I enjoy my job.  It’s what I love to do, in the environment I love to do it in.  I work full-time at a church where my wife and I are Youth Pastors.  In the past, I have been full-time, part-time, and volunteer (with a full-time secular job) during various seasons in the ministry, so I’m pretty well-rounded in what it’s like to work in the American church.

But the goal in all of those instances–full-time, part-time, or volunteer–is to win people to Jesus, disciple those people, and send them out to disciple others.  That’s the whole purpose we do what we do.  We use whatever talents, gifts, and passions that God has given us to that end, whether that means teaching, singing, or scrubbing toilets.  And I’m not just talking about paid church staff.  It’s what Jesus specifically called all of His followers to do.

But here’s the thing: sometimes we lose perspective.  We get caught up in the work, or the secular aspects of our lives, and we forget what our purpose is.  We get so bogged down in making sure that our lessons are just right, our kids have their homework done, our blog is kept up-to-date, or whatever it is that we do, that we forget to, like Christ, have compassion for the lost.

Case in point: for the past 5 or so weeks, I have been taking 2 of our teenagers through a discipleship program called Discipleship Plus.  It’s actually a great discipleship course.  I’ve been very pleased with the curriculum overall.  I would say the only 2 real gripes I’ve had overall were the fact that there is no student editions of the book–only teacher’s editions–and that there are no digital resources to go along with it.  Since there are no student editions, I only bought the teacher’s edition and had been teaching out of that.  And when I say digital, what I mean is copies of the forms we use each week (such as the “Weekly Accountability Sheets” and the “Session Notes”), which all happen to be very generic forms simply with lines for writing and a title mostly.  So, since that was lacking, I made my own to print and reproduce (which the book plainly stated that I could do without breaking any copyright laws).

Next, I created a small website for the program.  My goals were: to provide a place where students could download their forms and print them out from home if they ran out, to re-iterate the assignments for the week, and to recap the main points of the lesson so that–and this was very important to me–parents could follow along and see what I was teaching their children, and hopefully encourage them at home using the same Scriptures and main thoughts that I had been teaching.  That way we would all be on the same page.

Well, a few days ago, out-of-the-blue, I get a call at the church office from a man who at first did not identify himself.  He had heard that I had been using the Discipleship Plus materials and wanted to know how I liked them, to which I responded with a favorable review.  Next he wanted to know how long I had been doing it and how many kids I had.  I told him around 5 weeks and 2 students.  By this point, I simply assumed it was another Youth Pastor who was interested and just wanted some feedback.  Finally he introduced himself as one of the authors.  Of course, I thanked him for writing the material and that I was pleased with it, and he thanked me for using it.

Then, suddenly, he asked me to take the website I created for the program down.  It was such an unusual request that I had to ask him to repeat it, and of course to explain why.  He told me that it was against the law, that it was copyrighted, and I wasn’t allowed to post the material in any way, shape, or form on the internet.  And I suppose he was right and I had no choice in the matter.  I simply made the assumption that, since I was only putting bits and pieces on the site and usable forms for my students that I was discipling–the whole purpose the course was even written–that it wouldn’t be a problem.  Apparently I was wrong.

Technically I was breaking the law, and I get that.  I told him that I had no choice if those were his wishes–especially since I had no desire to embroil my church in a legal battle.  But I had to ask him “why?”.  Not the secular reason, because that was obvious.  But, why would he want such a thing done when we were using it as a tool in discipling students, which was the whole point.  We weren’t making money off of it.  We weren’t taking credit for it.  It was simply a resource to enhance the material for my students and their parents.  And further, I explained to him that, like it or not,  everything is heading this way:  universal cloud access, meaning that everything would be directly accessible from the internet, with or without a fee.  And I told him that I was willing to pay any necessary fees or to purchase 2 more books for my students if that would satisfy any usage issues.  But these weren’t good enough for him.  He simply wanted it down.

To his credit, he didn’t say anything mean or rude, except for one thing.  I told him that I was very disappointed in his attitude towards my efforts in discipling students, and that he had lost perspective.  His response to me was “Well we are disappointed in you too.”  I can’t say I know what that means, whether he was speaking for himself and his co-author, the publishing copany, the government, or what.  But apparently he was disappointed that I was doing what Christ told us to do in Matthew 28: to make disciples.   And I was using his material to do it!!

