Being Jesus to others

I'm coming to the end of Seeker Small Groups by Garry Poole, and very interesting it's been too! Anyway, I just want to share with you part of a very moving poem that is cited in the book:

Do you know

do you understand

that you represent Jesus to me?

Do you know

do you understand

that when you treat me with gentleness,

it raises the question in my mind

that maybe he is gentle, too.

Maybe he isn't someone

who laughs when I am hurt.

...

If you care,

I think maybe he cares-

and then there's this flame of hope

that burns inside of me

and for a while I'm afraid to breathe

because it might go out.

Do you know

do you understand

that your words are his words?

Your face, his face

to someone like me.

Please, be who you say you are.

Please, God, don't let this be another trick

Please let this be real

Please

What moved me about this poem is the significance of relationship in the whole process of evangelism. We've reduced becoming a Christian to nothing more than giving assent to a series of philosophical-religious principles and concepts that we think our role is simply to convince someone that our position is the right position. We seek to win the argument, but in so doing we always run the risk of losing the person.

The person who wrote this poem eventually came to faith. And the reason they decided to trust Jesus, the final compelling argument that tipped the balance and convinced them?

It was nothing like that. It was simply that I met a couple of people who were like Jesus to me. That's all it took.

Larry Norman

I discovered yesterday that Larry Norman passed away earlier this week. Some may know of his music, perhaps many will not. I remember him as the first Christian musician I went to see live. It was in 1977 or '78 in Cardiff. I remember listening to him as he stood alone on the stage and held the attention of the audience as he told his stories and shard his songs.

On grace

In a prayer meeting with other church leaders today we got talking about grace and the gospel and church discipline and truth and so on. The question seemed to come down this: How do live by grace without compromising the truth. Now there was a lot of discussion which I can't remember or do justice to without writing a long essay, but two things stood out in the discussion.

First, we all tend towards having rules because it's a safe way to live, so we all want rules. Grace doesn't abandon rules it just says that keeping the rules isn't the solution to the root problem, sin. Judaism understands this because, when all the rules are listed and a few added in for good measure, if you ask the question, "What does it mean to walk with God?" the answer that comes back is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself." In other words, it's not about the rules it's about grace.

The second thing that painted a wonderful picture was the phrase: Wide arms and high standards.

God's arms are wide, wide enough to be inclusive of anyone who chooses to be included. But the standards are high, too high for us to achieve on our own. That's why we need Jesus, it's why we need the cross. And if you imagine wide arms set against high standards, the shape you get is the shape of the cross.

Pdf-Pen and me!

Perhaps it is just me and maybe I haven't really tried hard enough to get to grips with pdfpen, but it hasn't worked for me.

I don't have to edit many pdf files, but the ones I've tried to edit with pdfpen haven't worked too well. I suspect that this is mostly down to the way the files were generated, but having said that, if all files are generated in similar ways then I'll have similar problems.

Things that didn't work for me included the rather laborious method required to edit a simple text box. First you needed to select the text and then you had to replace it with and editable text box, then you could edit the text. The problem as that the selection tool would pick up some text and not others. In the end  it turned out to be much quicker to recreate the whole document and start over.

So my verdict in pdfpen is that it didn't make my life any more simple when it came to handling pdf files. I think I'll give Preview a closer inspection.

Church Leadership

I was wandering around the Internet looking for inspiration and ideas about leadership and I came across this outline of leadership in the church:

1) Visionary leaders
• They help us see what those good works may be that God "prepared in advance for us to do."
• They help us see the potential God has for us.
• They help us "press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold" of us and not get stuck where we are or to think that we "have already obtained all this" (Phil. 3:12).
 
2) Administrative leaders
• They help us implement the tasks effectively remembering that we were "created in Christ Jesus to do GOOD works."
• They help us "do it all for the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).
• They help us by designing procedures and coordinating programs that enable us to do those good works.
 
3) Shepherding leaders
• They help us be prepared spiritually to do those good works as "WE are His workmanship."
• They help us by feeding us, protecting us, comforting us, encouraging us, warning us, and guiding us.
• They help us by their example to remember that we must do all we do willingly in and because of love. (1 Pet. 5:2-3; Jn. 21:15-17)
  
We need all three kinds of leaders because . . .
 
1. People matter. – "we are His workmanship" Shepherding leaders tend to be more people-oriented.

2. Task matters. – "created in Christ Jesus to do good works" Administrative leaders tend to be more task-oriented.
 
3. Goals matter. – "which God prepared in advance for us to do" Visionary leaders tend to be more goal-oriented.

I like this outline because it identifies three clear areas of responsibility for leadership without necessarily assuming that a single individual has all three qualities in equal measure. The challenge, in a local church, is to find these three qualities and deploy them across the leadership team.

