The Proactive Disciple

Proactive: (of a person, policy, or action) creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.

That, is a definition. From a dictionary.

The Great Commission, given to all followers by Jesus Himself: Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That, is a command. From Jesus. In the bible.

How in the world are we to fulfill the Great Commission without being proactive?

That, is the question.

And this is the answer: we CAN'T.

Notice that Jesus doesn't say to all followers, "wait for your pastor or church leader to make disciples", or, "wait until they come to church and THEN make them disciples." I've read the Great Commission many times over, and I've yet to read the word "wait" in that passage. Why? With apologies to my English teachers, IT AIN'T IN THERE.

But there is a tiny, two-letter word that commands us to be proactive, that commands us to engage the world, that commands us to take the bold initiative...

Go.

Go, Christ follower. Go to church, and engage in worship. Go to bible study, and learn the scriptures. Go to prayer, and get alone with God. Go to fellowship, and let iron sharpen iron. Go to serve, and learn what it means to put others needs above your own.

Go, Christ follower. Go and engage the world, salting it wherever you go, and shining the Light of the World, even as the world grows darker by the day.

Don't wait for someone else to do what God has called you to do. Be a proactive disciple! Look around you Christ follower...this world is passing away. But by proactively engaging the world and taking the initiative to be the best disciple you can be, you WILL save someone's life by connecting them to Jesus.

That, is a promise.

Serving with you,

Chad

Our Amazing God, and My Lack Of Faith

I was gonna call this post "6:8 Summerfest Review", and review all the things that happened during our first annual kickoff-to-VBS/community-wide-worship-service/mini-Godstock/day-long-celebration-of-Jesus. We had games, inflatables, a dunk tank, water slides, more games, BBQ, water balloons, a MASSIVE sound system, stage with moving LED lighting, tiki torches, a birthday cake to the face, and a TON of people that came out to celebrate with us. It was the first time I had attempted planning anything of this size and nature, and it took an incredible amount of time and energy to put it all together...almost more than I had of both! There were times during the process that I thought to myself, "Is all this work truly worth it?" Boy, did God have an answer to THAT question.

I'd do it all again 1,000 times over. Why? Not because people had fun. Not because our VBS was kicking off the next week. Not because the praise band rocked it out. Not because the sound system could be heard, literally, across town. Not because Lakeside BBQ is so good it'll make you go down the road talkin' to yourself.

I'd do it again 1,000 times over because our amazing God showed up. 

When God first gave us this crazy idea, there were people that said, "there's no way HHCC can do this", or, "It's just too much work", or "insert excuse here." All I know is that God said "Do it". And we chose to listen to God, not the naysayers. 

The day that began with all these fun activities ended with a worship service. As the sun began to set, the HHCC praise band started belting out the worship of our Risen King. There was just something so incredibly powerful about singing His praises in the middle of a huge open field, and knowing that Jesus' worship had, most likely, never been as loud in Glasgow, Kentucky as it was that night. We were raising Jesus up, exalting Him, and He began to draw people unto Himself (read John 12:32). None of us could know what He was about to do.

As we continued in worship, I shared a message based on the most simple, well-known, yet perhaps most profound verse in the bible - John 3:16. (By the way, this verse blows my mind on a daily basis, and it should yours too!) As we typically do, we had an altar call at the end of the message; simply a time in which people have the opportunity to respond to the gospel. And it started.

Actually, it started earlier in the day. Perhaps I should say, it continued.

Earlier that day, one of the HHCC youth was with her friend whom she had invited to 6:8 Summerfest. The friend, a beautiful young girl, is unable to hear. Yet she experienced something in the games, in the watersides, the fun and activities that spoke to her heart. She was curious. The people at 6:8 Summerfest had something she didn't. Through sign language, she told her friend that she wanted to know about Jesus. 

Boom.

Our youth minister, through the HHCC youth (who knows sign language) presented the gospel to this beautiful child - and she made Jesus Lord of her life right then and there! WOW! I've seen some special things in ministry so far, but that was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. What we see as "disabilities" (I'm not even sure what that means), God sees as abilities. God sees them as unique gifts that can be used to further His mighty kingdom. And to top it all off, the girl that led her friend to Christ through sign language was baptized with her that night! Every now and then, we get to experience a truly special moment in ministry. Talk about gettin' all choked up!

