Growing in Christ

We’ve been talking about a Connect-Grow-Serve model at our church since 2006, but only recently have we really been promoting it, teaching it, and branding it. I wanted to take a moment this afternoon to share some things that have been on my mind personally as it relates back to the CGS model.

After having spent nearly a full week soaking in the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, I’m working on several things in my life to draw closer to God. This is what growth is about: drawing nearer to God.

Catalyst was an incredible place to connect with God. I’ve needed that for some time. (Yes, even pastors crave intense worship sometimes!) The worship at Catalyst was not your average Sunday worship, catered to new Christians and mature Christians both. It was for the mature Christians. It was meaty. It came with assumptions: you had a strong relationship with God, you were committed to serving him, you had a good grasp of your bible, you understood the Christian’s responsibility in worship, and you at least were familiar with seminary language. I needed that too.

But after connecting with God, I looked for ways to grow closer to Him. Growing in your faith can come quickly after you’ve connected with God. It doesn’t need to have years in between as many of us are accustom. It can (and should) happen right away.

Here’s my take away from Catalyst. Here’s what I’m wrestling with in my devotional time right now. Here’s what I’ve challenged my church to keep me accountable with. Here’s what my coach and I are working on. It’s two things:

1. Balancing time between work and family
2. Trusting people in the church

For the balance issue, I’m currently reading Andy Stanley’s book, “Choosing to Cheat.” It’s not about being a bad husband, it’s about how everybody wants everything from me and when they don’t, someone feels cheated. The truth is, someone will always get cheated, so we have to choose how to cheat appropriately. It’s good so far. I’m wrestling through it. This area in my life isn’t easy! I love both groups passionately and get energized by being part of them, 100% each. But lately, it’s been more like 80% church, 20% family. Essentially, as Rob Bell killed me by saying, I’m giving my family the scraps after I’ve given all the best of me to the church. Not good.

The second thing, trusting people, is even harder. I’ve approached existing churches like the african lion who has become accustomed to the zoo after being penned up for too long. It has all the appearance of being in the wild, but it’s actually not. It’s protected and tame. Silly me, as an outsider, one from “the wild”, I’ve attempted to approach the church as though they have no clue what the wild is really like and so my job is to tell them about what they’re missing. Here’s where I went wrong: they have “the wild” in them, they just need help remembering what that was like–in other words, connecting with Jesus Christ. Everyone has “the wild” within them. I just didn’t believe it until now. So I’m working with my coach to try to change this habit. It doesn’t honor Christ and it keeps me from relying on Him to be “the wild” instead of harboring it all myself (as if I could contain it or pass it on!!!). Andy Stanley really rocked my world in the final session to cause me to make a public apology the following Sunday to my congregation for not trusting them enough. It was hard, still is, but we’re sorting through things together.

So all those things, I’m working on adding balance and trust to my life so that God can be glorified by what I do rather than focusing on how I should be glorified in what I’m doing.

The illustration during Catalyst was great. It went like this. When you wake up in the morning, don’t ask, “God are you with me?” as if what I was doing was more important than what he has BEEN doing for ages. Instead, ask, “Where are we going today, God? I’m with you.”

Sitting atop Mt. Nebo

In high school, I was voted “most likely to be famous.” Judging by the number of readers of this blog, the vote hasn’t turned out so well. Of all the characters in the Old Testament, if we were to vote on the most popular character, Moses would probably rank up there at the top.

It’s an interesting thing thinking about Moses. He was probably the most unlikely leader of the Jewish people. He didn’t even really grow up Jewish though I’m sure his mother taught him about Abraham and the Covenant. He was in exile for being a murderer. He had grown up royal and found himself a sheep farmer. Given the economic situation in America, many of us are probably starting to relate to such a drastic career change. The prestige we once had isn’t as shiny these days. When ol’ Moe was recruited by God to lead the Jewish nation, he refused–a few times actually. He had a speech problem, I like to think either an impediment or a stutter. (The speech impediment makes him more comical in skits anyhow.) His previous attempt to show authority was too dominant and he was run off.

