Redefining marriage

I was sad.

I was sad for the perfect cultural storm of the week. I was sad because of how money runs our country and manipulates the thinking of our leaders. I was sad because wisdom is so lacking. I was sad that people, in general, are robbed of true love. I was sad that honest, intelligent discourse was so elusive on topics of significance.

This week, President Barak Obama came out in support of marriage rights for homosexuals. He stated that it was a personal conviction that had changed and should not affect states’ rights to set up their own legislation. It was unfortunate timing. He was essentially forced to verbalize his own position as a result of Vice President Joe Biden’s comments about the issue earlier in the week. To top off the perfect cultural storm, North Carolina voters, by 61% approved a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The media, internet and coffee shops have been full of heated discussion since.

America seemingly is polarized. Extremes found something to celebrate. Gay rights activists lauded the reality that for the first time in history, a sitting US President voiced support for homosexual marriage. Others voiced their affirmation of North Carolina becoming the 31st state to prevent marriage from being redefined from its globally historical understood meaning. (Source for image below)

It just all made me sad.

Money

The timing of President Obama’s announcement was odd, given everything that preceded it. It became more odd when viewed in light that he has been silent on the issue for almost 87% of his term as president. It was downright disconcerting to learn that the day after his announcement, he was slated to attend a big bucks fundraising event in Hollywood hosted by those with distinct agendas on this topic. His reelection campaign netted $15 million from $40,000 a ticket event. (Source) One attender proclaimed, “Yesterday, he did the right thing.” It just appears that his announcement was one of political motivation rather than personal conviction.

Given that both men who will be receiving the lion’s share of attention in the 2012 election are millionaires and will raise millions makes me sad. I have this gut level discomfort with our current political process that seems to say that only those with money or the connections to raise it can shape the discourse and future of our country.

I know of so many people with deep wisdom, commitment to honesty and beautiful hearts that will never get a chance to shape our country’s discourse. It’s because they don’t have the money to do so. So those with money get to influence our country in ways that the majority of citizens disapprove of. It makes me sad.

Wisdom

I was sad that people value feelings over wisdom. This issue is a deeply emotional one. Yet, if we see marriage as not being ours to redefine, it may help. If we understand the amount of people affected, it may help.

It’s difficult to determine how many people identify themselves as homosexual. Yet, in an April 2011 article, Gary Gates stated that an accurate estimate based on studies, surveys and demographic data is difficult, but in the U.S., about 4 million people identify themselves as homosexual . Gates works for a think tank based at UCLA called the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. The number represents 1.7% of the US population. Factor in bisexual and transgender statistics, and Gates’ study finds another 5 million, for a total of 9 million,or only 4% of Americans. They are indeed a very vocal minority.

Who invented marriage?

My conviction is that God did. It’s an ancient institution and the first human relationship, according to Genesis.

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him… And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man… Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:20, 22, 24-25 ESV)

Some may object to the Genesis account, preferring a more naturalistic cause (and less romantic) for man and woman’s origin. However, Jesus affirmed the account in the New Testament:

He answered, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6 ESV)

If God is the source of marriage, then He alone gets to define it.

In Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, I was impressed by Jobs’ zealous protection of the first Macintosh’s purity. He didn’t want anyone able to alter its innards. While other computer companies were making computers that could be customized by consumers, Jobs adamantly refused.

Jobs’ desire to control the user experience had been at the heat of his debate with Wozniak over whether the Apple II would have slots that allow a user to plug expansion cards into a computer’s motherboard and thus add some functionality. Wozniak won that argument: The Apple II had eight slots. But this time around it would be Jobs’ machine, not Wozniak’s, and the Macintosh would have limited slots. You wouldn’t even be able to open the case and get to the motherboard. For a hobbyist or hacker, that was uncool. But for Jobs, the Macintosh was for the masses. He wanted to give them a controlled experience… He went so far as to design special tools so that the Macintosh case could not be opened with a regular screwdriver. (p138)

Creators have a right to stipulate the design and content of what they make.

In the current debate, I see marriage as a God-given relationship to humanity. It is biblically defined as being between a man and a woman. That should not be up for debate.

