It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us…like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

May we all stop being so easily pleased.

…when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.

What do you think of that definition?

Do you think doing that is political? Smart? Necessary to survive in the workplace? Just plain cowardly? Something else?

Curious to hear your thoughts!

As we’re going through this series “MOVE,” you’re going to hear a lot about systems and practices that we’re examining here at NPC. As a group leader, this is “right in your wheelhouse” as I like to say. You guys ARE the “system” for spiritual growth and development at NPC…and when I forget about that, I get seriously pissed off.

Why?

Because when I start to think that I can “mass produce” disciples, or that in some way we can put a system behind creating authentic spirituality, or there’s a short-cut to becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ, there is only 1 place I’m going to end up: Complete and utter disappointment.

The reality is that spiritual growth isn’t systematic. It’s organic. I know, I know…”organic” what does that buzzword even mean? It just means that spiritual growth isn’t a “Do A, then B, then C, then…” type of approach. And our 21st century, post-modern, western civilization minds have a very hard time with that.

We want steps.

We want action plans.

We want X, Y, Z.

We want to put people through a spiritual wringer, have it squeeze out all the crap, put a bunch of Bible knowledge and humility in its place, and then have them come out squeaky clean the other side.

But that’s not what we have in the Bible.

Instead we have this Jesus who doesn’t say, “Hey guys, come check out this 7 point plan,” he says instead “Follow me.”

As we follow him, like the disciples we will have times where we’re going forward and gaining ground in our faith…and times when we’re falling backwards.

As a group leader, it’s so frustrating to see the people you care about doing that. I personally just want to grab a hold of them to make things better…to try to give them some sort of “do this, then that, then this” advice…

But it’s just not the way Jesus works.

Instead, I need to be constantly pointing them back to him. Not to some system. Directing people to the God they should be walking with, spending time with, following and learning from.

As a group leader, so should you.

And for those of us who want to take the people in our group, or in our church, and physically “move” them to the next phase of their spiritual growth…that is mindbogglingly frustrating.

Yes, we should be equipping people. Yes we should be helping to create communities where they can connect with other believers in life giving relationships. Yes we should have opportunities for them to learn and grow and stretch and serve.

But at the end of the day, none of that changes lives. Jesus does.

Screw everything else, and just spend your time pointing people back to him. Over and over again.

I wonder if it’s ok for a guy who works at a church to say that he feels very hostile when people use scripture in conversation?

It got several retweets, a few likes, and a dozen comments or so on the Facebook. But it also got a few of my friends to ask me about what it meant, some public & some private.

I think they’re right, it deserves clarification and can easily be misinterpreted at first glance.

What I did NOT mean

In no way am I hostile TO scripture. I’m not offended by hearing the Bible recited. I think that reading the Bible, and wrestling with it (discussing it) with others, is one of the most important things you can do to grow in your faith. I think, if anything, more of us suffer from scripture ignorance as opposed to having an abundance of scripture knowledge.

Too many of us make dangerous errors when we read or interpret scripture, such as:

• Reading it outside of community. The reality is that most books of the Bible were written to groups of people…not individuals. So to think that the Bible is just between “us and God” can be a very dangerous practice.
• Ignoring the context of the passage. This is where clobber verses come from. The ones that are used to beat people over the head. No good, people!
• Ignoring how the original audience would have understood it. Everything in the Bible was written to (and by) specific people at a specific point in history to address specific things. If you don’t try to understand how the original audience would have received it, and instead focus on how we in the 21st century receive it, I believe you’re doing an injustice to the meaning.
• Ignoring the supporting documents. This goes a bit in hand with the last point. Especially when we talk of the New Testament, there is a world of literature that would have influenced the mindset of the people hearing the new information. For one…ya know…the Old Testament. I think the best way to understand much of the NT (especially the writings of Paul) the best thing you could do is have a firmer understanding of the OT.

What I DID mean

That thought was born out of a long line of conversations with people who seem to just throw scripture verses into a conversation for either: bad reasons, or no reason at all.

It seems to be incredibly easy to take a verse (or passage) from the Bible, and just leverage it to validate whatever position you’re already a fan of in the first place.

THAT is what I am hostile towards. Or maybe a better way to put it instead of hostility, is that is what I feel a discontent from.

Manipulating scripture to validate ourselves. As opposed to letting it ignite something in us that brings us to a new point in our lives. Instead of having it create some discontent with who we are vs who God is calling us to be, we have a tendency to use scripture like it’s some sort of tool (or for way too many of us, a weapon).

Does that hostility make a bit more sense? Do you ever experience something of the same?

Yep. Facebook.