Maybe this is the role of a small team of elders, or the core of the leadership team. We consistently review our leadership structure, seeking to develop a team model that serves the whole life of the church,  carries and casts the vision, and does not rely on a single person to achieve all of this. This outline may help us better understand the nature of this leadership.

The website where I found this outline is mintools.com.

Seeker Small Groups

Sitting on my pile of books to read has been Garry Poole's Seeker Small Groups. I've been meaning to read this book for quite some time, and a gentle prod from the author via a comment on a blog entry I made spurred me on. I'm very grateful for the prod, because it finally made to the top of the pile and I discovered that it's a great book.

I've still got about 100 pages to go, but I think this is a book that deserves to be read, especially by all those Christians who embark on running Alpha courses without doing the training. The reason for this simple: most people don't listen enough and tend to talk too much. This is especially true of evangelical Christians who lead small groups of any kind. Too many times I've heard a small group leader talk about "the curriculum" as if it's something they must deliver to group. What I like about Garry Poole's perspective on Seeker Groups is that they are a safe place for a seeker to be heard. That's very much the position that should be taken when running Alpha. It's an opportunity to explore not an opportunity to be lectured.

This is how Garry describes the purpose of a Seeker Small Group:

We want to give our seeking friends an opportunity to identify their toughest objections and obstacles to faith in Christ–and, by thinking out loud, process them within the safety of our group. We want to provide a forum in which our seeking friends can safely address their toughest spiritual questions and investigate the claims of Christ at their own pace...

Important in this process is our determination to listen and to listen well. Describing the progress of one small group towards the point of being ready to hear spiritual truths explained, he makes this observation:

Looking back, I feel I didn't talk any of them into the kingdom; I listened them in!

... my role of doing more listening than talking, more facilitating than teaching, and being more relational than intellectual, played a crucial part in the process where they were ready and willing to learn spiritual truths from the Bible.

These truths are just as valid whether you're running a long-term small group for seekers, whether you are looking to start such a small group, or whether you are using a tool like Alpha to help you engage with spiritual seekers. That makes this book worth reading.

Prayer month (week 4)

Here's the outline for week four

Monday 25^th Feb.

We want to share God’s heart for the marginalised in our world. Thank God for the work of organisations like Fair Trade and Stop the Traffik. Ask God where we can be most effective in relieving poverty and oppression in our world.

Tuesday 26^th Feb.

Pray for our communities. Pray that God’s grace would be seen throughout our neighbourhoods. Pray that Christ would be honoured, and that many would begin to seek a relationship with God.

Wednesday 27^th Feb.

Pray for the church during Richard’s sabbatical. Ask God to provide people to meet the ministry needs of the church during that time. For those who will teach and preach and for those who will perform any funerals or other services on our behalf. Pray that Richard, Anne and Ally would benefit greatly from this time of rest and reflection.

Thursday 28^thFeb.

Thank God for the part you play or the part you can play in the future life of the church. Ask him to give you the gifts you need to fulfil his purposes in and for your life. Ask him to renew your passion for ministry and mission and to fill you with his Spirit. Commit yourself to honouring and serving him with your whole life.

Friday 29^thFeb.

Give thanks For God’s deep love for us as his church. Thank him for the way he has blessed us and spoken to us. Thank him for the month of prayer.

Saturday 1^st Mar. & Sunday 2^nd Mar.

Take some time to reflect on this month of prayer. What things has God brought to your attention? What things need further prayer? What are you going to do next?
Has God spoken to you about something that the whole church needs to hear about? Do you have a story about this month of prayer that you could share with the church on a Sunday morning?

Helping people grow

There's an interesting article on the Christian Today website about tools they use at Saddleback to help people grow in their relationship with God. Rick Warren begins by saying:

All living things grow. Growth is evidence of life. If a child doesn’t grow up, that’s a tragedy. If a believer never grows to spiritual maturity, that’s a tragedy.

He then outline the tools they use at Saddleback:

The first tool is to put everyone into and through six levels of spiritual growth:

1. Community (everyone in driving distance)

2. Crowd (regular attenders)

3. Congregation (part of the family)

4. Committed (living a disciplined Christian life)

5. Core (committed to using their spiritual gifts in a ministry)

6. Commissioned (these are described as the people who take the Great Commission seriously)

The second tool is a weekly commitment card. Everyone is encouraged to make a practical application of the weekend message.

