Getting Up In Each Other’s Business!

Christian accountability is a touchy subject these days.  It is an especially touchy subject for me because I spent six and a half years of my life in a Christian Church that was, by all social standards, very unhealthy (bordering on “cultish”, if it wasn’t in fact a full-blown Christian cult).  Accountability in that church looked like life-control more than sin-elimination.

But sin-elimination is the point.  Our motives are extremely important and so are the results.  I think the means take a back-seat to the motives and the results.  Just take a look at Phil Jackson, the coach of the Lakers.  Here is a guy whose methods and means are quite unusual.  He had the Lakers visualizing themselves as frogs on lillypads before game 4 of the NBA Finals!  Those methods are not questioned but imitated, because he has gotten results.  10 NBA championships speak for themself.

Now let’s refocus on the idea of sin-elimination with another metaphor.  A friend of mine does not believe in spanking her child.  I understand that.  No one but a sicko enjoys the actual act of spanking a child.  However, I get pleasure in disciplining my sons for the sake of their character and moral development.  That is the hoped-for result.  The motive is love, plain and simple.  (I am not suggesting my friend does not love her children, don’t get me wrong.  I think we disagree on the eventual character of disciplined children who receive the “rod” and those who do not.)

Now to the main point.  John Wesley was God’s gift to His Church in that he established SMALL GROUP MINISTRY for the sake of developing disciples.  Most large and successful churches around the world employ small groups as a huge part of their church life and practice.  They are used for discipleship, Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and other essentials of Christian growth.  As he and George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards road the wave of the First Great Awakening, he understood that something would have to be done to receive and develop the huge numbers of Christian converts into mature Christian believers.  He established class, band, and society meetings–SMALL GROUPS.

At a class meeting, recent converts would be asked 5 penetrating questions:

1.  What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?

2.  What temptations have you met with?

3.  Were you delivered?

4.  What have you thought, said, or done which you question whether was sin or not?

5.  Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

WOW!  Can you imagine the fidgeting and nervous laughter taking place at those meetings?  Some people today would call that an abusive invasion of privacy.  Would you?  I believe that Wesley’s motives were to see a HOLY, sinless group of people.  Did he achieve that?  By all accounts, YES!  The Methodist Church exploded in numbers and converts in Great Britain and the US and around the world.  The resulting piety of the British lower classes has been widely understood to have prevented a political revolution similar to the one that bloodied France in the late 1700’s.  Innumerable hospitals, churches, schools, and humanitarian agencies were spawned in the centuries following.  I could go on.

Anyway, could we handle that kind of strict accountability?  Should we call for that again?  Was that methodology for another age and culture?  I am not sure.  Whaddaya think?

What are your big “YESSES”?

Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about the need to operate out of a principled center. More important than being centered on good things like spouse, job, friends, pleasures, or any extrinsic factor, or even yourself is to be centered on correct principles. Such a focus on principles keeps us from being reactive to the impulses and circumstances of a given situation. A focus/center on principles helps us navigate between all the choices before us in the day. We always say “yes” and “no” to a thousand things during the day. Will we finish the day having said “Yes” to the correct things? That’s the question.
Covey follows with the emphasis on a personal mission statement. The personal mission statement for our family is this:
Jesus is the center of our lives and his goodness, truth, and love channel through our core values of Discipline (choosing the good over quick, easy, or indulgent), Uniqueness (celebrating each person’s talents and strengths), Communication (respectful, loving, and listening), Togetherness (having fun as a family), and Service (to God, each other, and the world).
I am searching for a cool mag-wheel or rim of some sort with 5 spokes or channels that could be a helpful visual aid to teach and remind us all. I want to illustrate to the boys that when we hold the wheel at its center it spins properly. But if our focus and grip goes someplace other than to the center (which is Jesus), the wheel doesn’t work right.
Anyway, if you see a cool one the next time you are rummaging through a junk yard, let me know.
Love ya!

Prayer Stations

This week we are beginning Prayer Stations at LLG’s Prayer Night (Thursday nights) (see www.lightandlifegoleta.org for more details).

Here’s the format for this week:

We are going to have four stations available for prayer.  The four stations will be Global Concerns, Local Churches, LLG Concerns, Personal Concerns (including all manner of healing).  At the altar, the Lord’s Table will be prepared for those who wish to partake.  I will be there to facilitate the giving of that sacrament.  One or two elders will be available at the Personal Concerns area to pray and anoint with oil whosoever might request that.

There will be no facilitator when you come in (althought I will be giving directions for the first few weeks, presumably, until we get the hang of it).  At each prayer station, however, there will be an altar of sorts, where prayer station sponsors will decorate and prepare the areas with appropriate icons, candles, photos, maps, that will assist prayers.  Also, each table will have a small piece of paper with specific prayer concerns and appropriate Scripture passages.  The pews will be arranged in a semi-circle around each prayer station.  People are encouraged to pray in any appropriate Biblical posture they choose (kneeling, prostrate, standing, arms raised, seated, etc.).  There will be soft, worshipful music playing throughout the time.

Tracey and I (and many others) are really looking forward to this chapter in our church’s life.  Prayer has been stirring in our church for several months now and this is a very appropriate next step as we see it.  I am particularly grateful to Deb H. who saw such a clear vision for the prayer stations and really helped it come to pass with her encouragement.  Hope to see you there!

No more ostrich necks in the sand!

I read something recently that I really like.  The writer says the following: “Salvation comes to those who recognize their unworthiness.  Unless you are unworthy, you cannot be saved.  Rewards come to those who are recognized for their worthiness.  Unless you are worthy, you will not be rewarded….If there really is a payoff in heaven that holds implications for Eternity, how important is it to prepare for the computation?”

Here’s how I processed this: I think that good works must flow out of a “baseline” sense of self-worth and self-confidence.  If we don’t think that we have something to contribute, then we shouldn’t waste anyone else’s time.

So much of my life has been about stirring up good works (giving, serving, feeding, helping, preaching, etc.)  for the sake of a pat on the back from God or those around me whose approval I seek.  It rarely came from that “PURE PLACE” of doing it because I wanted to.  As I have realized more of my self-worth over the years I have come to enjoy and appreciate me not as I please people, but as I just am.

Now here comes the theological part.  If God has rewards with Him that He plans to bestow on his servants, isn’t it a good thing to confidently and robustly pursue those things?    I ran a marathon in 2006 and I would have never finished the race if I didn’t experience joy and confidence before and even during the endeavor.  I ran hoping to finish well.  And I did!

We can’t have a dark cloud overhanging our works of service and giving as unto God.  We must do it with joy and zeal and confidence.  God wouldn’t accept anything less!  No more ostrich necks in the sand!