Category: Ministry (page 4 of 6)

Reflections on a Sunday Gathering

January 17, 2011 / / 3 Comments /

My soul is full from the gatherings at New Life this weekend. Rarely does a Sunday not provide amazing stories of people being changed by God, but this past Sunday was really special for many reasons.

1. During the song set, Jon Egan shared the story from scripture of Mary anointing Jesus with a vial of expensive perfume as an act of extravagant worship. He said we had a choice to either enjoy the aroma of someone else’s worship or we could pour out our own perfume. Worship should cost us something. It was a strong reminder that God wants all of our worship and all of our hearts, at all times.

2. Later, Pastor Aaron read from Colossians 1 about Christ being formed in us. He reminded us that the Gospel is not about going from bad to good, but from dead to alive.

3. I spoke on the two baptisms in Luke 3. Water baptism requires us to obey and humble ourselves which allows for the old person to be cut off and for us to enter the destiny that God has for us. The second baptism is simply welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit into our lives and receiving it as a free gift from the Father delivered to us by Jesus.

4. After the 11am gathering, I prayed for a young couple trying to save their marriage, another young couple who had been hurt by a former church and were trying to trust church leadership again, and a middle aged man who cried as he told me that he finally understood the baptism of the Holy Spirit after years of frustration.

5. 53 new families came to Guest Central looking for more info about being a part of New Life. There were some great conversations, lots of prayer and some discussion with yet another young couple who wanted to find out about pre-marriage mentoring.

6. 11 kids accepted Christ in the 5th and 6th grade class alone on Sunday and over 80 in the same class prayed for more of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

7. On Sunday night, we baptized over 140 people, most of them brand new believers, including 54 children. Entire families were baptized together. A man who was homeless a month ago was baptized.

God is the one who provides wind for our sails and moves us with momentum from heaven. It is not a result of incessant hype. Momentum is more than just growing crowds or full parking lots. Momentum comes from people deciding to follow Jesus and being healed of emotional and physical pain. It happens when orphans from Colorado and around the world are being set into forever families. It is a result of widows from our church and city being cared for every week.

The church that Jesus birthed 2000 years ago in Jerusalem is still resilient and fully alive all across the earth. New Life is becoming more and more a reflection of those ancient, yet still powerful ideals. My soul is full.

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Every Story Matters

January 10, 2011 / / 6 Comments /

What is your story? What has God done in your life lately? Would your story be encouraging to someone else if they heard about it? Would your story build someone’s faith and give them the courage to keep praying? Most likely.

A couple of Sundays ago, a man named Dale told his story to our entire church. He had been homeless and alone until he met a New Lifer while walking downtown one Saturday afternoon. They became friends and fast forward a few weeks, Dale accepts Christ, finds a place to stay, and makes New Life his new church family. He lost wife about a year ago, but she diligently prayed for Dale to follow Christ, even as she lay on her death bed.

Sitting in the crowd that Sunday was a young Air Force airman whose wife was praying for him to make the same decision. At the end of the talk, he came down to the front and prayed with one our team. After the gathering, he found me outside and told me when heard Dale’s story, he knew he needed to change his life. It was a story, not a well crafted sermon, that made the difference.

In the age of Twitter and Facebook, we seem to talk about ourselves too much already, but I do believe an inspiring and authentic story can still change people. When God does something in our lives, we should tell others when we get the opportunity.

At New Life, we are working harder at telling all the amazing stories we hear each week. So don’t be surprised if someone holds a camera in front of you because we all need to hear it. Stories really do matter and your story can change lives.

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Awe, Adventure and Advocacy

January 3, 2011 / / 1 Comment /

On Sunday I talked about three words that will define our path at New Life in 2011 and beyond. These are more than just words that start with the same letter, these words are a map and compass for the way we will pray, the way we will make decisions and the way we will use our time and resources.

