Thoughts on Life and Leading

My daily Bible reading has me in the book of Joshua. Toward the end of the book, the Israelites have crossed into the Promised Land but there are lots of specifics still to be hammered out. I came across three verses that were pretty inspiring. I needed a pick-up on the Monday after time change! This worked.

Joshua 13:1 “When Joshua was an old man, the LORD said to him, “You are growing old, and much land remains to be conquered.” I love this. God is not allowing Joshua to come up with any excuses for not pursuing his dreams. He makes it clear – in essence saying, “you are not dead yet, get busy!” Sometimes we get tired or burned out or we want to retire. God won’t have any of that. As long as your heart is beating, God has land for you to conquer.

Joshua 14:10b-12a “Today I am eighty-five years old. 11 I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. 12 So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.” I love this even more. Caleb is an old man with a great history of being a tough guy for God. At eighty-five, he is just as much of a butt kicker as he was in his thirties. We may laugh at old guys who don’t know they are old – you know what? I wouldn’t mess with Caleb! A new battle cry for us all: “Give me the hill country!” This tells me that God won’t let the vision die and we shouldn’t either.

Joshua 18:3 Then Joshua asked them, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given to you?” This is Joshua’s challenge to the seven tribes who had yet to possess the land that God had promised them. And it is an excellent challenge to those of us who are still living around the outskirts of what God has planned for us. How long are you going to wait? Direct, succinct, to the point. And impossible to ignore. I am not waiting any longer!

These three passages got me going on this Monday. I hope they will do the same for you.

Shalom!

It’s Saturday night, wrap up time for my message. Tomorrow, I am preaching part 2 of Awaken (an invitation to spiritual vitality). I have a lot that I would like to say and there is a lot that I am not able to say.

If you want to hear what I have to say, set your clock forward one hour and get to church on time. By the way, I bet I have heard 30 times the last few days someone say, “don’t forget daylight savings time!”. So I won’t believe the people who say they did not know. They just don’t want to come to church and any excuse will do. 🙂

The major verse I am launching from is:
Ephesians 5:16 “Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!” (The Message) This verse probably speaks for itself.

There won’t be enough time tomorrow for me to share:

Judges 16 where Samson slept while his girlfriend removed his power.
Matthew 25:7 where the five foolish young girls overslept for their weddings.
Revelation 3:1b-3 “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. 3 Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.” (NLT)

So there, I just shared it. Now, let’s wake up and get busy doing what God has directed us to do!

Blessings, everyone!

“Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:6-9 (NLT)

God speaks directly to Joshua as he assumes leadership of the Israelites just prior to entering the Promised Land. Maybe He is speaking to us, too.

3 times God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. Strength and courage must be important for a leader.

God tells him to: 1. Obey the instructions, 2. Don’t stray from the instructions, 3. Study the instructions, 4. Mediate on the instructions. We can assume that the instructions (God’s Word) are central to success.

God had earlier said “You will be successful in everything you do.” He later qualifies that statement by saying, “Only then (IF you obey, don’t stray away from, study and meditate on the instructions) will you prosper and succeed in everything you do.” God makes the conditions of success very clear.

One final word to leader by God: “The Lord is with you wherever you go.”

Hey leaders, God has appointed us for this time and this season. Let’s lead people with courage, stay committed to God’s plan and give God glory for any success we enjoy.

My name is Rick and I hate germs. When people sneeze in public, I hold my breath until I can move away from them. I open public restroom doors with a paper towel in my hand. When someone brings me cookies that they and their kids baked, I don’t eat them. (kids touch things that I am not interested in eating). I don’t like germs.

At Holy Communion on Sunday, I told the worshipers that Jesus is not a germophobe. In other words, He is not afraid of being contaminated by us. He never cringes when we come to Him with our dirtiness. He doesn’t hold His breath when we walk by coughing. In fact, He calls us and embraces us when we are at our worst. We are sick and diseased and contagious with sin. And Jesus loves it when we let Him embrace us.

I caught a cold this week. Some scoundrel at one of our services heard me talk about how I hate it when I am being hugged and then the person says, “I have been sick as a dog!”. Gee thanks, whoever you are.

Jesus takes our colds and pains and hurts and diseases and sins. He is not afraid of our ugliness. He takes all of our stuff and nails it to the cross. “Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God.” II Corinthians 5:21 (NCV)

Our worship event at 9:00 on Sunday was quite a roller-coaster ride. While I think we were successful (in that we were faithful, we did not quit, we delivered what God wanted, and we worshiped God), there was some serious resistance.

