Keys to the Kingdom

When I was younger I saw everything as pure black and white with very little gray. As I’ve matured in my spiritual walk I have come to realize that yes there are doctrinal issues that we must take a firm and unshakable stand on, but there are other things that are more culturally driven or even spiritually unclear questions. These questions are what I want to address in this paper: things like contemporary or traditional music, liturgical or non-liturgical style services, the proper role of women in the church, gifts of the spirit and many more that I could mentioned.

How do we address these issues? How do we resolve them to the general satisfaction of the individual independent local church or denominational group?

I believe that before the Lord’s death he gave us the tools to deal with these issues. Further I believe that the book of Acts gives us a prime example of how to deal with these divisive issues. I call it the Keys of the Kingdom.

In Matthew 16 Simon Peter has declared that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. The passage continues with Jesus blessing Peter and made reference to Peter being “a stone” but the truth that Peter has proclaimed is “a boulder” upon which Jesus will build his church. Then I believe Jesus said one of the most puzzling yet profound things he ever said to the twelve (and not just to Peter):

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:19 (NIV)

To understand this verse we must remember a number of things. Matthew who records this saying is writing to Jewish believers. As such he is showing that Jesus is not only the greatest Rabbi to ever have lived but also Jesus is the promised Messiah and the very Son of God.

 Rabbis had a way of teaching and they often spoke in “Rabbiese” much like many Christians today speak “Christianese” If you lived in the culture of the time you will understand what Jesus is saying. But being almost 2000 years removed and living in a western culture vs. a Hebraic eastern culture we miss the significance of the message. 

When a student (disciple) was ready to graduate from his training under his teacher (rabbi or master) he would be granted permission to carry on his teacher’s work. If he encountered a situation that the teacher had not specifically covered he was given permission to make decisions based upon his understanding of training for the teacher and his followers. He was given the “keys to the kingdom.”

Now this played out in the early church with what is known as the first Jerusalem council in the 15^th chapter of the book of Acts (the history book of the early church). Paul and his fellow missionaries had shared the good news with Jews and gentiles alike. This influx of gentile believers of Jesus Christ into the church had caused concern for the more traditional Jewish believers. Did these non-Jewish believers need to convert to Judaism (with all of it’s rituals and rules) or not.

Both sides presented their concerns and positions to the leadership of the church that included not only the apostles that were in Jerusalem but also the church leaders (specifically James) of the mother church. Following the discussion and after seeking God’s direction through prayer James made his judgment. Gentile did not have to become Jews to be considered full followers of Christ. The leadership of the church had practiced Matthew 16:19 and the Lord blessed their decision with a great influx of gentile believers in the years to come.

So how does all of this apply to some of the more the cultural questions you have asked me to address? My answer is that some answers need to be made based on carefully seeking God’s will for our local church. Not every church will come to the same conclusion and that is fine in not essential doctrines. Each church (and leader for that matter) will stand before God to give an account for what they decided. There will be occasions when these decisions will be right for one group but not another. And that is okay. Paul and Barnabas agreed to disagree regarding taking John Mark on a missionary journey and they separated ways. The net result was that the gospel reached more people because they multiplied their efforts. Neither was right or wrong. Furthermore what might be right at one point in our journey might change with the passing of time. Later in life Paul commented on how helpful John Mark had become to him in the ministry after previously rejecting him for that second mission.

In conclusion while I have opinions and preferences on cultural issues I am more desirous to partner with the spiritual leadership of the church to seek God’s leading and do His will regarding these and other non-essential issues. Our concern should always be what does the Lord want and not what do we want. After all we have all been taught to say “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”

Now if I can just find those keys…

Pastor Val

I’m Willing

I just came back from attending the 2011 Global Leadership Summit. It was two days of nonstop learning this year. Often there is a session or two that are less than stellar but this year it seemed like I came away with handfuls from every session.

One specific session dealt with leading under difficult situations. We heard the stories of two modern leaders who lead under remarkably difficult conditions. Their unique stories were more reminiscent to the martyrs of bygone eras not experiences of the 21^st century.

The final message of this session was taken from Jeremiah, a book out of the Old Testament section of the Bible. It really was an overview of the ministry life of this ancient prophet who was chosen by God to speak to the nation of Judah of coming judgment if they failed to return to God.

