So periodically from time to time I have questions that just bother me, and I don’t mean bother like they annoy me. I mean these are questions that just will not leave me no matter what I try to do. These are questions that keep me up at night. These are questions that normally I can’t figure out the answer to, but I still continue to ask the question.
So I want to share my question with you, but keep in mind I don’t have an answer to this question. On top of that though I don’t even think there is one answer.
My question is “What does church at its greatest form look like”
I mean honestly this question bugs me because over the past few weeks I have probably asked myself this question hundreds of times, and yet I still have not come up with an answer. Don’t get me wrong as you read this. I’m not a church basher. In fact I love what churches are doing, but here is what I am trying to do with this question. I want to remove all of my preconceived beliefs that I have so far as to what church “should” look like, and I want to, as objectively as possible, answer the question “what does church at its greatest form look like.”
So here is my conclusion. After asking myself this question over and over again, I have simply come up with more questions.
Is the church at its greatest form relevant services?
Is church at its greatest form the emergent church?
Is church at its greatest form when more bible studies are happening?
Is church at its greatest form when there is great preaching and great music?
Is the church at its greatest form when the poor and the needy are being fed?
Is church at its greatest form………….
The questions have become almost endless. So I will continue asking the question, and hopefully there is answer to be found. Somehow though I think that i will not come up with a definite answer. The reason being is simple. Amidst all of the questions I have come up with one conclusion. Church at its greatest form is not a static idea, but it is an ever evolving answer. It will always be changing.
I would like to hear your thoughts though. What question has been bothering you lately? What is your opinion on my question? Whatever you are thinking just share.
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Sometimes I wish that being a Christian meant living a stress free life, but somehow it doesn’t.
I still struggle with money issues.
I still get in spats with my wife and get frustrated at other people.
I still feel lonely at times.
I still am confused about my career most of the time.
you put all these together and many more and it adds up to stress.
That’s been my life recently! What has yours been like?
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So my short thought for this evening is a flaw that I have found in my thinking.
I work harder and put more effort into being a better a leader. Than I do in becoming a better follower of Christ.
I could expound on this idea, but for now I just want to say that I want to put more effort into falling in love with God than making myself better. Travis Thompson put it this way, “we don’t need more workers in the kingdom, we need more lovers of the King.” I would like for that statement to embody my goal for my walk with God.
So today at church this guy taught about leadership, and every fiber of my being wishes that what he taught about is not true, but I just can’t do it. He taught that leadership is about leading people and not pleasing people. I mean that is huge!
Here are my thoughts regarding this message. I love how sermons are years of experience, pain, hardship, and learning condensed into a thirty minute pieces of information. I mean if timm’s experience was anything like mine then what he taught about today was learned through many hard lessons. For me the past two years have been a life lesson teaching me that leading people is not about pleasing people. Which as I right about this principle, I think this is so easy for me to write about, but when it comes to putting into action I still struggle with it.
I just find it so backwards that when you try to please people ultimately you end up leading them no where, but despite the fact that it seems so contradictory to logical thinking. It is one of the truest principles I can think of when it comes to leadership. So I just wanted to say I appreciated timm’s message this morning, and I hope that people understand the weight that this principle should hold in every leader’s life. I know it has gained a lot of traction in my life and in developing me into a better leader.
For a very long time I have known what I am going to do with the rest of my life. I still know what I am going to be doing (ministry), but that is about where the buck stops. When I came into college as a freshman it was a simple plan.
1. Get a degree
2 Become a Youth Pastor
3. Become a Senior Pastor
I mean that sounds really simple doesn’t it. Sometimes I just wish that life was that easy. Now I have come to an empass in my life. I have a hard time relating to youth. I have an almost equally hard time relating to college age. I’m to young to be a hanging out with the young adult/ married folk. Basically, I have come to a point where career wise I am just confused. To sum it up I am two things. I am nervous over the lack of clarity, but I am excited to see where God is going to lead me in the next year as I finish up school. I know God has big plans just sometimes I would like to know what those were a little sooner. Oh well He is God so I guess he probably knows a little better freaking ton better than me.