Ok, back to the altar call. People began coming forward, responding to the gospel, realizing their need for a savior, and praying to receive Christ! We had set up our portable baptistry earlier in the day and folks began professing their faith in Jesus through baptism. We had several folks that had scheduled their baptism that night, and we began baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And that's when God WRECKED our neat little schedule of events!

We had planned to have baptisms, a few more worship songs, and a concert by Handed Seven to finish the night. But God had other, much more incredible plans. After the "scheduled" baptisms, and as the worship band was finishing the worship set, the Holy Spirit began leading more people to come to Christ. It went sort of like this - the worship band would play a song, someone would get saved: we'd turn the field lights back on and they'd confess their faith in baptism! The worship band would play a song, someone would get saved: we'd turn the field lights back on and they'd confess their faith in baptism! This happened again and again, so much so that the worship band ran out of songs to play! By the time it was over, 19 people had been baptized! WOW!

It was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. Jesus, in His love and mercy, was drawing people to Himself and to a saving relationship with Him. It made the day, and the stressful, tiring weeks leading up to it SOOO worth it. And to top it all off, nine children decided to give their lives to Christ during our VBS week which followed 6:8 Summerfest - one of which was my oldest daughter! Best. Day. Ever.

In the aftermath, I was so incredibly blown away by our amazing God and His presence during a truly incredible week. But then I began to wonder why I was so shocked. I realized, in that moment, that God has NEVER changed. He's the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the One who was, is, and is to come. From the dawn of time He's desired to bring His children home to Him. I was stunned at my pathetic lack of faith. God began making His promises with Abraham and He has never stopped. He has never failed. He has never lied, and He has always come through. It's us - our hearts - that have failed Him. Our minds that have doubted Him. Our lack of faith that has disappointed Him. Our desire to be Him that breaks His holy heart.

You see, God isn't looking for self-righteous, pre-qualified, sinless, been-to-church-all-my-life people to do His work; He's simply looking for willing workers, broken workers, that He will heal, restore, and transform along the journey. God blessed the work of our hands that day, not because of what we did or didn't do; He blessed the work of our hands that day BECAUSE HE PROMISED TO. Because He's God.

We all have work to do. The words of Jesus in John 9:4 - "We must work the work of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work."

May we finish the work that God has called us to! It's SOOO worth it!

Working (and Telling It!) with you,

Chad 

The Leadership Idol

Some time ago, I was invited to attend a church leadership conference in which various church leaders came together to share...well...business strategies disguised as church leadership. There were many, many "buzzwords" like mission, vision, vision casting, measurables, projections, long-term and short-term growth goals, challenges, flow charting, and on and on. Granted, I am a musician and worshipper at heart, and by default those type things are about as appealing to me as diving into a swimming pool filled with razor blades; I'm just not naturally geared that way. But there was something lacking there. It  jumped out at me, got my atention, and refused to go away.  The lack of something was the lack of someONE.

Jesus.

His presence was just not there.

In His place was what I call the golden calf of leadership. It was packaged nicely, neatly, attractively, and it appealed to my arrogant need to become a "stronger leader". Sure, Jesus' name was sprinkled in here and there in an attempt to make the whole thing seem holy. But it dawned on me, in a powerful way, that I was experiencing the lack Jesus' presence in the very place in which people should be connecting to Him. In his place stood an idol. The idol of church leadership. 

Don't get me wrong, and please understand what I'm trying to say. Its not that I believe that the hearts of those involved were wrong or full of malintent; like the old saying goes, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". The intention and purpose of the conference was well-meaning - but in my opinion, many of us in church leadership have fallen into one of the oldest and well-disguised traps that our enemy has for us. He wants us to think we can do it ourselves.  He wants us to BELIEVE that it can't be done without us. These thoughts feed our pride, and Satan knows it. Pride is never too far under the surface for us, especially leaders. Do you know what the bible has to say about pride? If not, google it. Now.

