The Power of One

Could you imagine going at life alone? I simply cannot.

“Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as ONE man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.” Judges 20:1-2

Friendships, partnerships, and teamwork make almost anything possible and it makes the journey more enjoyable as well. And they’ve got your back. When an injustice is done, there’s nothing quite like having a friend or colleague fight for you. Israel did this. In Judges 20 we see assembled an army of 400K men ready to rock. It was in the following verse (vs.3), that they finally asked, “So tell me what happened”. They were ready to defend before they even knew what they were defending! All they needed to know was WHO they were fighting for… the WHAT seemed very secondary.

There’s nothing quite like being on the team that accomplishes so much. The U.S. Army knows that, it’s why their new recruiting slogan is “An Army of One”. The idea appeals to each of us at gut level. So much more can be accomplished when we work together. Much more than any one singular entity, no matter how great, in partnership we are that much more productive. And in different kind of ways.

I’m reminded of this recently at ANC (www.AustinNewChurch.com) and our South Austin Cares (www.SouthAustinCares.org) relief efforts during Hurricane Ike. Because we are a new church (5 months old), we are pretty lean so we were able to mobilize quickly, take in evacuees, rally our resources, and make a HUGE impact immediately. But then after a week and a half of going “all out” we all realized how spent we were. And I mean “spent” in every sense of the word. That’s when our partnerships fell into place. At the beginning we had moral and directional support through some great counsel from my friend Alan Graham (www.mlfnow.org) , were given our first opportunity to serve through a call from the Austin Baptist Association (www.austinbaptist.org), and away we went, a hundred miles an hour.

Then as the days went on, our houses filled up, our trailers filled up with supplies going to Houston, and our partners and friends began to give to our efforts… where our resources were running out, our relationships with Vista Community Church (www.thevistacommunity.com) , Generations Church (www.gen-church.net) , some amazing parents rallying together from my son’s soccer team (Go Scorpions!), and individual members of Austin New Church, we were able to continue (and even expand) our efforts.

When the time came to realize we had done almost all we could do…and develop a sustainable relief strategy… it was an easy transition to point all our people and incoming resources to our more established partner ministries like Mobile Loaves & Fishes (www.mlfnow.org) and the Capital Area Food Bank (www.capitalareafoodbank.org) . Amazing. Like an Army of one… never missing a step.

I’ve been reading a ton of books lately on the condition of the church. Almost every study and survey tells us that people are leaving the church, as we know it, in droves. Mostly because people feel the church has become irrelevant and an insignificant contributor to their faith. Many claim not to be rejecting God, they are rejecting the institutionalized church. George Barna predicts that in 15 years, “House Church” will represent the majority throughout America. There are many reasons for this, some I even agree with, most I understand, but what I don’t get is the lack of connection with the greater body of Christ. It seems to me we are missing something when we do our own thing, especially if our motivation is control. Maybe that desire comes from being burned, feeling like your church is out of control, or whatever… but that seems like we’ve reverted back to the school-yard and saying, “I’m taking my ball and going home.” This is definitely not a team attitude, definitely not a good starting point, and definitely not the posture you want in casting a vision for something new.

Scripture tells us that we should rejoice when Christ is preached in “all” forms and ways. Paul wrote that. So I’m not critiquing the House Church (or any form of church for that matter) as something wrong. As long as Christ is proclaimed, I’m good. I’m just basking a bit in the amazing partnerships we currently have, seeing the benefit of network, and realizing that I couldn’t dream of doing it any other way.

We are a gift to one another. Thank you, God.

A Great Offense

Okay, this is going to be a weird twist of thought. But here it goes: We should learn from our enemies (The Philistines). What was the lesson to be learned in 1 Samuel 4? They saw a serious threat, they acknowledged how serious it was, and they attacked it with all they had. They didn’t dig in and create a stronger defense, instead in their fear, they “strapped it on” and attacked. Check it out:

“When they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. "A god has come into the camp," they said. "We're in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!" So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.” 1 Samuel 4:6-10

This week I had an opportunity to hang out a bit with Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, authors of “The Tangible Kingdom”. I love being challenged from guys who live their faith out of the box. I love it when I’m forced to ask questions I might not normally ask. It’s good to increase our exposure, even if we don’t agree with everything. Many times it can open our eyes and take us places we wouldn’t have gone on our own.

