Some of my thinking is changing.  I guess, since none of us are perfect, we should all have a continual progression of thinking.

Maybe it’s a little thing, or a big thing.

We say this in church, but do we ever question it?  We address our time of worship and ascribe to it the purpose of ‘preparing our hearts to receive the Word’.  It struck me today.  "Wait a minute!  We worship God to worship God.  It is not a device of mental preparation." 

I’m not going to totally discount the value that worship might have for me personally.  The value is a reality, however, I’m not going to focus on it.  My motivation for worship should never be, in any way, personally beneficial.  Allow that to be a side issue.  Priority number one:  God is worshipped because God should be worshipped.

As  I continued to think about it, I found the opposite to bear more truth.  Learning the Word should prepare our hearts to worship.  That sounds way more appropriate to me.

This is what I’m thinking about right now.

Our fellowship has some good strengths. I took a survey. Most of the people say that we are strong in: Teaching, Worship and Fellowship. Those are really good things.

We are weak in Leadership, Discipleship and Serving/Evangelism. That’s bad.

My biggest lesson of 09 is: “Invest in your strengths”. We are going to invest in our strength of Teaching, to be more intentional about discipleship, in order to raise up more leaders, who will in turn enable us to be a serving church again. Why? I want to serve better. -I’m starting, by giving the Bible the boot. (well, in part) I’ve been teaching the Bible for 10 years 2-3 times a week. I’m beginning to challenge my ingrained notions of Calvary Chapel idealism. It’s been a hard conclusion to come to… but I’m there. Teaching the Bible isn’t Enough.

I want to serve better. To do that, I’m going to stop teaching the Bible… (gasp) – in part. This plan does include an opportunity for me to invest more richly in the verse by verse expositions that will continue on Sunday mornings. Any Souther California CC cop who stops in for a Sunday morning judgment visit will indeed, still find us teaching verse by verse.

Have I mentioned that I want to serve better? I’ve concluded, that teaching the Bible does not equal discipleship. I have learned in the Bible that I am called to make disciples. Teaching the Bible does produce a few self-made disciple types… but these are few and far between. I would wager that many of us who are in ministry right now are probably the ’self-made’ disciple types. I am. No one really discipled me (that is, with purpose and intent).

Our midweeks are going to change. Instead of telling folks: “This is the Bible. This is what it means. This is how you should apply it to your life. Ok Goodbye!”, we are going to be more intentional about leading folks through the maze of discovering how to receive, infuse and live the perpetual goodness of Biblical truth. We’re going to start out with two levels of discipleship. Everyone who goes through the first level, can then, move onto the next level. For those who complete the next level, I am goin to be developing more in-depth studies based on the 10 topics that we will be covering in 2nd level.

I’m going to be infusing a quarterly family night to emphasize the need for rich fellowship. I’m going to spring occassional ’service’ opportunities… where, instead of having a class, we are all goin to work together to fill food boxes for the poor, or write letters to prisoners, or fill out invitations to the Christmas Eve service.. or.. whatever-

We used to have a strong core of leaders. We also planted 6 churches. Now we’re not that impressive. We don’t get out in the community but once a month. We need to raise up leaders. We’re goin to do this by not teaching the Bible (as much). Please pray that we see fruit.

I just finished reading Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour.  It’s the story of a Palestinian Christian who grew up in the early years of Israel’s reestablishment as a nation.  His village was destroyed and his family lost everything.  The one thing that remained, was his faith in God.  Elias was especially impressed by the Beatitudes.  It was from this teaching, that he found his calling in life.  “Blessed are the peacemakers.”  To this day, Elias Chacour is still working for peace in Israel.

I highly recommend this book, but, this is not why I’m writing this post.

While reading it, I was especially impressed by a comment that Elias made while in seminary.  He made an observation and shared his frustration concerning the church being so “man centered” rather than “God centered”.

