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SO BAD, THEY'RE GOOD - VILLAINOUS OBSCUROUS DIVISION
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His name - Carjack. His heros counterpart is barely heard of so who the heck is Carjack? This about all there is to say about Carjack:

Carjack is nothing but a thug. He loves to carry around some machine guns. He also wears a metal mask like Doctor Doom.

Carjack started off as a small time thug. He would always carry around a group of men to do his evil for him. He would steal cars and sell them and would sell illegal drugs. Also, he would sell illegal weapons. They were big and bad until they got caught. When a girl named Thunderstrike caught she sent them straight to jail. Carjack after that really wanted to make some trouble. That's until a guy named Bloodaxe found their hide out and foiled their plans. But, the gang would get out early when Thunderstrike had caught. Which stopped him from killing anyone at all. Later, they were once again caught and sent to jail. After a while they made bail. Now they were ready to create some more trouble. But, Bloodaxe was watching them and wanted to stop them. Even though Carjack was a very bad person and did nothing but wrong. Thunderstrike could not let her enemy have a win. So then they started to fight. It was huge fight and was one to remeber. Thats when Carjack slipped away. He then started to open fire on the two of them. Bloodaxe reflected them back at them. This would hurt and kill alot of them. Carjack was still alive though. That's when finally Thunderstrike defeated her enemy by making the whole house tumble on them. After that there was enough evidence to send Carjack to jail for awhile. He is now still in jail and will be for awhile to come.

I bet he stays there forever. With a story like this, this is comic creation fail = epically so.

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...Or Is It?

Mark Roberts looked at leadershipin two -- posts. He centers his discussion on Luke 22:24-27, the whole "first shall be last" thing. He concludes the second post:

How did Jesus serve? We don’t have reason to believe that he actually served the food at the table of the Last Supper. Jesus was reclining along with his disciples as they shared a Passover meal. But, in the context of this meal, he spoke of his pending death, his pouring out of his life for the sake of others. As the Suffering Servant of God, the one whose suffering and death was predicted in Isaiah 52-53, Jesus would soon demonstrate the essence of true servanthood. It involved giving up one’s own advantage, one’s own benefits, and in Jesus’ case, his own life, for the sake of others. Thus, when Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves,” he was pointing ahead to his death, that would happen only a few hours after the Last Supper was completed.

Wherever you and I have positions of leadership—whether in the workplace or in our families, on the football field or in the choir booster club, in our churches or in our communities—we have the opportunity, in fact, the calling, to serve others in the mode of Jesus, who gave his life for us.

Two brief comments -

First, this is one very good argument against borrowing leadership consulting advice from worldly endeavors. God's paradigm for leadership is so radically different than the world's that such could be viewed as a corrupting influence.

Secondly, this says a lot about what it means to be "called to leadership." It's not about spotlights.

And then a question. Is there a limit to this idea? Can a pastor serve the church into meaninglessness? How do we strike a balance between serving and taking them to places they clearly do not want to go, but should?

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I need a nap!

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MMI quotes two very visible pastors:

Be more patient with people in the church, with other ministers and schools of thought.

—Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Flower Mound, Texas



Not be so dogmatic and blunt.

—Robert Emmitt, Community Bible Church, San Antonio, Texas

ONe thought ran through my mind when I read that - YOUTH.

IN our youth we are all so convinced of our rightness - not righteousness, rightness. In our youth we simply lack the humility that only age, and getting kicked around by life can develop in us.

These quotes comes from asking successful pastors what they would "do-over" about their ministries.

Which brings me back to yesterday's post about the gate-keeping function in the church. Gatekeepers in part keep a check and boundary on youth - often supplying the very "knock around" the youth need. Of course youth, more than anyone, hate such functions.

It also seems like as we grow older we have less energy to perform the function - and there is the problem.

With age and wisdom comes responsibility. It is time we exercised it. Other ise we are as selfish as the youth the deride.

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Michael E. Brooks:

When it comes to finances the church has ample impetus to spend what it is given wisely. This means a steady diet of evangelistic and gospel specific spending is prime territory. Yet, when you look at most church budgets salaries for staff compose either a large minority or majority of financial resources. Now, the necessity of paying ministers a salary that provides for their needs and their families’ is a given. However, there are future pitfalls of this financial relationship, and new wrinkles that must be addressed.

The efficiency of allowing ministers to focus solely on ministry tasks is a valuable asset for churches. Yet, a minister’s sole reliance on the church’s financial resources creates issues. For instance, the minister lives under the reality of needing to retain and/or grow membership to retain and/or grow the amount of fiscal resources needed by the church. The majority in many situations goes toward salary and benefits. While numeric growth is desired, its necessity to meet salary obligations is a less than optimal motivation.

