on the lost and hurting.  We cannot change what has happened in Wales, but we can pray for the fire to be reignited and for our own hearts to remain ablaze.

I wonder how much room we have made in our lives to love the fourth group of people. Most of us do a pretty good job loving at least three groups. We love ourselves, we love our families and we love our friends. The fourth group is a bit more difficult to love. They are people who are different than us by religious beliefs, social customs, skin color, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and gender.

For the most part we have formed counter-cultural communities, called churches, and invited those people into our tribes who were willing to act like us, think like us, and behave like us. We do go out from time to time and attempt to reach the lost world, but mostly we are content to retreat to our safe circles and love the three.

To me, this is the very reason we are losing the culture wars and why the church looks more like the world than the world looks like the church. Jesus told us we are salt and light, but also warned us that we could lose our saltiness and we would be tempted to hide our light.  I am ready for a salty, radiant tribe of people called New Lifers to go find the fourth group and influence them for Jesus, using words only when necessary. That is the heart and purpose of the new sermon series I am calling “Change the World.”

But no matter how eloquent I am and how often I remind myself and the church that we are to go make disciples, we will never really change our city unless we love those in the fourth group. This is what Jesus modeled to us and this is what made the religious community of his time so furious. The religious community was convinced of their spiritual and moral superiority and had completely rejected the idea of loving anyone who was different. Jesus really loved sinners and spent a lot of time with people who were rejected and despised, even asking some of them to be his disciples and apostles.

I want to look more like Jesus and act less religious. I hope I make some new friends soon and I hope they are different than me.  I am going to take the challenge to be salt and light and make room for the fourth group of people.  I want to really love those who are different than me and I pray that New Lifers join me on this new journey that could literally change the world.

It seems our church has regained some momentum and I am encouraged that our sails are filled with the winds of heaven once again. Momentum is a powerful idea that is defined as “an impelling force or strength” and is absolutely necessary for any of us to move forward or to feel like we are making progress. Early sailors prayed for favorable winds to fill their sails for their journey across the oceans and seas and we have prayed the same prayers as a church.

The past two weekends, over 35,000 people witnessed the Thorn and Crown, epic productions focusing on the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Over 1000 volunteers from our church spent over two months practicing and praying for the eight performances. As a result, hundreds made decisions to follow Jesus and thousands of believers rediscovered a new passion for the message of the cross.

Sunday, I sensed a renewed energy in the people of New Life and new sense of forward momentum. I think this happened because so many people committed themselves to something that required strength from heaven and the use of their unique spiritual gifts. When we surrender ourselves to the call and purposes of God, heaven responds with power and strength that literally propels us forward, like a ship charging across the waves.

Our church has had its share of challenges and many more opportunities for shipwrecks. We are thankful and grateful that God has steered us away from the rocks time after time and has pointed us to the deep waters where we can sail fast and free to new lands. Momentum is good and I am thankful for the new day that is dawning at New Life Church.

^“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6-6-7 NIV

The car rides to school with Abram and Callie usually involve normal kid chatter and some silly songs on the radio from XM Kids. Today was different. I took the opportunity of our 15-minute car ride to talk to them about Holy Week, the most sacred time of remembrance and celebration for followers of Christ. Once again, I told them the story of Jesus’ arrest, his death and his resurrection and why Easter is more than chocolate eggs, pretty dresses and bigger than normal crowds at church.

I wonder sometimes how much of our belief system is rooted in sound theology and how much is based on experiences that produce good feelings. Please don’t misunderstand, I am in favor of good experiences and I even prefer them over bad ones. I just want my two children to have some understanding of basic theology so they can defend what they believe and not rely solely on how they feel at the moment.

Recent studies from numerous sources all prove that most children and students today are ignorant of basic theology. Most have a difficult time explaining why they believe Jesus was the son of God, why the death of Jesus paid for our sins, why the resurrection is factual and why Jesus is the only way to heaven. It is not surprising then, to hear that over 80-percent of high school students leave the local church once they leave their parent’s homes.

The reason they are confused is because parents are confused. We have become consumer Christians who view the church as a place that meets all our spiritual needs. We assume that children’s pastors and youth pastors are teaching our children all they need to know, when that is simply not the case. Parents play the biggest role in influencing their children to follow Christ and I believe we have missed the mark many times.

So, I think I will talk more about these ideas on future car rides to school and at night when we are getting ready for sleep.  Obviously, Abram and Callie will have to decide for themselves if they believe these things to be true or not. My challenge is to be passionate about the truth of Scripture and to talk about such things at every opportunity. I believe we can do this while singing lots of silly songs out loud together and enjoying every moment of the innocent years of childhood.

I am no politician but I love politics and, like many, I am concerned about the enormous national debt and the wasteful spending from those elected to serve our country. Recently, I challenged our church to take a 90-day challenge which would require us to do four things.

