First, it was interesting, then coincidence, then weird, then confirmation. God was speaking to me through his word…and through the words of others. It is refreshing…that God is doing new work in me once again. Not to say that he took time off…but this is a fresh wind of the Spirit blowing through the dusty chaff in my life. Praise be to God.

I find the Spirit speaking to me again in the words of Romans…specifically today from Romans 14-15. The theme: acceptance.

“Accept one another, just as Christ has accepted us.” Romans 15:7

Easy words to read with a cup of coffee in one hand and the Bible in the other, but wait, what does that say again? Accept one another just like Jesus accepts you?

Well now…that makes me need to step in front of the Jesus-mirror and examine the me who Jesus has accepted. The me who has trampled on grace more than a few times in my life. The me whose pride can easily jump into the judgement game at a moments notice. And yet, Jesus accepts me…and I am supposed to accept others in the same way?

But what about those who insist in their rightness…what about when people are showing off their spiritual arrogance and ignorance…oh, yea, Jesus has accepted my pride. But what about when people are spewing out hurtful and untrue words about us…um, yep, Jesus has accepted ours. But what about….um, yep.

Look at the context: Often we are tempted to read these scriptures through the lens of positioning ourselves in the place of the “strong” and others in the place of “weak faith.” We all tend to read scripture this way…it makes us feel better about ourselves. But what if we take away the jockeying for position…and just hear the Spirit speak these words, “accept others just as Christ accepts you.”

Today’s church is full of jews and gentiles (ok, I know I am stretching the context here a bit…wait, actually I’m not that much). We are a people labeled and divided by the have’s and have nots, insiders and the outsiders, republicans and democrats, upper-class and middle-class, conservative and liberal, cool and not-so-cool, the pre’s and the post’s, and the us and them.

Our divisive language does exactly what the evil one hopes it will do…it divides us. It separates the body, keeps us from discerning God’s leading and distracts us from fully participating in God’s mission in God’s world. We too are a people living inside temples but yet living outside the message of Jesus. We see ourselves as a circumcised people (part of the right family) who hold the rights to the Kingdom all to ourselves. But wait…aren’t we the gentiles? Of all people…shouldn’t we remember to hold loosely the “right” of being right?

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do you get it? God is a God of hope…of hope. Hope that fills us with joy and peace….so that…we may be filled with the power of God.

Do you see it? Hope..hope that is from God…fills us with joy and peace…so that we may GO into the “not hope” and bring hope.

Lord Jesus, as you continue to mold us into your image, help us accept others as you accept us. Keep us from judgement. Mold our thinking and give us hope that enables us to accept others as you have accepted us.

After listening to my ramble, one of our leaders paused and said something like, “We are not looking for deposits of change…we are looking for culture change. And culture change always takes time.”

My inner thoughts were scrambling, “But how do we create culture change. How do we move people to not only give sacrificially but to live sacrificially. What does it look like to reshape church-culture forms and religious habits that have become spiritual to people? What does it take to change not only a local church culture but the Church culture?”

The leaders spoke again…as if they had heard my thoughts, “Our responsibility…your responsibility…is to lead this change through clearly and commonly sharing the changed vision.”

I heard it…and it was dead-center right. To change church culture…the changed vision must be clearly defined and commonly shared.

Openness by the leader paves the way for ownership by the people. Without ownership, changes will be short term. Changing people’s habits and ways of thinking is like writing instructions in the snow during a snowstorm. Every twenty minutes the instructions must be rewritten, unless ownership is given along with instructions. – John Maxwell

These days I find myself in a weird place. I am the lead pastor of a church; I am supposed to be a leader, visionary, teacher, evangelist, project manager, and servant to all. I often say my job is to lead the comfortable to a place of un-comfort and the uncomfortable to a place of comfort…yea, it’s often weird.

One of the weird principles that I am quickly learning in this new role is to think leaps, not tweaks (I stole this from someone, I just don’t know who). There is a terrible “rule” and unfortunate expectation for new pastors to lay low for the first few years. An equally disturbing trend is the thought by experienced pastors that they can tweak their churches into a better place (warning…remember, I have no idea what I am saying).  Tweaking (slow, gradual, and non-noticeable change) is the same as not doing anything at all. If the change is so gradual and subtle that people don’t notice…then what was it for in the first place? Why change if the outcome isn’t more people, more passionately joining in the vision of building the Kingdom? Why change if it doesn’t disturb the comfortable or comfort the disturbed?

Today I am part of a team of people that loves to think in leaps, not tweaks. If we need to shift our philosophy of ministry to accomplish a greater good for the Kingdom, then we don’t wait to work out every detail, we move quickly and if necessary, dramatically. Sometimes we need to do more than “think outside the box”…sometimes we need to recycle the box…grind it up, mold it, and turn it into something much more useful.   

What do you think…leaps or tweaks?

(BTW…we didn’t make this up ourselves…Jesus gave it to us in the form of the two GC’s, the Great Commandment (Matthew 22) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28).

