I want more!

God has been speaking to me lately about money (mammon/treasure). If you’re anything like me, this is your cue to stop reading this post and move on to the next one. I would do this b/c I feel like I know what’s coming next “stop acquiring nice stuff or get rid of the stuff you have and give it all to the poor.” I don’t want to hear this message b/c I’ve still got a really long list of stuff I want that I don’t have yet. Can you relate? Well, it’s up to you if you want to keep reading.
I’ve had the opportunity to hear several messages on stewardship and I’ve begun studying Matt 6.19 – 21 as well as Luke 12. They’re both fantastic passages with AMAZING application to my life in Athens, GA right now.
Luke 12 is Jesus giving us two big warnings. He says “be on your guard against hypocrisy and greed.” The way I received these was:
1. Sean – you need to be fully aware that everything you say and do privately will one day be made known publicly. So, be very sure that you’re pursuing consistency in both realms. I’m so sad to say that it was the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who were the hypocrites. God, please help me not be that leader in my generation.
2. The second warning is against greed. It’s really interesting that Jesus says we should “be on our guard against” these things. It’s as if they’ll attack us and we need to be ready for the attack. I don’t normally picture greed and hypocrisy attacking me. Anyway, moving on. Jesus says “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of His possessions. Then He tells a fantastic story of a guy who was blessed with a great crop and he saw the blessing as his chance to be a fat cat. The guy fell for the lie that the field and the crop it produced was his instead of Gods. So, it only makes sense that he would think it was all for him. Jesus said this was tragic b/c he was going to die that night and he would have missed an incredible opportunity to store up eternal treasure with the blessings God had loaned him. The call was to be “rich toward God” instead of storing up things for ourselves.

Here is where this impacts my life. I recently recognized that my current salary is more than 3x that of my very first real job. For this I’m very thankful. At the same time, at each bump in salary, my family has increased our standard of living. Now, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. Especially when our first home was a beautiful used 14x60 singlewide mobile home. It was a thing of beauty! However, I do sense God asking me “how much is enough?” I hear Him saying, “Sean, how much home do you need? In what kind of neighborhood? What kind of furnishings? What about your car? Vacations? Clothing? Eating out? Entertainment?” I really feel like I need to answer these questions. But even more importantly, I feel like I need someone in my life to whom I give these answers and also give them permission and opportunity to speak into my life when or if I begin to make financial decisions that contradict these standards. I’ll just be fully honest here. I can pretty easily become a high-maintenance guy who lives like a fat cat. I often have strong desires for really nice stuff and nice experiences. I’m not saying these desires in and of themselves are bad. Actually I think they’re probably a huge indication of my longing for glory. I long for the place where there is no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. I long for the day when I’m in God’s all satisfying presence and my heart explodes with joy. I think these are my real longings. I just often believe the lie that a new laptop or cell phone or pair of shoes or TV will give me this same satisfaction. When I do this I begin to fall for the lies of greed and ownership.

It’s really cool that Jesus goes on in the rest of this chapter and talks about our temptation to worry, fear, and set our hearts on our needs for food and clothing. 1 Tim 6.8 is a good cross-reference here. He says God is really good at providing these things. We see this in how He cares for birds and flowers. So, the call to you and I is to sell our possessions, give to the poor, seek His Kingdom, and store up treasure in heaven. I’d say we’re incredibly courageous people if we can receive this challenge from our loving Savior and choose to trust Him.

I’d appreciate your prayer that I would recognize that I’m a steward, not an owner and that every investment I make into the things of God really is an investment in heaven where there is no risk and high return. If I believed this it might dramatically change the future of my life. Thanks for journeying with me.

In Between

I’m wanting to capture this moment because I have confidence that I’m on the edge of God’s provision. I’m in the often stressful gap between two fantastic realms – God’s past provision and His future provision. Now the truth is I’m also still reaping the enjoyable consequences of much of His past gifts. So, here is my situation. I’m the pastor of an incredible new church and yet we have so many current needs. We need:
o Finances – by our projections, we need another $650K in the next 11 mos
o Group leaders – we have just launched about 20 community groups and we really need each of these leaders to shepherd the groups effectively
o Talent – we need talented actors, singers, dancers, musicians, teachers, and more
o Servants – we need people to show up at 6am and help us load in our facility each week as well as people to serve as greeters and parking attendants
o Leaders – we need local godly leaders to step up and provide prayer and counsel to eventually become elders
o Passionate attenders – we need people who will continue to embrace the mission and strategy of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating relevant environments; and people who will invest and invite
The list could obviously go on and the truth is that if we don’t have many or all of these, we simply won’t be the church God is calling us to be in this city. I’m praying that God will provide for us graciously and we will be found faithful with each of His gifts.
So, for now, I’m simply standing in the gap between the past and the future, doing my best to embrace hope and faith in my good and strong Father. I’d love your prayer in this venture as well.

