March: Val Kilmer, Porn, Apple, & a Tiger
The following are the 10 most viewed posts on this blog for the month of March. Maybe you read them all and want to read again, maybe you missed a few & would like to catch-up, or maybe you’d just like to share one with a friend. And perhaps you want to leave the page now. I’m cool with any of those options 🙂
1. The Porn Pandemic–I woke-up earlier than I normally do one morning and felt impressed to write this blog. Wasn’t really something I planned on writing and the content wasn’t the direction I was thinking of going when I started writing it. But it turned out the way it turned out and several folk have said they appreciated the honesty. In many ways it was written as a Dad with two boys, whom prays for God’s protection over them and God to give me wisdom in how I & my wife can help Him in that endeavor.
2. Bittersweet Moving–Two of our dear church members are moving in late July and the thought of them moving and also the reflections on what I had learned from them compelled me to write this tribute to them & encouragement to pastors & young leaders to be mentored.
3. Val Kilmer & I — This was orginally a post simply for the purpose to encourage encouragement that I wrote in February. It turned into a hit in March on the internet because the web manager of the Official Facebook U.S. fan page of Val Kilmer got a hold of the post and reposted it, due to my uncanny resemblance to said actor. That ended up getting this post a lot of traffic:)
4. Childhood Friday Nights — I love music! I especially love older Christian music & it seems like many others do as well!
5. The Apple Store — I believe churches could learn a lot about “customer” service from secular businesses! This was just another example.
6. 1 For Every 10k — I love church planting, I believe it is the best avenue by which to have mass sustained evangelism!
7. The Negativity Pandemic — I am sick of negativity!
8. Flee the Tiger — One of my members Kay Rizzo has recently published her first ebook. I was excited for her and wanted to help her get out the word.
9. Zechariah’s Beautiful Picture of the Gospel — I love Zechariah 3:1-5 and I wanted to share a couple thoughts in regards to this passage.
10. The Twitter Blessings! — I meant for this to be a compare & contrast of Facebook & Twitter with my views on why I prefer to Twitter. It turned into just a Twitter lovefest!
And those are the top 10 for the month of March & here just for good measure are the top for the first quarter of 2012:
- Val Kilmer & I
- The Porn Pandemic
- The One Project Analysis
- Bittersweet Moving
- Thoughts From Pastor Carlton Byrd…
- This Is Discipling
- Childhood Friday Nights
- The Apple Store
- 1 For Every 10k
- One of Many Goals for 2012
Hope y’all enjoy and would love your feedback!
1 For Every 10k
That is not a 10k race…for those runner friends out there. I am writing of 10k as in 10,000, & the 1 is representative of 1 church.
We need 1 church for every 10,000 people, to be precise we need 1 church of 200 active members for every 10,000 people. This is the conclusion many have come to, including those in the North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Why? Well let the folks at NPUC explain:
“A typical church of 200 active members will impact a maximum of 10k people (200 members x 50 contacts = 10k if there is no overlap).”
Now let me throw in this caveat that I believe to be absolutely 100% truth, and definitely verifiable through the stories of scripture. God could reach everyone with just 1 person. I don’t know how, but He could do it. And although that is true that is not the way God seems to work. In fact He seems to work in the way we would typically think of working, at least when it comes to numbers.
More people reach more people!
“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” –Matthew 9:37-38
The idea is MORE laborers MORE reaping!
So yes God could reach everyone with just 1 person, but He has chosen to use people and to call for more people to help Him in reaching everyone. Which is the very reason why the statistic above is significant. For a church to truly impact 10,000 people it must have 200 soul winners, engaged members in its midst.
In most communities where there is an Adventist church of 500 or more folk will often ask, “Why do we need another church?” It doesn’t matter if the city is 20,000, 50,000, or 100,000+. A church of 500 or more is usually quite satisfactory to folk and again people ask, “Why do we need another church?” How do I know this? Because we have recently started another church (in my mind it is a campus, but to the community it is another church) The Ark a Seventh-day Adventist Christian Church, & because there is already a significant size church in our community, The Visalia Seventh-day Adventist Church, (740 members and growing) I have heard many times, “Why another church pastor?”
My answer is this:
Because 1 church cannot reach 125,000 people quick enough with the Adventist message (and yes I do believe in proselytizing) That is how many people there are in my city. Which would mean we need at least 12 churches of 200 soul winners to reach all 125,000+ people in our community.
What about in your community? How big is your city? Does your city have a population of 10,000 or more?
And if so…
Do you have an Adventist church? Are there 200 engaged–on fire, Jesus loving, people serving, Good News spreading–members in your church? Do you have enough churches & or enough members if your city is 20 thousand, 30 thousand, 40 thousand, 100,000, 500,000 people?
For most of you the answer will be NO!
How do I know? Because in the United States the mean size of a typical Adventist church is 215 members. That is good, except…there are only 4950 churches which in comparison to the population of the United States computes to just 1 church for every 63,267 people.
(Even if we took our total Adventist membership in the U.S. and divided it by 200 we would still only have 1 set of 200 people for every 58,900 people. Now probably wouldn’t be the right time to mention that only about half of all professed Adventists are “active” in their local churches right? Yeah that would be a much more dismal picture, so let’s at least let something be rose colored:)).
Back to our situation. In order to have 1 church for every 10k in the United States, we need 31,317 Adventist churches of at least 200 in the United States. So roughly, 26,350 more of our mean size (215) church.