So I have recently read this book, and I want to give a brief synopsis of what this book did for me. First of all it made me realize that I am so far away from being a good leader within a organization that it is not even funny. It made me feel like Elmer Fudd trying to catch bugs bunny. It just isn’t going to happen. Then after a few days of me reflecting on what I had read.
I have become revitelized and I am excited about the fact that I am just not there yet as a leader. I have so much more to learn, and so much more I have to become good at. I have basically fallen in love with the challenge of trying to become the greatest leader possible, and trust me I am a very very (add one hundred more verys and you might get there) long way off from being the leader I need to be. Despite the fact that I have a long way to go on my journey, I am excited about the lessons I am going to learn in the midst of this difficult process called life.
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Has anyone else every done this. You know that Jesus is greater than everyone else, but then there are so many people that distract your attention from him. The thing is these people are not necessarily bad people. I mean for me my distractions look like this leadership books, Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Craig Groeschel, Great Business Books and multiple other things and people.
Then all of a sudden I have recently been reunited with the book of Hebrews in the Bible, and the entire theme of the book is that Jesus is greater than everything else. I’m just letting you know that it is a great reminder for someone going into ministry full time that Jesus is > everyone else. I pray that I keep this perspective. I’m just sick of putting people ahead of Christ, and so from this moment on I am pursuing to have my focus be placed upon the one who deserves it most.
If you struggle with this let me know. I wish I didn’t, but I can’t deny my fault. I can only pursue to change.
I have been asking myself this question a lot over the past few years. “Do I really Care?” I mean do I care about the broken hearted people of this world. Do I care about the people who are hurting? Do I care about the homeless? Do I care about the disenfranchised? Do I care about the gay? Do I care about the girl who had an abortion? Do I care about the people that church has said “screw you” to? I mean these are legitimate question that I asked myself because I know that as I christ follower I not only need to care about these people, but I have to. God requires it, and yet my answer to these questions continue to disappoint me. See if your answers are anything like mine.
I tithe to my church!
I go to small group!
I help out extra when I can!
I’m busy so I really don’t have time to do anymore!
These are all the answers I give when I ask myself if I really care. I really disappoint myself when I read these answers because from the bottom of my heart I want to change the world FOR CHRIST. Yet I all to often appear to not even care the way I am meant to. I guess this is what it means for Christianity to be a process. I’m growing, and I wonder if anybody else feels the same way as I do.
Please share your thoughts! Let’s help each other grow!
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So today is a really really important day. I know your first thoughts are, “It’s election day” That is not what I am talking about even though that is very important.
Today is my lovely wifes, Megan Christine Weatherly, Birthday. So here is what I would like to happen. Everybody who knows megan or who just wants to say something if you could reply to this post and write at least one thing nice about her. I will make sure that she sees. It would really mean a lot to me and to her if you shared why she is so great. This is her day so come one people help me celebrate with her.
I’ll start off. Megan is so great because she supports through any and all of life’s trouble.
So I have basically made a new life goal for myself. This new goal has been one of the most difficult things I have ever tried to do in my life. Yet it has also at times, emphasis on at times, been the most rewarding new adventure I have taken part in. My new life goal is to be (insert fancy drum roll) more transparent, and let me tell you being transparent is one of the hardest things in the world for some one who has lived their entire life acting like they have had it all together.
With this in mind let me be a little transparent and share with you a struggle that I have been facing for the last few months. I have recently gotten married which is one of the greatest things ever, but in the process of getting married and being married I have begun to transition. This transition has basically made it so I have the hardest time in world relating to people who are in high school and even young adults. Yet on the flip side I still act to young to relate to people who have been married for a while. So basically I find myself in a difficult transition in my life. I’m not whining because I always love a good challenge, but sometimes the process of change is just really difficult.
So this is my transition!
What are some of your transitions and how did you deal with them?