On a scale of one to ten with one being the lowest possible results of a lifetime of ministry Jeremiah’s would have to be pegged at a minus 3 at the best. But through it all and even after a chapter or two of complaints Jeremiah comes to the conclusion that in spite of the difficulties and dangers serving God is better then any alternative.

During one point in the message a large piece of pottery was shattered on stage to remind us of the brokenness of all of us and yet God can still use us in our brokenness. At the beginning of the day each of us was given a broken piece of pottery. After the session we were asked to consider writing a message on it indicating our willingness to serve regardless of what our called to do and then to date it.

My message read “I’m willing! 8-12-11”

Now I have to say that I have said this to God for the past year to year and a half but God’s answer has been wait…not yet. Apparently I had (more likely still have) lessons to learn before I’m properly prepared for what God has next for me.

BTW waiting is not one of my strong suits but the thing about learning patience is that it takes time. It’s kind of like on the job training!

I have to be honest when I came home I put the piece of pottery on the counter and never bothered to tell my wife or anyone else about it. I had some errands to take care of this morning and didn’t get back home until mid afternoon when I finally checked my email prior to doing some finishing work on my message for tomorrow.

Sitting in my inbox was an email from a church I had sent my resume to eleven months ago. Five months ago I had received a communication from them inquiring if I was still available and interested in this church. A month ago I had sent them an email checking with them to see where they were in their process and had heard from them that I was still being considered.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of hunting for a job or ministry lately I have to tell you that you can usually tell by thickness of the letter or whether an email has an attachment if you are still being considered. Thin letters or emails without attachments usually mean that you are no longer being considered for the job/ministry. But thick letters or emails with attachments usually mean that you are still being considered and td you have a questionnaire to fill out.

I’m sure that you are wondering about the email I received this afternoon… It contained an attachment and I’ve been asked to fill out a questionnaire.

Now I’m not saying that my wait is over or the church that contacted me is the one that God has for me but it is kind of exciting to realize that God heard my prayer and wanted to encourage me during my patience experience.

Just clay in the Potter’s hand

Pastor Val

Playing Second Fiddle

"The most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra is second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play second fiddle with enthusiasm - that's the problem. Yet, if there is no one to play second fiddle, there is no harmony." - Leonard Bernstein

Sometimes it’s hard to play second fiddle to your boss, your family or even the Lord and yet we are each called to be a servant who leads. This often means we are destined to play second fiddle.

As a pastor this means we are not the shepherd of our local flock but rather we are under shepherds called to follow the leading of the Great and Good Shepherd and follow his example who was willing to lay down his life for His sheep.

As a spouse this means that I must follow the Bridegroom’s example and be willing to lay down my life for my wife, my desires for hers or my family.

In a society that has taught a “me first” attitude this is contrary to what is perceived as the norm. Yet this is exactly what we are called to do – esteem others more then self.

While I don’t know who is credited with say this, one of my favorite quotes is that “you can accomplish anything, as long as you don’t care who gets the credit.” Having been on staff as an associate pastor for many years I can testify to the truth of that statement. As long as we don’t worry about wanting the lime light in this life we can accomplish much. Let God take care of keep score. After all we will never beet the score that He set when He gave his life for us.

As I think about many of the men who have gone before me in the ministry I’m pretty sure that I’m not even third violin last chair. But to be asked to participate in God’s orchestra is an honor beyond measure.

Excuse me while I rosin up my bow,

Pastor Val

Sabotage

I found this article on a website recently. It was reported that at the Enterprise 2.0 conference Don Burke and Sean Dennehey from the CIA gave a talk on Intellipedia, the CIA’s internal wikipedia. As part of their talk, they cited a manual, including, I’m told, this from page 28:

(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.

(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of per­sonal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.

(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and considera­tion.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.

(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

(5) Haggle over precise wordings of com­munications, minutes, resolutions.

(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.

(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reason­able” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris­diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

Their point was that these instructions come from a 1944 manual on how to sabotage a business.

Another blogger saw this same article and commented that these same eight points could also be used to sabotage a church from the inside out.

I got to thinking about my 25 years of ministry experience and realized that he was right. I’ve dealt with leaders who couldn’t lead people out of a paper bag. They would refer every decision to a committee. I’ve experienced windbags who loved to hear themselves pontificate. Every time they opened their mouths you knew that they had a speech to make and often an ax to grind, often bringing up irrelevant issues causing the committee to spend the meeting rabbit trailing for much of the meeting.

