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Monthly Archives: January 2013

Attending Church


Most of us, in a regular and personal pattern, have the part of Church attendance confidently mastered. Our Butt in seat, smile on our face. It’s, for sure not wrong to have such a pattern. I personally think it has worked for the Church over the past 20 years or so. I think everything has phases. I’m curious to know what will happen to the Church, that has as their key strength, a focus on pretty much only Church attendance. Those who don’t attend Church look at that pattern and see Church people show up, talk to their friends, sing some songs and take notes as they learn from what they are sitting and watching. Repeat next Sunday. Those who don’t attend Church truly believe they do the same thing, just not on a Church campus or building. They show up to their local hang out, like a great coffee shop. They talk to their friends, listen and even sing some songs playing over the speaker system. They take notes as they surf the internet looking for information, current stories, and realistically get more information through 30 minutes of web surfing than they would listening to one speaker make at least 3 points. Repeat at least twice a week. They could argue that they are more productive in accomplishing more while at a coffee shop, doing the same things Church people do, when attending Church.

I’m not being cynical or rude, just wanting to converse on this subject. Don’t be offended. I think Church Services will continue in the phase they are in. The more we try to do Church differently, the more we realize Church is the same and has been the same. Church really hasn’t changed much…even from Jesus’ day around 2000 years ago. Church is Church. Always will be. It’s a good thing.

But…Some things…some very little tweaks…could make a big difference in the mentality of those outside the Church, watching us and wondering if its worth it, to even show up some Sunday and try it.

Church Attender…Showing up and taking notes isn’t your job. Its your practice. Its your good habit. Keep it up. While you do this weekly practice, please don’t forget your job. Your job, while completing your weekly practice, is to surprise and delight others that are around you, while you honor God, who lives in you. Your job is to raise the bar of personal encounter, open your circle of friends so that there is a space where you surprise and delight a stranger because you invited them to fill the space, yet never closing the circle. That job cycle must never end. Your job is to create encounters with people who have expectations of what their experience will be while attending a Church service. Your job is to shatter their low expectations with your love and verbal curiosity about who they are. Your job is to make your spiritual leaders so grateful that they have people like you teaming up with them to impact lives and work hard in Church. Do your job and the eyes of the Lord will lock in on you and you will be proven as faithful. That’s your job. That our job.

Just attending is overrated. Necessary, but not nearly what you ultimately desire.
I can’t wait for Sunday.


HYDRATE — Winning from the inside. (xtra post) Psalm 119:109 “Spiritual Tightrope”

When was the last time you thought about TIGHTROPE performances.

My life constantly hangs in the balance,
but I will not stop obeying your instructions.
Psalm 119:109

I’m breaking the rules of my Hydrate Series where I said each blog post is about a Teaching or Command of Jesus from the New Testament. This segment is from the Old Testament. I will not number this teaching, but feel lead to include it in the series. I hope it challenges you like it does me.

I have seen a few tightrope performances. Some at circus events I’ve attended, and a couple via television as I watched someone cross the Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Personally, I’ve never seen a person fall from the times I’ve watched any tightrope performances. So, after I decided to use the word tightrope today, curiosity lead me to research the subject. I came across a family of tightrope performers nicknamed “The Flying Wallendas.” (Very popular in the 1940’s) They are known for not using a safety net in their performances. They have fallen multiple times and some have died or been paralyzed, but they still refuse to use a safety net. They have a family slogan; “If we fall, we die.” The leader and founder of the tightrope performance, Karl Wallenda fell to his death at the age of 73 from a 10 story tightrope performance in Puerto Rico in 1978. The winds were blowing 30mph that day. The family still chooses to perform without a safety net. Its incredible.

Isn’t it interesting that of all the tightrope performances that exist, I chose to use this family as our example. I chose to talk about them. Why? Because they do it differently. Their performances take your breath away. If they fall, they die. Crazy? Yes. But when was the last time you ever talked about a tightrope performance? If not for their risk, they would be just an average, invisible, non-interesting and forgettable performing group. But because they have the element of life or death…here we are still talking about them!

THE TIGHTROPE.

You walk it everyday. Its a “fine-line” between holy living like Jesus and giving in to the desires of your flesh and thus living like the rest of the world.