From a technical standpoint, if it could go wrong, it did. Without going into specifics, the first half of the service was a choppy as I have seen it. We couldn’t get into a flow, there were numerous interruptions. Sounds like a disaster, huh?

Not really. Our church is pretty good about overlooking glitches and we recover rapidly. There is a lot of grace. This may be because we hold the standards of expectation high and we usually are a pretty smooth operation. I think we were able to overcome the technical difficulties and I think we won. At least it wasn’t as bad as a 10:45 service recently where the fire alarm went off!

I think the resistance was spiritual. A few people mentioned to me that they sensed the same thing. Obviously, the enemy of our soul does not like us focusing on the Lover of our soul. He tired to stop us or at least distract us. He failed.

Some of the team discussed after our day of worship how humbling it is when something goes wrong in a service. They were reminded to stay focused, stay in the moment of worship and not get lazy. We also encouraged one another with the idea that there is a margin for error. The success of a worship event is not up to us or our level of performance. We certainly are supposed to give God our best, but when our best stinks, we are counting on God’s grace to cover us. And it does.

Regarding Sunday: People worshiped. They heard the Word of God. They prayed. They encouraged each other. I think it was a successful service.

The moment I demand perfection from others, I will be held to the same standard. No thanks.

Letha and I are attending the funeral of a dear lady who departed this earth on Friday. Bobbye Linton, wife of our friend, Pastor Charles Linton died from the results of cancer. The Lintons had been married for 52 years. Our prayers and support are with Dr. Linton as he mourns. God bless this dear man.

Sleep is awesome and necessary. But sleep can also be addictive and wasteful and dangerous.

Belgian teenager, Kimberley Vlaminck said she went to sleep in a tattoo artist’s chair and woke up 56 stars later. She later recanted her story and said she had lied because her father was angry at her for the ink. But the impression remains.

I wonder what is happening to us while we sleep.

What bad things are going on in the world that we need to address? What opportunities for good and noble are flying by, while we dream? What is God doing and saying that He invites us to join?

Problem is, if someone is asleep, they are unaware. What will wake us up?

Romans 13:11-14 (MSG) But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Don’t allow the monotony of life to put you to sleep, missing the opportunities right in front of you…

Yesterday, I was reminded of a a useful tool for anyone who works in a coaching or mentoring capacity. Carl George developed a simple list of questions that will enable a leader to effectively open communication with a follower or a group of followers.

The next time you find yourself leading a discussion with someone who is looking for some direction, you can work through these questions with them:

1. How are you? (beneath the surface)

2. What are you celebrating? Where are you winning? What are the victories?

3. What challenges are you experiencing?

4. What do you plan to do to solve these challenges?

5. How can I help you?

6. How can I pray for you?

Hope you find this helpful!

We are working on a new message (I never preach old stuff!) for this Sunday at Maranatha Church. “Awaken” is an invitation to spiritual vitality. That is a nice way of saying, “wake up, people!”

Please consider sending an invite to a friend to join you.

It was a good day of worship @ Maranatha Church. I preached two different messages at our two campuses. Results are mixed, the 3 crowds took on their own personalities and I felt different about each service. But the highlight of the day for me took place before any of the services. I got to the Beach a little early and caught the sunrise. I strategically had my camera with me. These pictures are the results. These photos are unre-touched (no processing). I can relive my moment of personal worship as I look at them again.

Take a look at this, this is a real product that could have useful applications for lots of people.

I wonder how much it costs…

Last Sunday at 4 AM, I knew something was changing. I was wide awake with the feeling that God was adjusting some of my plans. As the day went on and we worked our way through our worship services schedule, I realized what was happening.

We worship in two locations, one in Palm Beach Shores, our 7:00 Sunrise Service, and the other in Palm Beach Gardens at our main campus. The main campus includes two services, 9:00 and 10:45. As a rule, I preach the same message at all three services. Poor Letha has to hear the same thing 3 times!

Tomorrow will be different. God has instructed me to preach something different at our Palm Beach Shores location. The main campus will feature the conclusion of The Nearness, a series where we have been discussing the dynamics of worship. At 7:00 tomorrow, I will be bringing a message called Much is Given. I will be talking about all the blessings that God has provided for us and, as a challenge, what we are supposed to do with those things.

So today I am wrapping up two messages. Tomorrow I will preach three times, in two one locations, two different messages to one church. If you feel so inspired, you could come to more than one service, if for no other reason, to acquire a heart of compassion for what Letha has to endure every week.

For service locations, see: Palm Beach Gardens, and Palm Beach Shores.

Happy weekend to all!