The church leadership idol is running rampant in the American church, and has been for some time now. If you're like me and active on social media, you can't get on twitter, facebook, etc without being bombarded with the newest book, article, blog, or 10-step program to better leadership. In essence, they all say the same thing: "Pastor, if you do a,b,c, and d, then you too can experience incredible church growth!" We live in an age of the "rockstar pastor" whose church is growing exponentially (while the church as a whole is dwindling), whose book is a bestseller, who has the next trendy leadership conference with a trendy name paying exhorbant amounts of money to have him speak about how his trendy church is growing the trend. I want to make something very clear -  I have and always will praise God for growing churches! I pray that Highland Hills Church and EVERY church of Jesus Christ will always grow, reach people, and connect them to Him! I've read many books from some great men that have infused my ministry, made me a better pastor, and truly edified the body of Christ. I've heard many Chrsitian leaders at leadership conferences speak a powerful word from God into my life. But there is one thing that every pastor, deacon, elder, minister, committee chair, Sunday School teacher, volunteer, and pew sitter needs to understand.

This is Jesus' church. He died for her, and He knows best how to lead her. HE'S BEEN LEADING THE CHURCH FOR 2000 YEARS NOW, AND HE DOESN'T NEED YOUR HELP. And what's more, God often does what He does in spite of you, and in spite of me. Left to my own (human) devices, I have no doubt that I would drive Highland Hills Church straight into the ground in a huge, flaming orange ball of blazing glory! 

All throughout scripture, we see God leading His people, and while He almost always chooses an individual to lead many, if you look closely, you begin to see that the most effective leaders in the bible are the ones who 1.) lead by following, 2.) lead by serving, 3.) model best for others what it means to be clay in the hands of the Potter, and 4.) model what it means to crucify themselves daily. They steadfastly follow God's lead, even when it doesn't make sense...and most of the time, God's wisdom makes absolutely no sense to us! Look at the Israelite people. If you or I were leading them, and we subscribed to the vast majority of modern church leadership models, we would most likely institute programs and strategies that would emphasize the most efficient route to the promised land. We would create flow charts and track tangible, measurable statistics to chart our progress. We would create discipleship models, tracking how many Israelites are actively engaged in them (heaven help the ones that aren't committed to small groups). We would measure the manna daily, and try to project the manna flow for the next six months. We would get to our destination as quickly as possible...and we would make a GRAVE mistake in doing so.

We would miss the wilderness.

In Luke 4:1, the bible tells us that THE SPIRIT (i.e. the Holy Spirit of God) led Jesus to the wilderness. Let me type that again...the Spirit of God led Jesus to the wilderness. Not Satan, not some evil entity, but the Spirit of God. It was the Spirit of God that caused the men to throw Jonah from the boat. It was the Spirit of God (a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night) that led the Israelite people. It was the Spirit of God that led Paul and Silas to boldly proclaim the gospel even after being beaten and placed in prison.

We know that Jonah must have been terrified as the whale swallowed him whole. We know that, as scripture tells us, Jesus Himself felt the pull of temptation by Satan in the wilderness, and we see clearly the agony He felt as He prayed in the garden. We can only imagine the fear that Paul and Silas felt as they faced the men that were to punish them. We can easily discern from Exodus the confusion, frustration, and bewilderment of the Israelites as they "wandered" for 40 years in the wilderness. But the point the bible makes is as clear as it gets - the wilderness is essential for the Christ-follower. The wilderness is where God gets our undivided attention and teaches us how to rely completely and solely on Him. But there's a problem: the wilderness doesn't fit into our leadership models! Why? First of all, we can't measure it, we can't track it, we can't chart it, and just like the Almighty God we serve, it doesn't fit neatly into our boxes. But there is a second, more profound reason why the wilderness just doesn't fit into our schemes...

We can't control it.

If we're totally honest, at the heart of who we are, especially those in positions of leadership, we are control freaks! And if we can't control it, we shy away from it or even ignore it. Just stop for a moment and ponder what would happen if the events of pentecost were to take place in your church. Truth be told, most of us would completely lose our minds! Would we insist that all 3000 people attend a baptism class prior to being baptized? Would we insist that the second they step out of the water they must sign up for membership or small groups? Would we immediately form a 5-point-vision-driven-mission-focused-strategic funding campaign to erect a building to house 3000?  Or, would we simply do what the disciples did - let go, throw our hands up in the air, and say "God, its your church. You do it." You see, the disciples did just that because THEY HAD TO. They had no recourse but to trust God entirely to build and care for His church...His bride. There is a profound beauty in realizing that God's wisdom, His leadership, doesn't always make sense to us. 

