I am reading a book by Mark Driscoll who is the pastor of Mars Hill Church.  The title of the book is Confessions of  a Reformission Rev.  I will probably post about this book throughout the coming weeks as I find things in it that I find interesting.  I am definitely intrigues by the book and love the way Driscoll rights though for some I am sure he would be considered harsh and brash.  While reading the book it was speaking about change and something really stood out to me.

For a church to grow it must also accept that the church will change.  The problem with most churches is not that they don’t want to experience conversion growth but rather that they don’t want to change, which negates their ability to grow and is a sin to be repented of.

Over the years I have been blown away by churches that refuse to change.  Not change just for the sake of change but change in order to be most effective where they are at.  Instead they want to keep things they way they are the same music, the same standards, the same lack of vision, the same programs, etc.  In reality this is sin and should indeed be repented of.  

If the church does not change I am afraid the church will eventually die.  By our refusal to look at and do things in a different way we are telling others they really mean little to us and worse we are often telling our communities that they do not matter.  We are to often inward focused and rarely outward focussed.  Instead of evaluating our community and doing inventory of how we can effectively reach it we get stuck in the rut of doing things the same old way, and think by some miracle people are going to be drawn to our church.  Sadly this is primarily seen in the fundamentalist mindset and the churches refusal to change to a Missional mindset causes stagnation within the congregation and breeds discontent for the generation that wants to be an effective force in their community.

The message to the church has to be clear Change and grow don’t change and don’t grow.

In some ways I absolutely hate the fact that my birthday is today.  That the day I celebrate my life is the very day that such a tragedy struck the heart of our country.  At the same time I know I will never forget.  I have posted a video below of the events how they unfolded that day.  May we never forget.

This has been on my mind alot recently.  I have often thought why does society cater to the minority and why in the world does our church cater to the minority.  Of course we could say that Jesus tells the parable of the man leaving the 99 sheep to go after the one lost and I suppose we could try to make a case for catering the minority out of that parable.  However that is not what that passage of scripture is speaking too.  It is speaking directly to the shepherd going after the lost.

I suppose what really got me to thinking about this is the desire to drill in Alaska.  When watching the news one evening there happened to be conversation on whether to drill in Alaska or not and my step dad who has worked in Alaska many times stated they don’t care whether we drill there or not.  He said this because one of the people in the debate said if we drilled we would be taking out the food chain for a select group of eskimos.  Well this got me to thinking why do we cater to the minority.  I mean think about it.  I am not saying the majority should rule everything but why do we change laws, rules, the way we do things, our way of life, based upon what the 20 percent might say.  Why is it that at times we do not make decisions in our churches based on what 20 percent might say as opposed to what the other 80 percent says.  I am not sure if I am making sense.

I often wonder though why do churches in particular get so caught up into this.  I have seen churches divided because a minority of the people did not agree with a decision.  I have seen pastors leave a church based upon a minority of the people that wanted to make it difficult for him.  I have seen elders boards totally ignore a direction the majority wanted to go and instead go the direction of the minority.  These decisions are usually made for the sake of unity and I understand that to a certain point.

 This is coming from someone who resigned from their former church for the sake of unity.  I even allowed for half truths and lies to be said about me for the sake of unity.  For the sake of unity I allowed myself to be thrown under a bus and for things to be said about my family that no one should have to sit through nor endure.  All of this for Christian Unity, and all of it coming from not the majority but the minority.  I watched as friends left a church because the minority ruled it and I even at times backed the minority for the sake of unity.  

Here is what I don’t understand.  If we realize that progress will not be made by continuing to listen to the minority then why in the world do we still allow the minority to rule our churches.  Why is the minority the loudest voice that is heard?  Why do we make decisions that compromise the majority and in the end we chalk it all up to unity?  I really do not know the answer.  This is me just thinking through how we do things.

I really feel as long as we allow the minority to rule all we do we will not see progress.  I suppose the flip side is what if the majority refuses to move ahead?  God does promise that in the MULTITUDE of counselors is wisdom.

I have been a Youth Pastor for 14 years.  Trust me I have gone through an onslaught of t-shirt companies trying to pawn there wares off on me.  It typically goes something like this we want to send you 50 t-shirts for you to evaluate and what you don’t sell you send back to us.  I have to admit that this is a great marketing idea because Youth Pastors are procrastinator’s they let the t-shirts sit around forever and then the next thing you know they have to buy them all.  In addition to that alot of these t-shirts are kind of lame.  They lack in style and seem just kind of cheesy.  You can see I clearly don’t ascribe to the “they will know we are christians by our t-shirts” mentality.  However I believe that Christian t-shirts if done tastefully can be a cool thing to wear and can be a conversation point.  Enter JESUSBRANDED.

I recently received a link to the site Jesusbranded.com so I decided to go check them out.  I was pleasantly surprised as I perused the shirts.  They really have some cool stuff that steps out of the ordinary style of christian t-shirts and bring a cool, refreshing, unique style.  These are not just some cheesy t-shirts but each shirt has a verse that goes along with it.  Perhaps you say big deal. Well let us not forget

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

It is God’s word that is the power of God for salvation.  So when I see a company that put this into practice I support it.  Why don’t you go take a look and decide for yourself.  Are your Jesusbranded?  Check them out here.

I have always felt that God has called me to be a Youth Pastor in addition I have always been against those that merely use Youth Ministry to aspire to something better meaning a Sr. Pastor role.  But what if you feel maybe God is calling you to a Sr. Pastor role.  This has entered into my thinking and something I never thought I would think about is dominating my thought process.  I really have never desired to be a Sr. Pastor.  I guess all of the headaches that come with it I would like to avoid.  However there are just as many headaches within Youth Ministry.  I however have always liked dealing with teens and have not necessarily liked dealing with many adults.  However I have to ask myself has God been preparing me for this, preparing me for something different, even something I never dreamed I would do.

I have always said to my wife if I was going to be a Sr. Pastor I don’t want to do it in a small town.  I have just felt the potential for growth is so low.  However over the last few weeks I have begun to see that there are many smaller towns that either do not have a good church or they have a church without a Pastor.  Many people here in MO are forced to drive several miles if they live in a small town in order to find a good church.  In addition I have had several people recently ask me if I would consider being a Sr. Pastor.  I just struggle with decision.  Am I ready?

Sometimes God calls us to do things that we never though were possible.  Sometimes God wants us to think outside of ourselves and to focus on Him.  I am not saying I am call to be a Sr. Pastor but I decided today I should at least be open to the idea.  If you are reading this I would ask that you pray fro direction in my life.