Probably one of the most overlooked parts of Moses’ story is that he never entered the Promised Land. After escaping euthanasia as a child, after growing up in the princess’s house, after killing a man and finding refuge with a shepherd’s family, after having a chat with God over a campfire, and after watching God bring about 10 plagues, after leading the Jews out of Egypt, after battling with them to follow God, putting up with their grumbling, two top 10 lists and a golden cow, after 40 years of wandering on top of it all, Moses never personally attained the thing he kept leading the people toward: life in the Promised Land.

In Deut. 34, when Moses was 120 years old, God took him on a personal retreat to the top of Mount Nebo. It was at that moment, at the top of the mountain, that God and Moses had a heart to heart. God showed Moses the Promise. He showed Moses the Promised Land that the Jews would soon take possession of (as Joshua would then lead them into).

I was reading that chapter this week and I had to put myself in Moses’ shoes. As much as I work as a leader, as much as I feel like an unlikely leader at times and put up with seemingly 40 years of wandering, wondering if God’s ever going to deliver on his promises for the people I lead, I was able to relate to Moses. Here he was, alone with God, and God was taking a moment to spend it personally with Moses. And during that moment, showed Moses all the land that He was going to deliver, promise fulfilled. I can just see God and Moses standing there, God’s arm around Moses’ side, with his other arm pointing to the hills, the streams, the groves, the best places to plant the best plants to attract those honey bees, the best places to raise the livestock that allowed for the milk to flow. I can see him showing Moses the best grape orchards and the places for all the best villages to be built. And I can feel the delight and awe that I would think filled Moses’ heart at that moment. It’s a touching part of the story we often overlook.

To be honest, I feel like I’ve been on that mountain with God lately. It’s a New Day in the Brethren Church. That’s what we’re calling it. We have a renewed vision to see transformed leaders transforming their congregations and seeing those congregations transformed in such a way that they are eager to make a difference in their communities, transforming them as well. Our own church has this same vision and things are just happening naturally all around us, showing us God’s provision, how he’s bringing us to this Promised Land.

On the 29th of this month, we’re celebrating our 125th anniversary as we dedicate our newly remodeled sanctuary. It’s not really that big of a deal. Okay, we remodeled. It’s a building. But the change and the attitude it’s causing in our church is remarkable. We’re doing things now organically that we attempted to encourage ourselves almost two years ago. The dreams we had, the things I was trying to encourage, are happening, and I’m not the one that’s leading the change. It’s our leaders! It’s the Joshuas in our congregation. And all the while, I’ve been standing back full of delight, atop Mount Nebo, encouraged by God in what he is doing through everyone and getting to see the people I love, the people I lead, and the people I’ve been through quite a bit with, begin to enter that Promised Land.

It’s a New Day!

Build for the Future or Remedy the Present?

One of the most common pieces of criticism that I receive when I’m talking with my leaders goes something like this: “Well, we don’t need that now.”

It has its different forms according to different contexts, but it all sounds like the same thing to me.

“But we’re not this big church like the others to need something like that.”

And I can hear this criticism constructively at times. Sometimes I get a little beyond myself or a little carried away. BUT, I don’t think my ideas are too lofty.

One of the interesting aspects of working with a church that has been the same size for many years and now fears decline is how it fails to think about building for the future. Instead, it only looks for an easy remedy for the present. One of the churches I served previously I nicknamed the “church of quick fixes” because it never thought about the long term affects of their decisions. It was only what could get them by for the moment. Their building showed for it, let alone their ministry and goofy governing structure. That church was a mess!

From time to time I stop and ask myself, are the complaints or push-backs of my congregation wise, constructive, helpful comments, or complaints of a child that wants their way, rather than what is best for them? Is what I’m encouraging something I want or something the church needs? Am I the one off base here or is this in line with what God is doing?

