Random Thoughts from the Whirlwind

In case you didn’t know, we are headed to Mooresville, Indiana in about a weeks time to preach in view of a call.  In actuality, I guess I will be doing the preaching but the whole family is going.  I think that is the appropriate thing…after all, we are a family in Christ and both the church family and our family need to get to know each other.  I have received a ton of e-mail already from FBC and can’t tell you how encouraging that is for us.  God is doing some awesome things and we believe that He has great plans for FBC.  I’m just excited to be able to have a part in it.

On the other hand, this next week is going to be crazy at the Lancour home.  I’m trying to finish up two classes so that I can have some freedom from worrying about them while we are at FBC.  That and getting my work squared away and helping Kellie with the stresses of packing, ect…well, I’m not going to have much brain activity time for blogging.  So, if you don’t see anything new, now you know why   But, Lord willing, I’ll put something out when He gives me the time.  So, God bless.  See you in a week.

Book Review – Tell the Truth

There are some books that just resonate with you as you are reading them.  Tell the Truth, The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People by Will Metzger is one of these books.  This book really hit home with me on two points (well, really more than that but you will have to read it to find out for yourself).

First was its thought on the gospel.  Most books on evangelism major on methodology.  That is good but can leave you with the understanding that the method of presenting the gospel is more important than the gospel itself.  Metzger has appropriately focused on the message rather than the methodology.  His premise is that it is more important to share the complete gospel message rather than trying to reduce it to the most basic form.  He writes that the historic and biblical goal of evangelism is “The maximum amount of truth to the maximum number of people.”  In other words, our goal is to share the completeness of the gospel to as many people as we can.

 Metzger gives five points of the gospel.  Here’s the abridged version:

1.  God is our owner.  Since He created us, He is uniquely right to give us directions for living and to judge whether we have kept those directions.

2.  God centered living means that we keep His directions.  We are to obey Him and to love Him at the same time.

3.  Self-centered living is where we are at.  Although God has the right to our obedience, we live for our selves and not for Him.  This type of living has resulted in our being enslaved to our sin and rebellion.

4.  God has provided a way for us to be released from that enslavement and for His righteousness to be maintained.  Jesus Christ has accomplished this salvation on our behalf.

5.  Our necessary response is complete faith and trust in what Christ has done on our behalf.  Our faith is in Christ the person and not just a group of truths.

The second aspect of this book that just tickled me pink is the theological position that Metzger comes from.  He understands (appropiately I believe), that the gospel message is a God-centered message.  Salvation is completely and totally of His grace and mercy.  We have nothing to offer and nothing to commend us to Christ.  God’s sovereign choice in salvation is beyond our understanding but oh so real.  The gospel is utterly devoid of any man-centered thinking.  It was not because we are lovely or that we have redeeming qualities that Christ suffered and died.  It was because of His great love for us and for the excellence of His glory and majesty that God has acted on our behalf.  At the end of the day, all we can say is “To God be the glory, great things He hath done!”.

If you get a chance, buy Metzger’s book.  It will open your eyes to a God-honoring basis for evangelism.

Grace Living

The life of a follower of Jesus Christ is a life of grace.  In fact, grace must permeate every aspect of our lives for us to be truly walking the Christian life.  Think of it as a tea bag that seeps into the water and literally stains the water.  Just so, grace seeps into every corner, every cell, every second of every minute of every day. 

Grace wakes us up in the morning.  Grace speaks words of love and kindness to a child after a long and hectic day at work.  Grace convinces me of the utter sinfulness of my sin and it is grace that brings sweet relief to the guilt that sin chokes me with. 

Grace is always freely given to us by our Father.  It is His very essence, His very nature.  The Scripture says that grace if freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  As we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ, grace then becomes our nature.  It becomes our essence and we then reflect the grace that we have been given back into the lives of others.  Grace is a great thing.

Speak grace into the life of someone today.  I have about 50+ work colleagues showing up for a conference today.  I plan on speaking grace into their lives.  Not sure how, but if God can speak grace over me, then I can find a way.

For His Kingdom

    Guy

Giving thanks in Germany

The family and I are spending Thanksgiving week with our friend Elizabeth in Bamberg, Germany.  God has blessed us with friends who live around the world.  The fellowship we have together in Christ reaches beyond anything that society might try to duplicate.  I mean, what does a Korean have in common with a girl from the backwoods of KY?  But in Christ, we have a common Savior, a common faith, a common hope.  So, it is really good to be here. 

Many of the soldiers here in Bamberg are deployed to Afganistan and so this Thanksgiving day will be harder than most.  Remember the families who are missing Dads and husbands.  It is acutely obvious that there is a gap.  

While I have promise of getting back on the net to post specifically the rest of this week, I’d love to hear somethings that you are thankful for.  Feel free to comment.  Here’s today’s top five (the song goes, count your blessings name them one by one….)

1.  Our Lord – He is always at the top of every list
2.  Kellie – Can’t imagine life without her
3.  Kids – Ditto
4.  Ham – Liberty in Christ to eat what once was forbidden.  Can’t get much better than this:)
5.  Leftovers

The Word for Today

“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.  And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”  Hebrews 11:13-16

Honesty for a Change

Good news from Indiana.  Read it here. 