Hugh was sharing from Jesus’ instruction to Peter in Matthew 16 where He said, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will NOT overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Matthew 16:18-19

His thought was that as we think about the Kingdom of Heaven, many times we think of it as standing in opposition to the Kingdom of Hell. But that is not what Jesus called it. He didn’t call Hell a Kingdom. Jesus said that instead we should see it as a gate. He said the “gates” will not overcome the church. He drew light to the fact that the gates were keeping us from passing through and experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s not something we should just “avoid” and stay clear of. He reminded us that they are a serious threat to our advancement. Our typical response is to “Defend” our faith, our ways, our church, our tradition, our methods… but what we need to be doing instead is seeing the threat for what it is and go on the offense. Like the Philistines, We need to be thinking about ways to ATTACK this threat because it is something to be concerned about, not something to be passive about. We should take it seriously, identify the problem, rally our troops, and attack.

I guess what he is saying is that the “best offense” isn’t always a great defense… sometimes it really is a great offense.

I love it that the Philistines realized the magnitude of their threat. They were legitimately scared. So many times we are overtaken because we underestimate the strength and cause of our strife. Especially in leadership, we at times deceive ourselves. It’s too easy to pretend everything is okay. Julia Duin, religion writer for the Washington post in her book “Quitting Church”, said that in all her research the most baffling thing to her was the fact that Pastors were in denial of what’s going on in the American church culture. If the pastors are in denial, their flock will be too. It’s too easy to get tunnel vision and defend our path. I heard once that the greatest threats to the church is when we don’t think we are in crisis, when we pretend everything is going great and it’s not. When in fact the church thrives in crisis. Just look at countries where church is “underground”. They hold some of the largest churches and are experiencing some of the greatest revivals in the world.

But let’s look at us for a moment. Forget the stats that say many are leaving church. Let’s take a moment to look at those who remain. Since I can remember the typical thought is that 20% of the church is doing 80% of everything, not just the giving, but the leading, the serving, living on mission, etc… in some churches it’s 10% doing 90% (and it’s been this way for a long time). Guess what? If our main goal is to make disciples and to equip the body for works of service, then what we’re doing is not working. To 80% of our people, what we say is really irrelevant to their lives. Hearts are not increasingly changing and compassion is not increasingly growing. We’ve lost ground for those who leave, for those who stay, we’re simply maintaining 20%. Are we okay with that? If any of my kids came home with a 20% on their report card, I’d have a cow. That’s not even close to being acceptable. We’re only perpetuating it if we don’t address it. It’s a fact that people are leaving the organized church in droves… let’s start looking deeper at the why. Let’s start asking some tough questions. And let’s start listening to the answers.

I believe we need to look at the big picture of what God is doing in the Kingdom, and fight. We already know the answer to who wins. Jesus said the Gates of Hell will not prevail. So let’s attack them.

How? How about with the methods Jesus mandated we live. How about starting with love and compassion. How about putting people before process and keeping them there. What if we took the time to evaluate where the greatest physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs are in our city and make a plan of attack to both meet needs and make disciples. How about we make the sacrifices to show genuine concern for others. How about a concern for the least of the least, those without hope. How about we pour into people as if we truly loved them as we love ourselves. How about we give of ourselves for others and not just our personal agendas. We’ll have to consciously fight for that, because of our selfish nature. How about we listen to the other part of Matthew 16 where Jesus reminded us that on this rock, if we trust His ways, HE not us, will build His church. He gave us the keys to the Kingdom not to "our" church.

Jesus knows this goes against our fleshly nature. This is a battle we all struggle with daily, but as leaders we must work diligently to lead people towards this. It's not only worthy of our efforts, it's biblical, and it will work. This is a battle I find myself in the middle of, and I’m not going to stop fighting.

The Accused

I was thinking today about each of our sobering realities. Strange topic, eh? I found myself in 1 Samuel 3. Check it out: "What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you." So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes."1 Samuel 3:17-18

When the Lord came to Samuel, He gave him a list of His indictments of Eli. He said he would judge him because of the sin that he KNEW about, that his sons had made themselves contemptible, and that he failed to restrain them (vs.13). God then gave the consequence of such negligence: that the guilt of Eli’s house would never be atoned for. Ever.

Could you imagine the courage it would take for Samuel to relay these messages to Eli? But he did it. Probably because of his obvious encounter with and confidence in God, but nevertheless, he was obedient. And Eli’s response: “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.” That surprises me. Eli simply received his due judgment. He understood God’s authority. He understood his blame. I’m sure there was more going on behind the scenes, which could outline the extent of his neglect, but we can be assured the consequence was right. And at this point, even the accused agreed.

Romans 14 recalls the words of the Lord, “As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.”

I think Eli realized he had known it was coming and now it was too late. We will all stand in that place one day. It’s a sobering thought, really. Hopefully, it’s one of confidence for those who call Christ, Savior. Whether we now agree with the future consequence of our trespasses… we will all stand accountable, judgment will be had, and we will one day all agree. No matter the ruling. We’ll see His holiness and His greatness. And we’ll then fully understand what it means to say, “He is Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”