If a culture wants to create civil unions or other forms of relationships that it recognizes, it should be cautious. Where a small percentage of people are adamant advocates for homosexual marriage today, who is to say that a smaller percentage might not advocate polygamy tomorrow? If three (or more) adults want to enter into a “marriage” together, what would prevent that from happening if marriage becomes a subject for cultural debate? What about a 12 year-old and a 40 year-old getting married? What about a man and his dog? There are small percentages of people everywhere that are passionate advocates for all kinds of marriage choices. (Take for example, marryyourpet.com and instances like this and this).

True Love

The real losers in the current contentious climate are people. I was sad about President Obama’s needless public polarization of our culture because it adds heat rather than light to the human hearts involved. Real people are hurting over this debate. The intensity of the issue is caused by the deep emotions involved. Whatever a person’s current sexual leaning, he/she is a person whose heart wants to be loved. They want to experience meaningful relationship. They want another person to affirm their personhood and worth. They deeply want another’s touch, caress, embrace and kiss. Those acts of physical intimacy are gifts given that make a person feel loved.

If we’re not extremely cautious, those of us who oppose redefining marriage will be seen as seeking to prevent the personal peace and enjoyment that comes from experiencing the love of another person. If someone stepped into my relationship with Carolyn (we’ll be married 20 years this month!) and tried to forbid it, I’d come unglued too.

So let’s not debate the issue callously. Let’s recognize that love is at stake.

When we step back and wonder why in the world love matters so much to us, it should point us to more than our beating hearts. It should direct us as humans to matters of more significance. It should cause discomfort for the atheist. You see, the claim of the Bible, from cover to cover, is that God is love, and that He loves us. (I John 4.8) God made people because of love, and He offers them, freely, the kind of love that blows apart our earthly words for it. (For example, we say, “I love my wife” and “I love banana milkshakes,” and we know that they are different meanings, but we cheapen the word.)

God offers humanity true love.

“This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God..” (1 John 4:10 The Message)

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17 ESV)

The depth of love that God offers promises to satisfy the deepest longing of every human heart for worth, significance and intimacy. So let us not belittle people’s honest search for true love. We must all be pointed beyond our current relationships to a Relationship with God that will both soothe and inflame our hearts at the same time.

When we have encountered True Love, we will then be able to love Truth and willingly accept the guidelines of our loving Creator. In the meantime, this debate is not only robbing people of eternal love, but it’s even seeking to rip people away from temporal love.

Honest, Intelligent Discourse

Finally, I was sad because of the level of conversation our culture engages in. It’s hard not to find an article on a news website about this week’s announcements without finding expletive-laden responses. The name-calling and sheer banality of interaction is astonishing. Indeed, I would not be surprised to be bombarded with comments or opinions that are anything but civil as a result of this entry. I’m confident that there’s a lot of people that vehemently disagree with me.

If the research by Lifeway is any indication, Americans are having a very hard time agreeing on the issue – whether homosexuality is even a sin. There is a high level of agreement by those identified as a “born again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christian” – 82% say the practice of homosexuality is sinful. What’s disturbing to me is that 18% would say otherwise.

I’m open to clarification on this as a Christian, but what the Bible teaches about homosexuality is clear. It’s condemned. Not homosexual feelings, but homosexual practice. Feelings and desires can be submitted to one’s will. Some desires are intense, but we are told repeatedly in the New Testament that it’s possible to replace one set of desires with another. We are told to throw off the corruption of sinful desires and live in love with God and others rather than living just to satisfy ourselves.

“…you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV)

That’s the biblical worldview. It’s not just a ban on homosexual behavior. It’s a guide toward true love. Before you as a heterosexual conservative rejoice in that injunction, remember that your sexual desires are also spoken strongly to in the scriptures. Don’t cheat on your spouse; don’t have sex before marriage; don’t use members of the opposite sex as objects of lust (reject pornography); etc.

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV)

In our discourse, let’s identify our worldview, as I’ve done here. I don’t think there’s any doubt what lens I view this issue through. But let’s be honest about our core convictions. Let’s talk. Let’s debate. Let’s use our minds and reveal our hearts. But let’s not stoop to demeaning one another in this debate. People are too precious. Love is possible.