1. Awe

New Life has always been a fellowship that welcomes the presence of God in worship. The songs that have been birthed from this place are sung around the world, but the awe I am talking about is not just about songs or a set of musical charts. Awe literally means “fearful expectation” or an awareness that God desires to invade our natural worlds with His supernatural strength. I believe the gatherings at New Life this year will be filled with the awe of thousands of people who really hunger for God to be with us and to change us.

2. Adventure

Adventure does not happen in the safe bubbles of life in which most of us live. Adventure is for those who have surrendered themselves to live a life that is full of mystery and sometimes, great risk. God is calling us out of our comfortable places and into the uncomfortable realms of faith. God does want to encourage and comfort us, but He seldom allows us to remain static. God will nudge all of us this year to take some risks, to maybe fail, but for sure, to move forward.

3. Advocacy

God is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, and sets the lonely in families. (Psalm 68:5-6). In other words, God is an advocate. God sent Jesus to be our advocate, to provide us something that we had no ability to provide for ourselves. Therefore, our story should be one of advocacy for those around us who cannot help or defend themselves. The widows, the orphans, and the poor need the church to stand alongside them, to defend them if necessary and to provide for them when able.

This is our clarion call as a fellowship of people at New Life. Join us on the journey and let awe, adventure and advocacy lead us forward.

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Anticipation for 2011

January 1, 2011 / / 2 Comments /

Hope is the anticipation of something good happening and I’m full of hope for the upcoming 365 days of 2011. I am sure there will be plenty of surprises, challenges, dark moments and belly laughs along the way, but one thing is certain, time will march on and we will be along for the journey. Here are some things I am anticipating as I look ahead to the new year.

1. The first Dream Center will open and will provide free medical care for women in our city who cannot afford basic services.

2. My first book, Fear No Evil, releases in April with Zondervan. The proceeds from the book will help fund the Dream Centers.

3. Abram will turn 13.

4. We will pay off more of the debt on our property at New Life.

5. Hundreds will be saved and baptized during the Thorn performances.

6. Thousands will surrender to live the vow at the summer Desperation Conferences.

7. Hundreds of New Lifers will go on mission’s trips and have their worldview rocked.

8. I will spend some time in Wales and Kenya, connecting with leaders.

9. Pam and I are taking the kids to San Diego for LegoLand and the zoo.

10. I will celebrate 22 years of marriage to my best friend.

I really believe hope and joy are fanned into flame when we can look forward to something and anticipate God’s work in our future. What are you looking forward to in 2011?

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The Lonely Place of Prayer

December 26, 2010 / / 3 Comments /

“Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:15-16

What was Jesus thinking? Crowds of people were anxious to hear him teach and there were throngs of sick people who needed healing, yet Jesus took a break to be alone and pray. It seems that would stop his momentum and suffocate the growth of his following. The buzz was at full strength and Jesus did something counterintuitive to most modern church leaders. He stopped, found an isolated, lonely place and prayed. And he did this often because it was a discipline, a part of his lifestyle.

It would seem every leader would follow the habits of Christ and schedule time to be away from the crowds, away from the pulpit and it’s teaching responsibilities and even away from the pressing needs of people. There are a few reasons why we don’t make this a part of our personal discipline.

1. We feel guilty

Pastors love people and want to help people. Regardless of the size church we lead, there are always people who want to meet with us, need us to come pray for them or would like us to teach more often. We know we need to rest, but the guilty feelings drive us to an impossible schedule. After all, how can a real shepherd leave his sheep? Truthfully, we are doing our sheep more harm than good if we do not rest. In the end, we will burn out and then the sheep have no shepherd at all.

2. We fear people

What will the people think if I am not at every meeting or attending to every hospital, funeral or wedding request? Will they leave the church and attend somewhere else? Worse yet, will they stay at the church just to remind me of why others left. 🙂 Proverbs 29:25 says “Fearing people is a dangerous trap …” When we are caught in this trap, we are ensnared in a perpetual cycle of performance and insecurity.

3. We like the attention more than rest

Ouch! Just writing that brought me conviction. No matter how much humility we may have, it is still a temptation to love the adoring stares of the crowd more than a private pursuit of God. Our primary motivation for solitude and rest is to make sure our personal fascination with the nature of God has not waned and to calibrate our primary motivations for ministry. In the end, we are to make Jesus known and not make ourselves famous.