So, that was a long story.  If you’ve read this far, then I owe it to you to tell you my point.  This Christian author has lost his perspective on things.  He has adopted a secular mind-set so much so that it is more important to him to make money than to make disciples.  Moreover, since we are a small church and barely a blip on the web, I have to assume that he was actively trolling the internet looking for copyright violations.  Apparently it is that important to him.

And I’m not making excuses; I had no choice than to bring down the site.  He was technically right.

So to use this as an example for the rest of us, we need to all take a step back every once in a while an examine our motives.  Have we lost perspective as well?  Have we forgotten that Jesus died not just for us, but for our next-door neighbors, our co-workers and classmates, and our enemies alike?  Are we so concerned with carnal issues that it gets in the way of the Great Commission?  Why is it that we are taking the time to work in the ministry?  If you honestly can’t say that it is for winning the lost, then you need to take a break and regain your perspective.  Don’t let the world steal your joy.  Don’t let them warp your mind into thinking in the same terms as they do.  I know I have been guilty of it before, and probably will again.

As for this particular author, I will not be using his material anymore.  I do not want to support such disregard for the Great Commission from someone who should know better.  In this case, the enemy has won.  It really is a shame.

UPDATE: In my original post, I had used the author’s name.  I decided to remove his name because I felt it might sound like an attack, and that isn’t my purpose.

As I was doing the dishes this morning before coming to work, there was some activity outside of our apartment door in the common hallway.  We share this common hallway with 7 other units in our apartment complex.  And as usual, our dog, chance began his ritual barking.

Chance, who comes up to my knees at best, is normally not a loud dog.  In fact we had him probably a year or so before he ever barked.  And even now, he rarely does so.  But when he hears people in the hallway, especially if it sounds like they are near our door, he will bark.  And for such a little bitty dog, he has quite the “big-dog” bark!

So, as I began to yell at him to be quiet, a thought occurred to me.  Many people get dogs for security–a guard dog.  Funny thing is, almost every person that I’ve ever known to have a “guard dog” gets really upset when the dog is barking too much.  But wasn’t that the whole purpose of a “guard dog?: to bark at strangers?  Aren’t they supposed to grown and generally be protective of their owners?  But when they bark too much, people get upset.

I wonder if we ever treat God the same way?  The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a sort of guard dog for our spiritual lives.  He is there, among other reasons, to keep us from falling into temptation.  Yet when He begins to “bark,” sometimes we get annoyed or just ignore it completely.  Or worse, we begin to get angry or defiant.

Maybe we should take a little extra time in prayer to make sure we are paying attention to the barking of the Holy Spirit. He is there to keep us out of trouble.  I know personally, I intend to make sure I am listening when He begins to speak to me and let me know when the enemy is coming a little too close.

What about you?

So most of my recent blogs have just been telling the world how I feel about certain subjects.  Not tonight.  Tonight I just want to tell the world that I learned some stuff this week.

I am a terrible event planner.  I mean, straight-up awful.  Mostly I just sit and stare at my notes and think, “man, how am I gonna get from here to there?”  Thankfully, God knew that and hitched me up with my amazing wife who excels at that stuff.

The thing is, for some reason, I basically planned the fundraiser dinner thing that we did today all by myself.  I don’t really know why.  For some reason I didn’t bring Amanda in on any of it.  And because of that, it was a mess.  Now don’t get me wrong, it went just fine, and we raised a little money.  But that’s only because the few decisions I did make weren’t that bad–by the grace of God.  But it could’ve been absolutely terrible.

So, I did learn a ton of things this week about planning a fundraiser dinner.  The biggest of all: allow my wife to use the gifts God gave her!

I love my wife so much!

Most people who take great journeys do so for their own benefit: They want to be the first to scale a mountain or cross an ocean.  They want to be famous and receive the benefits of their fame.  But, the greatest journey of all time was taken by Someone who had a more eternal purpose.  Jesus took the ultimate journey for one reason and one reason alone: you.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:5-11

Journey Leg #1: From Heaven to Earth (vs. 5-7)

Picture Heaven in your mind. It’s perfect in every way. And Jesus is there, of course, being perfect, being worshiped constantly, free from all worries and care of being human.  And now, He’s given that up. He made a conscious choice to serve instead of being served by coming in the form of a lowly human peasant.

Journey Leg #2: From the Earth to the Cross (vs.