THE TIGHTROPE.

You walk it everyday. Its a fine line between inviting someone to Church and giving them a chance to meet some incredible people and Jesus Christ, or just walking on by and ignoring the opportunity to possibly change their eternal destination.

Maybe it would be a good slogan for our personal lives as spiritual beings/Christians. “If we fall, people die.” You don’t die, if you fall into temptation. You must repent and ask for forgiveness, and Jesus says He will forgive you. But, that is because you have the Holy Spirit living in you, because you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. SO WHO DIES IF WE FALL?

Other people.

If we fall from the tightrope walk of Loving people who are far from God, therefore not inviting them to be a part of Church…the bride of Jesus…well…these people can’t be forgiven…they don’t have the Holy Spirit living in them. How terrifying to be unforgiven…eternally. How terrifying for us to fall from our tightrope and the consequences of not inviting, or losing our credibility with other other people, influences their eternal death. The Apostle Paul loved people who were far from Jesus so much that he said he would be willing to spend eternity away from Jesus if all others would believe in Jesus as Lord. (See Romans 9:3) Talk about walking a tightrope! Jesus gave up His very life so that others may live in Him. Talk about walking the Tightrope!

You are walking a serious tightrope and Heaven and Hell are in the balance…FOR OTHER PEOPLE! The consequences are life or death…ETERNALLY.

There is no safety net. The stakes are way higher than being paralyzed or death of the physical body. This is spiritual eternity we are dealing with….for others!

Invite.
Worst they can do, is say no.
But then you just invite again, later.
And again.

Spend time with unchurched people. They need you. Please do not let ALL your time be spent with circles of other Christians. I created a new “ROUTINE 2013 booklet, where there are 13 challenges. One of the challenges is to try 13 things you’ve never tried before. If you sign up to learn something new…I challenge you to learn it from a group of non-christians. You’ll develop some friends and it will give you a chance to walk the tightrope of impacting their lives eternally. Please don’t just sit in Christian circles the rest of your life. Please don’t create a bunch of programs at your church where just your Church members get together all the time. Its not wrong to do that, but what does it do? It will cost others their eternal lives.

Walk the Tightrope. There is no safety net. Get in the circles of non-Christians.
Its walking a tightrope!
If we fall, people die.

Love you all.
My family and I are walking the tightrope with you.

Trent


Hydrate — Winning from the inside 34 (Matthew 7:3-5) Judging Part 2

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:3-5:

In my previous post, Hydrate 33, I wrote about how God has commanded us as the church to judge one another. If that sounds surprising to you, then I encourage you to read that entire post #33. Its long, but hopefully very educational for you, thus worth it.

This post is simply a part two of the last one. Please notice in this passage from Jesus that He does not tell us that we should not judge. He simply says that if we are going to judge others, then we must make sure we aren’t being hypocritical.

The Bible tells us, as Christians that we are to be the Light of the world and the Salt of the earth. That means we are to be purifiers. In order to purify we must first be pure. In order to be light we must first rid ourselves of darkness.

That is all Jesus is saying.
Are you in the habit of telling others where their faults are, but you are totally lacking self-awareness of your own faults?
If this is the case for you, you will be fruitless when it comes to influencing other people for the cause of Jesus Christ.

I am listing some Biblically mentioned sins below. Use the list to do a sin check in your life. If you are actively continuing in any of the sins below then please keep your mouth shut to others about how they should live their lives. You’ll only cause more damage to the Cause of Christ than good. First conquer the sins in your life, and then be a purifier for Jesus. Here’s the list.

1 Corinthians 5:11,  “I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer* yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-20, “9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”* 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

If you would like to see what other sins the Bible lists, then the list below is the listing of every Bible verse in the New Testament that lists specific sins that we are to conquer as Christians. (When you see the letters “ff” in the passage reference it simply means, “and following verses.”

2 Corinthians 12:20-21
Romans 1:29ff, 13:9-13
Galatians 5:16-25
1 Peter 4:3
James 3:14
Ephesians 5:3ff
Colossians 3:5ff
2 Peter 2:3-14ff

The BIble is not for the faint of heart! God desires a high standard of living and He asks us as Christians to hold each other accountable and judge one-another in love about how we live our lives. (He never asks us to judge people who are not Christians.)