So do we throw-up our hands and say impossible? Can’t be done? Do you remember that God that could reach everyone with just 1 that you were defending earlier when I was throwing-out numbers? Yes, He is still on the throne and He can very well do this! And He can very well do this through us!
Based on some quick adding and some quick math on my part. Let us state that there are about 750 churches with 300 members or more.
What if every church with at least 300 members, encouraged, taught, made a part of their culture, a membership tithe from the church. In other words if a church has 300 members they would ask 30 members to step out in faith and plant a church. If they have 400 members, 40, 500, 50…600 they plant two churches and send out two groups of 30.
What if a church such as Loma Linda University church made the decision to tithe their members. To call for 600 members to step out in faith and plant churches…what if they sent out 6 different teams of 100 to plant a church. 6 churches in 1 year. The same could be true for Pioneer Memorial Church, Pastor Dwight Nelson if he were to stand-up every year and teach every year his congregation to tithe themselves? Could they plant 3 churches of a 100 members every year? Why not? On faith they could!
Here is what I know about tithing financially. With an honest tithe I am never found in need! I believe the same would be true for our churches. If we stepped out in faith and said “we will not be satisfied with the inability to reach more people; we will not ignore the call to pray for more workers, we will actually send out more workers.”
If we were to do this, our churches would never be found wanting and the Adventist message would spread like wildfire!
Are you a Seventh-day Adventist believer? Then the above scenario is not something nice to throw around it is your calling!
“Upon ALL who believe, God has placed a burden of raising up churches.”
–Ellen G. White, Medical Ministry, p. 315
Childhood Friday Night’s
I don’t have a ton of Spiritual moment memories as a child growing-up. But the few I do have almost all center on music and Friday nights. On Friday nights in our home it would get very peaceful!!! My Dad would often read to us, I remember us reading the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and all the Uncle Arthur Bedtime Stories. Even more than reading though we would enjoy music. My Dad loved music of all kinds and taught us to do the same.
Today I got nostalgic and decided to try and find some of the songs that still are in my head from those Friday nights at the Stuart’s.
I believe God used these songs to plant seeds in my heart that began to grow roots that kept me in a small way connected, even in the years I was trying to go far from Jesus. I believe this because in the days when I was listening to Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Cypress Hill, etc. In the days when I was depressed and stoned and pondering what value life had. I remember pulling out a mixed tape my Dad had made of all that great Friday night music, and I’d listen and sing at the top of my lungs, “Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus and He will turn your sorrows into joy.” I didn’t believe it then, but Jesus kept a seed in me, He kept me singing, and He kept knocking at the door of my heart.
So here is a little Friday night music for you to enjoy. I pray that if you haven’t opened your heart to Jesus that one day very soon you will sing the songs hear the knock and accept Him as your Savior!
Dallas Holm–Rise Again
Sandi Patty–Via Dolorosa
Evie–Give Them All
Heritage Singers–Me & My House
Gaither Vocal Band–I’m The Lighthouse
Amy Grant–El Shaddai
Larnelle Harris & Sandy Patti–I’ve Just Seen Jesus
The Gaither Vocal Band–I Believe In A Hill Called Mount Calvary
Del Delker & The King’s Heralds–Holy
The Porn Pandemic
We have a porn pandemic in this country! 12% of all websites on the internet are pornography. There is so much of it the government is making a listing for it, like .com, .org, .tv, there is now .xxx. Many people of older generations are oblivious to this crisis, but it is a crisis: 90% of children ages 8-16 have viewed porn. I personally wished I could have even made it to the age of 8! I was first exposed to pornography by a drunk, now deceased adult that thought it would be funny to show me graphic pornography at the age of 4. 30 years later I have no other media images in my head from that time of my life, but those still exist! Why? Because porn is evasive and corrosive to the mind!
There are those in our society that say Porn is no big deal, they even take the position well pretty much all males look at porn so “don’t worry about it”. Well I would have to say on one part of that I agree, I believe most men at one point or another have viewed pornography, but the majority does NOT determine morality. From my personal world view the scriptures determine morality:
“Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.” –Romans 13:13
We are told to walk properly and that walking properly includes avoiding LUST. Well for those of you that may not know porn is a breeding ground for LUST! There are many other texts throughout the Bible that admonish allowing our minds to be filled with lustful thoughts and yet when individuals view porn, that is indeed the singular purpose.
Porn is a pandemic! But it goes beyond porn! Our society is a sexually saturated society! In the old days the idea was protect your kids from all sexual images, now we must simply train our kids to avoid the worst of those images (i.e. 12-17 year old boys are the largest consumers of porn), because it is absolutely impossible for them not to see a billboard, a magazine ad, etc..
I remember I was about 7 years old, we were visiting some friends that had two older daughters. They were probably in their late teens, maybe even college age. On this occasion I happened to walk into a room where one of them was changing. She wasn’t naked, she was in pants and had a bra on, but I remember it being a huge deal, and getting yelled at. Why? Because to see a girl in her unmentionables was not appropriate for any man that was not her husband.
Well times sure have changed! My sons or their dad can’t walk through the mall without being exposed to Victoria Secrets (not so secret really), Abercrombie, Fredericks of Hollywood. Now as an adult I understand the need to avert my eyes to look away, but as a 3 or 4 or 5 year old boy that is probably a much more difficult thing to do.