Finally

There are simply too many activists – gay rights, political conservatives, and the religious right. Activists seem to scream a lot. They tweet in all caps. It saddens me that we can’t journey together without tempers flaring. It feels at times like we’re a bunch of kids on a playground arguing over whether someone was “out” in kickball. We long for a teacher to step in and make things right – from our point of view.

It looks like President Obama felt the need this week to call a pastor. Joel Hunter pastors Northland Church in Florida, and he spoke with the President shortly after he had made his announcement to the media. Hunter said he was “disappointed” and disagrees with the President on his interpretation of scripture. (Source)

MyFoxORLANDO.com

Though this is an election year, and it will be disturbing to see both Democrats and Republicans use this issue for financial gain for their campaigns. Meanwhile, real people will be mobilized to support their point of view. There will be hurt feelings that may never recover. While the playground degenerates into name-calling and shoving, those of us not directly in the fray watch somewhat helplessly, hoping the Teacher arrives soon to settle the dispute, rebuke hate, and remind us that life and love are bigger than this current game.

Saying thanks, Dead or Alive

If you read this post, then you’ll understand that I was part of some videos for our 2012 Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. The theme was the 80s.

Thanks to volunteers

Tonight is our third annual volunteer appreciation dinner at our church. It’s not only a blast, but it’s a bonanza. You see, our church doesn’t have its own facility for worship and large gatherings in Blacksburg. Since 2003, we’ve been meeting in the Blacksburg Middle/High School (long story about name change there).

That means that for almost 10 years, volunteers and members, guests and staff have been setting up tables, chairs, music stands, children’s ministry rooms – and taking them down – 52 Sundays a year. In addition to that, it’s amazing how involved and plugged in our people are to their small groups, agencies and clubs in our community, service opportunities and other ministries.

So, once a year, we go all out to say a huge thank you to our volunteers. I’m so grateful for so many people who serve the Lord by lifting chairs, babysitting children, and a dozen other overlooked and under-appreciated ways. Tonight’s theme is The 80s, and here’s the promo video for it.

The volunteers tonight will get to eat a great meal, laugh a lot, and even see some more staff-produced videos that will hopefully bruise their funny bones and communicate to them the lengths that we’re willing to go as leaders to show them how much we care for them in their service to our Lord.

Each year, it seems that the videos get more “over the top.” Here’s last year’s promo (western theme):

Review: Live Sent

Ever read one of those books that cause you to look over your shoulder to see if the author is copying things from your thoughts or personal journal? That’s how I felt reading Jason Dukes’ book Live Sent.

Jason is the pastor of Westpoint Church in Orlando, Florida, and I’ve also had the privilege of meeting and calling Jason a like-minded friend. He graciously agreed to come share with our church in Blacksburg, Virginia last fall, and since then, I’ve used Live Sent with some of the guys I meet with. This spring, some of our small groups are using it as a discussion book.

Live Sent reads like a conversation with Jason. At times, his writing style is so conversational that if you prefer a more formal writing style, you’ll be a little put off. In addition, the book could use some more editing. Those are just minor critiques.

Jason uses the extended analogy of a letter and the process of sending throughout the book, and it never seems to get old. He crafts a timely message to Christians urging us to remember that we are a letter written from God to our world.

“And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)

Some of the best chapters in the book are the following:

• rethinking church

“Church culture in general has become more “come and see” than “go and be.” The letters (people sent by Christ) are, for the most part, sitting in the draft box of your email or on the post office shelf. It’s like we have a message to deliver, but we are expecting people to come to our house and get the email or stop by the post office and pick up the letter.”

• a fueling station or a post office

“Sunday mornings cannot be viewed as just fueling stations any longer. They must be viewed as post offices, gathering and sorting mail in order to send out those letters into daily culture.

He says that until we see ourselves as letters to be sent, that church-goers will continue “their addictions to personal worship experiences and leaders will continue to burn out under the pressure to create that same attractive, compelling environment every week.”

In a great assessment of how backwards we sometimes get spiritual maturity, Jason says,

“It’s not self-improvement or self-actualization. It’s not self-anything. When the goal of our spirituality is self-anything, it usually results in self-righteousness. Self-assurance and personal fulfillment are not our end game. Denial of self must be the first step every day. When spiritual maturity is defined in terms of beyond-self rather than in terms of myself, then my understanding of the importance of the church will line up more with the intent Jesus had for His church.”