1. Be thankful at all times
2. Live below our means
3. Give generously
4. Look for opportunities to serve

I wonder what our country would look like if our government leaders followed the same principles. I offer my predictions below.

1. Be thankful at all times
Instead of fearful predictions of gloom and depression, our government leaders should tell us the realities of our challenges, but also remind us of our enormous blessings. We have a highly trained work force and we have incredible creativity and imagination. The computer, the airplane, and automobile are all products of American ingenuity and with the encouragement of our leaders the next generation can create the new marvels of the world. God has blessed our country and we should stop often and give Him thanks and remember that He was our source yesterday and He is our source today and tomorrow.

2. Live below our means
I am convinced the reason so many Americans live with out of control debt is because our government leaders set the tone. Debt is a silent killer. It traps its victims and strangles them with burdens that are too heavy to bear. I know this sounds simplistic, but why can’t we determine the amount of revenue that will be collected and set our budgets to a lesser amount. We must tell our elected leaders that we do not expect them to solve our problems, but we do demand good stewardship and reasonable taxes.

3. Give generously
America has always been one of the most generous nations on earth and that is one of the reasons God has blessed us with abundance. The people of our country want to give to others and they want to bless those in need. We need to champion this idea and allow for generosity. We should reward those who give with even more tax credits and give the individual the freedom to decide where they wish to contribute.

4. Look for opportunities to serve
Every recession reveals the character of our nation. I still believe most people want to serve their fellow man and most of us would sacrifice to see others blessed. This season could fuel a new revolution of service and inspire the millennial generation to give their lives away for something bigger than themselves. I challenge our government leaders to stop living for the next election and to lead the way by doing the right thing for the right reason even if it means losing an election. Jesus was a servant who was a leader, not a leader who served. We must be servants at our very core and see leadership as something we do only when absolutely necessary.

The sound system crashed Sunday morning at New Life during the 9am service and it did not bother God at all. How do I know? His presence was strong as ever, people worshipped, prayed and the Scriptures were taught.  Of course, I like it when the sound system works, but I was reminded that God is not limited by technology and that most churches around the world operate just fine without any at all.

The sound system is fine now, but the Sunday morning snafu made me wonder how many people can tell the difference between hype and God’s presence, something us Charismatics call “anointing.” We live in a wired society and we are bombarded with a symphony of sounds, instant messages, Facebook wall posts, Twitter tweets and podcasts. 

What happens when the wired world malfunctions?  Can we still hear the “still small voice of God” when all is quiet, when the band stops playing, when the lights are not flashing and no one is in front of us leading the way? Do we need hype to worship or is worship all the hype we need?

Later, a BBC film crew asked me what makes church work around the world.  I told them church was not about huge buildings or spiritual rock stars, but church works when all the simple ingredients are mixed together. There must be people who love one another. There must be prayer and focused worship of the living God. The Scriptures need to be taught and the Lord’s death and resurrection remembered with communion. People should get baptized at some point after their salvation and those with needs should have them met from the resources of those who have plenty at the moment.

I like our big building and great sound system, and I even like all the flashing lights and giant screens. I like the café, the bookstore, the Tent, the World Prayer Center, the Theatre, the Tag chapel and even the scary angel in the rotunda. But what I love most is the timeless truth of Scripture, God’s presence, the great people and the revelation that grace is all we need.

As the pastor of New Life, I hope we never substitute hype for worship or allow technology to determine our passion for His presence because the church works just fine whether the sound system does or not.

I am convinced that most people can live free lives once they discover their real spiritual identity.  Identity is everything. If we believe wrong information about our identity, it affects the way we think, feel and behave. If we know the truth about our identity, bondages are broken and freedom is found.

I believe there are three primary groups of people in most local churches – orphans, slaves and sons.

Orphans are never sure about their place in the family and never believe they really belong among God’s chosen people. The idea of a heavenly father that is good is difficult for an orphan to grasp. Most spiritual orphans have had a lousy experience with their earthly father or other male authority figures. They were never fathered, so they never learned how to be a son. They often wander through life with no sense of purpose and find it difficult to commit long-term to a career, a marriage or a ministry assignment. Orphans are cynical and skeptical of real relationships and often end up hurting others before they can be hurt by others.

Slaves know they have an assignment, but are convinced the only way to please the father is to perform and work harder than others. Their place in the family is dependent on how well they do something. They do not believe their place is secure and believe at any moment they could be replaced or demoted.  Slaves want the constant attention of the father and are jealous when the spotlight is on someone else.

Sons are free to love the father and enjoy the land the father owns. Sons know they have chores and assignments, but know that the father is more pleased with whom they are becoming rather than what they are doing. Sons are free to make mistakes and are sure to receive discipline from the father, but the discipline is only to help them and not intended to harm them. Sons make good fathers, good husbands and healthy leaders. Sons get to spend a lot of time with the father and are never threatened that dad will leave or reject them.

I know I am a son. This truth is what set me free to live years ago.  I pray everyone will discover their true identity and begin to live free.