Archives For Scripture

You may need to hear this, too!

October 19, 2010 — Leave a comment

This past weekend, my generous, amazing, nine-months pregnant wife was willing to let me take the weekend away to spend some quiet time for prayer and solitude.  During that time, I felt like my soul was refreshed and that some nuggets of wisdom were given to me to digest…lessons that you may find valuable, too–maybe messages from God’s heart to yours:

  1. You already have God’s favor–He sent Jesus for you.  He desires you.  He is FOR you.  You don’t need to pursue God’s favor because he isn’t withholding it; it’s freely given.
  2. You must have more of God’s Spirit–God favors you to the max, but you must have more of his Spirit convicting, encouraging, transforming, enabling, and anointing you.  Don’t settle for yesterday’s victories and intimacy.
  3. Your weakness is a positive game-changer–“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9, TNIV).
  4. Your definition of ‘success’ is probably twisted–It seems God’s question for defining success is, “Were you faithful with what I gave you.”  Not how famous, big, powerful, dynamic, or amazing you were.  Were you FAITHFUL?
  5. You do not have to change the world or ‘create a movement’–Jesus already did that.  Join in what he’s doing and you’ll find success (see above).
  6. Healing is freely available–Jesus secured your healing and wants to see you made whole, but the process of healing can hurt…so count the cost.
  7. Sometimes you just need time with your Friend–With no agendas, no big requests, no need to ‘accomplish’ anything, sometimes you just need to spend time with your Friend and King; there is a kind of soul salve that can only be found in times like this.
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Seven.

June 21, 2010 — 2 Comments

In the June 7th Forbes Magazine, Rich Karlgaard noted some of the shared characteristics those companies which seem to have grown stronger and better despite the Great Recession.  His article is good and well worth the read, but I’m taking those ‘seven secrets’ and applying them to how we’re thinking at The Bridge:

Design.
I’m not a designer, I’m not even artistic.  But it doesn’t take too much to see bad design–in fact, in the past, I think a lot of our effort was just avoiding bad design.  Our design is getting better… thanks to GotPrint, t-shirt producers, and Cloversites, I don’t have to be an incredible designer to have good design.  We could be better, and we’re growing, but I’m glad we’re not settling for “free” when an investment in design speaks volumes about us.  We’re moving to a place where we’re pursuing beautiful design rather than just running away from bad design. I’m excited about that.

Speed.
In general, things are moving much faster than we thought they would… and this is building serious momentum–we’re planning to launch and daughter faster than we thought could happen.  We can’t take credit for this, but it’s happening.  We also are focusing on making sure we follow up fast and do what we said we would when we said we would.

Cost.
We’re working hard to show that when someone invests in The Bridge, we’re being wise in how we expend limited resources.  ‘Cost’ for us has less to do with what a customer gets from us, but how we manage the results we demonstrate to our investors.  In our community, it also means ‘free’ doesn’t suck.  We’re trying to do as much as we can at no cost to the people we’re ministering to… but we’re trying to do it as though they paid a premium to be there.

Service.
When it comes to our investor churches, we genuinely believe they are getting something by partnering with us, whether it’s people who participate and take a renewed passion back, or a sense of legacy, there are many benefits to being part of what God is doing through The Bridge in Pittsburgh.  But when it comes to serving our community, after just a couple of events The Bridge is already ‘the church that gave the free car wash–that’s great!’  We’re finding fun ways to show our community we care, we want to know our neighbors, and that God really loves them.

Courtesy of 'altemark' on Flickr

Communication outside.
Right now, this has to do mostly with face-to-face contact.  Rick, especially, has been knocking on doors and being ‘the face’ of The Bridge.  This will only go so far, and we’re analyzing where to best put some communications dollars: radio? adsense? street corner with a sandwich board? As we learn our community more and more, we’ll discover the best ways to communicate outside.

Communication inside.
We could do a better job at keeping launch team members on the same page, but we’re learning how to make sure communication among senior leadership is open.  Thanks to GoogleDocs, Calendar sharing, and Facebook, we’re growing in our communication and how we collaborate; we’re not ‘there’ yet… but I think we’re well on our way.

Purpose.
We’re here to help people connect with Jesus and see them grow in His likeness. More than that, we’re here to keep doing that by planting churches that plant churches to reach those far from God.  The Bridge exists to love, learn, and live Jesus Christ in our context at whatever cost.  We hope we have the purpose thing down… now it’s a matter of staying on mission when things, good and bad, tempt us to drift.

Why not run down the list yourself and give your church/organization a quick checkup?

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Doing the right thing…

October 27, 2009 — Leave a comment

…isn’t always easy.  There are times and circumstances that we face which when right and wrong are more like shades of gray than they are black and white.  There are those moments when a choice presents itself when both (or all!) options seem more than ‘okay;’ times when we have to decide about jobs, health procedures, organizational strategy, whether to stay or go in any number of things, or the best course of action for a loved one and their future… and the details, options, and consequences are anything but simple.