It’s been hard. There have been a few times the answers to those questions have been on each side. I’ve adjusted when times have warranted. Other times, I’ve kept on track with what I felt God was doing despite the reluctance of the congregation. Some of those times, recently, have turned out to our benefit. We’re now in a better place with some things because I didn’t listen to the congregation and went ahead with what we were doing anyway.

Knowing when and when not to listen is a very tricky thing and requires an intense amount of prayer and reflection. But the point is, which is more beneficial while leading a church? To build for the future or remedy the present. In my mind, I think you must always build for the future, because God’s plans are eternal. Within that building, sometimes the present becomes a concern and decisions must be made for the present that align with the building of the future. If they don’t, we’ve wasted some valuable resources.

Prescripted vs. Reactionary Leadership

WARNING: This blog is a bit more nerdy than normal!

I’m in the middle of organizing the second leadership retreat I’ve facilitated at my current church. The first I structured according to the parameters set forth by a class I was taking at Huntington University. This second retreat is going to focus on a paradigm shift I’m trying to introduce to our church leadership. The intent is that its structure is patterned accordingly.

A number of years ago, this church decided that it needed to change significantly in its approach, or it would die in 20 years or less. They began making structural adjustments to prepare for activity and focus changes. I came on board in the middle of those structural adjustments. For the past 3 years we have been “cleaning house”. This has included several facility upgrades and repairs, changes to the by-laws and constitution, as well as shifting a paradigm in the role of the Sr. Pastor. Ministry teams were created, people have been encouraged to serve more and we have done at least three campaigns, that I can remember, from financial to discipleship, to encourage our minds to think about appropriate things that will allow for these changes. Now that most of the house is tidy, we can start having “parties” or events that encourage people to get excited about certain activities that are important to us. All of this work has been subtle at times, seemingly unnecessary at times, but critical for the position we’re now in to make big change.

One of the circumstances that continues to face us is the impending change our society is seeing. The situation in America has given us a perfect opportunity to begin having our first party: riding the wave that we’ve found has come our way. President Obama and several other trends in America have permitted volunteer service to become a little more than a fad, but something with which to find personal value and significance. Our church is slowly realizing that we have the opportunity to make an impact on Main Street in our community—more than we’ve ever had in the past, even when our church was literally located on Main St. Since the Church in America has found its place on more of the alleys than in the prime areas in our society, this is a big deal to us. There is a rising generation in our society that is passionate about making a difference in their world.

Which leads me to the point I’d like to make with this entry. In the past, our church had been accustomed to what I’m calling “Prescripted Leadership,” or deciding what to do and then getting people to buy into it and attend. We would make the decisions, the choices, the activities, the programs, and then people would be faced with the decision as to whether or not it was for them—churched and unchurched. An unfortunate outcome of this paradigm has been asking God to bless our plans after we make them all while validating our poor choices as “God’s Will” because we’ve taken the moment to proceed with the act of prayer during the planning process. This is the same way I organized the previous leadership retreat and found little support or “buy-in” after the fact. It felt natural for everybody, but that only shows what we’ve been doing was more common than deliberate.

The shift that I’ll be working with during this retreat is to flip things completely around. Instead of planning the year and hoping God redeems our fallible work, we’re beginning by centering our minds and hearts around what God is doing in us, then turning our attention to what God is beginning to do amidst us as a result of our love for Him. This comes with the premise that God is already up to something, why should we work outside that? Why not join in and follow His lead? This is what I call “Reactionary Leadership.” This is not to be confused with the type of leadership that has no direction and wanders aimlessly trying to react to various “God moments” around us.