I read a quote last week that said, "People don't like the bible because it contradicts itself, they don't like the bible because it contradicts us." Its the same way with God's leadership. He knows the direction for the church, and often times a situation that we would view as completely and totally out of control is in fact a beautiful symphony for God as He is in the process of working ALL things together for our good! In leadership, when we say a situation is out of control, we need to be honest and say that the situation is out of our control. We need to realize its never, ever, out of God's control - and when we try to control what only God can, we're essentially replacing His ways with ours, His thoughts with ours, His wisdom with ours. We replace Him and put ourselves in control. That's the definition of an idol! The bottom line is this: we serve a big picture God. He's God, we're not. And by idolizing leadership, we're guilty of much of the same things for which Paul blasted the Corinthian church. We are valuing human "wisdom" over the wisdom of Almighty God. We're telling the Creator of the universe that His way just isn't quite good enough to lead His church in this day and age. We're breaking the first commandment, and we're breaking His heart.

Please understand that I'm most certainly not anti-leadership. Our church has a strong mission statement, vision, and core values to which we closely adhere (it would be extremely difficult to function without them). I honestly don't know what I would do without the awesome leadership teams of both Hillvue Heights Church and our leadership at Highland Hills. There is a ton of great (not good, but GREAT) leadership books, conferences, blogs, etc out there that can and will help establish biblical principles that will assist in leading the church for the next 2000 years, if Jesus waits that long. Strong leadership is vital for the church! But it has it's place in the grand scheme of things, and sometimes, it's out of place. You see, everything we do must begin and end with Jesus, and it is His presence, His Holy Spirit that must lead us. We need to be perfectly ok with the fact that it's not going to always make sense to us, that more times than not it will be out of our control.  We must follow Him before we can lead. We must serve, and even wash the feet of those we lead. We must be willing to lead from a messy, sometimes bloody place. We must make sure that the presence of God stays on the throne of our hearts, and that the leadership calf (or any other idol) is destroyed. We must guard our hearts, leaders, and make sure that the pursuit of being a good leader doesn't supplant the presence of the greatest Leader to ever grace this planet. Get out of His way, and follow Jesus' lead!

Following with you,

Chad

Break But Don't Bend

Have you ever come to the realization that God has been there, done that, and that nothing is new for Him? Would you believe me if I told you that God invented twitter thousands of years ago? You can read His tweets in this extraordinary book called PROVERBS. (I follow "Book of Proverbs" on twitter - you should too. Its like reading God's tweets everyday).

Recently, they posted an interesting slant on Proverbs 29:1: "A person who will not bend after many warnings will suddenly be broken beyond repair."

In our society, we have a bend but don't break attitude. We bend just enough to get under the bar set before us. We bend our attitudes just enough to keep our positions. We bend our beliefs in order to avoid rocking the boat. We bend in order to keep from breaking. 

At first glance, this appears to be the sentiment of Proverbs 29:1. However, I believe that the meaning is much deeper and more profound than taking it at face value. When reading any part of scripture, ALWAYS remember that it is subtly pointing to Jesus, and specifically His cross and resurrection. The Old Testament points ahead to Him, and the New Testament points back to Him.

So what does Proverbs 29:1 tell us in light of the cross and resurrection? That we MUST BE BROKEN. Not only that, we must desire brokenness. We must stop bending.

Let me explain.

When I first read this verse, I got a "visual" in my mind of a prideful person refusing to listen to anyone, doing everything his/her own way, without need for anyone telling them how to live their life, and because of their pride, they will meet their destruction. While this is certainly true and powerful warning for those who choose to live life that way, it takes on a very different meaning for the Christ follower. The problem for us is that we follow this guy named Jesus who was broken in every sense of the word (we actually call this guy "Lord"). And if we want to truly follow Him, we must be willing to go where He went. We must be broken in order to get the blessing. But there's a problem: our pride protects itself at all costs! What results is what I call spiritual bending. We become lukewarm Christians. We attend church, but there's really no life change. We talk the talk, but we don't walk the walk. We tell everyone we are Christians, but we don't become disciples. We bend, but we don't allow God to break us.