Anyway, here is a glimpse of what we will be talking about tomorrow as we begin to shape everything we do around the vision of life-change, conversation, and living it out.

This is going to be awesome…

Our Sunday mornings are about to change here at New Beginnings Church, we are starting something new the week after Easter (April 19^th). It is going to look a little different and perhaps change your routine. But we’re “kicking it up a notch” because it’s time to take it to another level.

We are changing our service starting time to 10:00AM. Here’s why: We all need to grow in our faith, and everyone needs an equal chance to grow.

Sunday mornings will continue to offer us a great opportunity to sing, to celebrate, and to listen to life-changing truths from the Bible. And now, we will also enjoy a time to gather together. Beginning April 19th, we will include two environments following our normal Sunday morning hour:

Gathering for Conversation – the purpose is simple…to talk, share, hear and be heard. The topic of Sunday morning’s message can serve as a conversation starter and we hope you will continue to talk about it with your friends, or even make a new friend. Pull up to a table in the gym, or stay where you are in the sanctuary, enjoy your coffee, and join in the conversation. Then at 11:30 we will gather together in the gym and share 15 minutes together as a large group, sharing stories or questions with one another.

Grow Classes – a place where the conversation gets a little deeper. These classes will include gifted teachers and real-life, practical application truths from the Bible. No matter which class you choose, you’ll be challenged. The path is open: there’s no formula…no sequence of steps. Choose the class that interests you. You’ll get to know God and others more personally. Classes begin at 11:05 and last about 45 minutes. If you’re nervous, relax…each class is only a few weeks. It might involve a little effort on your part…but, hey, growing isn’t easy, is it?

We know it will take awhile for all of us to adjust….but together, we’ll begin to experience relationships (with each other) and relationship (with God) in a fresh, new way.

In Mark 5:36 we find Jesus on a healing spree and people were asking for help at every step. One of those asking for the attention of Jesus was a man named Jairus. He was hoping for Jesus to come and heal his daughter. But before he could get the attention of Jesus, someone came and told him it was too late, his daughter had died.

I love what is recorded about Jesus’ response…”ignoring what they said”…he continued to press forward on his mission of hope.

Always in leadership there will be those who will criticize and doubt. And it is easy to get distracted and lose hope in the midst of the hope thieves. But Jesus gives us a great picture of continuing to press forward and ignoring what they said, encouraging others to believe.

“As a pastor, I am learning to surround myself with leaders who take their work seriously, but not themselves. In church leadership there are always some who need a leadership role to feel valued, and others who simply value the role. I want to be surrounded by people who value the role and don’t need to feel value from the role.

The reasons are obvious; as Christians we are called to servant leadership not selfish leadership. And those who take themselves too seriously are the ones who drain you of energy, vision, and passion for the ministry. Servant leaders add value to you as a pastor, confirming and directing from an objective point of reference with the desire to add value rather than steal it.

I am learning to pay attention to key words and actions that help me determine who surrounds me in leadership. Beware of the person who demands to be included in decisions even when it isn’t part of their direct role, or the person who constantly complains about others in leadership, and especially the person who gives their opinion more often then they ask questions. Build around you those who often speak words of encouragement, who can speak opposing views without de-valuing others, who question you in order to better hear you, who can excel in a given responsibility while giving credit to the team, and those who seek to dream even bigger than you.”

Right now I am learning how to lead people into new places that involve the chance at failure. We are dreaming and discussing how to take some strategic risks that we hope will have huge spiritual impact…but like any change, it involves the risk of failure.

Today I watched a great video about the the lessons of failure. It is worth every one of the eleven minutes it takes to watch…so today, will you come to class with me? Let’s learn together. Click on the “bookie” link to watch this video.

Bookie from LifeChurch.tv on Vimeo.

On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

There are the three main characters; Jesus, the man with the hand, and the Pharisees. Here is what I observe:

The man with the hand…was a man who wanted to work (extra biblical writings mention that he was previously a stone mason and he came to Jesus wanting to be healed so he could go back to work), he wanted to be healed for a purpose.

Jesus…knew he was being judged by the legalistic Pharisees…and he chose to highlight their legalism, not by confronting them with words (this time), but by helping the man change his life.

The Pharisees…were looking for a reason to accuse (usually when we look for it, we can find it). They are legalists and thus anti-Jesus because they loved their rules and regulations more than they loved God.

How does this story change you?

The last couple of months we have been trying to lead and position nbc for God to use us to influence our community with the message of Christ. Our leadership team has been in prayerful dialogue about how to expand our influence and increase the spiritual depth of the people who are calling nbc their church community. Recently we have recognized the need to reshape how we assume people grow…and what we need to be as a church in order to better reach and grow people. I thought it was interesting to read Craig’s thoughts today that mirror a lot of the conversations we have been having within our teams.

Craig writes: “To reach the next generation for Christ, we must be three things: Conversational, Missional, and Generational.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Click here to read the rest of Craig’s post.