The Mill- Sifting Through the Stuff of Life.

I am truly amazed how God orchestrates things.  So many arguments over free will and soverienty, who is responsible, us or God.  I’m not ready to lay down and do nothing because in all honesty I do beleive in a good work ethic, but more often than not I see things on the horizon that need to be done, things that need to be changed, adusted, tweeked, removed and I say a simple prayer.  “Lord, I beleive that needs to be changed, if so, give me wisdom on how to go about it or better yet let it be done.”  Almost sounds like a lazy prayer, go ahead God you do it…but I know if he orchestrates it then it’s going to be good.  If I orchestrated the margin of error is great.  Everyday, I am privileged to see the Lord orchestrate the most touchy issues of life and work them for His glory.  There is no better way to live.  I hope that you will always rely on God and be amazed at how he will work in situations that you can’t control.

This past Sunday at Bay Shore Community Church rocked.  Check it out:

#1 – You Will Never Effectively Motivate Someone With Feelings Of Guilt – I’ve made that mistake as a leader before, thinking if I could just get someone to feel bad that they would do a better job…WRONG! No one has ever brought about significant change in the world because guilt propelled them to do so. AND…if a leader finds himself always motivating by guilt…he will also soon find himself without anyone to lead. NO ONE likes going on a guilt trip.

#2 – People Don’t Respond To Need–They Respond To Vision – When a leader talks about a need SOME people will respond. BUT…when a leader can cast a compelling vision about what SHOULD BE…and with God’s grace and our participation WOULD BE…CHANGE HAPPENS! Many times a team leader will drift off course…NOT because they are lazy and/or pathetic…but because maybe they have forgotten why they do what they do…and a shot of vision will cure that every time.

#3 – A Person Cannot Be Held Accountable For Unspoken Expectations – Another mistake I’ve made in the past as a leader is assuming people could read my mind…and so when they didn’t do what I thought should have been done I would get angry with them. After some very confusing looks and some really tough conversations I began to realize that I was expecting things out of people that I hadn’t clearly explained! Our job as leaders is to give clear, realistic expectations and then resource the people to make those things happen.

#4 – Keep Short Accounts – The Bible says in Ephesians 4:26-27 that we are to not let the sun go down on us while we are angry…in other words, we should act with URGENCY when it comes to conflict among the teams we lead. Unresolved conflict is like cancer that begins to eat away at the body…it must be dealt with OR its destruction will bring about death. Many leaders RUN FROM conflict because it is uncomfortable…but I’ve learned the hard way that we must embrace a little discomfort now…or A LOT of it in the future!

I use to think funerals were the worst. Losing someone that you love or even someone that you didn’t really know and being surrounded by the family was at best awkward for me, and well, as a pastor that’s really not good. So yesterday I had the privilege of attending Wilia Jean Moore’s funeral. Sounds funny to say it was a privilege, but I completely see it as a privilege. I listened intently as the Pastor spoke of her life. I watched the family and saw at times smiles and other times tears. The memory of faith FULL, simple woman who steadily advised the family to show her love, dutifully took care of her husband of 63 years and left a wonderful legacy of service. It’s been so long since my grandparents passed, but yesterday I felt like apart of the family. It was so interesting as I let go of tears feeling only a hint of the pain of the ones that knew her best, I felt so alive. I realized that in mourning with those who mourn the law of God was being fulfilled. My heart was expanded by attending this funeral and it will not be forgotten as Jean will also live on in the lives of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

“The acclaimed foriegn film “Three Seasons” is a series of vignettes about life in postwar Vietnam. One of the stories about Hai, a cyclist and Lan, a beautiful prostitute. Both have deep, unfulfilled desires. Hai is in love with Lan, but she is out of his price range. Lan lives in grinding poverty and longs to live in the beautiful world of the elegant hotes where she works, but never spends the night….. she is enslaved by her livestyle, but thinks it’s her means of escape. Then Hai enters a bicycle race and wins the top prize. With the money he brings Lan to the hotel. He pays for the night and pays her fee. Then, to everyone’s shock, he tells her he just wants to watch her fall asleep. Instead of using the power of his wealth to have sex with her, he spends it to purchase a place for her for one night in the normal world, to fulfill her desire to belong. Lan finds such deep grace troubling at first, thinking Hai has done this to control her. When it becomes apparent that he is using his power to serve rather than use her, it begins to transform her, making it impossible to return to a life of prostitution. Jesus who had all the power in the world, saw us enslaved by the very things we thought would free us and gave his life.” I pray that we all use what power we have to serve rather than use.