Even When

I have an aquaintance named Rick Pearson (www.rickpearson.org) who seems to be on his way to meet God persionally. Rick is an amazingly talented young musician who appears to be losing a battle with Lukemia. It's a tragic story. At the same time, I've got a very good friend named Josh Jones (www.alreadybeenchewed.com) was also recently diagnosed with Cancer. Josh is a pastor and dad in his late 20's. Josh is not living the easy life by any means, but he is recovering well.

It's been a really thought provoking process to watch these two guys battle major diseases. In the meantime, I appear to be very healthy and life is going great for me. I've got a fantastic wife, 2 beautiful healthy boys, great friends, and a job I love. I said it that way intentionally. I "appear" to be healthy. The truth is, I have no idea what is goig on inside my body or what is waiting around the next corner. I have no promise that I'll wake tomorrow or that any of my family will. There is no gaurentee. So, should I be confident or fearful? Should I live with hope or dread? Should I be anxious or at peace?

God wrote this through Paul in Romans 11.33, "Oh the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgements and His paths beyond tracing out. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor, or who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!"

If you go to Rick's site, a song called "Even When" will begin to play. It's a beautiful song that Rick recorded and it's so apropriate at this time. The big idea of the song is even when we don't know what God is up to, we will choose to trust Him and praise Him because He is good.

I certainly pray that God will choose to heal Rick and Josh, in the same way that I pray He will give everyone in New Orleans their homes and jobs back. But, if God doesn't choose to answer in the way I request, I'm also praying that I will still see Him as good and strong; since this is what's true. Please join me in embracing this truth with all our hearts!

Drive 05

I really enjoyed the Drive conference. It was a good time of worship, encouragement, challenge, and affirmation. It’s a huge blessing to be a strategic partner!

Some of the things I’m hoping to takeaway from this are:

Changing
The local church is to be about the great commission which is highly evangelistic
Incremental change rarely gets us to where we want to be – we need the courage to act boldly and make the changes that really need to be made.
Reggie said the only thing that’s sacred is the mission. This made me ask if our strategy and values are sacred.
We need to regularly tell unbelievers “we built this place for you.”
We can’t let the fear of losing people and $ keep us from doing what needs to be done

Relevant Environments
We measure the relevance of an environment by whether or not it’s an appealing context, with engaging presentations and helpful content.
The context of ministry should be shaped by culture! Culture isn’t our enemy, it’s the context in which we live. People are open to learning when they’re comfortable. Does our target audience find this context appealing?

Engaging presentation – how do I create tension so that they are begging me to answer the question? It’s a mistake to deliver content before we’ve made them hungry to hear it.
We have the answers to what is ailing people (sin, sorrow, and death) yet they drive by us on the way to the lake. Why is this?
To blame people is to abdicate leadership. If the learner hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught. If they aren’t engaged, it’s my fault.
With food we can either eat chicken, meat, or fish. However, there are some places we would much rather eat than others. Why is this? The way it’s prepared and presented makes a huge difference!
Information doesn’t engage people, presentations do.
Note – you don’t have to be the talker to be the leader

Content – this determines interest. CD sales/.mp3 downloads show whether or not our stuff is helpful.
? How many CD’s does NP sell on an avg week?
People are on happiness quests, not truth quests.
Action - I need help in the content area.

We can’t create a program for every need b/c there are as many needs as there are people.

Preaching
The goal of preaching should be to teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible.
What do they need to know? Why do they need to know it?
What do they need to do? Why do they need to do it?
How can I help them remember it?

Momentum
New triggers momentum, improved sustains it for the short term, and improving sustains it for the long term.
The business community has learned that you must keep getting better or you get left behind. The church has learned to live with mediocrity.
Momentum will follow the interests of the leader.


Quotes
Don’t take notes on how to do things from people/places that are unsuccessful
We need to be a church of people who haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be lost
Applying a little is better than knowing a lot.
Submission is an invitation to lead.
You rarely gain momentum by doing what you did to create it in the first place.