My oldest boy often times when he is with me will point out blondes and say, “Daddy they look like Mommy” (even when they don’t at all, but the hair color is the same). We drive to Fresno and there is a billboard of a strip joint with a blonde on it…I always try to distract him with the trains on the other side because I don’t want him seeing the advertisement for the strip club, and saying, “she looks like Mommy.” I don’t want that image in his head.
Because, yes those images are bad too! You see we’ve begun to worry so much about graphic pornography that we’ve not realized the tempting images in our own homes. Images that are in your every day magazines and on your TV’s that the men in your home (although we shouldn’t just put the pandemic on men: 1-6 women struggle with a porn addiction), and your children are seeing these images and these images can be just as addictive to a young or an already susceptible mind. As a child we didn’t have pornography in our house, we didn’t have a computer where I could find porn, we didn’t have cable TV that I might “happen” upon it, but we did have Victoria Secret Catalogs and Cosmo magazine, etc.. Nothing that most would give any mind to, but they were for me dangerous ground.
Can I suggest to all families out there that you get rid of even those little things in your home! For my parents they didn’t know I had seen porn at such a young age, they didn’t know that I was already struggling with those things early in life…you just didn’t share stuff like that…I am sure there are many parents out there that don’t know the fight their children and or there spouses have to control their minds, and these small little things don’t help.
Early in our marriage I made a comment to Christina about it not being good for me to see even those Victoria Secret catalogs. I know that my wife has bought things from Victoria Secrets and I know when you buy something there you often get the catalog, and I know we used to get the catalog. But can I tell you since I told Christina that these images weren’t good for me 6 plus years ago, I have never seen a catalog or anything like it in our home. If she gets them she must throw them out! I am appreciative to my wife for that. Which leads me to some steps that we can all take in dealing with this pandemic.
First while we are on the topic. Women, although sometimes it needs to be men as well, help to protect your husbands (or wives for men)! How can you do this? Well most women I know, especially in the church world hate the thought of their husbands looking at porn and yet in the movies they watch, in the TV shows they watch, in the magazines they have around the home, they are desensitizing the mind to being open to such things. The male mind that is already susceptible due to exposure in the past, will have a hard time NOT having these things be triggers in their lives for further and darker actions.
Women can also help their husbands, by not treating them like pariahs if they do struggle. Something I have learned about sin through the years, when buried it has more time for the roots to grow so that later it sprouts a destructive weed! We bury things because we are embarrassed and are scared that we will not be loved if we share our challenges. So wives and or husbands love your spouse in a way that they will feel they can be open and honest not just with this struggle, but in all struggles.
Protect your children! Both parents. No computers in places that are not in a public setting! No TV’s in rooms. Let me tell you why real quick on this one with a story from my childhood. Let me start by saying I believe the devil wants to destroy our kids! And he’ll do whatever he can to try and expose our kids to dangerous and damaging things. Between the ages of 12 to about 15 I had a TV in my room. Now we didn’t have anything by that time but basic cable. No premium channels, no extras just the basic network stations, and a few extra channels like USA and Prime Ticket (to watch my Lakers:)). Anyway one night late I was flipping through to get to Nick at Nite, I loved the old shows, “The Many Loves of Doby Gillis”, “My Three Sons”, “The Patty Duke show,” etc. And as I am flipping there is a fuzzy channel, but immediately something catches my eye I notice through the fuzz a naked woman…
Well I couldn’t see her very well, but do you want to bet that I went back and checked that channel on several occassions. Only to find fuzz everytime, until one night…there was a perfectly clear picture, porn! And for three or so nights I had free graphic porn. I honestly believe with all my heart the devil made that happen! And for that reason alone, my kids will never have TVs in their rooms. You may say, “that is overreacting, or what are the odds really?” Well with the devil the odds for the bad increase dramatically! He wants our kids!
Encourage your children to be honest with you and also to feel that they can say and share ANYTHING. When i was shown porn at the age of 4 by an adult. And when in my early teen years an older woman watched porn with me. No one ever said to me, “DON’T TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS.” I was never given that admonition. I just instinctively knew it was wrong and therefore kept my mouth shut. It takes a very strong and CLOSE relationship for your kids to be able to break through those natural barriers and share. So please, build those relationships with your kids! And when they do share something, don’t blow it off as no big deal, it is a big deal to them or they wouldn’t have shared it! And also don’t overreact like it is the end of the world. If your kid tells you that they saw porn on the computer and you run over yank it out of the wall and smash it to bits on the ground, they probably aren’t going to share next time! Oh and don’t start bawling profusely! Waterworks don’t help kids share either!
For those like me that have experienced levels of abuse or maybe just by their own doing have exposed themselves to stuff like this and now it has a hold on them. It may be necessary to seek help! That is OKAY! It is not weakness to need help. I am a very strong, strong believer in Therapists, Counselors, Psychologists, etc.. Get help! And I am one that personally believes it is better to get help from a professional than to just have your buddy or even your spouse help you. Why? Because with a buddy or a spouse there is always that temptation to “hide” or to make yourself “look better than you are.”
And for all of us, I believe the greatest help in this pandemic is Jesus! We need to spend less time in the things of the world and more time doing the things of God. Not as a way to escape or deny our problems, but as an avenue by which to reshape and rehabilitate our minds.