Understanding spiritual maturity is vital for Christians if we realize it is our goal. After all, the apostle Paul shaped his ministry around bringing Christians to maturity:

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:28-29 ESV)

• a letter, not a personal to-do list
• stay on the postal route (or wireless travel)

“If you are not living sent in the marketplace, then you are wasting more than 50% of your awake time each week.”

“Living sent in our world isn’t just about a get-in then get-out experience.”

It’s this chapter that has a great section on how we leverage our influence on the internet. This is something I earnestly seek to do, and I preach it to others as well. Jason offers some great challenges about how Christians can live sent on Twitter, Facebook and the inter webs.

He also has a chapter titled “when mail gets blocked,” and I think his concept is a great one, but the chapter itself seemed convoluted and a little repetitive. I also liked the chapter “you are not junk mail” which seeks to communicate that we all are created in the image of God and have great purpose and opportunity to bless others. We all deserve reading because God is such a creative writer.

I’d encourage you to pick up Jason’s book and give it a good read. Then start finding your ways to live sent. You need to be read as well.

Alive

He is Risen. Indeed.

Don’t make waves

I’m a pastor. I’m grateful to serve the Lord by serving His people. Deeply.

Somewhere along the way, and at different seasons, it’s easy for folks like me to get confused about whose church we lead. There’s a subtle temptation, often encouraged in denominational circles or ministry networks, to “grow your church.” Like it’s even up to us.

Sure, I shouldn’t dress up as the Statue of Liberty and wave at passing cars to convince pagans to like God. Another thing I shouldn’t do is predict the end of the world and be wrong a lot. I probably shouldn’t invite Borat to speak at our church. Or even wear skinny jeans. I want people to come back.

I know that there’s things I shouldn’t do and things I should that can lead to people thinking positively or negatively about the church I help lead. But I really don’t think that I’m in charge of getting people to take the next step for God. That’s up to Him. I am to be obedient and faithful to His teachings and encourage the people in our church to do the same. When we follow Him in love, He does big things through us.

When the emphasis is on us instead of Him, we get tempted to attract and bring folks into our churches. Flashy things. Most of them just make the church of Jesus sound trite. If you advertise programs or styles to attract people, you’ll constantly need to “keep up with the Joneses” to keep the folks who’ve come for those things. It’s a constant battle to offer people things other than the simple message of the Gospel. It’s a good rule of thumb that what you use to attract people will only have to improve in order to keep them. If you used a big event, you’ll have to do a bigger one next year to top it.

As a pastor, I want to get better about simply being simple. I don’t want to “make waves.” I want to ride them. To quit trying to make a splash and just get wet. I want to avoid the danger of trying to do big things for God rather than just following Him and responding to the big things He’s already doing.

Finishing James

I concluded the last day of the Bible study of the book of James by Beth Moore this morning. It’s usually bittersweet. I love the structured and guided approach to studying and immersing myself in scripture. I’m also wondering where God will lead me next into His glorious and soul-satisfying scripture.

She used two quotes worth sharing in her final day:

“…this brusque but bracing book ‘finds us,’ drives us from the balcony to the road, and hounds us out of intelletualism, mysticism, and dogmatism into a real, living, existential world where, with a hand on our throats, we are hurled into the moment of decision. Why is this? The answer must be the closeness of Jesus…” (James B. Adamson)
“Who is this tremendous personality who speaks to the whole Church with a voice that expects no challenge or dispute? Who appeals to no authority but that of God, knows no superior but the Lord Himself, quotes examples only from the great ones of the Old Dispensation, instructs, chides, encourages, denounces with a depth, an energy, a fire, second to none in the whole range of sacred literature?” (John Parry)

In my concluding thoughts, I wrote in my book that “I want to diligently, patiently and persistently point people to Jesus and His truth – like James. I want to make them so uncomfortable with status quo religion that they embrace a relationship of trusting action with Lord Jesus.”

That’s our James.

A La Carte: Sexuality, Bible reading, Wise words, Excellence vs Professionalism

Abstinence or Chastity… or is it semantics?

