"Take Me to Your Leader!"

Evil

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956)

Better than 90% is Not Enough!

The US poverty threshold for a family of four is approximately $22,000 a year.

Earning $22,000 a year places you in the top 10% of households worldwide.

Seems like a disconnect to me!

The US poverty threshold is much lower than what allows people to receive public assistance of some kind or another. In our area, a family of four can qualify for help with utilities, health care (of course this will be changing), and food, if they make less than $45,000 a year.

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$45K !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...and it's not enough!

Leadership Video: Intro

Series Introduction



Part 1 Introduction

The Master's Plan

In giving himself to God, Jesus gave himself to those about Him so that they might come to know through His life a similar commitment to the mission for which he had come into the world. His whole evangelistic plan hinged on this dedication, and in turn, the faithfulness with which his disciples gave themselves in love to the world around them.

Integrity

"Integrity would mean, among other things, that you don’t have to run different processes in your life—that you’re transparent and all parts of who you are hang together, are consistent, so you don’t have to keep parts of yourself hidden."

Dallas Willard (Click on the title link for the whole article)

Disciples or Customers

"The reason several thousand volunteers do what they do ... is because those volunteers understand that we're not simply parking cars, we're not simply taking care of kids ... we're creating irresistible environments. When people come into those environments, there's kind of an ‘aha’ moment as they begin to connect with not a church, and not a message, and certainly not a person, but they begin to connect with the relevance of the gospel and the relevance of Scripture as it relates to their everyday experience."

A Famous American Megachurch Pastor

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While I admit, I want to play the same game. I want to gather crowds who affirm my calling and ministry by nodding and smiling at appropriate moments, and giving their energy and money to my vision for their lives. But, I have to question a system that defines 'spiritual success' as people being provided with 'irresistable environments' by virtue of scratching their consumer itch.

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"Whoever wants to be my student must be nailed to a piece of wood and left for dead."

A Famous Palestinian Revolutionary

Repentance

"Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor--that is the only way out of our 'hole'. This process of surrender--this movement full speed astern--is what Christians call repentance."

C. S. Lewis

Repentance

"Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen."

C. S. Lewis

Repentance

"Mark 1:15 “Jesus then came into Galilee announcing the Good News from God. ‘All the preliminaries have been taken care of,’ he said, ‘and the rule of God is now accessible to everyone. Review your plans for living and base your life on this remarkable new opportunity.”
This is a call for us to reconsider how we have been approaching our life, in light of the fact that we now, in the presence of Jesus, have the option of living within the surrounding movements of God’s eternal purposes, of taking our life into His life."

Dallas Willard

True Wisdom

"EVERY man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars. He who knows himself well becomes mean in his own eyes and is not happy when praised by men.
If I knew all things in the world and had not charity, what would it profit me before God Who will judge me by my deeds?
Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.
Many words do not satisfy the soul; but a good life eases the mind and a clean conscience inspires great trust in God.
The more you know and the better you understand, the more severely will you be judged, unless your life is also the more holy. Do not be proud, therefore, because of your learning or skill. Rather, fear because of the talent given you. If you think you know many things and understand them well enough, realize at the same time that there is much you do not know. Hence, do not affect wisdom, but admit your ignorance. Why prefer yourself to anyone else when many are more learned, more cultured than you?
If you wish to learn and appreciate something worth while, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing. Truly to know and despise self is the best and most perfect counsel. To think of oneself as nothing, and always to think well and highly of others is the best and most perfect wisdom. Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself."

Thomas a Kempis

A Parable

If you didn't already read this, then make sure you do!

His Mystical Body

“When Christ was here on earth, He was limited to performing His ministry in one place and at one time. He was one man, walking beside one sea in one little corner of the earth. He healed whomever He touched, but His touch was necessarily limited by time and space. Now, does it make sense that the Father would send His Son for this limited ministry? I don’t think that is tenable. He made provision to carry on the work through the Holy Spirit: we are to complete His mission. We are His multiplied hands, His feet, His voice and compassionate heart. Imperfect and partial to be sure, but His healing body just the same. And it is through the Holy Spirit (Christ’s love which is everywhere at once) that we receive the power to carry on the work of the apostles. It is a challenging and sobering thought: when we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives, we receive the same urgent and life-giving force that led our Master.”

Frank Laubach

Easter Discomfort

Easter should be more disquieting than Good Friday.

Good Friday is a celebration of torture and death. Even more, it is the celebration of the torture and death of the only Good Man, God's own Son. For this reason we are uncomfortable; add the fact that we bear some culpability in this act and it is an obvious cause for squirming in our seats.

Easter, on the other hand, is warm and fuzzy... or is it?

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Easter is about God's future breaking into the present. Easter is about God's rule and reign breaking into our petty kingdoms. Easter is about the undoing of all of our own plans for our own ideas to become our own reality.

We don't squirm in our seats about Easter, because we don't understand it.

Everybody Gets to Play

Click on the title link to another guest post for Jason Clark.

Excellence?

"The English Premier League presents football at the highest level: which is great for the sport, but not so great for ministry. In fact, the professional game presents 22 men desperately in need of rest being watched by 22,000 people desperately in need of exercise! It sounds a little bit like church life, doesn’t it? If the goal is to provide a high level of entertainment then excellence is a requirement, but if the goal is to equip others, excellence can become the enemy."

- Ray Hollenbach

(Click on the title link for the whole post)

The Idealist

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them!"

Henry David Thoreau

Perfection

...the command to be perfect as God is perfect is not idealistic nonsense, nor is it a command to do the impossible. God wants to make us into people who can obey the command.

The Depth of Offense

In some ways the depth of a relationship can be measured by how deeply we can offend each other without ending the relationship.

The End Will Look Like ...?