I recently was speaking with an individual that had been battling this issue for decades. But finally over the last several years there has been a level of victory. You know what they told me finally did it, that they just began to spend inordinate (at least inordinate to their previous history) amounts of time just falling in love with Jesus through the study of the Bible and prayer. Getting rid of things they used to watch and do, instead giving that time fully to Jesus, His work, and His Word.
The Bible tells us this,
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” –Psalm 119:11
We can’t simply take something out of our lives, we must fill that gap with something else. So fill your brains with the Word of God. Memorize scripture, hide it in your heart; allow God to provide a level of protection, healing, and victory that ultimately can only come through Him!
In closing I want to say to folk out there that may struggle with this pandemic! Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones to Him belong they are WEAK, but HE is STRONG! Yes Jesus loves you, yes Jesus loves you, yes Jesus loves you, the Bible tells me so!
You may hate yourself and see yourself as awful. But what I read in the Bible and what I have experienced in my life (as one that walks with the definite limp of sin) Jesus loves you and sees you as His beautiful and glorious child. He already died for you on the cross, accept that gift and let Him work out the junk in your life in His way, in His time!
If you are someone that is a member of my church, I want you to know as well. Your sin whether this or any other doesn’t matter to me, you are still welcome and loved at our church! I hate all sin, not just the secret ones! I hate sin because I love the people I see these sins destroying. So please be a part of the family, don’t hide, let us love you, pray for you, and journey with you!
Thanks for reading y’all. Let us all pray that through the power of God we will fight the good fight and finish the race.
The Negativity Pandemic
Dr. Jack Haskins a professor at the University of Tennessee did s study to determine the effects of a five minute radio program that was filled with negative news stories: children blown up, earthquakes, riots, etc. One group listened to these types of stories JUST 5 minutes a day, the other group, the control group listened to positive news stories for the same 5 minutes.
Haskins in evaluating the subjects at the end of the study found that those who listened to just 5 minutes of negative radio reports daily were: (1) more depressed than before; (2) they believed the world was a negative place; (3) they were less likely to help others; and (4) they began to believe that the negative things they heard would soon happen to them.
How could this be? Could 5 minutes of negativity really have that much impact on someone?
What happens with a life of negativity?
Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,”
Like it or not we are in part products of what we “THINK.” If we think negative all the time, more than likely our lives will be somewhat negative. Now I am not a “name it and claim it” preacher. I don’t believe in prosperity theology or the idea that bad things never happen to people who are positive. But I do believe that life for many is miserable because they think “half-empty” thoughts 99% of the time rather than “half-full” thoughts.
I know this because negativity was my life. In high-school and even early in college I had a VERY negative thought pattern. I could always find the negative in a situation: I complained about my job, I complained about school, I complained about relationships, I complained about the government, I complained about the church, I complained about my sports teams, I complained about…well you name it I am sure I complained about it. I was consistently negative. Christina, my girlfriend (now wife) at the time, wanted to introduce me to her friends, I hadn’t even met them and I was already being negative towards them. I remember Christina asking me if I liked anyone? I told her, “I like you and I like my friends. But that is about it.” I was negative!!!
You know what is weird all those years of being negative, I found myself obsessed with death! My best friend Scott regularly used to tell me how morbid I was and that I didn’t need to constantly talk about dying. But I couldn’t help it, my negativity was effecting everything about the way I thought.
Then I went to Africa…many stories here to share but I’ll save them for another time…but while in Africa I daily did two things: I served others daily and I spent an abundant amount of time in prayer & Bible study.
My day would consist of rising around 5:30 or 6 in the morning spending at least an hour in prayer and Bible study. The rest of my morning would be spent in preparation to share the Gospel, then in the afternoon I would go out and visit locals, walk around the streets, appreciate the simplicity of things. Then in the evening I would preach. I would end each night studying the Bible more, reading The Great Controversy, and praying–then I would chat with my roommate Ben Martin ’till I fell asleep.
After just about a month of this I found my outlook on life completely changed. I didn’t even fully realize just how much ’till folk back home began to comment on how different I was. My parents, my friends, Christina. They all will testify that since that time in Africa I have never been the same.
I went from extremely negative to extremely positive.
Daily I meet people and speak with people that are just like I was. If I say something positive, they find the negative. If I try to encourage they retort with a complaint or negative remark. I have come to see negativity as a great pandemic within our society…a pandemic that is spreading with the help of media and even our own peers who speak negativity around us and so we get sucked in and join the negative dialogue.
So how do we break it? I believe my Africa experience is key!
Does that mean you have to go to Africa to become a positive person? NO! Because what ultimately changed me can be experienced right here in the U.S. of A..
Two things:
(1.) Daily time with the Lord in Bible study and prayer
(2.) Daily looking for opportunities to serve others
1.) When our lives are void of the presence of God we will be negative, yes if you are not spending time in prayer and Bible study your life is void of the presence of God. God is not impacting our lives simply b/c we hope for it, we must connect. Just like I can’t impact my kids lives if I never spend time with them. It doesn’t matter how much I love them from a distance if I am not around them, I have no influence. In like manner, if God is not around us, by us allowing Him to speak to us through prayer and Bible study, we are not influenced by Him.