I wish Mr. Brooks had explored this issue further - these are important questions. And yet, there have been "full time staff" as long as there has been a church, Why do we need to revisit this issue?

I think the answer lies in a lack of a gate-keeping function for who gets to be staff. The issues Brooks raises are not issues for people of good character, but in the modern American church there is little to assure that such is the case. So many churches are fully independent and have no developed standards whatsoever. Denominational churches are increasingly using parliamentary "tricks" to hire staff outside the ordinational cycles which is not working that well to begin with. Seminaries, making money for every student are making it easier and easier to get in and get through - particular when it comes to moral requirements. And in general, staffs are burgeoning.

To my way of thinking a church of 400 needing more than a Pastor, an associate, and a secretary is just too much. IF they need more it is becasue they are not doing a proper job of building disciples that will contribute voluntarily to the life of the church. Worse yet, staff heavy churches reduce those that would volunteer to day labor instead of creative contributors.

It really is time to rethink the whole thing.

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Jeff Dunn @ iMonk speaks plainly:

Thirty years later I was tired of all of the clowns, barking dogs, trained and tamed lions. Now (thirty-eight years after Jesus invaded my life) I will stand—alone, if need be—and say this loud and clear.

The Evangelical Emperor has no clothes. A scheming tailor made him think he did, and he has been proudly parading naked for many years, with the crowd cheering wildly with their eyes wide shut. In reality, the emperor is butt naked, with no substance other than his pride in himself. I am no longer going to be silent. Many evangelical churches in our nation are as shallow as a puddle, as empty as crushed Coke can.

What good does it do for this unknown writer in Oklahoma to say this? Well, for one, I can finally stop pretending that maybe, perhaps, some of these celebrity naked preachers have something to good to offer if we just dig hard enough. I can say outloud what I have felt for so long: A steady diet of cotton candy does not satisfy. As a matter of fact, it leaves me sick to my stomach.

Listen to me. I live in the bucket of evangelicalism here in Tulsa. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting two churches and a “ministry” of some kind. The number of shepherds who care for their sheep is far outdone by those who want to “build a ministry.” I hear it all day long. The object of the game is to get as many people into their church as possible by offering the latest gimmick or fad. I have people come into my store everyday who are wearing rubber bracelets with the name of their church on them. The purpose is to get others to say, “What’s on your bracelet?” so they can then invite the other to their church. Once there, they get to hear and see the preacher on video piped in from some other location. Let’s get as many people as we can under the Big Tent. Then it’s time for the trapeze artists and the guy to get shot from a cannon to entertain the crowd.

No more for me, please. And I am no longer going to just smile and say, “Well, that’s good for you, but it’s not my style.” My style has nothing to do with it. We are here to bring glory to God by receiving his grace and mercy for our sins. Period. I hate to break it to you, but this life is not about you or me. God is the creator of this universe, and it is all for his glory alone.

I agree with that without reservation, so why do I find myself shuttering when I read it?

Largely because I cannot escape on verse:

Rom 8:28 - All things work for the the good...

As vapid, self-indulgent, gimmicky, and downright ugly as the Evangelical world can be, God's at work in it. Somewhere in the thousands that have been run through the mill there are a few that have heard God's voice and responded.

Does Evangelicalism need correction? Much and then more, but then so did the denominationalism from which it sprang and the Catholicism from which that sprang. God moves in history, most of all, church history.

God is moving now, in ways I do not understand. He is hard to find, often, but I trust He is here, and I rely on His wisdom, not mine.

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Justin Taylor quotes Tim Keller:

Is the mission of the church only to preach the Word—evangelizing an making disciples—or it is also (or mainly) to do justice? . . .

I am of the opinion that [Abraham] Kuyper is right: it is best to speak of the “mission of the church,” strictly conceived, as being the proclamation of the Word.

While I more or less agree with the idea, I find the ready movements between "proclaim the Word," and "make disciples," as if they were indistinguishable things, troubling.

Perhaps they should be, but they are not. The world is full of preachers that proclaim and proclaim and proclaim, but their proclamations are without effect becasue they do nothing more than proclaim.

OF course,t he idea in this quote is to differentiate the making of disciples from "Social justice", and that too ins an important distinction. Some disciples the church makes may have ministries of social justice, but such is not the church's ministry. It is part of making disciples, but that does not make it the church's ministry. Oneof the things that happens as the the church does make disciples is that becomes an individualized process.

And therein, I think lies the rub.

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