I remember one church where decisions were never settled (even after a vote) unless certain people got their way. If they didn’t, you could count on the issue being brought up again and again until they finally got their way.

At a recent ministry hours and hours were spent working on wording for memos and memorandums in an attempt to “get it just right!” Some people advocated reasonableness over a willingness to seek God’s way and to step into the way of the numinous where human reason is often set aside in favor of doing things God’s way that seems foolish and unreasonable to man.

The final group of leaders I call handwringers. These people are always worried about the appropriateness and “rightness” of their decision. This constant worry causes these leaders to stall every decision until they were sure that everyone was on board. A church could die waiting for their leaders to lead.

Is this sabotage due to human frailty, or human intrigue? Is it possible that there are spiritual dimensions in the sabotage of our churches?

The answer to all of these questions is – yes!

Leaders, we need to lead our flocks and follow our Leader

Dr. Val

Second Fiddle

A friend of mine – Dr. Jim Hart, president if IWS recently wrote that we need to be ". . . developing, teaching and modeling a more intentional leadership style in our community, one that is characterized by humble service without compromising biblical convictions." And, in our emphasis on forming leaders in worship renewal we need to explore the ". . . hard, sacrificial, sometimes surgically necessary kind of formation that is often painful and exhausting, but capable of bearing the weight of glory. And all accomplished by grace."

Leonard Bernstein was once asked, “What was the hardest instrument to play?” His answer: “Second Fiddle!”

The life of an associate minister is one of sacrificially giving up your rights, dreams and goals to support, and champion the dreams and goals of your senior pastor, all the time trusting God to meet your needs, wants and dreams.

A recent Willow Creek magazine has an interesting article about life in the second chair. It is a series of interviews with second in command and how they have learned to support the dreams and visions of others. Being a second banana has its benefits and its challenges. A major benefit is that you chose to hook your wagon to someone else’s bandwagon and thus someone else takes the hits. The challenge is that you are often asked to play someone else’s hit man.

I have played second fiddle for most of my ministry life. It is a unique position to be in. It has correctly been said, “one can accomplish almost anything, as long as you don’t care who gets the credit.” I have personally found it to be true. The most difficult situation is when you have a senior pastor who has no vision, or if he does, he is incapable of communicating it.

I’ve seen good ministries that have failed and almost closed their doors because the staff and the congregation were going in as many different ways as there were people.

If you read some of the different versions of the same verse Proverbs 29:18 you will get a glimpse of what happens when leaders fail to lead

Proverbs 29:18 (NIV)
18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Proverbs 29:18 (NASB77)
18 Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.

Proverbs 29:18 (MSG)
18 If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

The specific truth that we can grasp from reading this verse is that our people need a clear vision and goal if they are going to succeed. Without a game plan the game is lost and without clear vision of God’s leading people will do their own thing. They certainly won’t be attending to or happy about doing God’s will for their lives.

Judges 17:6 (NLT)
6 In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

To paraphrase the verse above
“In those days the church had no leadership, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”

Pray for your leadership
Pray that they are listening to God’s voice and are sensitive to His leading
Pray that they will cast a vision that God has given them
And pray that you will be willing to listen and follow

Prayerfully submitted

Dr. Val

Organism vs. Organization

I’ve been mulling over the terms Scripture uses to describe the church. We know that the church is referred to as the way, bride, family and body, just to name a few. The interesting thing that we notice from all of the metaphors used to describe the church tells us that the church is supposed to be relational. Another way of describe this is to refer to the church as organismal and not organizational.

To be honest, this is something that many churches either miss or ignore, especially as a church grows in age and/or size.

Organization (def.) - an administrative and functional structure

When a church gentrifies it often solidifies into an organization, the same thing happens when a church grows exponentially. Now don’t get me wrong, organization is important for any church. Without it we would have chaos! Even the early church experienced the need of organization when it became necessary to create deacons to help meet the growing needs of the widows and less fortunate (Acts 6:1-6). But the elders continued to be focused on their calling, prayer and ministry of the Word.