The paradigm change we’ll follow is one I’ve learned from Alan Hirsch. Alan is a strong proponent of a model that begins with our understanding of Jesus. Once we’ve understood how Jesus affects us, that should shape how we function in mission, particularly the mission of God—the same one Jesus followed. That mission, if we truly own it and are compelled by it, should significantly influence the way we assemble and function as churches. What I’ve found, and Hirsch has explained in detail in his book, is that we’ve somehow managed to get things backwards. Instead of the proper order, (Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology), we’ve set up our churches and determined how they should be run, then we decide how to reach out to the world based on how we like to do things, and then fit Jesus somewhere in there to speak to validate what we’ve planned (Ecclesiology > Missiology > Christology). This comes through tradition and just growing accustomed to a certain way of doing things. Though Hirsch claims it’s a negative thing, I just think it’s the way things have become—much like my church with all our recent repairs.

Therefore, with our spirit-led Vision in one hand, and our Bible in the other, we’re going to explore where God may be leading our particular church in participating in the transformation that He is causing in our nation. It should be a wild ride, full of unexpected turns and surprises. But for the Boomers and those who like things structured, we’ll stick to the course we’ve been on and hopefully as God renews his Goodness in our day, he’ll remember mercy.

Can the Church partner with Obama?

After watching the Presidential Inauguration today, I have to be a little bit excited about the way America will change in the next four years. Much of Obama’s strategy lies with the masses and how people will step up in service for our country in a very grassroots style. There has never been a better national surge toward volunteer service as of late than now. The reason I’m excited is because our new President is preparing the ground for the church to lead the way toward making a difference in our world in the name of Jesus Christ through service and through following the mission of God.

As we study Living a Life on Loan at my church, we are learning about how each of us are created to do good works, those works that God not only created us for, but prepared in advance for us to do.

My discussion question this week is this: How does Obama’s presidency and what we are learning in Living a Life on Loan (or more generally, about being a missional church) encourage you to step forward with your life on loan? In other words, from the similarities you see in Obama’s service strategy and the Life on Loan premise (or Missional), what do you feel God is calling you to do? How is He encouraging you to respond?

More importantly though, how do you think President Obama is preparing the way for the church to take the lead in bringing radical transformation to America? Is it time for our churches to open our doors, let out the people (airing our stuffy buildings out a bit), and show them how to lead America through Kingdom values? Is this finally our opportunity to go back to Main Street and be recognized as a healthy power once again? Is this the prayer being answered about our churches being relevant to our communities once again? Is this God saying, “Church, it’s time for you to be busy about my will”? Is this God helping us finally do what he Commissioned us to do after we’ve failed to do it for so long?

I think it might very well be!

Congregant upset with Emergent Pastor

Someone in my church emailed me this interesting perspective on the Emergent Church today. It’s about a pastor who as hired to lead an existing congregation and how his “emergent” nature frustrated a particular congregant to the point that they left the church. First is the link to the article and then my reply after reading it.

Memoirs of an Emergent Church Victim

The article, from the first read, sounds to be more about a congregant’s issue with the new pastor, rather than things of the emergent church and so forth. The other thing I thought was interesting is the way Heidi describes the most important things to her for a healthy church. She says nothing that alludes to active faith, rather something where she can sit and soak, “pew potato” some have called them. From my eyes (and mind-ear), reading her words slightly frustrated me because she seemed to be complaining about the wrong thing. At its core, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the EC; it’s another way for people to connect with God and grow in him relationally–using some of the more traditional methods of the past and fusing them with some of the modern methods. I thought it was humorous that she wasn’t happy that someone liked Henri Nouwen and contemplative prayer. How can you argue about prayer!

But I also understand how she could be upset with a new pastor that comes in and changes everything drastically, abandoning everything that has been important to the congregation up to that point. There’s always room for tact when making changes. Heidi has plenty of ground to complain in this aspect and the new pastor should have listened more before he bulldozed everything.