Jesus could have taken on the form of a king or emperor.  Or, like I would’ve done (good thing I’m not God…), as some sort of superhero (of course, the image in my mind is some random Japanimation hero with all kinds of crazy superpowers).  But He didn’t. Instead, in the greatest of all paradoxes, Jesus won by losing.  He stepped away from Heaven, “became obedient to death”, and allowed Himself to be at the mercy of something He had complete power over. Jesus endured one of the most painful and agonizing execution processes, so that we wouldn’t have to.

Journey Leg #3: From the Grave to the Sky (vs. 9-11)

Jesus’ humiliation and death wasn’t the end of the journey. Our Scripture text tells us that God exalted Jesus to the highest place, giving Him the Name above all Names.

God is in the midst of writing an incredible story of our lives. And of course, we won’t pay $10 to watch a movie where the lead character never has to face any difficulties or tough moments, or even a hard fight. Great stories happen through great drama.  And so it is with our story. God isn’t writing an owner’s manual of our life–He’s writing a sweeping epic novel! And that story finds its ultimate turning point when we decide to make Jesus the Savior of our Life.  Have you made that decision?

Pastor Doug Brown announced this past Sunday to the congregation of The Rock Church that, effective Sun., Jan. 31, 2010, he will be resigning our church.

Pastor was good enough to give me a few days warning, which of course came with the plea that I keep it to myself so that he could announce it to the people personally.  So it wasn’t quite as big a shock to me when he announced it.  That doesn’t mean my heart wasn’t pounding when he did.

I want to go on record to say this: I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Pastor Doug Brown.  I’ve had the pleasure of being his Youth Pastor for these past six months.  And, though I’ve only known him for a total of 7 months, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that, when he is speaking, I need to shut up and listen.  The words that come out of his mouth are wisdom like that of Solomon.  He has years of experience not only Pastoring, but on the missions field, and he has taken those experiences and become a wealth of knowledge and compassion. I’ll never forget the staff meetings he and I had where he sat behind his desk and related to me his vision and passion for The Rock Church.

For those that don’t know, Pastor Doug has been battling cancer: melanoma. The typical life-expectancy is a maximum of five years.  He’s had it going on six.  And most people that see him in public would probably never know he has cancer, because he looks and acts healthy. And he will probably never tell us of the private health battles he fights at home. But I know he is very tired, and he deserves this rest–retirement, if you will.

It has been my honor to have served with him these few months. My regret is that I didn’t get to know him sooner, and learn from his vast wisdom.

He will probably be embarrassed if he ever reads this because he doesn’t want the attention.  It’s his desire–and I can personally attest to his sincerity in this matter–that his efforts disappear and that God gets the complete and total glory.  So, Pastor Doug Brown, may God be glorified and exalted because of your life.  And may you find rest, comfort, and peace in the hands of the Healer.  We will miss you greatly, Pastor, but our prayers for you and your family will continue, and we will rejoice together when you are healed.  Go with the honor and blessing of The Rock Church.

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Turn your cap right; your head isn’t crooked.

3. Let’s get this straight: it’s called a “gravel road.” I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you’re going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

4. They are cattle. That’s why they smell to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don’t like it? I-40 goes east and west, I-65 goes north and south. Pick one.

5. So you have a $60,000 car. We’re impressed. We have $250,000 cotton strippers that are driven only three weeks a year.

6. So every person in the south waves. It’s called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don’t have it up to your ear at the time.

8. Yeah, we eat catfish and crawfish. You really want sushi and caviar? It’s available at the corner bait shop.

9. The “Opener” refers to the first day of deer season. It’s a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

10. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

11. No, there’s no “vegetarian special” on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the chef’s salad and pick off the two pounds of ham and turkey.

12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup. Oh, yeah … we don’t care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat … IT AIN’T REAL CHILI!!

13. You bring “coke” into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served over ice. You bring “Mary Jane” into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

14. College and high school football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang sight more fun to watch.

15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don’t hit the water hazards — it spooks the fish.

16. Colleges? We have them all over. We have state universities, universities, and vo-techs. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at everybody when they come for the holidays.

17. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. So don’t mess with us. If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

18. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump mess ain’t music, anyway. We don’t want to hear it any more than we want to see your boxers. Refer back to #1.