2.) And when we are not serving others and only living for ourselves, we’ll find that negativity takes deep root! Self-centered living is negative living. Whenever I spend too much time worrying about me, I find that I tend to become consumed with what is happening in my life and when I become consumned with anything other than God I tend to become negative. I have noticed that as I have grown as a pastor I have lost negativity. Why? Because I have a passion to reach people! And being consumned with the desire keeps me positive. Also being a parent has forced me to become more and more positive. What my kids do, even when they frustrate me, isn’t ultimately about me! My free time is about my two boys! And therefore I don’t have a lot of time to think about maybe what is wrong in me, but rather I am living in service to my wife, my sons, my church, my community. This outward focus builds my positivity.
The verse I quoted earlier said “as we think we are!” I guess I am basically saying, if you think about God and you think about others honestly and sincerely by doing actions of service for them, I promise you your negativity will disappear. You will be happier and so will everyone else around you!
(Stay tuned for more “Pandemic” posts this week)
Zechariah’s Beautiful Picture of The Gospel
“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes. And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.”
” –Zechariah 3:1-5
Is this not one of the most beautiful Gospel texts in all the Bible?!
It is a courtroom scene, a judgment scene. There stands Joshua, obviously guilty in His filthy garments. The author of that filth the one who made Joshua filthy is also demanding justice. He, Satan, is the prosecuting attorney. Isn’t it ironic the one that authors our sin, leads us into sin, is in the end the one that will ultimately demand our lives. How quickly evil turns on itself.
I love how in this passage we don’t see Joshua, the one accused, the one guilty, the one needing to defend himself even speak a word; but he doesn’t need to! The Lord stands up and speaks on his behalf. The Lord tells Satan to be quiet. The Lord then commands the filth, the guilt be removed. And then the Lord speaks again and commands that new clothes, freedom, guiltless living be put on Joshua.
We make the Gospel very hard, but when we stand before the Lord He reads our hearts. He reads our sorrow. He knows our regret and our desire for things to be different. And because God looks on the heart He speaks over us forgiveness and newness of life.
I pray today no matter how guilty you are, that you will be willing to stand humbly before the Lord and let Him clean you and make you new through the blood of Jesus.
Flee the Tiger
So a few months ago in another post I was somewhat criical about our Adventist Publishing companies not being up to date on the ebook side of things. I then had to send out a little plug to Pacific Press for being more on the ball than I realized.
And while I am appreciative of Pacific Press and their ebook site, I’ve still been asking for more, yet while asking I recently found out that right under my very nose, a member of my church in fact has a self-published ebook.
So I decided with all my previous criticisms about us not promoting the things we as Adventists do have out there well, the least I could do is to make y’all aware of Kay Rizzo’s new book Flee the Tiger which is available for you to buy at Amazon as an ebook right now, for all you ebook folk.
Now a little disclaimer, I haven’t read this book personally, but I still wanted to make y’all aware of it. So head to Amazon if you are into this type of literature and happy reading!
Bittersweet Moving
I have just learned that some dear friends and folk in our church are going to be moving from the area in the next 6 months.
I’ve known actually for some time that they were moving, but now that a house has been sold and a house has been bought reality sinks in!
This is bittersweet for me! As a friend I am extremely happy for them because they are moving to be close to kids and grandkids. But as a friend and also as a young pastor my heart aches! Since my arrival at The Visalia Seventh-day Adventist Church Chuck & Darlene have been true mentors & friends to me in my ministry.
Yes they are in their 70’s–But I feel like they have as much joy and enthusiasm for ministry and my ministry success as I ever have! Many, many a time I have enjoyed sitting at their feet soaking up their wisdom.
They have always encouraged me even when disagreeing and at times gently correcting me.
They have modeled for me an openness to the will of God in all things, even when that will may push them out of their comfort zone.
They have modeled for me unconditional support to the cause of our Lord through their weekly service to the church, their generous giving to their church, and their unendning love for the people in the church.
A church that has a Chuck and Darlene is far the richer for it.
I think of the young pastors that don’t have Chuck & Darlene in their congregation. I wonder what struggles they face and what challenges they fall to, because of not having the wisdom of years?
I dread to think of ministry here without them and pray for God to send someone in their stead!
As I think tonight about Chuck and Darlene I would give this word of advice to folk out there.
First to young pastors: If you have a Chuck or Darlene in your midst spend time with them. Learn from them, if they rebuke you in love, accept the rebuke. If they disagree with you find out why and see what steps you should have taken so you won’t repeat the mistake in the future. Include them in your leadership team (Darlene is one of my Elders & Chuck sits on our finance team). If they have been at that church for some time, Chuck and Darlene have been in Visalia for almost 40 years, ask them about the history and how things have moved and shook in the past. Most of all thank them as they encourage you and help you to grow as a pastor.
To the elderly in the church: Be gentle counselors to your pastors. Be appropriately critical, but not overly so. Encourage, encourage, encourage. Defend your pastor against the attacks of others in your generation who don’t like things simply because they are “new” and “different.” Embrace change and support your young pastor in that change. And most of all pray for your pastor and let him/her know you are doing so in love!
Chuck and Darlene I’ll miss y’all! If it wasn’t a sin I would covet the new young pastor you will be mentoring!
I love you both, thanks for making the Visalia SDA church and my ministry so rich by gracing us with your love!
The Apple Store
My iphone 4 went kerplunk yesterday, and living in an age and working in a profession where I “feel” the need for a phone constantly by my side, we can break down that flawed thinking later, I headed out to the Apple store in Fresno to figure things out.