A car wash change machine paid off like a Las Vegas slot for one customer, but he turned over his booty to police.

Eldon McCammack put a dollar in the change machine Saturday at the Trojan Car Wash in this city about 40 miles east of Indianapolis. In return, he got 1,042 quarters, or $260.50.

McCammack, 71, said he first grabbed a top from a trash can to catch the coins. Another customer found a plastic container for the overflow.

McCammack brought the jackpot to the police station, where officers counted the quarters, put them in an evidence locker and called the car wash’s owner.

He went back later and washed his car.

From me.

Its great to read the news where someone does something right and honest.  I get tired of hearing about the sinful things that go on in this world to the exclusion of the righteous.  I don’t know if Mr McCammack is a believer or not but his actions are noteworthy.  I tell the kids that an honest character is worth more than anything you might gain by any means.  Just a good example for me to show them.

Church Organization Part 2

A couple of posts ago, I brought up the topic of church organization.  There is a wide variety of organizational structures available for the church.  The way in which one church organizes itself can be, and often is necessarily different than another.  Each church is unique and there isn’t a one-size fits all structure. 

For instance, I have been in churches where committees formed the backbone of the church structure.  There were committees for practically every aspect of church life (Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Finance, Missions, Prayer…).  In this particular church, these committees functioned very well in order to facilitate involvement and ministry.  The pros of this structure is that they do define (on paper at least), what activities are going on because each activity is tied to a committee.  They maximize involvement of people because you have to have people working in each committee.  The cons are that the committees can become a roadblock in accomplishing ministry if a committee has to approve every activity.  But, if organized correctly committees are not the death knell of church life but a vital aspect of getting work accomplished.

I have also been in a church were the committee was replaced by a “team” ministry approach.  The “teams” were organized around 7 major functions within the church (Admin, Education, Missions, Fellowship….).  In this church, this structure also works well in facilitating involvement and ministry.  The pros of the team concept is that it puts the work down to a low level.  There can be buy-in from the people who are involved, because the team is empowered to accomplish work.  Another advantage is that the teams are labeled with a specific ministry area in mind.  Even the areas that are normally not considered “ministry” (finance, Lord’s Supper…) are taken in under a ministry label.  Of course the cons are that a team can quickly become unorganized and if not led by a capable person, can cease to function. 

Regardless of which style of organization a church adopts, the key is to involve people in ministry.  Both the team concept and the traditional committee structure can accomplish this if the goals are stated well and the end result is always kept in view.  That is where the church leadership has to be involved.  A committee/team exists to forward the Kingdom of God.  It is not just an organizational structure, it is an element of the churches ministry and the members need to be reminded of that.  Having a clear vision for where the church is headed and how this committee/team helps that vision become reality can make the difference between stagnation and growth.

Next time, I think I’ll take a look at a different aspect of organization that is closer to the idea of church governance.  Elders or deacons or both?  Where does the pastor fit in this?  Until then, what do you guys think about church structure?  What do you see as the pitfalls/advantages of committee vs. team ministry?  If you were starting a church from scratch, how would you organize it?

Blessing 

Remembrance Day 07

Today is Remembrance Day in Europe.  It was this day, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month that WWI ended.  The costs of this war were enormous, both in terms of lives lost (8,500,000 military only), the economies destroyed (Germany never recovered from the war and this led to WWII) and the families who were never complete afterwards.

You probably know that I fully support the military (gee…I am one).  I fully support the efforts our nation is putting into places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and over 100 other countries in this world.  But the cost of war today is no less than it was before.

We have a close friend staying with us this weekend.  Her husband is serving in a far away country not to be named.  Today their unit lost 5 men.  That is 5 families who have lost a son, brother, husband, friend.

On this Remembrance day, give thanks to God for the men and women who serve day in and day out without any fanfare.  Give thanks to God for people who will offer their lives so others may live.  Remember…

Organizing the Church

One of the things they really don’t teach you at seminary is the importance of organization in the church. 

While the church is an organism and not an organization, the importance of organization in the church shouldn’t be minimized.  I have heard both extremes on this subject.  There are those who feel that to organize is to hinder the Spirit’s ability to move in the church body.  They would advocate a very loose organizational structure that emphasizes freedom of movement and let things go as they go.  On the other side, there is the extreme of having to have everything organized down to the details.  This side would lean towards the more autocratic methods of leadership. 

Somewhere in the middle is the happy medium.  However, I have found in my own past church experiences that this is hard to attain and even harder to maintain.  But, as a way of putting things into words that help me work through some processes towards a type of organization in the church, over the next week or so I’ll be trying to give what I feel is a possible overview.  It probably won’t be perfect but that is why this is a blog and not a Phd paper

What do you guys think?  Why is organization so hard in a church?  How would you tackle this area of church life? 

Update 2 on Kellie

Good news.  They have removed all the tubes and gizmos that were attached to Kellie and according to the doctor, her calcium levels have stabalized (as of last night).  So, considering that her blood work is good this morning, she should be home this afternoon.  Thanks be to God  (as Scripture says, all good gifts come from the Father of lights !)