In Joshua 9 & 10, there are principles demonstrated to the reader about how to handle those times when we don’t know what the ‘right thing to do’ is.  The people of Israel are in the midst of a progressive military campaign as they work to conquer & claim land promised in generations past.  They have faced and overcome many obstacles; individuals have risked their own lives and families for the sake of a greater cause; all the while God has shown he alone is the Leader, Provider, and Conqueror.

Word comes to these same people that an army unlike anything they had faced thus far had amassed… and is heading directly toward their position.  Israel’s battle tacticians and warrior-leader, Joshua, begin planning strategy, knowing there are many battles which still lie ahead… and that if they can’t deal with the obstacle heading their way, all will be lost.

In this midst of this, a band of tired, road-weary, seemingly desperate travelers comes their way seeking a treaty of peace.  And the Joshua, the Israelites, (and us, too!) learn some hard lessons in doing the right thing.  Over the next few Joshua posts, we’ll discover what some of those lessons are.

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The Gimmies

October 6, 2009 — Leave a comment
Greed<Image courtesy of bejealousofme>

Christmas is coming.

Now, we may not be very far into autumn, Halloween is still almost a month away, and Thanksgiving is a distant thought for those of us here in the US.  But reminders are everywhere that Christmas is coming and retailers are working hard to instill a bad case of the gimmies in every consumer.  It’s a disease that strikes young and old alike, when raw consumerism and selfishness reign, and though self-restraint may keep us from actually verbalizing, “Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie…” the sentiment can still be found in many.

But The Gimmies aren’t something unique to the Christmas spending season or retail marketing.  Somewhere deep within each of us is the desire to grab a hold of the stuff that isn’t ours but we think we deserve.

In Joshua 7, Achan did exactly this.  He grabbed a hold of some of the very things God said were only God’s, and, as shared in the last Joshua post, the result was disastrous for the people of Israel.  Achan held onto something that wasn’t his and the consequences were dire.  His actions should cause each of us to ask if we aren’t holding onto things not ours… things even greater than the shiny new _______ (you fill in the blank) we desire when flipping through the Sunday ads.

Are we attempting to possess something that isn’t really ours?  Do we recognize that even ‘our’ job is simply God’s chosen vehicle for his provision in our lives and that it isn’t really ours at all?  That our job isn’t ours to squander or take advantage of; it isn’t ours to do with as we please… because it simply isn’t ours?

What about ‘our’ church?  We often try to make church what WE want… either in the name of some sacrosanct tradition, because of ‘righteous indignation,’ or in the name of ‘reaching the lost at any cost’ when, at the core of it all we’re just fighting for personal preference and comfort… what we want when we want how we want.  And yet, Scripture is clear that the Chruch is Christ’s body over which he is the Head… and as the Sovereign King, His design and desire are all that matter.

Or how about family?  Parents (I’m treading lightly here because I recognize I’m not a parent) sometimes forget that ‘their’ children are really lives which belong to God and the parent is given brief stewardship over.  Spouses are called to love, respect, protect, and submit to one another not because they belong to each other but because God has, in a sovereign but loving manner, given husbands to their wives and vice-versa.

We all too often commit the sin of Achan, taking the things that are devoted to God and trying to claim them as our own.  To those of us in Christ, our call is one to a life of continued, consistent obedience, even in those areas of life which may seem too big/special/scary to trust to God.  But they (and we) are His, and so is the victory we seek.

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Victory: Simple

September 29, 2009 — Leave a comment
72934671_d95e4b1b5c<image courtesy of graylight>

Over the course of the last few Joshua posts, some ideas have been shared about where victory for the Israelites wasn’t found as they fought in the somewhat well-known battle for Jericho and their less familiar defeat at Ai.  As counterintuitive as it may seem, we discovered that the key to their victory wasn’t in a flashy move of God, attempting to conquer, or self-confident.

The key to their victory—and the key for us to find victory and freedom in what we face—is simple:

Joshua 7:10-13 (TNIV)—

10 The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

In seeking God for understanding about the source of their defeat, the Israelites discovered the source of their victory: Obedience.  Their victory wasn’t theirs at all but came about as a direct result of their obedience to God’s direction.

The instructions to Israel about how to fight the battle for Jericho had been clear: march around the city day after day (even though it probably looked and felt ridiculous) and then when the city was invaded the people were to dedicate certain objects to God.  The source of Israel’s defeat at Ai was their  disobedience at Jericho: they had only followed PART of the instructions.  Even ‘worse,’ only part of Israel followed part of the instructions—for the most part, everyone seems to have very carefully followed God’s direction and acted within the parameters which had been set for them.

But there was one man who didn’t.  One.  A man named Achan took hold of some the very things God said belonged only to Him and claimed ownership of them for himself.  As a result all of Israel was defeated; one man’s disobedience meant the suffering of an entire people.

Our personal disobedience never effects only us.  Our personal sin is never personal.  Our individual issues reach far beyond our personal experience.  This is one reason the Church is called to judge herself and we are reminded of our existence as a single Body not a group of individual people.

Victory for us, our churches, our families, our communities is found in our  obedience to the Lordship of God’s Spirit.  This may be simple, but it is not easy—the incredible thing is that through Jesus Christ, we have access to the desire to obey and through Christ we have the ability to find obedience (and, therefore, victory).

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