Two recent entries in the blogosphere about sexuality captured my attention. One was bemoaning the narrow-mindedness of abstinence teaching and advocating a more robust theology that uses the concept of chastity rather than abstinence. I’d be curious what your thoughts are on the matter. (Link to article here.)

The author is Dr. Anthony Bradley, associate professor of theology and ethics at The King’s College in New York City. He elaborates:

I am not convinced that Christians do a good job of telling young people what to do with their bodies other than say “no” to them. As a result, I am beginning to wonder if abstinence programs are even helpful for developing moral maturity. While abstinence rightly places sexual intercourse within its proper context — marriage — it fails to construct a moral theology of the body. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for Christians to return to teaching chastity.

The second entry is by Christian speaker and communicator Jeff Bethke. (Link to article here.) He writes on Porn, Sex & the Christian. After sharing some disconcerting stats about pornography and its prevalence, he writes:

So, stop looking and striving for purity, and start looking and striving towards the face of Jesus, and purity will happen as a by-product. We have to see that the cross is something done for us, to give us a perfect and beautiful relationship with our Creator.

Both authors, from different points of view, admonish us toward positive desires rather than seeking to avoid negative ones. Mark Batterson in his book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (reviewed here), says,

The servant who buries his talent [in the parable by Jesus] and breaks even is called “wicked.” Why? Because he wasn’t willing to take a calculated risk. Maybe risk taking is at the heart of righteousness. Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right.

Bethke concludes his entry with these words:

So stop worshipping sex, and start worshipping Jesus. When’s the last time sex forgave you? When’s the last time it delivered on its’ promise? Jesus is the only one who has done that.

What do you think after reviewing the entries?

Simple. Read your Bible.

Check out openupthebible.com and look at the wealth of resources for all ages there. It’s March. Was Bible reading part of your resolves for 2012? How are you doing?

Personally, Bible study, reading and devotion have been an integral part of my life since I was a young teenager. I’m so grateful for the years of guidance and direction the Lord has provided through it.

Wise words (or overused ones)… and be careful of exclamation points!

Phil Cooke wrote an entry a while back that wondered if the word “authentic” in Christian circles had lost its punch due to overuse and misuse. He added several other words that may need to be retired. What think ye?

Epic, as in “epic generation”
Unpack
Branding
Relevant
Awesome
Miscommunication
Real
Mobilize
Accountable
Organic
Sustainable
Amazing
Dynamic
Revival

Jared Wilson, author or Your Jesus Is Too Safe, complements this counsel toward wise use of words in our communication. (Link to entry here.) He notes the danger of the exclamation point.

Especially in churches, it’s way too easy to get excited about every amazing, real, organic ministry program that comes around. (Yep, see what I did there? Used some of the overused words above. Did that get your blood going?! See what I did there! Exclamation point! Yeehaw! This is getting good! Cause I’m using exclamation points!)

Wilson points out that the leader or communicator that uses the EP too much relegates the things that need emphasizing to quick forgetfulness because the audience can’t discern what’s really important.Pastor, our people don’t usually get excited about what we tell them to be excited about. Have you figured that out yet? Instead, they get excited about what they see actually excites us.

This means we ought to steward our exclamation points wisely. If you’re one of those rah-rah guys firing on all emotional cylinders for everything from bake sales and the book table to baptisms and baby dedications, you create an equality between minutiae and missional milestones that can be disorienting, and ultimately dulling. But more directly, just remember that if everything is exciting, nothing is. (italics mine)

So be wary of what you rah-rah.

Excellence vs professionalism

Shawn Blanc had a self-revealing post back in 2010 in which he let us in on a little mourning. He is a prolific blogger and writer, and unlike yours truly, his blog has reached an incredibly wide range of folks focusing on tech and design. I was intrigued as I came across this statement:

But excellence and professionalism are NOT synonyms.

The context of that statement is found in his observation about the maturation of his writing. He noted:

My words are not as “free” and “light” as they used to be… And sadly I know exactly where that tone of freedom in my writing went. It slowly disappeared as my readership grew. I remember how I used to write as if 5,000 were reading even though there were only 75. But since I knew those 75 and considered them friends I was comfortable being in my own skin in front of them.

