Deeds of Devotion

I was just reading through the book of 2 Chronicles the other day and I came across something very interesting and encouraging. As you may know. 2 Chronicles is a history of the kings of Judah (mostly) after the separation of the kingdom into 2 parts. There is some history about Israel and its kings, but predominantly the books focuses on the kingdom to the south and the Davidic lineage of Kings. Most of the kings were ok, some were worse than others, but they were all about average. Except that is for 2. Hezekiah and Josiah. Both of these kings, were exemplary in their service to their people and to God. Out of all the kings of Judah or Israel these two are the only ones who merit this comment from God, "Now the rest of the acts of Josiah/Hezekiah and their Deeds of Devotion are written in the law of the Lord". Their "Deeds of Devotion". That is their peity or commitment ot God and more importantly to following God. God had made it clear to the people of Israel that if they keep His commands He will be with them. But if they depart from them He too will depart from "them". Hezekiah and Josiah both committed, devoted themselves to God and God blessed their kingdoms.

How did they devote themselves to Him? By following His commands. And how did they find out about His commands? Knowing His Word. Its that simple. They both knew who God was from His Word. They both knew what to do (casting out the false gods, tearing down idols, casting out temple prostitues) from God's Word. Apart from His word they could do nothing. All the others kings departed from God's Word and God left them. Left them to despair and torture and pain. Until that is, they cried out to Him and began again to follow His Word. Then in His great mercy, He returned to them. But apart from obedience to His Word they could do nothing. They were lost, a traveler without a map.

I know from God's Word that in those days there were all kinds of forces pulling kings and peoples away from God's Word. Satan was at work and he was distracting the people of God from His Word and consequently from Him. Just like with Eve in the Garden "You will surely not die". Satan was distorting the Word of God. Today we face these same forces pulling us away. They like the serpent in the Garden seem harmless (that is if you are not afraid of snakes, Yikes). They like any distortion contain some of the semblance of the genuine article but are slightly different. Its not so bad, its ok, its just a different take on an old way, its influencing the modern culture. Those kinds of words are coming from ministry leaders today. The truth is being distorted and they are going along with it. They are not willing to take up the fight and stand for the Truth. Josiah and Hezekiah both were willing to stand up and say, this is not right, this is a lie, this is a distortion that is not real. And they both were willing to stand on the Truth, on God's Word. That is true and real and unchanging.

If we are to be men and woman of God, men and woman who want to be remembered for our Deeds of Devotion, we must be devoted to His Word. We must not be distracted by the popular, the hip, the pop culture new way of doing ministry. We must be devoted to the Truth that is God's Word and nothing else. Sola Scriptura.

God's Blessings on you all :-)

Leaving Pt. 3

Well its been a while since my last post, almost a month. I have wanted to write and many of you know I love to write. But to be honest my emotions have been so ragged and warped that I could not settle on just one thing to write about. That is until now. Things have died down a bit, life is somewhat normalizing and I feel it is now time to end this section.

Fear was the first pervading emotions that I had. Fear of what we were going to do, not financially, that never has bothered me, but in ministry. I know that I am called to minister, and I know that I want to. But where and how and when. That was the fear. With my education, most churches wont even look at me. Yet my experience of almost 10 years has taught me way more than college would. And my study of books and the bible have surely exceeded the requirements of an educational institution. Nevertheless I feared where would I go to minister.

Relief was the next emotion. The weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The pressures and struggles that faced me and my family at our last church were gone. I literally felt a peace and calm I have not had for some time. I actually began to sleep better and enjoy life more. I no longer feared certain phone calls, or emails. I was free and that was comforting.

Lastly and the best emotion ever was loneliness. When your life have been tied up in one institution for some 9 years and you depart its like the baby leaving the womb. Its cold, wet and lonely (ok not really wet, HA). We had left our church but our friends had not. They were still involved and the things were used to talk about were now taboo in my mind. I didnt want to inquire on things, it didnt think it was my place. I couldnt talk to some people about my issues because I didnt think it there place. Consequently it was a lonely time. But God did two amazing things. One He gave me an amazing wife, one who is supportive, patient and most of all loving. She came along side me and let me be angry, sad, depressed, short, and quite frankly a jerk. And she loved me still. Supporting me and helping me and hugging me. God has truly blessed me with the best woman ever. Secondly God gave me Himself. He reminded me that "He will never leave nor forsake me". He is here and He has the best plans ever for me. I dont know them, but I do know Him and that is what counts.

It took about a month for me to figure that out, but now I can rest in Him. Like John I can lay my head on His chest and wait for what He has planned. I look forward to the new adventure because I know He is with me. Thats it for leaving.