I left the store with a new iphone 4s, I’m getting that out of the way because that has nothing to do with what I want to share with you in this post.
“ENTHUSIASM” is what I want to share with you! That is the word I would use to describe the employees at the Apple store. It struck me how ENTHUSIASTIC the folk are about their product. A cynic would say, “Well they are paid to be ENTHUSIASTIC.” I would ask said cynic, “Have you ever been around an Apple product owner?” People don’t have to be paid to be enthusiastic about Apple!
In fact every Apple purchase I have ever made has been done completely on the ENTHUSIASM of another human being–
My laptop & desktop — My best friend, Scott
My orginal ipod — My Mom & Dad, Vicki & Daryl
My original iphone — My brother-in-law, Chad
My ipad — My wife, Christina
Their ENTHUSIASM on all said products made me want what they had! Again the cynic may say, “You obviously are easily impressionable.” I would say to said cynic, “Ask anyone who knows me how comfortable I am holding an opinion that is contrary to the general support of the crowd.”
It was folks ENTHUSIASM that truly swayed me and made me take a first and a second and eventually purchase each of those products.
And that ENTHUSIASM was on full display in the Apple store yesterday. These folk seemed genuinely happy for me that I now owned an iphone 4s.
My question to Christians is do people see that you are ENTHUSIASTIC about Jesus? When folk walk into your church will they feel an ENTHUSIASTIC anticipation for what Jesus is going to show up and give to people?
When people in our church make a decision for Jesus is there true ENTHUSIASM for that individual going home with Jesus in their life?
If you can’t answer yes to these questions for you personally or for your church. Then there is something wrong!
“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” –Luke 15:7
Heaven is rejoicing because they are ENTHUSIASTIC about someone else walking around with Jesus in their heart.
Are you?
Val Kilmer & I
So I’ve been told a lot in my life that I look like Val Kilmer (I’m hoping the Val Kilmer of the Top Gun days!). If you know me well, you probably already know this little fact. Now I am not saying that I think I look like Val Kilmer, I’ve never claimed that, this is just what I have been told.
The first time I can remember being told I looked like Val (after so many years, we’re on a first name basis) was my Sophomore year in Academy by the Peach sisters. It has only escalated since then, in fact now 18 years since that thought was first expressed I still receive the occasional “Val” reference.
So why am I telling you this? To share a quick lesson I’m learning as a parent and as a pastor. Due to the fact that I have been called Val and asked if I look like Val, and even gawked at as if I were the real Val so often, I began to learn lines from Val Kilmer movies I could deliver:
“I don’t like you because you’re dangerous.” –Top Gun
“You can be my wingman anytime.” –ibid
“I’m your huckleberry. That’s just my game.” –Tombstone
“Why Johnny Ringo.” –Tombstone
“You’re no daisy.” –Tombstone
And of course the Val Kilmer pursed lips and stare…
What is the point?
Because people were always asking me if I knew I looked like Val Kilmer, I felt the need to start delivering Val Kilmer lines. To get into Val Kilmer character…
I have discovered with my kids and even in my relationships with folk as their pastor, that in both cases the more I treat and talk to my kids or members as I believe God sees them and less as they may actually be, that eventually they begin to take on this character. If we affirm people even when they may not be quite there, I believe they are more likely to take on the character we are affirming than to go back to whom they may be or may have been.
Isn’t this after all what God has done with all of us?
“God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;” –Romans 4:17b
And didn’t Jesus say, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends,” –John 15:15a
“Friends”, even though if you keep reading in the book of John the disciples kept acting like servants.
God calls each of us as He sees us, not as we actually are. I pray that in my life and I pray that in your life you will do the same for your kids and for any others you have influence over!
The One Project Analysis
I attended The One Project in Seattle this past month and wanted to share my analysis of my time at this “gathering.” It was not a conference we were told but a gathering, a discussion on the supremacy of Jesus Christ within the Adventist church.
I and almost 700 other folk gathered for two days. Most of us attended because of invitation from either one of the leaders of the gathering or the personal invitation of a friend that had attended the first One Project gathering in Atlanta, GA. a year ago.
One of the questions I received over and over again from folk that knew I was attending was, “What is this thing all about?” My answer was consistently, “I don’t know.” When I vocalized that sentiment on twitter I was assured, “Jesus. ALL.” In other words I was told, “the gathering is all about Jesus.”
Did I find this to be true? Yes and No.
My perspective on the idea of “Jesus. All.” after hearing people insist to me that Jesus is “ALL” we are about, no agenda. After hearing the encouragement before the meetings for people to prepare for the gathering by reading the Gospels and/or The Desire of Ages. After hearing Japhet De Oliveira give his explanation to the purpose of this gathering in the opening remarks I understood Jesus.ALL. to mean that it would be all about JESUS HIMSELF.
With that expectation in mind I found it to be NOT Jesus. ALL.
There were several talks, the majority of talks in fact, where scripture was not opened and where Jesus as God, Man, Savior, Friend, etc. were not addressed in any manner and so if you came like me with an expectation of learning more about JESUS HIMSELF, then you would have found this event wanting.
If you came with the understanding that it would be about Jesus primarily as how He has been used and focused on throughout the history of the Adventist church, then yes it was Jesus. ALL. This was the focus of much of the gathering. Jesus 1844, 1888, 1957, Doctrine, Mission, the future.