Pastors that do this should plant churches instead. What they really intend to do is plant churches, though they may not voice this or realize this, while taking over the resources of an existing church in order to fund and support the church that pastor really feels called to plant. To these guys I say, “Get off your butt, stop stealing from the existing church. Go out, raise the funds and support you need, and plant the church you have in mind from scratch. Don’t take down an existing congregation to do what you feel you need to do at their expense.”

I think where the Church has failed miserably in the past 100 years is to understand that the Reformation freed us from strictly one mode of worshipping the same God. Both Heidi, the author, and the new pastor are guilty of this. There are different expressions of Christianity, different ways to worship, and different denominations that emphasize different aspects of Christianity. To claim that some don’t do it right and should be talked bad against is participation in the same sin that we found in the 1500s. Unless they are teaching something that the Bible clearly speaks against, but just another light for living out that scripture, why are we so quick to fight among ourselves? The spiritual battle that wars in our midst should not be a Civil War.

Mormons, I have a problem with. JW’s I have a problem with. They are certainly not teaching the right things. We should speak out against them. Oprah and her club, they water down the Gospel to a point where it has become pretty near Universalism and I have a problem with that. But there are others, Assembly of God, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, Episcopals, Lutherans, Reforms, they are all very different in practice and even belief than my own Brethren tradition, but I know what they teach. They are able to change lives to point people to Christ and that honors God. So even though I don’t completely agree with them, and would never attend their churches, I’m not going to write things like Heidi did about them to warn people that their salvation could be in check if they attend. That’s not what’s going on here. What’s going on is a disregard for people within the Body of Christ and an “I’m right, you’re wrong,” type of childish attitude among church people. This is what the world watches and doesn’t want any part of.

If the Church is in Civil War, who will want to be part of that?

Creativity Under Pressure

I thought this recent article by Ben McConnell was excellent! He’s doing some fascinating work researching the effects of word of mouth marketing. In his mind, the Big 3 would have been more effective had they taken advantage of the free marketing from word of mouth before arriving in Washington, than making a quick flight and avoiding their customers.

It forced me to reflect: how have I done this very thing? I’ve avoided those I’m trying to reach by flying over their heads to get to where I think I need to be, rather than traveling in, through, and among those I’m trying to reach, picking up their stories all along the way, which informs and supports what I’m trying to do in the first place.

The church’s hands are still too clean. They need to get a little more poop on them to be credible.

Grassroots Mobility

I think it’s remarkable how Obama has become our next President. Not necessarily his politics, but the campaign process he used to inform and encourage America to vote for him. He mobilized community groups to volunteer, to give, and to take action for the campaign. In a day when finding volunteers in the church is a tremendous chore, we find people volunteering with an election with generous enthusiasm…and they’re ready to support the President-elect now by taking ownership in his Presidency. They’re ready to respond and help the President out on a local level like never before. That’s what I think is remarkable.

Which has got me wondering… What does this tell us about mobilizing people on a grassroots level? What does this have to say about sharing the Gospel and reaching the Lost? What does this have to say about doing ministry and making a difference in our communities?

I have a few things in mind, and I’d be interested in hearing what others come to yours.

1. People will serve when it makes a difference for the good of society.
2. Sharing the Gospel and reaching the Lost seems to be a chore, but if it is portrayed as something that really matters for the greater good, it can find enthusiasm.
3. Doing ministry just to maintain something that has little distinctive relevance won’t gain a following. Doing ministry that is exciting, a bit edgy or rebellious (Change!), and can be owned, will find the most dedicated support.

Others?

FAT Christians

The following is the sermon I preached on Father’s Day, 2008.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are fat people!

Currently, about 31%, or about 59 million people, are obese, which is defined as roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight. Almost 65% are either obese or overweight, 10 to 30 pounds over a healthy weight, which increases their chances of developing diabetes, heart disease, some types of cancer and a host of other health problems.