I must decrease

Wow, those are some hard words to say, "I must decrease" and even harder to watch and see. John the Baptist had been sent for a season and a role, "to prepare the way" once that work was done it was time to move on. John knew that when he said those words "He must increase, while I must decrease". It must have been hard for him though. He was the "man" per say, the leader the teacher the baptizer. And now that his work was done, One would come along, take what he had prepared and make it greater, actually do the greatest work in all of man kind. When you explain it like that, it sounds awesome. But I imagine that while being in the midst of decreasing it doesnt feel all that great. I say that because I used that exact quote a few weeks ago when my staff was having a meeting without me. Dont be cruel to them or anything, they needed to have that meeting and do some things and the reality is they need practice in doing them without me. I must decrease. In light of that statement it sounds good, but I can tell you personally that whilst in the storm it sucks.

As I move out of my current role in ministry I have to move aside and let others take over. If any of you know me, you know that I love to delegate, and not because im lazy, but because I love seeing people grow and take on new roles. So this moving aside is not a huge thing, except that im in a place now where I have no say, or responsibility. Now dont take that to mean that I dont care, its not that. Its really that I have no authority, no matter what I do now, it can be undone in a few weeks. Its a weird place to be. I want to help and guide and hold people accountable but its not my place anymore. I must decrease. Hard thing to do. I want to see them succeed and grow, but that will be someone else's job. I can obviously still have a relationship with this staff and dont doubt that I will continue to love them, but when it comes to ministry issues they will need to follow their new leader. Which means I must step away, that is not only hard but it sucks. I love my staff and I dont want to let go, but I must decrease (I figure if I say that enough it will become easier, NOT).

This past weekend I was up at Hume Lake Christian camps with my last HS class. This is a unique class in that I took them over when they were in the 8th grade. I have known them all for 5 years. They are an awesome group, but I have to let them go (im still going to their graduation though). At camp I had to step back and let some other leaders talk with the kids, love on the kids and begin relationships with the kids. Ill be totally honest, I didnt like that one bit, I actually hated it. "Those are my kids and I want to love them and no one can love them as much as me", not a true statement, but definitely one I felt. Am im being selfish, heck yes I am, jealous, oh you bet. Is that wrong, yes and no. I cant help my feelings in that they are from my heart and I do love those kids. But the reality is that others can love them as much if not greater than I. So again I must decrease. I asked my staff in one of our meetings to handle any and all issues themselves. I would be there to assist the staff but the students needed to go directly to the staff that was staying. That was incredibly hard to say and to do. But it was necessary and again I must decrease.

These feelings I think are normal. I think we all go through when we leave any job. Maybe in ministry it is harder because we are so involved in others lives. Dont deny the feelings, they are there, but dont act on them poorly either. This process is going to be hard and saying goodbye is always hard. Any one who ever left for college knows how hard it is to say goodbye. But the reality is we have to, we all know that. When its time to move on its time and you must move on graciously. Others will come in, take what you have done and build on it and that should give you great joy. It wont be easy but you have to let others take over. Even while you are still around, others need to prepare the organization for the change and in my opinon that is not your job. You need to graciously begin to decrease and let others increase.

Gods Blessings

Leaving Pt. 2

So i filled you on the events that led up to the leave. But I left out three huge things. One is that Becky and I prayed fervently about what to do? This was not something to be taken lightly and something that we sought God in. Her affirmation of the decision, her knowing me (my gifts and passions) and her following me was necessary for this leave. I prayed, before I even told her of my intent, that God would align our minds and hearts on this and He did. Becky is with me 100% and that was a gift from above (thank you God). Secondly after prayer I sought some counsel of men I respect. Men who would not just tell me what I wanted to hear, but would speak truth to me. Some of them agreed with me, so of them didnt. Thats ok, I love them all the same and was glad that those who disagreed could tell me so. Thirdly and finally I planned in my mind how things would go. I am ADHD and my mind never stops. My mind went down the steps of what would happen. Things like how my staff would take it, how the kids would take it, how my personal kids would take it, how the congregants would take it. What would their responses be, anger, sadness or frustration (and lots of other emotions, im sure). What kind of spin some would put on it. Or in reality what lies would be told, or truths hidden. Those things went through my head as part of this process. These series of events that would lead to an end.