Make sure you are holy, before you call other people “unholiness” out. And when you are living righteous and you begin to challenge others, please do it with love.

I’ll close this post with 1 Peter 3:15-16, “15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way.* Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!”

When it comes to helping others conquer their sin, as you conquer your own, use gentleness and respect.
Christianity has lost its sense of judgment. It is killing the Church.
Learn to judge the way Jesus teaches us to.
Its a tough thing to do.
It won’t make your popular, but it will make you like Jesus.


THE THREE _______________ ? (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

I love that Bible passage. I have seen it spiritually lived out in so many different ways. I’ve seen it work for good and I’ve seen it work for evil.

I haven’t posted in awhile, so before I get a new routine going again with some blogging about the Teachings and Commands of Jesus, I want to blog about and epidemic crisis going on throughout out too many churches around the world. If what I’m about to write is offensive then I would suggest that “the shoe is fitting you” and God might be using this post as a way to ask you to change.

A triple braided cord is not easily broken. Obviously true or it wouldn’t be in the Holy Bible. If you want to physically experiment the truth of this statement then go grab some dental floss. Take one strand of it and wrap it around a finger on each of your hands and pull and break it. Did you notice how hard you had to pull to break the strand? Now, take 2 strands of similar length and twist them together and repeat. You had to pull much harder to break it…some might not have even been able to break the two strands. Now repeat it, but use three strands that you have actually braided together. Its incredibly hard to break them, nearly impossible!

I have enough of a personal ministry network across the USA that allows me to hear and see many circumstances play out in the every day life of the local church. I hear stories that make me want to fall to my knees and thank God for such incredible news. I hear stories that make my heart ache for the pastor who is having to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I have personally walked through both scenarios. I’ve been around long enough to personally experience both scenarios and seen enough scenarios play out in other places that I have been able to see and link patterns. Its quite fascinating, actually.

The pattern deals with people and leadership.

The stories of triumph are preceded by a church that has a pastor that is connected with his elder board through honoring each other’s strengths and having intense team and trust. I love that kind of triumph.

The stories of walking through the valley of the shadow of death are typically preceded by a gathering of a pastor with a board. Usually the lack of team and trust and the lack of acknowledging each members strengths, this board typically and eventually dwindles to three. I don’t know why three, but I think somehow, someway this Ecclesiastes 4:12 passage ungirds it all.

I don’t need to go into too much detail about the Leadership Board built around strengths and team and trust. You can call the circle of people anything you want because when you boil it all down it’s the same thing. Elders, Deacons, Administrative Team, Corporate officers, Trustees, committees. ITS ALL THE SAME. People with positions of power. When this team of people come together and honor each other’s strengths and rely on each other’s team and trust, this team can accomplish nearly anything. This group of people live the Holy Scriptures in their personal lives. This group knows how to laugh and most definitely do not take themselves too seriously. This group is a group of people that are inspiring to be around. When this group comes together, success happens naturally through organized thinking, holiness, planning, prayer, and vision that is united in what Jesus wants. Period! This group naturally and without resistance rotates its leadership because not one single individual in the circle needs to have the position. Each individual in this group has developed their identity in who Christ says they are, instead of needing the position so they can have an identity. There is a lot of depth in that last sentence. If you pause for even 30 seconds you will be able to think of people in your life that fit both those descriptions. Which person are you? Which person would you rather spend time with…especially in a meeting?

This group of people very rarely, if ever, has the problem of the group shrinking to just 3 people. This group is of such that its actually fun to attend meetings and as birds of a feather flock together, this type of group attracts more people just like them. There’s never a shortage of people to ask to be a part of this type of rich environment. So cool when this happens.