In every talk I found things I could, “AMEN”, in every talk I thought there were wonderfully valid points made. I resonated strongly with Sam Leonor & Mark Witas’ talks. My heart was touched as a Dad & as a former prodigal with Pastor Terry Swenson’s story about his own son.
And there were things said that concerned me, statements I believe were on the border of ideas or teachings I would in no way be able to support. That said, these statements were either intentionally or unintentionally veiled and therefore hard for me to make a completely accurate assessment of.
The format of the conference was amazing! There was no wasted time! After our break times we went straight into the speakers, no wasted words on announcements or giveaways. The music led by Nick Zork w/ an assist by Kimberly Bulgin and many others was amazing. On a side note, I believe if we invested through our church education system in wonderful worship leaders as much as we do other areas of ministry, all our churches would be well served! (It is Biblical 1 Chronicles 6:31,32) The fellowship was wonderful. It had a nice reunion feel to it. The organization was terrific and the leaders I spoke with were gracious in hearing my concerns and humble in hearing my praise.
In summary I would say, it was not the gathering I expected, but this doesn’t mean it was a bad gathering. The focal point I expected, learning more about Jesus and drawing nearer to Jesus, was not the primary focus I experienced, and based on that alone I would probably not choose to attend again.
However, this is only their second (in some ways 1st) intentional gathering, and I think it is wise, unless there is was just absolute heresy, (which I choose to believe there was not) to reserve judgment after just one round. I was also encouraged by Alex Bryan’s statement that Chicago’s 2013 gathering will be a discussion on 8 stories from the life of Jesus. With that statement by Pastor Alex I believe a return and reinvested look at The ONE project is deserved, at least from me.
No Defense, So Amazing!
“He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.” –Isaiah 53:7
This has to be one of the most incredible verses in the Bible & one of the most amazing attributes of Jesus.
Jesus didn’t defend Himself even though He was completely in the right! The accusations against Him were statements of assumption, statements of hearsay, statements based on misinformation, well to be direct they were just flat out lies; yet, Jesus spoke not a word of defense.
There are few things I find so amazing from a human perspective as this. I find that even when I am a little in the wrong I want to defend myself; but when I am being accused based on assumption, hearsay, misinformation, and absolute lies I want to scream from the mountain tops my defense; charge the guilty parties with sword of tongue drawn, ready to cut them to bits with words, but…
But this in no way models Jesus’ example. Jesus was so secure with His mission, with His purpose, with His love and acceptance from the Father that He never opened His mouth even though He was absolutely right and His accusers were absolutely wrong.
Jesus help me to plant this scripture in my heart and remember it every time I want to open my mouth in defense, even when I’m right, help me to be silent!
Josh Garrels
A little listening for this Sabbath! One of my absolute favorite Christian musicians! You can download his latest CD for free…yes FREE! So even though it is Sabbath go get it now, it is free… Josh Garrels
This Is Discipling
Great video. It reminds me of Ellen G. White’s statement,
“Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary.” (Desire of Ages, p. 195).
<p>This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.</p>
My Central Valley!
So I went on a blogging barrage at the beginning of the month. My intent was to blog every week, and well that intent went by the wayside. So now it is February, and another chance to have a more consistent month.
So today I want to write to you about where I live, because I LOVE where I live. When I tell people that, and then I tell them I live in the Central Valley of California people look at me funny, like I am making it up, but truly there is NO place I would rather live.
Some people don’t like the Valley because of the smog or the fog So yes, I love the Valley!
Thoughts from Pastor Carlton Byrd on Worship, Church Growth, Evangelism, etc.
A few months ago I attended the Pacific Union Conference Ministerial Meetings in Ontario, CA.. While there I attended a seminar by Pastor Carlton Byrd has in the very near past become the speaker/director of Breath of Life Ministries and also just recently became the new Senior Pastor of the Oakwood University Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hunstville, Alabama.
I attended the seminar because I wanted to learn from Pastor Byrd, not about preaching, which he is a great preacher, but about how wherever he has gone his churches has grown (yes I know part of that has to do with great preaching)? I believe it was last year at the church he is now transferring from Berean Church that they baptized 800 folk. Their membership is now 4077 people, they have three sevices, they have a closed circuit feed into their basement for the overflow of folk, and all of this without being attached to a Seventh-day Adventist school of higher education (in the United States our mega-churches have typically only existed next to our colleges).
So I was curious…people come to your church for great preaching, but 800 in one year don’t get baptized without first of all the Spirit of God, but secondly some intentionality.
The following are the notes I took. I didn’t edit them or pick and choose what I thought was great or not. I am simply sharing with you the thoughts I wrote down from him in this seminar.
“I’ve never had a vision for ministry I could afford; If I did, it wouldn’t be from God.”
“Do good (pardon my English) just to do good and God will bless you.”
“If worship is to contribute to the growth of your church, three things must be true:
- Members can’t wait to attend
- Members are proud to bring their friends
- Whoever attends is eager to attend again
“The greatest advertisement for your church is word of mouth.”
“Intentional careful selection of parking supervisors, greeters, ushers, and worship leaders must be done!”
“Don’t let people box you in!”
“Sabbath needs to be a celebration!”
“We can’t do music just to please older generation.”
“We’ve kept our hymnals but lost our children.”
“Should the church be held hostage over someone picking at the instruments? NO!”
“The Senior Pastor should be involved in decision of what songs we are going to do.”
