Glorious Mud

When I got married, I had only been a believer for about three years.  I was drunk with the gospel - I knew I didn't deserve God's grace and was excited that I had it anyway.  I was devouring the Bible and was trying to figure out what it all meant. One of the areas in scripture that challenged me was the Bible's teaching on roles in marriage.  Honestly, I didn't really want to be "the head" of the home - I had much more egalitarian leanings.  At the same time, I wanted to honor God in my home, so I set about trying to be the leader of my home.  Thankfully God's grace (and my wife's) was greater than my good intentions.  I didn't lead well in the early days - I led out of positional authority (I have the title so you have to do what I say) instead of from personal authority (I have won your trust through love and self-sacrifice, and therefore you are willing to follow me). Jesus leads us from a position of personal authority, and we need to do ...

I have been reading Darrin's new book, Church Planter, and have really been enjoying it... like a well-timed kick in the butt.  But that is pretty much how Darrin rolls.  He says the hard word in a way that makes it less daunting and challenging in a good way... like a good coach. So - anyway - reading this morning and was hit with this quote from Allender (from Leading with a Limp).  It was what I needed to hear. "Leaders choose daily, but the real weight on their shoulders lies in the need to decide.  And there are no easy decisions.  To decide requires a death, a dying to a thousand options, the putting aside of a legion of possibilities in order to choose just one.  De-cide.  Homo-cide.  Sui-cide.  The root word for decide means "to cut off."  All decisions cut us off; separate us from early infinite options as we select just one single path.  And every decision we make earns us the favor of some and the disfavor of others....

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have been working my way slowly through the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.  Ezekiel's job as a prophet was to act as a wake up call to God's people.  They had become spiritually blind and deaf - unable to discern God's voice or his purposes - because they had cultivated a rebellious spirit against God (Ezekiel 12:2).  They replaced God with idols, but still claimed to follow God.  As a result, God was bringing a cleansing judgment on the nation that would act like a chlorine shock to a pool that has turned green - it would purge the slime and restore the good.  But, like any extreme measure of correction, it wasn't going to be pleasant. In chapter 13 and 14, Ezekiel is charged to publicly challenge the leaders in the nation who were deceiving the people and themselves.  He has harsh words for the elders who secretly worship idols and then publicly seek out the prophets to hear from God.  He has harsh words for the ...

I have been reading through Ezekiel this month. And just for the record - this is one crazy book. Man, Ezekiel had one rough gig. I am tempted to complain when I run a 12 hour day of meetings. You know, rough stuff - St. Louis Bread Co. can get seriously old. Ezekiel, on the other hand, had to act out all these crazy judgments from God before they happened. He was God's living parable. He had to sit in a public square and build miniature cities out of bricks and then destroy them. He had to lay on his side in public for 390 days and then roll over and lay on the other side for 40 more days. He had to cook his food over human feces - well, until God recanted and allowed him to cook it over cow poop. And that is just the start. Ezekiel had it rough. But he was God's man. He loved God and he loved God's people and he was willing to suffer so that God's grace could come and bring repentance and restoration to people near to God in religious behavior but far from God i...

I didn't always work for the church. I consider myself, in many ways, the accidental pastor. I set out to become a high school English teacher who would move into administration. Well, kind of. I didn't really set out to do anything - but that is another story. But I did land in education and I spent 17 years working with kids or with those who work with kids - as a teacher (public and private), a board member, and a principal. During this time, I worked mostly with employees, not volunteers. There are advantages to leading employees - they pretty much have to perform in order to receive a pay check. There is an internal, intrinsic motivation to move the organization toward success - "If I don't do my job, I will lose my job." There was also a freedom to lead in that environment because there was a stated agreement - you are being paid to do your job and I am being paid to make sure you are doing it well. If I push you to improve in that environment, it i...

I was leafing through one of my old notebooks today (one of the tedious benefits of unpacking after a move - I have had to look at everything I haven't thrown away and evaluate it again before stuffing it in a box or on a shelf where it won't be looked again for the next five years). This notebook was a loose, unintentional chronicle of my early days with the Journey. (Not the point of this post - but what a great ride the last three years have been. I have been destroyed and rebuilt by the gospel in ways I could never have imagined four years ago - Thank you Father God!) Now the point of this post: I took notes from my first Leadership Summit in 2006. I had not read Courageous Leadership and was still pridefully disdainful of all things "seeker friendly" and "Willow." I have since repented. I take notes in a strange way, I suppose - I doodle more than manuscript. And I found in my notes a picture of a bucket with a crack with a simple phrase: Vision L...

A good friend and gifted pastor, Jonathan McIntosh, recently launched a new web endeavor called ReThink Mission. JMac is one of the most missionally minded dudes I know and he has incredible insight into how to engage culture for the advancement of the gospel. So, do yourself a favor, and visit his new website. He is updating it daily and is landing some killer interviews and insightful topics. If you are a church planter, church leader, wannabe church planter or leader, take some time and read it. Rethink Mission

I was reading Scott Thomas's blog on The Ten Qualifications of a Church Planter over at Acts29 blogs - and wanted to pass it along to you as an excellent resource. A few sentences in his opening paragraphs caught me: Every church leader should be able to spot a church planter and then send him to plant as soon as he is ready. The problem I am seeing is that we are so desperate for good men that we are not sending them into the field. We take warriors and make them into administrative clerks. He followed up later with this: We prefer the men in our church to be mules. A mule does not act like a jackass and they are able to carry larger loads and endure longer than a horse. They are tamer than a jackass but do not seem to want to run like a stallion. I think many pastors prefer a mule to a stallion. Stallions are designed to run and not be penned up in a stable. We are generally afraid of stallions because we are afraid of our own masculinity, our leadership, and our "importanc...