The third tool is the weekly message notes that are made available.

Clearly it's a very strategic approach, (you'd expect nothing less from someone with Rick Warren's gifts) that might not suit everyone. But I have to say that there is a lot to be said for raising the level of expectation of a response from folk if we are truly concerned for their spiritual development.

I think too, that the six levels raise valuable questions about how we get people to move from one level to the next, and how we measure the effectiveness of the process and the growth that comes from it. Given Willow Creek's recent discovery that programmes alone don't guarantee growth, we wouldn't want put all our discipleship eggs in the one basket, but then again we don't always appear to put them anywhere anyway!

You can read the full article here.

The Numbers of Hope (2): God's whoever clause

The Number of Hope is not a hard read. That much we know. Like all of Max Lucado's books there is a wonderfully simple narrative style that I enjoy as I've already said. But it's the way this narrative style draws you into the unfolding story of the book that inspires me to want to write.

Take chapter 7 Heaven's "Whoever" policy.

Whoever unfurls 3:16 as a banner for the ages. Whoever unrolls the welcome mat of heaven to humanity. Whoever invites the world to God.

I love the image it evokes and the narrative that Lucado then uses to explore the length and breadth of the "Whoever clause". It's a great explanation of the core of the gospel message, that God's grace is truly available to anyone and everyone who will come and take it. Anyone who will believe and receive what God freely offers.

Thank you for the cross

After all the recent debate over the atonement, sparked by to comments made by Steve Chalke a few years ago, I still find myself in awe of the amazing self-sacrifice God made on my behalf. 

Whether you got hot under the collar about the "cosmic child abuse" comments or not, this much is surely true: if it were not for God's intervention on your behalf you would be facing an eternity dealing with the awful price sin exacts from every one of us. 

That God loves me so much that somewhere in eternity the Father, Son and Spirit resolved to deal, once for all, with sin, my sin, humbles me. That the Son offered himself (and therein lies a crucial truth for the atonement) as the carrier of the weight of the sin of the world and that the Father agreed that this was indeed a sufficient price to be paid, is surely an amazing expression of love and grace.

Reading Hebrews just brings all this home to me once again. The theological arguments may rise and fall, the nuances of language and syntax may continue to challenge and perplex, but the cross stands over all and indeed has said it all. It has the final word. But for the willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ the lost remain lost, and always will until they are found, and I would still be one of them.

How does God feel about me?

I'm currently preaching a series on various characters in the Bible. This coming Sunday it's David. Having just done Peter, it's interesting to do another great character who was flawed and made mistakes, and yet, because of the grace of God, still found a place in his purposes and plans. But then again how many biblical character wouldn't you describe that way?

I do not believe that there is ever such a thing as God's second best for us. The grace of God can take all our errors and bring about something that will glorify and honour God's name.

Anyway, as I think about David and some of the things I might include on Sunday I was reminded of a quote we used at Christmas in our Carol Service. There's a great Max Lucado book called One Incredible Moment, that contains extracts from many of his other books around the theme of Christmas. Near the beginning, in fact it may be the first chapter, he says this:

Here is what we want to know. We want to know how long God's love will endure... Does God really love us forever? Not just on... Sunday when our shoes are shined and our hair is fixed. We want to know... how does God feel when I'm a jerk? Not when I'm peppy and positive and ready to tackle world hunger. Not then. I know how he feels about me then. Even I like me then.
I want to know how he feels about me when I snap at anything that moves, when my thoughts are gutter-level, when my tongue is sharp enough to slice a rock. How does he feel about me then?...

The Numbers of Hope (2)

Just a quick thought, maybe a way to have an online discussion about the book would to be open up a wiki? I don't too much about how to do this (I'm experimenting at the moment with a church based wiki for other things), and I'm not sure even if you could subscribe to a wiki in the way you can to a forum or blog.

Three-Ninety-Fifty

One of my favourite questions comes from Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade. Apparently he used to ask this question of the staff at CC. I don't know if he only asked it once or if he asked it consistently, but it is becoming a question I've asked a lot and a question other people around the church are beginning to ask too.

And the question is:

What three things can we do in the next ninety days that will make a fifty percent difference?

Trying asking yourself that question in whatever setting you're in today and see what you come up with. It could be a productivity issue, a ministry issue or even a personal growth issue. I've used it in a lot of settings and it has helped me focus my attention on the positive thing or things I can do rather than the negatives of what I can't do.