I got Letha to take a hike with me this morning. At first, she was concerned that it was too cold. It was 49 degrees when we left home. She has forgotten her mid-western roots. We ended up out in the fresh air for a couple of hours. We took a few photos of the wildlife. One of my favorite things about living in South Florida is the abundance of wild animals, I don’t just mean the kids in our church.

Enjoy a few pictures. (The gator in the picture is about 8 feet long, notice the nest of little ones behind her)

This morning Letha and I received a voice mail message from a friend. On the message, she sang a worship song for us. It was a little unusual, but we found it refreshing. I am not asking for people to start leaving these messages for us on a daily basis, but it was a nice reminder of the importance and power of worship.

A good way to start the day! Worship Him!

I am in an ever-continuing process of discovering and addressing the missional context of our ministry. This is basically an attempt to be effective in connecting the people that we serve with the message that God has for them. Believe it or not, this is a very consuming effort in which I have invested years.

Let me provide some context. We need to know that what we are doing works. If it does not work, we need to adjust. By “work”, I mean “are we developing Christ-followers?” Are our efforts resulting in spiritual awakening and growth in the lives of the people around us? If not, I am responsible to figure out why not and to do something about it. If our church is not successful at making disciples of Christ, we are failing.

So I am measuring. Using the scriptures as our scale, I am weighing out the spiritual development of the people who are under the influence of our ministry. The Bible details some basic non-negotiables when it comes to discipleship. It is daunting task to boiling down the entire Bible to come up with a list of essential Christian behaviors. I dare not assume this role. But I will point out a few of the basic things taught in scripture that certainly reveal the heart of a true follower of Jesus Christ. In other words: if we are doing these things, there is a good chance that we are serious about our relationship with Jesus. If we are not, we are not.

Basic Christian activities:

Prayer. If our prayer life is not solid and we are not growing in our communication with God, we will not be making progress as a Christian.

Bible reading. If we do not read God’s Word, we cannot know what He says. If we do not know what He says, we are doomed to be disobedient.

Worship – both personal and corporate. If we do not love God enough to worship him at church with other believers and in the privacy of our homes, we are not getting closer to Him.

Service. If we are not serving God and others, making a difference and sharing and showing the love of God to others, the Spirit of Christ is not growing in us.

Giving. If we do not share what we have, we are more controlled by the spirit of the world than we are the Spirit of God.

Of course, there are many additional concepts that could be included, but we have to begin somewhere.

So, using these basic activities as a foundation, I ask: Am I making disciples of Jesus?
My response: Not many, not enough. On a good day, I’d give myself a C-.

So I am beginning to work on a change of expectation. I am not sure what this looks like yet. I don’t know what the final outcome will be. But I know for sure that I have to do a better job in getting people connected and committed to Christ. I am hopeful for some measurable progress sooner rather than later.

I am weak in the area of assessing the success of a worship service based on the visible response of the people. When people don’t come to church, I assume they were not changed by the message I preached. When people sleep in church, I assume that they were bored. When they slump down and roll their eyes and look at their watches, I ascertain that they would rather be somewhere else. Thankfully, the last two of the three don’t happen very often. But yesterday, something on the other end of the spectrum happened that really got me charged up.

I told you last week (Thursday, Feb. 11 post) about a young man who is new to our church and new to a relationship with the Lord. He and his fiancé are planning to get married this week. So in our 10:45 services yesterday, they had an entire section of chairs filled with people from their families who were in town for their wedding. This was incredibly inspiring to me. They had such a great excuse to miss the service. Every week, we hear from people who can’t make it to one of our services because they have out-of-town company. Like their families and friends have them tied up at home and won’t let them out of the house until it is time to go to the beach or out on the boat.

This brand new believer gets it. He took the non-typical approach. Among his family are spiritual backsliders, an atheist and several who are curious about a relationship with Christ. They were in our worship event yesterday and heard a Gospel message about hope in Christ! This was, in my estimation, the best thing that happened all weekend.

This fuels me. I hope it spreads.

Our current teaching series at Maranatha Church, “The Nearness”, continues on Sunday. I hope everyone has enjoyed the challenges that have been issued regarding our opinions of and participation in worship. The whole idea is that God has promised to be among us when we meet together and He expects some type of response from us. What response is appropriate?

This week, we will look at two stories in the New Testament that tell the story of worship. John 12:1-8 gives the details of how Mary worshiped Jesus by pouring expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus. Judas complained about it because he was a thief. But Mary knew that Jesus was worthy of this offering and so much more. Mark 5:1-6 tells the story of the demon-possessed man who came to Christ. One detail is that, when the man saw Jesus, he ran to him and fell at his feet. I think the guy was surrendering in worship.

