Parallels

When I started looking into having Superlasik eye surgery, I couldn’t help but see parallels of man made eye correction (wearing glasses or contacts) versus “Light” correction (Superlasik), and man made religion versus a relationship with Christ.

Wearing glasses or contacts is a temporary solution that has a person continually doing maintenance in order to see better but never perfectly clear. Just as “religion” has people doing things to earn favor to a god or even thinking to God, but never giving perfect peace.

Where the Superlasik surgery uses light (in the form of a laser) to permanently reform the eyes to clearly see things around us, just as the true “Light” Jesus permanently reforms us into children of God.

I thought the parallels were interesting so I thought I’d share them with you. Thanks for reading, and remember to serve where God has you.

Biblical Leadership

Pastors are like everyone else who confess Jesus as Lord. The men who have been called to lead a body of believers are just that, men with the same temperament, faults, fears, and strengths. Granted, a man who feels the calling to pastor people must meet all the requirements listed in First Timothy chapter 3. Since it is God who calls a man to pastor His people, He is the One who makes a man worthy to be a pastor. As a natural man, a pastor has nothing to offer God. It is because of God’s gift in the person Christ Jesus, we are made worthy.

As a man who has the calling to lead a body of believers, I know that my calling is to copy Christ. To do what He showed in the New Testament. Not to direct my agenda, but to follow the agenda God gives me.

Reading through “Summer Church Pre-Launch” training material by Dr. John Worcester, I came across the below list on how to lead a church plant or how a pastor should lead his people.

1. Lead like a shepherd not like a cowboy

2. Build a trust based relationship not FEAR BASED relationship

3. Persuade them do not THREATEN THEM

4. Go before and set the example rather than STAY BEHIND and crack the whip

5. Care for and love them. Don’t USE AND ABUSE THEM

6. Lead them don’t DRIVE THEM.

7. Develop followers through delegation and doing ministry together

8. Delegate to those with the right attitudes and develop skills on the job

9. Look for leader types who will also follow

10. Negotiate everything up front and make authority boundaries clear

11. Keep all your promises

Being a pastor in an established church or church planter, the man of God must be a servant first. People will be willing to follow a person they feel cares for them.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, continue to serve God where He has put you.

Lessons Learned

Being a Go-Getter can be counter-productive sometimes. My eagerness to hit the ground running with the church plant has caused my head to spin. I know that I have a year to learn the ins and outs of properly planting a church that will last. I have no clue to where to start; however, God in His great wisdom has put me with an organization that is focused on planting churches to reach the lost. The SBCV has a program that equips CPA’s as me with the knowledge and network to establish God following churches that will reach out to the community.

This past weekend, I relearned a very old lesson that I had forgotten; to wait on God. I have read (through my life) of the men of God who waited for Him to use them. Moses waited 80 years to fulfill his calling to deliver Israel from Egypt. John the Baptist began his ministry at the age of 30 which lasted maybe 6 months to a year before King Herod had him beheaded. Paul waited 7 years after his conversion to be set aside to be the one to go and preach in other lands and to write letters that became part of the New Testament. God’s timetable is not our own.

I can see how God is molding me and those around me to accomplish this task of planting a church for Him. God is showing men the vision and they are praying about joining in this adventure with us. I know that as He gives me to tools to do what He has called me to do, everything will down into place. I am called to serve God in whatever He calls me to accomplish for Him. He knows all the days I have left on this globe, and He knows the wheres and the whens, the whys and the why nots. I only need to be faith to Him. He will do everything, and is doing everything. He is the hand, and I’m only the work glove.

Thanks for reading. Until next time.