John 15:1-8 says:

1 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer.2 He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more.3 You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.5 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.6 Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.7 But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.8 This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. The Message

3 things happen when we make sure nothing comes before God:

1.  When we focus on God, we’re fruitful.

Being united with God can only happen if we spend time with Him instead of other things and other people.

2.  When we focus on God, we’re satisfied.

Psalm 103:5 says that God satisfies your desires with good things.  There are tons of things we look to for satisfaction instead of God: friends, cars, drugs, academics, sex, sports, music, etc.  The problem is that the fix always goes away.  They may satisfy for a moment, or even for a season, but they won’t give you satisfaction like God will.

3.  When we focus on God, we please Him.

Verse 8 of the above Scripture tells us that God gets the glory when we bear fruit.  The story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10 tells us that there is nothing more important than spending quality time with Him instead of getting bogged down in all the other things.

So, what is it that you have been putting before, or with, God to get you through?  Is it “God and…”, or just God?

This is the 3rd part in a series.  If you missed the first two,

Well, this has been fun!  I have to say I’ve learned much in the past few days while composing this article and arguing my point.

I must apologize to those who I promised to have this out sooner.  I’ve had to take a step back and get some council–mostly because I intended this post to actually use my church as an example.  But it occurred to me that I may want to discuss this with my Pastor, my boss, and my wise council, before I do that.  After discussing it with him, we decided that I should tread very softly, because these posts do not necessarily represent the opinions of those of The Rock Church.

So this is me treading softly.  If my Pastor takes any issues with my statements, they may be removed.  Just so you know.

Our church does not have Sunday Night Services.  As I mentioned in the previous post, the morning/evening service model simply does not work for us.  That’s not to say that there aren’t some in our church that would love to have it.  But after much deliberation, polling, and prayer, the leadership decided that Sunday Nights weren’t going to be part of our regular service line-up.

Now, there are many who may ask, “Why doesn’t it work?  Aren’t your people hungry for God?”

And that’s not easy to answer.  Again, as formerly stated, our members’ devotion to Christ can’t be measured by their attendance and participation.  Our membership consists of Chief Financial Officers, small business owners, firm-partners, single-mothers, and the homeless (I had intended to be more specific, but it was decided that was a little invasive).  For most of our families, there is no stay-at-home-mom/dad in the mix.  The kids are extremely involved in school and other civic activities, such as band, gymnastics, and football (you can’t forget football in Valdosta…).  With both parents getting home at 5, 6, or even 7 p.m., and many of the kids not getting home till then or later, getting homework done, baths taken, room cleaned, and other household responsibilities, cramming church in there is difficult at best.  So not just Sunday nights, but Wednesday nights (or any other night of the week for that matter) are suffering.  And there is no one to blame for it.  It’s simply a fact.

Furthermore, they found (this was before I arrived) that many (certainly not all) of the folks that attended Sunday nights were those that were committed enough to come, and even be able to worship and receive the Word.  But when they were asked to be honest, they expressed that they would prefer to be at home, trying to squeeze in a few moments with their families, since they really don’t have any relaxing time to spend with family during the week.  Again, I find that understandable.  And it is a symptom of the society that we have created.

So, it should be underscored that the decision not to have Sunday Nights, though one that I would have supported, were made before I got here.

Ultimately, here is my gripe: churches that hang on to things that don’t work.  Can we please get rid of dumb traditions, mindsets, and goals, that in no way are prescribed in the Bible.  There should be–and this is important–an effort made by the church to find new ways to minister to its people, and to bring them together for the glory of God (let’s not forget that the other mission of the church, besides ministering to people, is to glorify God).  I suggest home groups.  If we can’t get the people to the church, let’s bring the church to them!

Lastly, while discussing this with my Pastor, he said something that struck me between the eyes (which he often does–the guy has incredible wisdom).  If people (not necessarily our church, but in general) are truly on fire for God, burning with a passion for His presence and and outpouring of His Spirit, then Sunday Mornings simply won’t be enough for them.

I’ll leave you with that.

Today the Sunday night church service has become a tradition.  Just one of many that holds the church in a stranglehold.  The two-service model was originally just something that some folks figured out as what worked for their situation, but it has become an expected model for the rest of us.

But let’s face it: circumstances have changed.  And even if they hadn’t, not every situation is the same.  Churches are different from each other for a variety of reasons, and to try and have a one-size-fits-all model for every church is counter-productive, and rather silly.

