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GOALS, Pt.5 [guest blogger: Rob Willis]
Posted by: | CommentsI recently started a blog series called, GOALS. I have invited some of my friends, mentors, and flat out some of the GREATEST LEADERS IN THE COUNTRY to help me blog on this subject.
My current guest blogger is Rob Willis from The Journey Church in Rochester, NH. Pastor Rob started his amazing thoughts on GOALS in a previous post, let me continue his thoughts here:
WHY SHOULD WE ATTACH NUMBERS TO OUR GOALS?
Numbers – everyone can get hung up on numbers. I’ve heard it said (even about the church I lead), “This church is all about numbers!” Well, yeah, it is. Numbers do matter – but not for the sake of determining our success so much as understanding God’s heart. Quick, Bible scholars – how many men did Jesus feed with 5 loaves and 2 fish? How many were saved and added to the church on the Day of Pentecost? How many apostles are there? How many books in the Bible are named Numbers J? You see, God cares about numbers because NUMBERS REPRESENT PEOPLE that He cares about!
So if NUMBERS are important to God (and they are), then we can set goals with NUMBERS and not be ashamed of it! When I would like to have 500 for Easter Sunday, it’s not because I want people to think I’m a wonderful pastor. No – numbers are all wrong then. It’s because that 500 people who will have a chance to connect with Jesus Christ and take great faith steps that day – and YES, that’s ALL RIGHT! Numbers matter to God, but not for the sake of building us up (see 1 Corinthians 1:31 for those who want to take all the credit). Numbers matter to God because people matter.
A Church Jesus Wants to Be In, Pt.1
Posted by: | CommentsNow I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (Mat 16:18 NLT)
I love this piece of teaching from Jesus. The part I want to highlight is “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH”.
Number one: Jesus will build HIS Church
The Church belongs to Jesus, He purchased her with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Jesus is the Senior Pastor of The Dialogue Church and I get to be His under-shepherd.
The Church belongs to Jesus; the Church does not belong to the government, so how could the “laws of the land” keep the church from growing (they couldn’t in the 1st century even when they were persecuting Christ-followers; the early followers of Jesus just spread the gospel all the more during their persecution and consequently the church grew all the more). Some people fear “hate speech” laws being implemented because it seems as if preachers would go to prison for preaching what the bible has to say about certain topics. Even though our “freedom of speech” rights be violated by our own government it CAN’T STOP THE GOSPEL AND THE CHURCH OF JESUS FROM DOING WHAT GOD HAS CALLED HER TO DO. Although, I will vote for “laws” that help protect our freedom of speech (by the way – this includes allowing people to speak freely against the gospel too), it is not the laws of the land that make the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST UNSTOPPABLE. JESUS MAKES THE CHURCH UNSTOPPABLE. I am praying that Jesus will do the UNSTOPPABLE here in our city and through our church (and network of churches). Honestly, without persecution how do we know when the church is being unstoppable? The government can not contain the work of Jesus, no matter how “anti-human” the laws may be. So, stop fearing and start trusting in the unstoppable Jesus!
The Church does not belong to ME. There is no human personality big enough or strong enough to contain the entire work of Jesus Christ. There is no single human personality (or preacher) so important that Jesus can’t go on without him or her. This doesn’t mean that the role of pastor and preacher isn’t important (it is vitally important – the Holy Spirit appoints pastors for a reason – to lead and feed the flock of God). But when a preacher fails morally or gives up on the mission of the cross; the Church of Jesus still goes on. A black eye may be delivered (and I hate it when a preacher fails) but the church belongs to Jesus, and since He never fails, the church will conquer, the church will win in the end. No preacher (or person for that matter) is irreplaceable.
Convenience vs Conviction, Pt.2
Posted by: | CommentsWhoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:56-57 NIV)
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66 NIV)
In the last post we talked about how we can choose to feed on greed instead of on Jesus Christ, the only source of Divine and Eternal Life. We can choose to feed on a lot of things that we think will satisfy or bring pleasure, or even comfort in this life, but only when we feed on Jesus can we lay hold on LIFE WITH GOD.
Let me get back to an earlier thought, “the way in which Jesus says this truth is significant”. Jesus uses the metaphor of flesh and blood. The immediate thought conjurs up images of cannabilism or something worse. There is no doubt that there were groups in Jesus’ day that believed in such strange and evil practices as drinking blood and eating human flesh, but Jesus is NOT going there. Jesus is saying that we must spiritually eat His flesh and drink His blood – meaning we must fully accept His death and sacrifice on the cross. We must fully accept who He is and what He has done for us. We must invite the Incarnate Son of God to infiltrate our insides in order to morph us from the inside out.
Jesus knew what this would sound like to his original hearers, but He said it anyway. I love how Jesus is never afraid to speak the truth – that is definitely the direction I want to lead our faith community in. That is the direction that I want to go in, but at times I know that I am fearful of what others will think. I am fearful that others may leave if I speak the truth in such plain and direct language.
What Jesus said was absolutely true and absolutely led of God’s Spirit, something that I pray for every day and every week as I prepare and deliver messages from the Bible at The Dialogue Church (www.thedialoguechurch.com). But it was still MISUNDERSTOOD by some. There were those in the crowd who did not take the time to investigate Jesus any further. Maybe they were there to get something from Jesus: a miracle, a healing, a quick fix. There were those who probably got what Jesus said, but STRAIGHT UP REJECTED CHRIST. Isn’t that crazy? So many people today talk about how they would be so much more faithful to God if they had just walked when Jesus walked, but I can tell you that the WAY YOU ARE NOW, IS THE WAY YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN THEN, BECAUSE THE SAME JESUS THAT WALKED BACK THEN IS THE SAME JESUS THAT IS ALIVE NOW. The Holy Spirit lives within believers, that is a whole lot more intimate than walking next to Jesus, WE HAVE JESUS INSIDE OF US!
As we continue to lift up Jesus and let Him transform our faith community and our hearts from the inside out we must remember that THE TRUTH WILL COST US. There will be those who MISUNDERSTAND our leadership and our message from Jesus. They will either seek to fight us or flee from us (hopefully the latter). They may even try to rally some troops against us, twisting what we say for their own personal gain. Then there will be those who BAIL ON JESUS. There will be those who totally get what Jesus is saying but they don’t want to give up their own personal agenda, sin, comforts and conveniences.