It was just a few lines.  He didn’t even explain what he meant.  I’m not sure what Elias would have defined as being: “man centered” as opposed to “God centered”.  In the book, it was a passing comment.  In my mind, it was etched with undeniable emphasis.

It’s been nearly two weeks, and I’m still brewing over this concept.  Last night, it came to life.  In II Thessalonians 1:10, it speaks of God being “glorified in His saints..”.  That’s it!  That’s what God centered ministry is all about. 

There is a trend in the church that I have found unnerving.  Most churches are obsessed  with the nice self help topics that are designed to improve the quality of human life.  They have the series on: finances, followed up by the series on family life, followed up by the series on marriage, followed up by the series on sex followed up by the series on leadership, followed up by the series on parenthood…  and so on.  ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE FINE AND GOOD… but, so many of them stop there.  Improving the quality of human life is the end to the means and there is nothing more significant beyond that.  THIS IS MAN CENTERED MINISTRY.

God centered ministry takes it to the all important next step.  Why do we want to excel in all these previously listed areas?  Ask most people in the hip topic driven churches this question and their answers will validate the “man centered” agenda.  But really…  why?  The answer is found all over the Bible (I Cor. 10:31…  “all to the glory of God”), but it was confirmed for me while studying II Thessalonians.  God wants to be glorified in us.

Improvements to our quality of life should translate directly to our ability and our opportunity to: worship, serve, give unto and speak of our benevolent and loving Father.

Consider the job description of the pastor, (Eph 4).  “To equip the saints for the work of the ministry.”  Not..  “to equip the saints for a nice comfortable life in the suburbs with 2.5 children and a golden retriever”.  We are equipped for a reason.  That reason, is God centered.

This is both, a challenge for me and for the congregation that I am pastoring.  It can’t just be about “me”.  It has to go to the next step.  God has to be glorified in us.  Without that, we are pitiful at best.

As teachers and students, we often think in terms of the whole”gold mine”. Teachers want to deliver a complete message: one which carries a rich vein of gold for the student to follow and mine from completely.  For the most part, this is the intent of most students.  They want to see and receive the big picture from beginning to end.

Our ambition for both teaching and learning should seek to take in the complete essence of the; moral, principle or lesson that is being delivered.  However, we shouldn’t discount the nugget.  This past week several people shared insights with me about the lessons I recently taught.  In each incident, it was a “one liner” that really hit them.  They spoke to me as if that point were the main essence of my whole message. 

In one case, I thought to myself, “I don’t remember saying that”. 

I used to wonder about things like this in the past.  I would ask myself: ”Did they get the overall essense of message?”    “Would I have been equally as effective in my teaching if that one line were the only thing I had said all morning?”

I don’t think that way any more.  Like in most things, my mind goes to fishing.  Does the fisherman concern himself with each particle of “chum” that he throws in the water?  No way!  He is only concerned with the bait that is on the hook.  One of the most glorious sounds in deep sea fishing is when the first mate cries out, “Hook Up!”.  That’s exciting.  You jam that rod into your hip, (creating a healthy bruise), reel, pull, loose line, reel, pull, land the fish, collapse exhausted and smile for an hour straight.  Did the chum catch that fish?  Yes, in a way it helped.  It drew the fish in.  It kept the fish interested.  But, the piece of bait that really caught that tuna’s attention..  was the one with the hook in it.

Sure, a lot of people will focus in, take note and harvest richly from that vein of gold that is presented.  However, most people walk away remembering that one verse… that one application.. that one illustration…  with the hook in it.  I’ve had nuggets change my life.  I’ve seen lives changed by a simple nugget. 

So now, when I teach, I don’t discount a single word.  Each line, each verse, each application is potentially rich and powerful to the lives of the learner.  When I listen, the same attitude applies.  Sure, I take in the big picture, but it’s usually the nugget that gets me.

Students..  listen to every word.

Teachers.. consider every word, as if it were the nugget that will change someone’s life.