For this reason, I am going to spend some time alone this week. No crowds, no email, no social media, some football 🙂 and very few phone calls. I will be back at New Life for Celebration Sunday on January 2nd and for the week of worship and prayer January 3-7. Until then, may we all withdraw to a lonely place and pray.

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The Lady who Kept Praying

December 20, 2010 / / 3 Comments /

“Then Jesus told them a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1

I believe God can immediately heal people. He did in the stories of Scripture and I have witnessed and experienced immediate healing many times. However, many prayers are answered after months or years of persevering and not giving up.

Such is the story of Jefferie, a sweet lady who attends New Life with her husband Kent. I first met them after a Sunday morning gathering when she asked me to pray for her. She was smiling and had obvious joy, but she also had advanced cancer in multiple places in her body.

We prayed that day and I told her to keep asking for prayer. Sure enough the next Sunday, I spotted her waiting for me again with the same smile and the same joy. This scene repeated itself for almost a year every Sunday after the 9am service. In fact, I begin to look forward to that special prayer time each week.

This past week, she got a late phone call from her doctor who told her she was 99% cancer free. He could not believe the cancer had disappeared so quickly. Her voice is still weak, but she whispered the story and the good news to me on Sunday. It was the highlight of my day for sure.

What are you praying for today? Have you prayed a long time and become discouraged that the answer has not arrived? Keep praying for healing, for the prodigals to come home or for your marriage to be restored. Don’t give up and keep praying. Jefferie did and so can we.

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Do you take notes?

November 22, 2010 / / 7 Comments /

Do you take notes when someone is teaching you the scriptures? If you do, chances are you retain more than those who do not. In fact, I believe 90% of people who do not take notes on Sunday morning forget everything they have heard by Wednesday morning. If my calculations are correct, Sunday morning was mostly a waste of time for those who did not bother to write something down.

Jesus told us this would happen in Luke 8 when he described the four types of soil that represent the common conditions of the human heart.  The path, the rock, the thorns and the good soil are all mentioned. The seeds that fell on the good soil are the only ones that produced a lasting harvest. Notice what is said in verse 15.

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a good crop.”

Luke did not underline the two words above, but they certainly jumped off the page at me recently. The Message Bible says “who seize the word and hold on no matter what.” I have heard some amazing insight that I have not written down and I am certain I have forgotten most of it. Good seed had been sown, but I did not seize it and hold on no matter what.  What can we all do to make sure the seeds that are being sown fall on the good soil of our hearts and produce a crop?

1. Write down two or three big ideas from every teaching you hear and have a conversation with someone about them within 48 hours.

2. If you use your iphone to take notes, like I sometimes do, don’t check your email or text someone during the talk. Take notes only and do not play paper toss. 🙂

3. If you are speaking and the big ideas are not evident, then use simpler language and better illustrations to make them clear to everyone.

4. If you have access to decent AV equipment, put the big ideas on the screen long enough for everyone to write them down.

5. Hand out notes to people before the talk and have pens or pencils available. Even if you hand out blank sheets of paper, you are encouraging people to take notes.

The word disciple means “learner” and learners take notes. Even if we do not agree with what is said, at least the talk will spark some interesting conversation that might lead us to deeper truth. Let’s not sit in the crowd with our arms folded assuming that we will remember everything that is being said. Let’s hear the word, retain the word and by persevering produce a good crop.

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Guidelines for the Guest Speaker

November 8, 2010 / / 3 Comments /

This weekend, we had Pastor Robert Morris as a guest speaker at New Life. Pastor Robert is the Senior Pastor at Gateway Church in DFW and is one of the overseers of New Life, plus one of my closest friends. Pastor Robert spoke at both Sunday morning gatherings and did a great job. Meanwhile, I was at Gateway as his guest, speaking twice on Saturday and once Sunday.

