Heaven and Hell - Q&A

This is worth the listen - a discussion with modern day scholars.  Dr. Gary Manning is among them.

http://whittierhillsuptown.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/heaven-and-hell_edit_version.mp3

A MUST LISTEN! Qualifications for Pastoral Leadership

Mark Driscoll lays our qualifications for church planters in their Acts 29 network.  While this addresses qualifications for men as pastoral leaders, I believe the principles applies to women in pastoral leadership.

http://www.acts29network.org/sermon/the-ox-qualifications-of-an-acts-29-church-planter/

by His grace,
Rod

Tips for Counseling

Hello leaders:


The email below is my response to the "wife's" email.  She asked me to counsel her and her husband.   I asked her to send me an email briefly describing their situation, copying her husband so that WE ALL are on the same page.   The email correspondence helps me to prepare spiritually and mentally to better serve those I counsel, making the best use of our time.


By the way - she sent me 4 (honest) pages describing her situation and she copied her husband.


Let's always pray, trusting the Holy Spirit to be The Counselor, Teacher, Conviction... leading us in truth as leaders, to be used to help set captives free!


Love,
Rod


... Foremost, you are both in my prayers, as we prepare to meet.  It is in my heart to support and assist you both, your marriage – the best I know how to.  I am believing that God will be honored and the center of our time together.

PLEASE KNOW that all that you write, and our meeting will be CONFIDENTIAL.

(husband)
So you know my heart.  I too, am a husband (26 years) and a father of 3 teens (19,17,15).  I am NOT perfect, but trusting God to mold and shape me as a husband and father.  My heart is open to learning and growing, so I can become more like Christ.  I know this all sounds very “Christian” but it is my true hearts desire – and I just wanted you to know that I face some of the same kinds of struggles you face as a man, husband and father.

From my heart and words, I wanted you to know that I asked (wife) to share whatever she could to help me pray and prepare in my fellowship with you both.  I did ask her to copy you so that you both/and we are on the same page (of sharing and info).  I will be as objective and Christ centered as I know to be, as I serve you and your wife in our time together.

To both of you – some of my thoughts and perspective, so you know my approach and heart as a shepherd.

• I really like to be transparent – you can ask me any question about my life, relationship, etc.  I will be as honest as I know to be – for the sake of healing, health, helping...  I’ve failed, faltered and have many faults and faulty experiences – that God has and is using to transform my life. I NEED JESUS! :)
• I ask people I counsel:  Do you consider me one of your pastors?  This is helps me to understand the possible commitment of the people I counsel – whether they are open, willing, receptive to my counsel.  It is important for people to have spiritual covering (church leadership, mentors, spiritual fathers/mothers...) - people that you both respect, will listen to and follow their guidance.
• As open, honest, truthful people can be with their situation, will affect the potential for Biblical resolution and restoration.  But share what you are comfortable sharing.  I will ask leading, pressing questions as I am led to – but you always decide what and how much you want to share.  I will respect the boundaries you have.
• I will ask:  What is the goal of our time together?  What is the goal for your relationship?  This will help me determine what’s in your heart and how to approach our time together.
  

I’m NOT asking you to email me answers to these questions.  I just wanted to prep you since I received this correspondence from (wife).

You are in my prayers and I look forward to our time of fellowship and counsel.

With aloha,
Rod

Correction back to the heart of our first love

S - Rev 2:2-5 (NASB)

2 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance , and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.4 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.5 'Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.

O -  This portion of the Revelations letter was to the church at Ephesus. It was Christ, via John, sending message of correction. The correction was one of recognition of their hard work,  affirmation of what they were doing correctly, and correction of that which they were not.   What Christ points out that they are doing correctly was not tolerating evil men.  They were testing so called apostles in their midst to ensuring they didn't have false leaders among them.  This is critical in a young immature church as well as a established and thriving church.   False teachers are rarely obvious, they are subtle in the way they infiltrate the congregation and lead people astray.   The correction is one of a "heart check" or pruning back to the heart of Christ.   Christ is telling the church to remember their first love, and passion as they received their salvation and calling to be a beacon to the community,  to spread the Gospel,  to be examples of God's love in how they love one another and their passion for the lost.  The warning comes along with the correction, failure to correct will cause the lamp stand (the church itself)  to be removed.  

A -   The application is for  me to understand and live God's heart for his local church's to always remember who they are and to be continually pruning back to the heart of the calling of the local church, to be a place where people can come broken and separated from God, and to find Him, worship Him, and be healed by Him.   This is done by following two basic principles pointed out here in the scripture:

1.   Put to test those who are leading the disciples -    This is a critical thing to understand and do continuously in being the church.  Often times people are allowed to lead before they are ready  ("under developed leaders") .  These you can correct and equip when they begin to stray off the core values of the church.   The scripture is not speaking of these, but rather leaders who have false doctrine in which they operate under that, subtly they are  "selling" to the congregation.  The key for the shepherd leaders in the congregation is to collectively confront, and challenge those who directly or indirectly are violating kingdom principles and/or core values of the church.

2.  Correct/prune back to the heart -  The outgrowing the original heart seems to be a natural tendency of either growing  church's or long standing stagnant church's.   Over time, we are making subtle adjustments to deal with our changing circumstances, or even out of a heart to improve we are making many changes over time.  If we stepped back periodically at took a look we might see things as Christ see's things,  we have lost our first love.  For the local church, that might look like when we begin to worry more about our church service problems, and less about the problems of the people in the community in which we serve.   Pruning back to our first love, the call, the vision and the mission of the church periodically helps us keep our calling, before Christ removes His anointing on the church.