Well now that I actually do have 5,000 readers the freedom that was once in my writing seems to have been replaced with something more professional and scrutiny-proof. What an unfair trade and a bum deal for all of us.

I’ve been blogging since 2005. Sounds crazy to think of that. I’ve written a couple of entries that express some of my thoughts about why I blog here and here. I can really identify with his thoughts. I know that I’m much more hesitant to post quickly, whereas in the past, I’d get “fired up” about an issue and dash off an entry without allowing some mental crock pot time. When I do address “issues,” I do so after some measured moments of diligence, reflection, humility, research and hopefully, wisdom. I wonder if long-time readers of Notes from the Trail have noticed a difference in my writing…. Mom?

Nuff said for now.

The Power of Love

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8.35-39)

Our church’s missional statement for the past two years has been “Don’t go to church; be the church.” Both as a group of Christians and as individuals, we encourage one another daily to live in a way that glorifies God and blesses others. This year we chose two words to amplify the missional statement above. They are simple: Love deeply.

Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22.37) is to love God with everything you are. That’s a surprise to some and requires a heart adjustment for all. We can’t please God by doing good things. We please God through faith (Hebrews 11.6) in Christ and loving Him. True love will result in our doing good things. (John 14.15)

Some of you reading this may shake your head and think, but I want something deeper. I’ve heard you say this before… Sorry. I ain’t got nothing deeper. This is good news! God loves us so much that He sent His Son. Whoever believes, repents and loves deeply will glorify God and bless others. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Period.

How does the challenge to love deeply – both God and others – impact your life and require adjustments?

Review: Sticky Teams

Larry Osborne is pastor of North Coast Church, a megachurch, by anyone’s definition. I read his book Sticky Church some time back, and when someone sent me Sticky Teams as a result of seeing it on my Amazon Wishlist, I was grateful.

Loved that it was concise, to the point and not wordy. It was also very short on scriptural references. Osborne does use scripture and biblical situations, but he mainly speaks from his earned experience as a leader of a large church for the past 20+ years. I wanted to include that observation for those you who might get distracted by the paucity of verse references in the book.

He deals with essential, practical issues of church leadership that will effect unity if you don’t have a plan. Things like budgeting, letting go of a loved, but ineffective staff person, how to clarify roles among staff and other boards, and whether or not your church is developing leaders for the future.

It would be well worth the time to buy copies of this book for your staff and primary leadership teams and then have 2-3 meetings discussing through the short questions provided in the back.

One helpful thought is simply how to share vision/information/plans with your teams or congregations. Typically, a leader will have dreamed and thought about a needed change for quite a while before presenting it. However, when it comes time for presentation, it meets with initial resistance that can perturb an unwise leader.

Norman points out, “When information is presented to close to a decision-making process, most people will view it as a lobbying effort, not as a training exercise.” In other words, give your people permission to think and make the change journey with you. Don’t spring stuff on them. He includes two chapters on introducing change that will be extremely helpful for you.

Intensely practical, and if even a portion of the book is implemented in your leadership structure, I know you’ll be further toward having a unified and healthy team than you are now.

Your status is your standard

James 1.19 says, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”

This principle is exceptionally difficult to obey and internalize in a digital culture. Beth Moore notes in her study of James about this that “if the implications were frightening in James’ day when letters were written longhand and delivered foot-slow, imagine the impact in a culture where we can instantly voice our heated opinions in a public forum without the benefit of an editor or a permanent eraser”

Make no mistake that social media is a public forum. What we post on Twitter, Facebook, and other web platforms should be submitted to the wisdom of this verse. With the advent of Facebook’s new timeline, it’s easy to see the maturity (or lack thereof) of a person’s posts.

A ministry friend recently tweeted, “One thing I have noticed about the new Facebook timeline is that I was very immature with things I said when I first got on it.”

What we post as our status can become the standard by which we’re measured. So think twice. Is what you post necessary, helpful and beneficial? Whether you want your character to be measured by the ones you post is not an option. It will be.

Olympic athletes spotted at Northstar Church

Tonight while we were preparing for the 6:00 service at Northstar Church, two incredible Olympic athletes demonstrated their skills. Click here for the video.