Organism (def.) - a complex structure of interdependent and subordinate elements whose relations and properties are largely determined by their function in the whole

But the church is designed to be an organism. We are called to reproduce and we are dependant on each other for our vitality and for the fulfillment of our reason to exist on this earth, the advancement of the Kingdom (until Christ’s return).

Often when a church grows, a major problem is that the staff is either understaffed and quickly forsakes organism for organization to accomplish many of their tasks, or even worse they become professional organizers.

When people are overwhelmed with their work or ministry, they either ignore the very people who can help them or they create a bureaucracy to alleviate their workload hoping to discourage people from volunteering. Then church staff complains about their lack of volunteers needed to accomplish their ministries.

I am reminded of an experience that my wife had with a former worship pastor at a mega-church before they were called mega. She went in to speak with him and offered her services (she is an incredible keyboard player) She told him that that she wanted to serve in some capacity at the church, anything would be great, including playing for a SS class, just some place where she could serve. The worship pastor leaned back in his chair and said, “You mean you want me to create something for you to do?” DUH! Ah, yeah!!! That’s what a servant leader does. Train people to do the work of the ministry and then give ministry away!

If you don’t believe it, check out Eph 4:11-12.

In fact, think about this in 1 Corinthians we are told that the church is a body and that every part is important. The body is not complete and cannot function as God created it to function unless every part is doing its job. Can you imagine a body telling the lungs take a breather we don’t need you? Or the heart, would you stop all the pounding. Or the legs, you can sit this one out. And yet this is the attitude of many in leadership in today’s church.

We pray that God sends us the people we need to fulfill our mission here in this location but we fail to use or are too busy to use the very resources that God has provided.

We devalue the very people we are called to serve. We are often more interested in the “Big Picture” and neglect the “little grapes”. I am reminded that while Jesus ministered to the multitude, almost every miracle He did while He was here on earth was focused on the individual. The only exceptions I can think of are the water into wine and the two times that Jesus fed the multitudes. But think about the blind man, the leper, the woman with an issue of blood, the child raised from the dead or even Lazarus. Every one of these and so many more were Jesus caring for the individual. Perhaps in the midst of our “Big Picture” we have lost sight of what is important to God – individual people.

God forgive us for our failure to value the people you have called us, your servants, to lead.

Learning to value people the way God does

Dr. Val

The Names Have Been Changed . . .

. . . To Protect The Guilty

I’ve been thinking about this blog for some time, as I begin writing it today I am wondering if this might prove to be a couple of blogs.

About four and a half months ago I responded to an Internet ad for a senior pastor position. As I tried checked out the church it became apparent that a headhunter had placed the ad for the church.

I was rather excited when I received a call from the headhunter and we seemed to hit it off. We had a lot in common both having left extremely conservative backgrounds; eventually we both did our Master’s degree at the same seminary (although different years).

As we discussed the church situation, I got very interested in the church and he told me that he thought I was good fit with the church and the profile that they had created. He told me he would be sending me some information about the church (their by-laws, church constitution, etc.).

Well four months have gone by and I’ve yet to receive this information. A week went by and I sent the headhunter a thank you note and mentioned that I was looking for ward to getting the information about the church. A couple of weeks went by and I dropped the headhunter an email mentioning that I had not received the information.

In all I’ve sent four follow-up emails and I’ve also called the headhunting company three time and left messages on the partner’s voicemail asking for him to let me know what the current situation was with this church. To date I have not received an email response nor a returned phone call.

What makes this situation so unique is the fact that we discussed how unfortunate it was that churches rarely responded to candidates (my personal average is 20% response). The partner explained to me that they handled a number of Fortune 500 company placements and that they did placements for churches to help them to be more professional in their approach to pastoral placements.

Apparently this headhunter is too busy dealing with his Fortune 500 customers to answer an email or return a phone call.

Obviously something has changed and this church is not the place that Father has in mind for me.

It is interesting that often churches and their leadership (and in this case those they have hired) are unable to treat others, as they would like to be treated.

A couple of years ago I was serving as an associate pastor at a church that was seeking a new senior pastor. I had our church secretary keep track of all of the pastors who sent us their resumes. I reminded our pastoral search committee and elders to let these people know what our process is and where the church is inn the process. I also encouraged them to send out either letters or emails to candidates regardless if the church was interested in continuing to pursue them or not. Common courtesy needs to be practiced. In one of Jesus’ most famous sermons he teaches on the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you). What a great lesson to apply for every aspect of our lives.