“People who refuse to listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing important to say”-Andy Stanley. That’s a great quote, but I would add to it’s context by saying that most people at some point are surrounded by others with a lot of important things to say. Over time as they refuse to listen or implement ideas the true thinkers continue to think, they just do it somewhere else with a leader or a group of people who will listen. I think its great to lead, but most of the time as I lead I have to understand that I’m not the smartest guy in the room, I’m just a leader. I want to be someone who listens not just to input from anyone, but able to recognize the right input, the healthy input, the areas that I need to change. May you always be surrounded by those with important things to say.

In Mark Chapter 12 Jesus is in another conversation with teachers of the scripture and he completely confuses them to the point that it says they don’t even want to ask anymore questions. There motives were not to learn but to trip him up with questions and they just came to the point where they just said, this is not working….!

So after this conversation Right in front of them it says “…all the people were listening”

Jesus says, beware of these guys that walk around in flowing robes, and love to be greeted in the market place, and have the most important seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at the banquet.

Translation: Beware of Over dressed people who love attention, and think they are important.

v. 47 they devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers, such men will be punished most severely.

Now while he was saying all this it says that he was sitting across from where people give their offerings in the temple, I don’t think that’s unrelated.

He sees all the wealthy people putting in the offerings and then he sees this poor widow put in two small coins, everything that she had.

He said I tell you the truth this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. And

What moves the heart of God is when we give not out of our abundance and wealth with an agenda, but when we give everything. Everything, you must be kidding me right? I don’t mean that you put everything God has entrusted to you in the plate, but you live in the reality that God created and owns everything and when you give it to him he will take care of you. The story goes unresolved it doesn’t say what happened to her, but it’s noticed by Jesus and written into scripture and I want my giving and my attitude about giving to be noticed not by men but by Jesus. My hope is the same for you.

This account recorded in Mark 12:41 and then again in Luke 21

Just recently heard an illustration of a large church singing the song “How Great thou Art” accapello. Of course everyone started off being lead by the group up front and then the instruments and vocals from the stage dropped out and everyone continued to sing.  The question is who was leading at that point and throughout the rest of the song?  The tempo wasn’t exactly right and yet everyone knew when to pause.  It may have seemed too slow for some or too fast for others and yet everyone submitted to one another for the sake of the song.  This is interesting to me.  Who was leading? No One and Everyone.  If you’ve ever been a part of a scene like this if you have one person start singing opera style and standout from everyone else it’s just annoying, it breaks the unity and something very disappointing happens, but when everyone is on the same page it’s powerful.  If there is a way to get any organization all on the same tempo in unity of mind and purpose powerful things will happen.  Let’s press toward that goal.

On my whiteboard is a quote that doesn’t have a name beside it so I can’t give proper credit.  I’ll just say somebody else said it.  I don’t even like looking at it and that’s why I keep it on the board.  I want this quote to challenge me to help propel me to do things I would never do.  It reads like this “Failure is not an option, it is essential”  If you are not failing at something then you are not doing anything innovative.  OUCH!  Sometimes we get locked into doing things that we can do on our own, aside from our next breath which is a gift from God we pretty much have it down.  I want to do things that are bigger than what I can do on my own.  Things that make me lean hard into my relationship with God and depend completely on Him.  If He doesn’t intervene it’s not going to happen.  It’s not my tendency, but it is my desire. I hope you’ll make it yours as well.

Just read Rob Bells new work of art disquised as a coffee table book.  If you took all the content and compiled it into a paperback it would probably be a fifty page book and it would still be good.  My favorite part of the book was when he said occassionally he’ll go to his counselor and he’ll use words like mistake, failure or waste and his counselor reaches in his desk and pulls out a sign which reads “God who waste nothing”  This was the most profound part of the book for me.  “God who waste nothing” Lay that statement over the last thing that you felt like was a complete waste.  It might change your perspective.