P - Dear heavenly Father, thank you for today's lesson, through your apostle John.   I pray Lord that you would help me to apply in my life, wherever you would send me, so that I may remember your calling on my life, and help the local church remember who she is.   I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

 

Proper Interpretation of Scripture

Hello Lay Pastor Leaders and Interns:

Please view the great teaching article through the link below.  This website is where professors from Talbot School of Theology posts great articles.  I found out about this website through Dr. Gary Manning (former professor at Pac Rim Christian College), who is now a professor there.

Dr. Walt Russell's article below demonstrates what we have discussed in the area of proper exegesis (interpretation) of Scripture.  I chose this article because I love that it deals with a passage that many pastors/teachers/us Christians - have misused.

Cut/copy/paste this link:
http://thegoodbookblog.com/2011/may/13/avoid-every-appearance-of-evil-toppling-a-faulty-m/
Enjoy and let's continue to grow as good stewards of properly studying, interpreting and teaching the Word of God... He and His Word, are worthy of our very best!

love you all - from Belton, MO.,
Rod

Dealing with wounds and danger in the flock

S - 3 John 1:9-13 (NASB)⁹ I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. ¹⁰ For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.
 ¹¹ Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. ¹²Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

 ¹³ I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; ¹⁴ but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face. 

O - Wow, John almost sounds like Paul in this letter, which is definitely a letter of encouragement and a letter of rebuke.  I say he sounds like Paul because in many of Paul's letter to the church's he planted there was a hint of a strong correction, coupled with words of encouragement, and guidance on how to navigate the circumstances, followed by the promise (threat even) of an in person appearance.  There are great leadership and shepherding gems to be mined from these verses.  First off we can see examples of whom we might see in our own church or ministry.  The Diotrephes' are present in our church today, those who love to be first, and are not teachable or correctable.  John points out these deeds are to be called attention to by leaders, and the rest of the sheep are to be reminded not to imitate such behavior.   John points all of this out in a short letter, and doesn't get into the details of the situation, either because the recipients of letter will know what and whom he is speaking of, but I believe it is also because John is a wise leader, in that he knows some matters need to be handled face to face, a letter (or email) will not be effective.

A -  The application for me is as a shepherd leader I can pick up some good tools for my shepherding tool bag to be carried around and used when appropriate.   First off as shepherds we must realize that among the sheep their may be those sheep who are sick and wounded and as a result they affect the rest of the sheep.    As shepherds we are to know our flock and when we see someone who may be wounded and out of this woundedness, wounds others in their path.   We should do what all good shepherds would do,  protect the sheep, and go after the one who is wounded with love, kindness, and correction if necessary.  The correlary to this is that at times their may be wolves in sheep clothing among your flock, these are even more dangerous and need to be dealt with swiftly and appropriately.   Secondly, John gives us a great shepherding gem,  we are to use discernment to the situation and in cases where the flock is at risk you must deal with situations face to face,  an email, or a subtle comment in a group meeting just won't do.  In face to face, we can directly address issues, bring them to forefront, and often time the corrections neccesary will be more effective when a person to person contact is made.  In a time when email, text, and Facebook communications are available, we must be careful to handle communications and correction in an appropriate forum for the situation,  as shepherds our job is to use the correct tools for the job.  

P -  Dear heavenly Father, thank you for today's lesson, may it be sealed to my heart.  I pray Lord that you would teach me and give me wise discernment of when to apply these new shepherding tools that you have revealed through scripture.  I  pray that my eyes would be open to see those wounded and in need of care, and I would be able to see the wolves amongst the flock.  I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.

All I need is my Jesus cap !

Scripture 

1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Luke 10:27
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

1 John 4:16
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

Observation
In Luke 10:27, Jesus reminds us of the greatest commandments. If we needed to describe these commandments with just one word, it would be…….love. In 1 John 4:16, we are reminded that God is love. It is repeated so many times in the Bible. It is an eternal value that trumps all spiritual gifts, even beating out faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Application:

One of my favorite books that I loved to read growing up, is “Caps for Sale”. It’s the story of a peddler that walked throughout town wearing 17 caps of different colors. His caps got stolen by some monkeys as he took a nap, under a tree. While I used to get mad at the monkeys when I was young reading the book, I realized now as a much older (or old person !) that the monkeys actually did him a favor! You see I can wear a lot caps myself. My work cap, my family cap, my ministry cap, etc. But, the only cap that really matters is my Jesus cap. The tough part is that these other caps seem to battle with my Jesus cap for first position on my head. I should wear just one, but I often find myself trying to wear them all and at times I fail.

One of the best things I can do to make sure my Jesus caps reigns supreme, is to remember who I am. I am a Christian, and If I truly wear Christ, I exhibit the most important trait of a Christian. Love. This love cannot be based on convenience or selfish motives. It must be real, and it needs to be demonstrated by the way that I live.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, please forgive me for times when I forget who I am. I wear so many caps and I fail to realize that only one cap is needed. That cap has your name on it. The name that is written on that cap also is the same name that is written on my heart….Jesus. Lord, please remind me, steer me back when I forget my identity. I need to not just be one who knows who I am, I need to help others to discover their true identity in you as well.

Amen