Pax

Dr. Val

Anonymous

I received an interesting comment responding to one of my latest posts. And I feel compelled to address it.

Hi Anonymous,

I want to thank you for your response and the transparency that you were willing to share with me. I can hear the hurt and frustration that you are living with.

As to the specific allegations, I won’t speculate on them for a number of reasons.

1. I have no knowledge of the situation at your church (and neither do most of us).

2. We have only heard one side of this situation (There are always at least two and we have no way of knowing how information is accurate. The possibility exists that there are more facts then we are aware of at this point).

3. Scripture tells us not accept an accusations against an elder except there be two or three witnesses (1 Tim 5:19).

4. I don’t want to create controversy or gossip (2 Cor. 12:20).

Since I cannot be a part of the solution I won’t be a part of the problem.

I will simply say that I have known many good leaders and they are still human. So we need to all pray for our leaders and remember that we have a Leader who will never fail us or disappoint us. So keep your eyes focused on Him!

I’d like to address in general the concerns that Anonymous brought up.

Obviously Anonymous you are hurting regarding the situation.

I understand your frustration and anger. I’ve experienced similar feelings myself from time to time.

None of us are happy when we feel that an injustice has been done to family, our friends, or us. If this is your situation, I am so sorry that you are experiencing what appears to be a difficult season in your life. Those of us who have lived the Christian life for any length of time know that life is not always fair. God never promised that following Christ would be easy or fair. The Apostle Paul at times suffered because of other believers and Jesus told us that we should expect no better treatment then He received while He was here on earth. 2 Tim 4 also tells us that some men’s sin precedes them to the judgment and some follow after them.

I’d like to offer several thoughts to help you as you work through this situation:

1. Ultimately God is in control. (If it was God’s will to have a different under-shepherd in any local community He could easily replace them)

2. Each of us serves at the pleasure of our King and occasionally he chooses to move us (Sometimes we’re just a little slow in understanding His leading. I’ve had the proverbial two by four smack me upside the head because I failed to follow God’s leading when He wanted me to move to a new ministry).

3. God has a plan and his plan revolves around the advancement of His kingdom and glory
God’s desire is for each of us to mature and at times this means that we grow through times of deep spiritual pain and grief.

4. God works things out for our good. (Just remember that often our definition of good and God’s definition differ.)

5. God promises to provide for all of our needs.

Now I know that these thoughts are easy to say, harder to hold close. Yes there have been times when I have railed against what I perceive as the injustice of serving our King. And then I’m reminded that it’s not about me and it’s not about my idea of justice. (I’m reminded that often God’s thoughts and ways don’t jive with mine) As we grow in Christian maturity we learn to accept God’s plan for our lives.

The probability is that the situation that you wrote about did not happen to you personally. And that brings up another set of issues.

God’s desire is for believers to live in harmony and unity. You see, when someone has wronged us or we have wronged them, God provided steps for us to bring about reconciliation and restoration for the parties involved.

But when we are not the injured or injuring party we have not really been harmed. When we become involved and choose sides we are taking up someone else’s offense. God does not provide teaching on how to be reconciled when we are not involved in the situation. We are stuck with feeling and no way to resolve them. We are forced to abandon our feelings, which is a very difficult thing to do. The ancient poet of Israel speaks to this very issue in Psalm 15. The ancient Rabbis believed that each verse was like a multifaceted gem and must be looked at all sides to fully see what the verse is telling us. Verse 3 in this Psalm can also be read to not take up someone else’s cause.

A final series of comments needs to be addressed to those of us in spiritual leadership. We are called to be servant leaders to emulate our Great Shepherd. Often it seems that we fail miserably to think as servants to the entire body (this includes staff members, too).

To often we have seen pastors deal with issues in a non-servant way. Remember we are called to the service of the basin and towel.

When we make decisions we need to remember that these decisions affect the entire body. After all when any part of the body hurts the entire body is affected. It is necessary to speak the truth and address painful issues with as much discretion as possible to limit the pain to the body but with as much transparency to help the body to heal.

May God grant you peace and the strength to stay under this testing that God is using you to conform you to His Son’s image.

Blessings,

Pastor Val