Blogotional

Ron Edmondson lists five reasons why church leaders tend to micromanage:

• Fear
• Insecurity
• Wrong team members
• Bad vision
• Control Freak

There are two things that Ron does not discuss in this that I think are vitally important.

The first is that nothing - and I mean nothing kills discipleship faster than micromanagement. If the idea is to build better disciples, and I think that is pretty much the aim of all we do in church, but we do it for them - they are not going to grow up. Parents know that about kids, but it seems like church leaders just cannot figure it out about other Christians.

The other is that if things like "insecurity" and "control freak" are your reasons for micromanaging, then you may want to deeply examine your motives for being in ministry at all. Chances are very good you got into ministry not from some sense of calling, but in an effort to overcome your insecurities or becasue you like to "be in charge."

Neither of these points help the church be the church - and that, after all, is why we are here.

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Beliefnet published list of Bible verse in which to:

Anyone can face moments of loneliness--times when you long for companionship or when you want to be seen, to be known and to be loved. Whether you're married or single, surrounded by friends and family, or by yourself, these moments can lead to sadness and fear. But the Bible reminds readers that God knows us, loves us and that God hears our cries. Finally, they remind us that God is always with us.

Use this collection of Bible verses to ease feelings of loneliness. [emphasis added]

It's a slide show and it sort of gave me the shivers. Somehow, I just do not think of scripture as being that utilitarian - nor do I find words, even scriptural words, that comforting in times of genuine emotional distress, loneliness or otherwise.

I have most certainly felt intensely lonely in my life. I have also found that the answer usually lies in getting up and going to be with someone. Sometimes, that's hard, I know - but then that is what the church is supposed to be for. When we are lonely and we seek God's face in words, we fail to realize that God is in our fellow Christians - we enhance our isolation rather than get out of it.

Secondly, this approach is just proof-texting at its very worst - its reducing Christianity to something I plug in when I have a felt need as opposed to something that consumes and transforms me.

Like everyone - I went through a stage like this, where I combed the Bible to find verse to help me with situation X, but more and more I find that more distraction than help. Because it is not servant lie, it stand in the way, I think, of genuine communion with the Holy Spirit - the ultimate answer to loneliness.

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"9 Marks" did a review on of a book on the advantages of church attendance.

Though consistent church attendance is required in Scripture (Hebrews 10:25) and was practiced by the early church (Acts 2:42-44), 35% of professing believers today choose not to attend1; this should give any thoughtful Christian pause. The days are not long past when church attendance was almost universal in America; even most unbelievers went to church. But if attendance is any indication, it seems that now a full third of people who claim that their Christian faith is "very important to their lives," don’t see the local church as an important part of that faith. Assuming that we do not have to prove to the reader that this development represents a significant problem with a variety of dangerous consequences, we should concern ourselves with locating the origin of this change. Has a seismic shift taken place in the way Christians think about church? Have churches themselves changed such that they are now less attractive to believers? Could it be a mixture of both? To what can we attribute this drooping attendance? How should the church address the issue? The situation is a grave one; the salvation of souls and the health and sanctification of saints is at stake (Hebrews 3:12-13)! A thoughtful book, saturated with penetrating analysis is needed. Unfortunately, "What to Do When You Don’t Want to Go to Church", by Peggy Palau (the wife of evangelist Luis Palau) and Peggy Sue Wells, is not that book.

To be completely fair, it doesn’t seem that the authors entirely intended to write such a book. What they did write (or more accurately, what they compiled), however, is something like a folksy pep-talk for those Christians who are too lazy or too traumatized by past experiences to go to church. Whatever its faults, on the whole, the book does manage to achieve its aims. Even the least motivated person wouldn’t find it difficult to complete; weighing in at 200 pages of large print on small paper, it is not a hefty or challenging volume. And the tone is an effective mix of stern and sympathetic, perfect to motivate the lazy and defuse those who cling to past hurts. Yet despite these benefits, the book’s analysis is all too shallow to be widely useful. Though the conclusion is dead on (go to Church no matter how you feel), the book fails to discern and address some of the deeper reasons why so many have abandoned the church.

In the critiques of the book the author makes this very cogent analysis

:The authors show little understanding of the purpose of the church. Though they advocate going to church in order to bless others, most of the book reinforces the notion that the church simply exists to serve the felt needs of the believer. Too many of the authors’ arguments boil down to the notion that we should go to church because it’s a really good way to get what you want (even though we don’t intuitively think so). In the early part of the book they tell us "the key words that define church are connecting and belonging. We long to belong and feel connected").

Connection and a sense of belonging may very well be the objects of our desires, but our sense of our needs doesn’t determine the nature of the church. The church exists to glorify God, to preach his Word to the world, to build up believers and to show God’s character in our unity, self sacrificial love and holiness (just to name a few reasons!). Though believers should connect and feel like they belong in a congregation, telling them to attend church for that reason alone seems a bit like encouraging people to go the Louvre because the gift shop is great.