Television shows result from things Americans are interested in or can identify with. They don’t determine American culture, they respond to it and then exploit it. I wonder why we have a new reality series called “The Biggest Loser!” ? Could it be because people are already struggling with losing weight, understand the difficulties overweight people have, and like to see others struggling with the same issues they identify with? They wouldn’t have the show if thousands upon thousands of people can’t relate.

According to one of the top obesity researchers, at the rate we’re going, nearly 4 out of 10 adults in the USA will be obese within five years if people keep packing on pounds–putting their health at risk.

More and more children in our schools are diabetics—to the point where they could use a diabetic support group at our very own Bryan Middle School!

We think about exercising and eating right, but that’s inconvenient. It takes a lot of effort and commitment! So we go back to what’s comfortable, sitting in our comfy chairs and feeding our faces.

When I was in high school, I worked at a very fancy restaurant. A table for two could very easily cost you in the ballpark of $100. Fine dining. Very fine dining.

One evening I was working alongside our chef. A man ordered a steak “well-done.” Now, you must understand, in a fine restaurant like ours, you should know never to order a steak this way. It cooks all of the blood out of the meat which is its primary source of flavor. It made our chef irritated, but he cooked it his best anyway and sent it out.

The man cut off one bite, and sent it back. “Not cooked enough.” This made our chef even more irritated. He threw it on the grill and cooked it some more, then sent it out. …It came back. “Not cooked enough.” By now our chef was furious. He slammed the steak on the grill, put his long-handled flipper on top of the meat, and then put his foot on the handle pressing the meat into the grill as hard as he could until every ounce of juice was drained out of it in a flash of flames. He then took the steak, placed it on a plate, stuck it in the microwave, cooked it some more, and then sent it out with some choice words.

Towards the end of the evening, the man told his waitress, as many customers often did, to tell the chef that it was the best dinner he had ever had!

Customer service: If I don’t get it my way, I complain. It’s about ME! I’m the center of my world!

This is the same attitude that has dominated our culture and has found its way into our churches. Yep, same people inside these walls as on the outside. We aren’t any different. The culture doesn’t disappear at the door.

We are FAT! We continually feed our faces of Christian material: bible study, Sunday worship, Daily Bread, email, Christian books, Christian movies, newsletters, magazines, television, you name it. We’re so full of it that we should have indigestion.

Here’s the PROBLEM: We’ve become consumers. We’re too much about us getting fed and too little about exercising our faith. We treat church like consumers. “If I don’t get the services I want, then I complain to the manager (ME!). If I don’t get a visit from the pastor, I’m not getting my money’s worth. If we don’t sing songs I like, then I’m going somewhere else. If the vote doesn’t go my way, then I’m leaving.”

We’ve spent our time making sure we’ve provided the right services that people want to consume. We’ve worried about doing other things in church because of the fear we have that comes from how we think our people may respond!

–We can do all the right things, but if we’re all about ourselves, less and less people are going to care about us anymore!

“We once were called Christians by an unbelieving world and now we call ourselves Christians and they call us hypocrites.” –Erwin McManus

Today is Father’s Day, but according to the stats I’ve found for Williams County, very few of us actually have a father worth celebrating. We have the second highest divorce rate in Ohio, 46% of the births last year were to single moms, and a large chunk of those young children don’t even have a dad mentioned on their birth certificate. What’s happening? Something has gone incredibly wrong! And this isn’t because people aren’t in church. There are over 80 churches in our county. People know what the church believes about these things. But knowing and living are two different issues. And these rates aren’t exempt in our churches. Church people are just as likely to have divorces, if not more likely.

When did we lose focus as a church? When did it become all about us, satisfying us? As this FAT culture grows, we’ve missed something. We’ve missed the change our society has made. We, and almost all of our Brethren Churches, have shifted from a church “on mission” to a church that supports missions, and even some of our churches don’t even really support missions! We have a mission field in our front yard and very few of us feel called to missions! What happened?

What then does it mean to be a Transformed Congregation?

What does it mean to be a transformed people?