I guess I was able to fool myself a little. I had planned out in my head the different scenarios and my reponses to them. Some went as plan, some didnt. Some were easy and some were hurtful. To assume that a departure from the church will go well because its the church is a fallacy. Let us not forget that the church is full of sinners, myself included. So never assume that its going to be "ill fly away" through the process and love and grace, far from it. The reality is that people will be hurt, and they will do what they need to do to assuage their pain. That could be lots of things from, lack of integrity, lack of grace, and sadly a lack of love. Its hard, on all sides and I have to remember that its not just me going through this.

One other area I didnt take into account was the emotions. You can play out in your mind the scenarios but when you do that they are ideal and you know how to handle it, becasue its your imagination. But the reality is that there are emotions tied to it, emotions that effect you. Yes some emotions will effect the decisions, but more than that they effect your demeanor and lets face it they just hurt. I didnt take into account the kind words that some would say and the tearful joy they brought. I didnt take into account the harsh words or half truths that would be spoken that would infuriate me. I didnt taken into account the emotions others felt and their healthy and unhealthy responses. I dont think you can prepare yourself for that. We cant make ourselves feel the joy or pain of an event in our mind. Yes we can imagine it, but we cant feel it, not until it happens. You can imagine breaking your arm and the potential pain, but until you actually do it you dont feel it. The best preparation for me in this is to have some cigars and kleenex near by always. Wipe the tears and calm the nerves, but you still dont avoid the emotions, you still have to feel them.

That is part of the process.

Leaving pt. 1

Im leaving a job. Yea I know thats not a big deal, but its a new deal for me. Why you might ask? Because I am leaving a Ministry Job. I know this may sound like a cliche, but this is different than leaving a regular job. For one its different because its happening to me. Two its different because Ministry is different than your regular 9-5. Ministry is about being involved in the lives of others and helping them, guiding them, correcting them, teaching them, loving them, being frustrated with them, laughing with them and crying with them. In ministry your job does not rotate around the time clock, it rotates around others time, its a 24/7 job. Add to that the fact that you are always around the church, always around church people and always doing church things, thats what makes it a big deal. Leaving a ministry in a way is like leaving a family. Some family members you cant wait to leave and some you love so dear that it breaks your heart to leave. This is a new process and as some have said, "a new chapter" in my life. One that a friend said I should blog about. I can post articles on my website and you can read them, but in this forum you can respond. Cry with me, laugh at me (probably a lot), be angry with me (for some bonehead choice) and hopefully being encouraged by the entire process.

With that said lets start right there, "Process". Thats the word du jour for sure. Process is a systematic series of actions directed to some end. That about sums it up. Series of actions to and end, my leaving a ministry position, thats the end. But where did it begin? In January 09 I was posed with the request of changing the way I teach in my ministry. I am what you would call and expositor. I start at the bible, I study the text, I stand on the shoulders of men who came before me, I dig into what God is saying, I use other texts to sustantiate the texts and I end with scripture. Its a real simple process really, one that many people practice and one that many people could define better than I. My firm belief is that God made it clear in His Word that "all of scripture is profitable" not just the parts that we like best. Jesus told the remaining 11 disciples in the Great Commission to "Teach all that I have commanded you", again not just the good or fun parts of Gods Word, but "all" of it. Paul told the elders at Ephesus that "I have declared the whole counsel of God to you", again not just the good parts but the "whole" counsel of God. The best way to do that is to begin in a book, go through that entire book and end the book, moving on to the next book. If we do that we lessen the chances of things getting missed, or overlooked or even ignored. We dont get to decide that this passage is not important, as far as I am concerned if God "breathed out" His word then its all important, again "All".

The other method to teaching (and there could be lots more) is what many of us call Topical. That is when someone takes a particular topic and applies it to the scriptures. A good example would be if someone were to teach on Jesus's Birth around Christmas, going to Luke 1-2 and telling that story. A bad example would be when someone talks about prayer and says "when two or 3 are gathered in my name, there I am", why is that bad? Because that is not what Jesus is talking about at all. Its called context and the problem with Topical type teaching is that you can easily miss the context. Im my opinion you dont apply topics to scripture, you instead draw God's teaching out and expose God's intent to others.

As you can see from this I am very passionate about God's Word and the communication of it. I so firmly believe in it that when asked to change I said "no". From what I know of scripture and my own convictions I could not do something that did not agree with Scripture, "Unless I am convinced by Sacred Scriptures or by evident reason, I will not recant. My conscience is held captive by the Word of God and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe" Martin Luther. I know Luther faced a greater reckoning than I, but scripture nor reason were telling me to waver on my beliefs. Actually quite the opposite, scripture and reason kept confirming my decision.

So with that said I resigned my position and began the process of exiting this church.

Look for the next blog and the next step in this series of actions.