The three major points that I hope to make about these two characters are: they knew who Jesus was; they knew themselves; and they totally surrendered to Christ. The result was true worship. I am hoping that we can make the connection for ourselves and also resolve ourselves to be true worshipers of Christ. I also hope that this teaching can assist us as we take our corporate worship to the next level.

If you are at one of our worship services or if you listen online, let me know what you think.

I spent part of my day off hiking. The Loxahatchee Riverbend Park is a beautiful place with lots of wildlife. The weather was cool and it was very peaceful, I was able to put in a few good hours. I am preparing for my Inca Trail hike in May and there is no substitute for walking with a loaded backpack.

I hope you enjoy a few of the pictures from today.

A couple of weeks ago, Letha and I were privileged to attend the Verge Conference in Austin Texas. This was a “missional community conference”. 2,400 Church leaders from around the country came together to dialogue about our responsibilities and opportunities to share the love of Christ outside of the confines of our churches.

We had an excellent time. The weather in Austin was yukky and I broke my laptop computer while we were there, but the conference was well worth the hassle.

In my heart, I am processing what we heard and saw there. Challenges were issued that need to be addressed. Speakers told us that we need to put the direction of the Spirit ahead of what is popular in our churches. Those who led sessions told us that we may have to let go of our big church buildings if we plan to really reach our communities. We were told that we should give more to unreached people groups in strange countries than we do to our programs. These things are challenging to hear and even more challenging to implement.

My head is still spinning but I am getting used to it. I had some great discussions with some of the staff at Maranatha about what this may mean for us. Although they were not with us at the conference, they “get it” and seem excited to process the concepts.

I would like to thank the organizers of the event at The Austin Stone Church. Fantastic structure and leadership! Thanks, also to the speakers. Some of the best were: Dave Gibbons, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, Frances Chan, Ed Stetzer, Hugh Halter, Dave Ferguson, Matt Carter, John Burke, George Patterson, Jeff Vanderstelt, David Watson, and David Garrisson. The music was amazing, provided by Arron Ivey and band. You guys did an incredible job, thanks!

The Missional concept is not just another fad that will pass through the American church. This thing is real and has the potential to bring sweeping change to the way we do church. Whatever happens to the American church, I plan to continue to adjust my approach. Jesus wants me to be missional.

I am in training mode for an upcoming trip to Peru. The last week of May, my daughter Jessica and I are going to Peru to hike the Inca Trail. This is a four day trek through the Andes Mountains, ending with a sunrise entrance to Machu Picchu, one of the most famous Inca ruin sites in South America. This is a fairly demanding hike, with altitudes of over 13,500 feet. My gym time is being spent trying to increase my stamina and get my heart ready for the lung-crushing that lack of oxygen provides. I have climbed a volcano of 9,000 feet and visited Pike’s Peak in Colorado which has a peak of 14,100 feet. Believe me, this will be more than just a stroll in the park.

I had this idea to try to make the trip more than just a vacation. I contacted a good friend, Dr. Richard Waldrop, who works in missions in South and Central America and asked him if he knew of a ministry to children in Peru that could use a helping hand. He told me of a pastor in Lima who works with needy children, feeding, educating and providing spiritual training. Pastor Dario Lopez currently helps over 330 children on a daily basis. These children are impoverished and in need of the care that Pastor Lopez and his group provides. Dr. Waldrop informed me that, as it turns out, Pastor Lopez is currently trying to gather the funds to complete a much-needed building project that will make their work much more effective. I have had email contact with Pastor Lopez and it looks as though we are going to be able to partner together to help the children.

I feel like this is an open door for us.

Here is my idea: I plan to take pledges from my wealthy North American friends (we are all wealthy by the standards of the rest of the world) that will pay a certain amount of money per mile of the trek. The distance of the hike is about 25 miles. If I can get some friends to pay me to climb mountains, the kids in Lima will get the help they need. So a few weeks before we leave, I will be hitting up the people around me … be on guard.

I did a similar project in 2001. I ran a marathon (26.2 miles) and collected money from generous donors. We collected over $10,000 and paid for the construction of a church in El Cristo, Cuba. I hand-delivered the funds there and was changed forever by what I saw and experienced. The money that was committed was a major incentive to me as I trained for and completed the marathon. I am hoping for the same kind of motivation this time around. I am hoping that we can change the future of some of these children.

So I am training. It is difficult to prepare for high altitudes when you live at sea level. But I am committed to the project.

Take a look at some pictures of the kids that Pastor Lopez sent to me. And be ready to give a few bucks that will help to change their lives.