I don’t just let anyone speak at New Life when I’m gone. Most often, the speaker is a part of our pastoral team, but like this past Sunday, we do sometimes have guests from around the country who come to speak. Before they are invited, I make sure they meet certain criteria.

1. They must really care about the people of New Life and genuinely want to pastor them while in the pulpit.

2. They must have some relationship with me or have a substantial relationship with someone I really trust.

3. They must have similar theology, but not necessarily identical theology.  I think it’s great to have speakers who come from different backgrounds so long as they are not out of bounds on the essentials of our faith.

4. They have to be there to minister to the people and not sell something to the people. I am ok with books and products being available for purchase but the guest speaker will not be allowed to make a big sales pitch.

5. They are  typically pastors who are leading their own fellowships because true shepherds usually have a high regard for the local church. I do have people speak who are not pastors, but not often.

I am grateful to have so many gifted speakers and pastors available to communicate the scriptures when I’m gone. I want New Lifers to trust that no matter who speaks on Sunday, truth will be declared and people will receive pastoral care.

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Ten Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me 15 Years Ago

October 4, 2010 / / 9 Comments /

I have been a pastor for about 15 years now and it has mostly been a fantastic journey with some of the best people on the planet. I did not attend seminary or have much formal training when I started out, but I sure wish someone had told me these ten things in the beginning.

1. Sheep bites can’t kill me, but the gnawing will make life miserable a few days each year.

2. No matter how hard I try, I will always be tempted to measure my success by attendance numbers.

3. The best thing I can do to build and grow God’s kingdom is to be myself and not compare myself to others.

4. It takes a long time to become old friends so nurture and cherish the old friendships God has given me.

5. I will only have as much spiritual authority as I am willing to submit to myself. Independence will destroy me but there is power in submission.

6. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Challenge people to go deeper even when the message is unpopular.

7. My brain will always feel like scrambled eggs on Sunday afternoon so don’t make any major decisions until Tuesday morning.

8. Some people will only trust you after a really long time of proving yourself and another group will never trust you no matter what you do.

9. Don’t feel guilty about taking a Sabbath. It was not a suggestion.

10. I will never regret spending time with my family instead of saying yes to a church meeting that someone else could lead.

I hope this is helpful to other young leaders who are launching out into ministry. What are some of things you wish someone had told you before you started ministry in the local church?

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Marinating vs. Microwaving

September 27, 2010 / / 9 Comments /

Jesus was brilliant. I know I sound like Captain Obvious, but Jesus knew how to build something that would last for millenniums. He invested three years in 12 men and then left them right when the church was about to be birthed. The 11 that remained as followers plus a small group of committed women then changed the world.

Why is this idea so hard for modern church leaders to grasp? Why do we continue to use Western marketing principles that ultimately fail instead of using the simple methods of Jesus, which are rock solid?

I am building a ministry to men at New Life and I have decided to spend the next three years building a group of leaders emphasizing relationships and not events or classes. We will have some events and some classes, but we will focus most of our effort on living our lives in authentic community. We are going to go deep before we grow wide.

Most people looking from the outside may think we are not that successful because I cannot point to big attendance numbers as proof. Please pray for me that I will not give in to the temptation to simply get a big crowd to come to an event. My goal at the end of the three years is to have around 200 men from every generation who will help me pastor the 5000 or so men who call New Life home. My goal is not to get the 5000 to show up at some meeting.

Crowds do not multiply, but disciples do. The challenge will be to marinate and not succumb to the microwave mentality that plagues the American church world. We want instant “success” like we want instant rice. We want to be on Top 100 lists even though Jesus would have never made it himself.

Only 120 were in the Upper Room and they were tired, scared and immature. Then they changed the culture of the evil Greco-Roman world in which they lived. They had depth because they had been built from the inside out. The crowds ultimately abandoned Jesus, but those who were in relationship with him stood firm.

I am returning to the ancient because it is the hope for the postmodern world in which I pastor and lead. Come marinate in deep relationships with me. Let’s go deep before we grow wide. Let’s change the world one friendship at a time.

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