Moses HAD to be broken so he could lead the people.

Jacob HAD to be broken so he could become Israel.

David HAD to be broken so he could become king.

Saul HAD to be broken so he could become Paul.

Jesus HAD to be broken so He could become our Savior.

And on and on in scripture. Psalm 31:12 - "I am forgotten as though I were dead. I have become broken pottery." You see, it is our brokenness that drives us to God. He is ever searching for broken pottery, broken bread, and wine that has been poured out. He had a Son that was willing to give away His food, HIS LIFE - and we are still benefitting from His brokenness 2,000 years later. And that's pretty cool.

You want God to do great things in your life? Stop bending...let God break you.

-MCL

The Beautiful Snakes

Last week, I was talking with pastor Steve Ayers at our mother church, Hillvue Heights, and he began to tell me of the time that Hillvue experienced SIGNIFICANT growth and began making waves in church circles. Because of the attention the church began to receive (both locally and nationally), three entities presented themselves in hopes of financially partnering with the church in some way. Needless to say, the offers were lucrative and substantial.

As he began entertaining the offers, Steve tells of a lady in the church, whom he had a high level of trust, that came in his office one day. She advised him that God told her there were three opportunities present for the church. Then she looked him in the eye and said, "Beware the beautiful snakes."

I'm not a fan of snakes. AT ALL. But I must admit that they can be absolutely stunning in their beauty. Like these:

Notice the amazing and vibrant colors...like they were created on an artist's canvas. Beautiful.

Funny thing...us humans are drawn to beauty like a moth to a flame. And Satan knows it.

I've often wondered about the snake in the Garden of Eden. He had to be beautiful; probably more beautiful than all these snakes combined. I'm sure he was an incredible sight to behold, splendid in his presentation; at the sight of him, I'm willing to bet that Eve was left breathless at his beauty.

But he was still a snake.

Their bites are deadly. They carry poison. They are designed to kill. They shed their skin many times during the course of their lives. They are designed to preserve themselves at all costs. They can eat things larger than themselves. They are cold-blooded. They slither on the ground, looking for their prey. The snake in the garden had all these characteristics, and one more.

He could talk.

From time to time, we will encounter snakes in our lives. We will be drawn in by their beauty; deceived because everything looks appealing on the outside. We will be drawn in by their forked tongues - tongues that speak what we want to hear on one side but utter words of death and destruction on the other. But snakes are meat eaters, and they must eat. They won't be able to exist in any situation very long without biting and injecting their poison.

The way to combat snakes in our lives is through prayer. Ask God to reveal to us the snakes in our lives, both internally and externally. Then ask Him to remove them, and to do whatever it takes to do so. We have not been given a spirit of fear - don't fear anything in Christ.  But be wary, watchful, wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

Beware the beautiful snakes.

"Patience, Grasshopper!"

Patience. Patience. PATIENCE!!

Count to ten...deep breaths...relax. What happens when you get to eleven?!? 

One of the things I'm learning in ministry is patience. All my life, I've SUCKED at the whole patience thing; but I love God's sense of humor. I'm sure He found it hilarious to make me a pastor! As such, it is vital that I have patience...and God is fully aware of this. And so, the tension exists - I'm driven and passionate about the church. I'm driven and passionate about connecting people to Christ. I'm driven and passionate about telling others, in a variety of ways, about the saving love and mercy of Jesus. It is my life calling and my biggest strength.

But its also my biggest weakness. And left unchecked, it has the potential to destroy EVERYTHING.

A great friend of mine once told me that any relationship problem can be traced back to a failure to meet an expectation. I run into problems when I expect everyone else in my life to be equally as passionate as I am about the things to which God has called me. In short, I place totally unrealistic expectations on others; then to top it off, I get impatient and ticked when those expectations aren't met.