That idea needs to be spread to so many things. In the end, WE, not just the church, exist to glorify God. I think that is the problem I have with Evangelicalism most of all - its about what God has for us, not what we have for God, or more aptly, without God we are and have nothing.

If you think about it - we do not need to be sold on God - He needs to be sold on us, but the glorious thing is - He is already sold on us.

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We've been looking at villains that are more or less carbon copies between publishers, but what about when it happens between heroes of the same publisher? The roster of Flash's "Rogues Gallery" of baddies look somebody read all the other more popular DC titles and just renamed the baddies.

Such certainly seemed to be the case back in the '60's when I encountered "The Trickster." Even at the tender age I was then - "Cheap Joker rip-off" ran through my mind almost instantly. Of course, the Joker was considerably less diabolical and malevolent than he is now in that day and age. The Comics Code Authority at work.

Like most comic characters, The Trickster has died and is now "resurrected" (someone else has adopted the identity)and the character has improved greatly over the years, but in my mind he has a hard time slipping the vague reference to another character mindset.

Interesting, in the short lived Flash live-action TV show, the Trickster was portrayed by Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame. The same Hamill that then went on to voice the Joker in Batman cartoons. There is no coincidence there. The cackle he developed during TV show easily morphed into the Joker's diabolical laughter. YEs, the connection is more than skin deep.

Now, if we can just do something about the excuse for a costume.

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"Stuff Christians Like" discusses "Cool Christian Litmus Tests":

One assignment was to send back any slang words we were hearing in the city. I reported a few that I was familiar with around Boston, but my list felt incomplete. It needed one more word. So, being the unbelievable liar I was at the time, I looked at the bright green aloe plant on my desk at home and got creative. I wrote a word down and because they wanted to see it used in a sentence, I did that too. Here is what I wrote:

Aloe = Cool and sexy and fresh.

Example sentence = “That girl has mad aloe.”

Yeah that’s right, I actually told the number one trend forecasting company in the world that people in Boston were saying sentences like, “That girl has mad aloe.”

Did they catch on? Not exactly. A week later, they sent out an email to all 10,000 influencers that worked for them. They called out one slang word they had received of the thousands that poured in from around the world. They highlighted one word that they were particularly excited about. Can you guess what word they loved the most?

Aloe.

The reason they did, is that “cool” is completely fictional. We might think it’s measurable or logical, but it’s not. The things that are cool are completely made up. They are inconsequential gossamer. But we still think about them a lot. We still wonder if the people in our lives are cool by our definition of the word. And if you’re a Christian you often develop little litmus tests to determine if someone else is a “Cool Christian.”

Acuff does not probe the idea that "cool" is fictional to any depth, preferring instead to look at surface stuff like movies and drinking, but there is a deep, deep idea here that needs exploring.

"Cool" - "Trendy" - "Fashionable" - "Popular" - "the Latest" - whatever similar term you want to insert is transient. That is to say there is no depth, no permanence - as Acuff says - it is fiction. It may be fun, it may be interesting, but in the end it does not matter all that much.

So, if that is what we concentrate on it, aren't we "Majoring in the minors" just a bit? And yet, that seem to be where so many churches pour their energy. The latest program, the latest worship song, the latest staffing trend.

Church is the place in the world where I go to seek permanence - roots, to concentrate, ultimately on what matters. So often in life to accomplish tings we have to go along with the trendy - but why church? It is supposed to be about ETERNITY. So much of church will seem so trivial with an eternal perspective.

Can I get an "AMEN"?

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Mark Daniels in sermon on tragedy says:

The person living repentantly is taking baby steps toward Christ and even though we may sometimes fall or fail, as long as we keep walking toward our Savior, the cheers coming from God’s throne are so loud that if we were privileged to hear them, we’d have to cover our ears!

If I knew the date of my death, I hope that I would be walking repentantly, moving toward Jesus.

I love the phrase "living repentantly." To often we think of repentance as a single act - "I'm sorry" and we're done. But genuine repentance implies genuine effort not to do it again. repentance is not an apology for a misunderstanding - it is a repudiation of one's own actions.

Repentance starts at confessional prayer, but it does not end there - it must be lived.

Sometime in my youth I discovered the secret of "I'm sorry." I think of small children, learning tat an apology "erases" a bad act - hitting their younger sibling - saying "I'm sorry" - and repeating the process until an adult steps in. Some have probably actually seen this. I am sure all can imagine the tongue lashing the older sibling will receive, "'I'm sorry' is meaningless if you keep doing it."

So, do you live repentantly, or just confess a lot?

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