So, there is a flip side to this environment. Again, call the group whatever you want, its all the same. However, this type of group usually has such an environment that it typically ends up only having 3 people who are left in it. Its hard to find new people to fill the absence of those who just couldn’t survive the walk through the valley of death type meetings. Death by meetings. What’s the difference from the description above? Why is there typically just three people left? The difference is simply the opposite of my first description. The Valley of Death environment is lead by a group of people who create their identities based off their position. This position puts them in such a spot that it allows them to pursue their personal interests. When you have a group of people in a meeting where three or more in the group are always vying for their personal preferences, you have, eventually, just three that are left and you end up with an organization that is full of things that these three people wanted. Everybody else in the group just shriveled and then disappeared. There voice wasn’t heard, because the big three continually cut them off and ignore their suggestions. The three people that typically remain are of two different types of people. The first type of three that might remain are the three that are very out-spoken, tend to be a bit arrogant and have a bully type personality about them. They control the meetings. They fight, endlessly, for their personal preferences. This type of person will say that they know what they are doing and that their ideas are God directed. The problem with this, is that they use God as the excuse to pursue their personal interests. The real problem is that each of these bully types will argue for their personal preferences and say that God has given them this position of authority to pursue their idea. Many times they will say that God gave them the idea. Then the next guy will say that God told them something different and has given them the position of authority to make the idea come to fruition. What you have is a meeting where God seems to be schizophrenic and can’t make up His mind, telling one person one thing and the next person something else. These meetings are maddening. They are made up of a few people all fighting for their personal preferences. There is a serious lack of Christ-likeness in these meetings and in a matter of time, there usually are only three left. If its not the 3 bullies that are left, then it usually means that even the bullies got impatient and left, leaving the very kind and gentle people sitting around the table wondering what to do next. This group will be too nice to make any tough decisions so the meetings usually last for hours while the group simply talks about ideas and never activating any of them. This last group of three remaining is very rare… most of the time all you have left in these leadership meetings are the three bullies. They love their position. They get their identity from their position. They individually try to win more followers over so they can get popular vote and power. These kind of people have a lot of meetings before and after the “official” meeting. I call this group of three, “The 3 Kings.” Self-appointed of course. The very kind and soft spoken group of three that rarely remain, we can call them “The 3 Stooges.” Kind of mean, but you get the point.

What the Church needs is a group of men that is described in the first group I wrote about above who all bow down to the real and mighty three. The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. That is the ultimate group of three that can’t be broken. If every Church/Org/Corporation/Gov./etc. were lead by such a group, wow…the world would be better.

Be careful what you think the role of a leadership group is. (Call the group what you want, its all the same.) Be careful if it seems the group that is leading your church carries a heavy stick. Jesus didn’t carry a heavy stick…except to the bullies. Jesus kicked the bullies butts all the time. They eventually killed Him, but then He kicked the bullies butts again 3 days later. What is it with the number 3! Be careful relying on a group of people to give you directions of how you should live your life. You have a Bible for that. I suggest we all follow the great 3.

The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. When those three are leading, incredible things take place, no matter the personalities of the others sitting around the leadership table. Take a look at your organization, your Church, your Government, your personal family. If there is dysfunction of any kind it can be traced, more often than not, to a group of three who are not listening to The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, but are listening first to their personal preferences, which are being swayed by a group of people they are trying to please.

We as God’s creation are better than this. The solution to the problem of ending up with the 3 leftovers, is for everybody to follow the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When you have a group of three left over that aren’t doing this…look out! Danger and Death with hovering everywhere. In the Church world, God nor the Devil is present in this kind of setting. The great 3 show the Lord that they don’t need Him and they lead on. This also dismisses the devil’s need to be present, for when people are in control, the devil doesn’t need to be around to cause chaos, it will be prevalent without him around.

What do you do?
Figure out a way to get the 3 removed. If that is impossible, then remove yourself from the organization and the dysfunction. Life is too short and…there are enough exciting and dynamic organizations/churches/families out there, that you don’t have to be trapped in one that is lead by the 3 Kings or the 3 Stooges.

Choose THE FATHER, THE SON and THE HOLY SPIRIT! It won’t be easy, but its what’s best!

A triple braided cord is not easily broken. This is true if the braid is holy or evil.
Don’t forget that the devil disguises himself as an angel of light.

So, I recommend that you check the fruit. A good tree produces good fruit. While checking, if you find a group of 3 people who say that they know what they are doing and that you just need to trust their leadership…well…choose wisely, your choice will have consequences. Remember that life is challenging enough as it stands and I would recommend that find a group of people who fully submit to only the will of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

They are truly the Great Three.
Keep their desires at the very center of your life.
It won’t be easy, but it will be right!