Does that sound Christlike to you? Me neither. But it definitely sounds Chadlike. In a word, SELFISH. And there's Jesus, reminding me to die to self. 

This whole dying to self thing is painful, uncomfortable, and difficult. But what do we expect? Jesus called it DYING for a reason. And we are to die every single day. What?? I don't die very well. None of us do. That's why I'm so thankful that Jesus is patient with me. He never gives up on me, even when I've long given up on me. 

So, Christ-follower, if we (who have been shown copious amounts of patience) can't give that patience to others, we're no different than an impatient, gotta-have-everything-right-now world that Jesus has called us to be set apart from. If we don't give it, we'll never get it in return. 

And you'd better beleive that the world is watching, waiting PATIENTLY to see if we practice what we preach. So when you feel impatient with someone else, calm down, relax, count to ten, and remember Jesus' patience with you. It just might be the trigger that saves someone's life!

MCL

NASCAR and the Apostle Paul

I am a HUGE NASCAR fan.

There, I said it.

I love the cars, the, um, disagreements between drivers, the inherent danger involved. I love the all-out speed and testosterone fueled pageantry of it all.  I love the sound of pure, unadulterated American horsepower unleashed and the way the earth seems to literally move when beneath your feet when the green flag is dropped. If that makes me a red-neck, then you'll just have to call me a red-neck! I'll sleep well; I've been called much worse...

You may have read the title of this post and wondered "what in the heck does a bunch of cars going fast and turning left have to do with the apostle Paul?" Well, as a race fan, I've been watching speed weeks coverage at Daytona International Speedway, leading up to this weekend's Daytona 500 (otherwise known as NASCAR's Super Bowl). During a recent practice session, one of the cars slowed and pulled to the side of the track. The driver called to his crew over the radio and told them there was a problem with the transmission, and more specifically that the car was stuck IN GEAR, and he couldn't get it out of gear. One of the wreckers at the track had to pull the car back to the garage where the crew could repair it and get it ready for the big race.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul tells us that (paraphrasing) all the racers race, but only one gets the prize, and We should race in such a way to receive the prize. The Daytona 500 is so named because it is a 500 mile race. Today's technology has advanced most of the NASCAR cars to the point that they will make the 500 mile distance with no problems. However, the 500 mile distance was originally a test of endurance that placed an incredible amount of stress on the drivers, engines, and the chassis. If you won the race, it meant that the car and the driver held up under tremendous stress to persevere to the prize.

As I watched that broken car coast to a stop in the track, I began to wonder how many of us running the race have fallen victim to those same transmission problems. Ask yourself this question: am I stuck in gear, doing the same old things but getting nowhere? Am I coasting to the edge of the track or am I making a difference? See, we're called to run the race...every now and then, all of us must make a pit stop and let our crew (the fellowship and encouragement of Jesus' church) repair us so that we are running our race with our eyes on the prize. We run with a mission, with the Great Commission as our main sponsor on the hood, and our trophy is Jesus Himself! 

Let's go racin'!

MCL

Why call them "Life Groups"?

This week at Highland Hills Church, we are beginning the spring semester of our C3HD Life Groups.  Catchy name, huh?  Rolls right off the tongue, I would say.  But, why not call them "good old-fashioned bible study groups", or even "small groups"?  Is it because Life Groups just sounds trendier?

The answer is simple: we know that these groups produce life.  When our people commit to these groups, they connect, they heal, and they develop.  It is a model based off of the Acts 2 church in which we meet in each other's homes, break bread together (the food is just stupid good), pray for each other, and study God's word.  We build deeper relationships; we experience deeper discipleship; we learn what it means to carry each other's burdens; we celebrate what God is doing in our lives and our church; we laugh together, we cry together, and we become stronger together in Christ. 

See, the Holy Spirit just has this incredible way of bringing us together in a living room when we dive into the word of God.  The application of His word brings fruit...next thing you know, we learn how to forgive the unforgiveable, love the unloveable, and live a life the world says is unliveable.  Do you have any idea how freeing that is? Jesus tells us"...I came so that they (us) may have life and have it to the FULL." (John 10:10b)

That's why we call 'em Life Groups.  Because its about LIFE!

Tell it!

Chad