She went on to tell me that she never heard of North Point before, but it seemed to keep popping up all the time on Facebook: friends’ statuses, videos they’d post, quotes, links, etc. Since I do our web & social media for North Point, hearing that from someone who went from 2 months ago not being in NPC to now being so into it that she was interviewing to be a group leader was pretty awesome.

Then she drops a big one on me: When her family came to North Point, it was the first time she (or her husband) had been to church in 13 years. And not only that, she has begun “dragging her friends” (as she puts it) to NPC as well. And they’re digging it. She even brought one of them along to her group leader interview, and invited her to be her co-leader (much to her friend’s surprise, hilariously).

Even though I know how important Facebook is to spreading the word about a church, how big social sharing is between friends, how people check out a church on Facebook before they even show up for the 1st time…it’s still good to meet someone that solidifies what I already know.

Facebook is kinda a big deal.

Probably some baseball stats you’ve heard before…or at least vaguely referenced. The whole point being that in trying to swing for the fences, a lot of times you’ll strikeout.

Or as I heard it said recently, “If failure isn’t an option, success isn’t either.”

Obviously a Ruth had a lot going for him to allow the failures. Namely, a coach who put up with it. Think of how Ruth’s hitting strategy would have changed, had he been punished for his strikeouts. I’d imagine few of us would have any idea who he even was.

But his coach realized Ruth could produce great things…if he was also allowed to produce horrible things.

It’s just a matter of interpretation whether it’s worth tolerating the bad outcomes in order to get the good outcomes.

Of course, you need to be able to hit home runs for someone to put up with all your strikeouts in the first place.

Maybe you’ve been at that point sometime in the past. You were passionately involved, but the responsibilities/demands just kept increasing. Things at home got more complicated, your real job was still demanding, the rest of life didn’t want to slow down and allow your volunteering to take on a life of its own. Eventually you were looking at a few main aspects of your life; maybe just family, volunteering, and your job…and realizing that one of these 3 needed to go. That you just couldn’t handle it anymore. So you let one go, and we all know which of the 3 it was.

The other day as I was lounging around on a couch in the office working diligently reviewing some small group curriculum, I started to think about burnout. Causes, solutions, systems to help prevent it or alleviate it, etc. I then scribbled all these things on our giant white board…it looked a bit absurd. But I wanted to share with you a list I composed of the causes of burnout.

I think that you can never solve a problem until you properly understand it. And I’m trying desperately to understand it. I see what happens to people when they get burned out…and I am unwilling to be a cause. So I need to make sure I’m not doing things that lead to burnout.

Causes of burnout (a not-so-thorough list)

• People are not valued. If we’re honest, the rest of this list is just an exercise in expanding upon this one overarching theme
• People feel/are used
• They’re not appreciated
• They’re not communicated with
• Feel like they’re just a name to fill a slot
• Or a number to fill a roster
• They’re given too many tasks
• They’re pulled in too many different directions
• They’re given unclear expectations (if any at all)
• They’re given responsibility, and not authority
• Feel they have no ownership of their work
• And no control for that matter
• The environment they serve in is chaotic
• They’re not respected
• They are surrounded by negativity

*Edits: These next points were added from people on twitter/facebook/comments, thanks!*

• Felt that they were only valued because they were completing tasks
• Volunteers were matched with the wrong job, didn’t play to their strengths & passions
• Improper or insufficient training for the volunteer who was leading them
• Overcommitment. The feeling that you need/want to do everything at church
• Lack of help

For me, many of those issues hit close to home. I’ve felt in the past (in some ways still feel) many of them. I know where they lead. And I’m not ok with that happening.

Curious to hear your thoughts. Have you experienced burnout before…or seen someone who has? Do you have some things to add to this list? Let me know!

If you want to build an equipping church, you have to tear down the idol of excellence. Why? Because most people are not excellent; most people are not extraordinary. Most people are ordinary. If you’re going to do ministry through ordinary people, you have to give up the notion of excellence.

If your highest value is excellence, then you aren’t going to entrust ministry to ordinary people. You are going to go out and find the very best people. You won’t risk putting a developing person into a significant role either, because you don’t want to compromise excellence.

This quote raised a lot of questions for me.

• How do maintain a high quality standard while providing people room to fail?
• Can people fail without destroying the standard of excellence?
• Am I overlooking what people can grow into because I focus so much on who can get me the best results right now?
• How unfaithful is that?
• How much ministry do I NOT entrust to other people because I feel that I will do it better myself?
• How unfaithful is that?
• Do I make demands on people to be excellent…to be extraordinary…before they can be empowered to “do ministry” on my team?
• How many developing people am I leaving out because I’m not putting them into significant roles?

What kind of questions does that quote bring out for you? Or does it provide some answers?

Get on with it already The entries have to be in by Friday, March 4th!