I rather suspect too that there are some minor variations that you could use from time to time. For example, Ally, my daughter, has a lot of coursework and home to complete at the moment and it can seem overwhelming. I guess she could ask herself the same question but make it 90 hours instead of days. It's almost GTD-like in that it focuses your attention of the next action you can take to move a given project along.

Creating pdf's from any document

Like me you've probably suffered the frustration of someone sending you a document only to discover that you can't open it or when you do, you get a whole host of messages telling you that you don't have the right fonts installed etc. If this never happens to you, then ignore this post, if on the other hand it does, read on.

My biggest problem always came with Microsoft Publisher files. If you didn't have the same version as the sender, you almost always got stuck with a file you couldn't read. Now I've gone to Mac, I have some problems with all Office files, whatever version they are. And you don't have to be a Mac user to experience this. I'm sure there are still some Lotus users out there and other applications with which people struggle.

The answer of course is a universal format that will look the same whoever opens it on no matter what platform. The pdf file is one such format. Everyone knows Adobe Acrobat Reader, and I've blogged before about pdf generators, although I've never gone into detail. They're simple "virtual printers" that will produce a pdf file from any application. Just hit print and choose the pdf generator rather than your usual printer. Pdf995 is one such application and Primo is another that I've heard people talk about.

If you either don't want to or don't have permission to download and install a pdf generator onto your computer, you might be interested in pdfonline. As its name suggests, pdfonline is a web-based application that will take your selected file and generate a pdf for you.

I've given it a try and it works a treat, although I'm yet to try and edit the generated pdf. I think it's a handy site to be aware of in case you're away from your system and need to create a pdf for emailing or printing purposes.

What car?

On Saturday we had a day away for the leaders. As we began, we asked ourselves this question:

If the church was a car, what kind of car would it be?

My favourite answer was: "A new VW Beetle–a modern version of an old classic"

I thought that was a really interesting take on church. It was meant positively. We have a classic message that doesn't change with time, but the way we do things has changed.

We then moved on and asked ourselves what kind of car would we like it to be. This turned into a drawing of a bus with all sorts of interesting things going on as we added to our picture.

Sometimes these sorts of exercises can run away with you, but by thinking in a different way to the way we might normally think we have the opportunity to be creative in ways we may not normally be creative. I remember listening to an interview between Bill Hybels and Steve Sample, the President of USC (University of Southern California). During the interview he told the story of how he developed the concept of an electronic controller for a dishwasher or washing machine (I forget which). Apparently he lay down on the floor and thought about how a small insect might control the machine.

So, if you're a bit stuck today because you can't see how to get from where you are to where you want to be, you might want to try something that might at first appear really odd, but in the end might just open your eyes to a possibility you can't quite see from where you are currently sitting.

If drawing cars or imaging how ladybirds might run your church are not for you, you might like to try mind-mapping or spider diagramming. I use this technique for developing sermon ideas and presentations. I start with my central idea or proposition in a box in the middle of the page and then branches of words, ideas and phrases. From there I try to pick out the recurring and bigger themes.

I know some people have very precise rules about how to mind map, but I just get the paper and a pen and go for it. If you haven't tried it, give it a go, you might be surprised by the outcome.

What happens when we preach?

There has been a small discussion once again about the place of the sermon in modern church life. Are they too long for the modern mind? Whilst I'm not advocating long sermons for the sake of it, it does seem to me that one of the things that needs to be considered in the sermon is the opportunity for God to interact with preacher and congregation alike.

Over the years I've prepared and made notes in all sorts of ways. I've preached well and badly, with and without notes. The older I get the more script-like my notes have become. I think that's because I'm increasingly aware of the importance of every word I use and every point I'm trying to make. So, I'm just becoming more careful, not leaving it to chance that I will remember that neat turn of phrase that came to mind on Wednesday afternoon. 

What hasn't changed is the way in which I sense that God takes my preparation and uses it in ways I haven't imagined. As I preach I feel the nudge of God to read something or share a story not in my plan. Take today for example. Our current theme is all about characters. We've studied Joseph, Esther and Abraham. Today we looked at Peter. It just so happened that today was also communion and, as I took us through the preparation and experience of sharing the bread and cup together I sensed God point me towards the story of the foot washing. I hadn't planned this, to be honest I hadn't even given a thought in my preparation for some reason. 

But as I stood in front of the congregation I sensed the pull of God's Spirit to read the story. So I had a quick, silent read as the bread and wine were being distributed and as we came to a quiet moment after the wine, I began to read. 

We had already explored Peter's beginnings as a fisherman and the change Jesus promised about becoming a fisher of men. We'd reflected on the highs and lows of Peter the one who walked on water and the one who denied Jesus. We'd seen him at his best and his worst. We looked also at his reinstatement and the simple, non-accusing question of Jesus, "Peter do you love me?"