And it took me moving 400 miles away from the circles I used to move in to figure that out.  You see, I’m a church geek.  Always have been.  For the past 15 or so years I have been at church every time the door was open.  Yes, I’m a Youth Pastor, but I wasn’t always.  And even when I wasn’t, I was always there.  It’s just how I work.  I love working at church; it gives me fulfillment.

But after I moved away from home and all things familiar, I was exposed to, well, non-churchy people.  I had surrounded myself with people who lived and breathed church just like I did.  But when I moved and had to make new friends, I began to realize that I had been living in a world that was great for “church geeks,” but not so much for the real world.  Not everyone lives and breathes church like I did (and still do, for those that think I’m bitter).  That is not to say that they don’t devote their lives to Christ and Him crucified, but they also have other things going on in their lives.

Now, I’ve also had the argument that “Jesus gave up everything for our salvation, can’t we do the same for Him.”  So you mean to tell me that every person that is sold-out to Christ needs to leave their careers, their children, and their family for Jesus?  And yes, I hear the “rich, young ruler” story resounding in my head as I type this.  But I don’t believe that Jesus wanted us all to literally give up everything to follow Him.  I do believe that we should be willing to give it all up at a moment’s notice should He ask us to, and I know plenty of people who have, or will.  But if we all did that, nothing would function.  No business would have any employees left (unless you count the unsaved, but of course it’s our job to convert them all, and who would that leave…), and life as we know it would come to a halt.  I don’t believe that’s what Jesus was asking.  I believe He would prefer us to give up our idols, but to continue to be a missionary right where He has us in our everyday lives.

What does this have to do with Sunday nights?  Well what if a person has children who play sports?  And those practices are on Wednesday night?  Should they give up the sport because they’re going to miss church?  Absolutely not!  That’s ridiculous!  What if God used them to reach out to their teammates and win them to Christ, and then bring them to church when the season is over?

I think I’m rambling.  Sorry about that.  My point is that, here in America, people don’t wrap their lives around church.  It’s a shame really.  In foreign countries, places that we would call third-world, the church is thriving.  And I’ve had multiple missionaries give the same explanation: lack of distraction.  There’s nothing else to do in town, so every day, if people aren’t working, they’re at church.  And because of that, discipleship is flourishing and the church is thriving. But, to expect that in America is absurd. There are too many distractions.

So, I submit, that instead of the church’s obsession with being counter-cultural, creating programs that people don’t want, and answering questions people aren’t asking (again, for the sick, not the well), why don’t we adapt?  Throw out stale traditions that weren’t intended for us. Remove restrictions that are simply unbiblical.  And for heaven’s sake, meet real needs right in your own front yard, using methods that work for you, instead of hanging on to what used to.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish up with the last part of this series, using real examples of real people in our very own church (don’t worry, I won’t use names).

So, what am I talking about?  Well, by the title of the post, you’ve probably already figured it out:  Why Sunday Nights–why have another church service a few hours after you just had one.

For as long as anyone still alive can remember, churches typically have had two services (excluding churches who have reached their capacity and have had to add a few in the mornings).  They have one in the morning and one at night.  Considering this isn’t found anywhere in the Bible, one might ask why churches do that.  The answer is pretty straightforward, and not as stupid as many folks of my generation tend to think.

Back in the day, church used to start sometime in the morning, and they would just go till they were done.  Now, for some people, usually of the evangelical/pentecostal variety, that could be a long, long time.  Sometimes all day long and into the evening.  Well needless to say, folks tended to get a bit hungry after a while.  So they decided to start taking a lunch break.  Lunch break turned into lunch and a nap (cutting this short), and eventually it became just two separate services, one in the morning, and one in the evening.

I have a lot of respect for that history.  It makes sense.  It’s straightforward and practical.  At least it was back in its day.

Now, here’s the caveat:  for the folks that I was “debating” with (over Facebook of all places…I’m such a geek…) the Sunday Night Service model works for them.  And I was too quick to interject my opinion on that, an action that I regret.  As usual, my mouth (or thumbs, because I typed it on my Blackberry) was ahead of my brain.  So to those folks, I apologize for attacking what works for you.

Thus endeth part 1.  In part 2 I’ll discuss why I disagree with the Sunday Night tradition, and in part 3, I’ll conclude with a real world example: my very own church.