What does it mean to be a church that has a mission to transform our community?

Something’s gotta give!

Acts 3:1-10: 1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

How often do we deal with something in our life that isn’t right?

It’s bothersome, inconvenient, a struggle we can’t shake. Most often, we just learn to deal with it. Much like a physical condition, we learn to manage the symptoms.

Over time, our prayers turn from, “God remove this thorn from me,” to “Lord, give me peace from the pain.” “Lord, let us be blessed as a church” is actually us saying, “Lord, don’t let our church die out completely.” We just want to survive, rather than make a difference or have an offensive campaign to radically rock the world of the unchurched in our community.

Church on fire? We’re satisfied with just seeing a few sparks now and then, maybe a little smoke to go along with it. We’re afraid of getting burned if it did set on fire!

Have we lost sight of the fact that God wants to radically remove that thorn from us completely! What Jesus wants to give us is beyond what we think we need for ourselves!

So many of us struggle with being a face-feeding fat Christian!

We need Peters and Johns in our life to tell us, “No, you don’t need money, you don’t need silver or gold, you need a new life! You need Healing! You need Jesus to radically rock your world! So in the name of Jesus I give it to you!” Wouldn’t you like that?

When will we, those of us in this room, begin to be bold enough to grant people the Power of Jesus that is within us? When will we get off our lazy butts, turn off the TV, stop feeding our own hunger and doing something about the Spirit of God that’s within us and sustain that commitment to living a transformed life, exercising our faith, rather than consuming it.

Good NEWS: Did you know that you possess the ability already to do this sort of thing? That’s what Peter’s talking about in v. 11-26.

Acts 3:11-26:11While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.

17“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ^[a] would suffer. 19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’^[b]

24“Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. 25And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’^[c] 26When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

You have it within you to be powerful! You have it within you to make a difference!

If you have received Christ as your Savior, the old way of life is gone, you are a new creation. And as a new creation, you have the Spirit of Power within you to bring about Heaven here on earth, to experience great and tremendous things. To see people being healed, to see the poor redeemed, to see injustice fade away, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and excite the downtrodden.

IT’S IN YOU!

IT’S IN YOU!

You already possess it!

God is ready to make it happen!

It’s time to stop managing symptoms and get rid of your problems altogether.

It’s time to stop maintaining a church organization and start firing up the Body of Christ as an organism!

John 5:2-9:

2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.^[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

We are asking the wrong questions!

Jesus didn’t ask him “can I help you get in the pool” he asked, “do you want to get well?” The man was too focused on himself to realize that he could be rid of his invalidity for good!

The Spirit of Power is about how God wants to bless us beyond what we can think of or what we think the solution to our problems may be. But for some reason, we don’t trust God beyond what is comfortable for us.

We’re FAT! We know there’s a better life available to us, we just don’t have the desire to go get it!

Do you think God wants to bless you? Why don’t you let him instead of telling Him how to do it.

Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Folks, you don’t need money, you don’t need silver or gold, you need a new life! You need Healing! You need Jesus to radically rock your world! So in the name of Jesus I give it to you!

What are you dealing with? What’s your hang up? In what ways are you an invalid?

Would you like to get better?

Where is our church’s ministry falling short? Where are we suffering from atrophy? In what ways have we disconnected with the culture around us (where are the young people)?

Would you like to see the Spirit move in POWER?

Would you like to see our church reaching out in mission?

Will you exercise your faith?

Will you stand up and do what makes our church healthy, rather than sitting back and complaining about what isn’t tickling your fancy?

God promises that we have within us the ability and the Power of the Holy Spirit to reach out and bring forth God’s Kingdom as his people. Are you ready to be used and let the Power of the Holy Spirit move through you?

Take it. Receive it. Use it. The Power of God is at your fingertips. Are you going to welcome it into your life through the name of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and was raised again on the third day so you can have access to the Father, the Spirit of Power?

I am.