So, as I read the story from John 13 it became clear that the one thing God wanted us to remember was that no matter what mistakes he made Peter was above all clean.  

I'm not suggesting that we would not have reached that point through a ten-minute sermon, well prepared and well delivered. I'm just saying that because we give ourselves time we also give ourselves the opportunity to connect with God and hear what he has to say in that moment of sacred space where the Spirit of God touches the hearts of ordinary human beings.

I'm afraid that if we move too far towards settling for short attention spans, we loose the chance to dwell. Given how little people remember of our sermons, perhaps it's the dwelling that's the most important aspect of preaching not the length of time it takes to present it.

Having said that, I do remember Steve Gaukroger once saying, "I'm not going to bore you with a long sermon today, because I'm quite capable of doing it with a short one!"

Round in circles or up a spiral?

We had another of our regular away days for leaders, and very helpful and useful and encouraging it was too. There is much to process from it all.

What always fascinates me is how differently wired people approach the same thing. I'm wired up in a way that means I work best when I'm involved in an ongoing conversation. Although I write stuff down, I carry a lot of things in my head and a lot of thoughts pass through my brain as I think and ponder ideas. Writing them down is important, but there are things about the spark of a conversation that get my thinking juices flowing. So, for me to be effective I need to keep talking with everyone about everything.

For other people it can seem like we're having the same conversation over and over again without actually get anywhere at all. We go full-circle and end up exactly where we started and apparently we're no further forward. Sadly sometimes that's true.

But sometimes it isn't.

What can get missed is that we're having the same conversation but in some way we have moved on from the last time. It's as if we go around the block, but on a spiral. So, when we get back to the place we began, we're actually just a bit higher up, a bit closer to the solution. If you go and find a screw or a bolt or a spring (you could take the spring out of your ball-point pen if you want), and then run your finger around the thread, you will keep coming back to the same point in one plane, but you will be at a different point in the plane at right angles to that plane.

If that sounds too complicated, just go get the bolt and you'll soon see what I mean!!

So, the next time you think you've gone around in a circle, check your position, you may have moved further than you think!

The price of brand loyalty

I was quite amazed when I discovered that my car insurance company appears to think that just because I'm a loyal customer that I don't deserve the best deal. 

Last year I heard a piece on the radio about this. The reporter pointed out that if you get a fresh quote as a new customer even with your existing insurer, you can often save money. So I tried it and it was true. My loyalty was costing me nearly £200. 

Well, the long and short of this is that because of a claim I'd made a few years ago, it wasn't worth my while changing insurers last year, but this year it was. So I did, and it was still almost £200 cheaper.

Now what bothers me is that my loyalty to one company was not being rewarded. I find it's the same with my ISP. They even told me once that it was my responsibility to keep a check on their packages and find the cheapest package that suited my needs. Their responsibility was obviously the opposite of this, to charge me as much as they could get away with charging.

So the simple moral of this tale is that, in the market place economy, brand loyalty no longer pays, from the point of view of the customer that is. If, of course it ever did.

Geoff joins the bloggers

It's time to welcome a new inmate to the world of blogging. 

Geoff Colmer is another Baptist Minister who currently serves as a Regional minister and team leader in the Central Association. You can pick up his blog here.

Go and visit his blog and encourage him to post!

How do I remain in Jesus?

If you remain in me, and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit and glorify my Father in heaven.

This verse caught my eye as I sit at my desk thinking about the sermon for Sunday. It has nothing to do with Sunday's theme, but it's on a piece of paper tacked to my wall. I think it was last year, maybe early summer, when I decided to spend a day reflecting with God on church and life and connecting the two. I scribbled random thoughts and ideas down on a flip-chart, and this verse was one of those thoughts. I haven't the checked the wording for accuracy, it is as it came to mind that day.

Anyway, it caught my eye again today and I thought, "Why don't I do a series on remaining in Jesus?" So I might. I began to scribble a few ideas down in my notebook set aside for future preaching themes. But what does it mean to remain in Jesus? When you hear that phrase what runs through your mind? I began to think about different words that might connect with remaining, here's my list, what would you add?

Remain: abide, dwell, rest, make your home, commit your long-term future, put down roots, prioritise, focus, follow closely, abandon selfish goals and ambitions for the sake of the kingdom, get to really know-deeply, passionately, unconditionally....

Does this fit with a Biblical view of remaining? What would Jesus have said were the one, two or three key elements of remaining?