“Singers sing, preachers preach. Don’t let your singers get up there and think they can preach a sermon or share something they think is just so wonderful. They are there to sing.”
“Don’t let your minister of music say, ‘I am running this (worship). LET’S BE CLEAR, there is ONE leader! If there were multiple leaders in Israel the children would still be slaves in Egypt. God gives the vision of the ministry to the leader and it is not a compromise of your idea and my idea.”
Evangelistic Outreach:
- Musical Programs & Concerts (have had major Gospel singers at their church)
- Block Parties (very much a city and Southern thing)
- Tract attack: Once a quarter each of the elders lead a group out to knock on doors and hand out literature. Seniors at the church call individuals and have prayer bands.
- Service oriented ministries: Health fairs, oil change ministry every Sunday
- Civic Initiatives: civic guests, honor community guests, clean-up of city
- Marketing: Television, Radio, Billboards, Internet
- Bible Workers
“An evangelistic cycle throughout the year with good worship, a friendly environment, and strong leadership will grow.”
“Build database from EVERYTHING done at or through your church. I have over 8,000 names in our database that are not members but have attended one of our events.”
“Send communication by Monday to every visitor within two days of their visit.”
A Bible Workers work six weeks before the evangelistic meetings:
- Week One: They gather one hundred names each day (2 or 3 Bible workers always). “Yes I said 100! They may not always get there, but they can get pretty close by simply knocking on doors to pray with people. And if they don’t try or I don’t see them trying, they don’t get paid. PERIOD!”
- Week Two: Follow-up w/ prayer interests. You’ve been praying for their requests, now you go back to check on those requests and to build further connection.
- Week Three: Follow-up w/ prayer interests & leave Bible Studies 1 & 2
- Week Four: You’ll begin to weed out folk that may not be yet ready to respond. Pick-up Bible lessons 1 & 2. Leave Bible studies 3 & 4
- Week Five: Pick-up studies 3 & 4 conduct some time visiting in the home w/ the Bible studies. Drop off lessons 5 & 6
- Week Six: Conduct home visit drop off studies 7 & 8. Invite to public evangelistic campaign.
“When folk come to our public campaigns and become interested or are baptized they are assigned a Spiritual Guardian. We don’t want to just baptize people, we also want to keep them. We don’t want people going out the back door where we wouldn’t notice, especially in our large church.”
“Singers sing & preachers preach” (seriously he said it again, must be a pet peeve)
Typical length of meetings 2 weeks 5 & 5
I always cover and usually go in this order:
- Salvation
- 2nd Coming
- 1000 Years
- State of the Dead
- Sabbath
- Sabbath Change
- Diet
- Baptism–“I make a baptism appeal and a come to Jesus appeal EVERY night!”
- True Church–Someone asked him about this one and whether or not he thought it was too early to cover some of these topics and this one in particular. “When I was younger I danced around it, I was a little more concerned. But look this stuff is in the Bible and this is who we are, we are the remnant and I don’t want anyone joining our church that doesn’t understand what we believe and why. And besides for a lot of these people it isn’t the first time they heard this message if they have been receiving the studies leading up to the meetings. Some of you might not like that, but that is fine. I’m old enough now (I think he is 38) to not mess around and try to be secretive about stuff.”
“I always then do some special midweek. Why? I don’t want someone that just was convicted of the Sabbath or true church or something like that to then go back to their church and be discouraged from our message. I don’t want them at their old church I want them at Berean!”
“I do two to three public campaigns a year.”
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And those are my notes from Pastor Byrd. Some powerful stuff. He is a dynamic individual that beleives 100% in what he is doing and Whom he is serving!
One of Many Goals for 2012
So I read the following statements this morning and it states well something God has shown me I need to work on in this new year.
“If any one shall seek to draw the workers into debate or controversy on political or other questions take no heed to either persuasion or challenge.” Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 374.
“If men who are engaged in presenting and defending the truth of the Bible, undertake to investigate and show the fallacy and inconsistency of men who dishonestly turn the truth of God into a lie, Satan will stir up opponents enough to keep their pens constantly employed, while other branches of the work will be left to suffer. We must have more of the spirit of those men who were engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem. We are doing a great work, and cannot come down. If Satan can keep men answering the objections of opponents, thus hindering them from doing the most important work for the present time, his object is accomplished.” –Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 376.
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So what am I working on for 2012? Not spending a lot of time trying to defend & debate the positions I have been convicted on through the Bible and prayer.
I need to be content to state what I believe when folk take umbrage, and if they want to continue after that I simply need to remain silent and walk away. AGREE to DISAGREE.
God has called me to focus on the ministry for the days in which we live and not to remain continually occupied with conflict or vain discussions that rarely go anywhere, but to division and hurt feelings.
Goal for 2012: Less arguments, less repeat discussions, no debating.
Pray for me since I have never been one to back away from a verbal jousting session!
Taxes, Abortion, Hunting, & Welfare
We are in the thick of the political scrum! Debate after debate, pundit after pundit, poll after poll. It is pure madness.
Who am I going to vote for? I can’t tell you!
But I can tell you about some of the issues that folk in our country seem so riled-up about from a Biblical perspective. This is not an exhaustive examination of each topic, but will cover some basic principles that point to the primary truth.
Taxes:
“Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.” –Matthew 22:15-22
It is historical fact that the Jews were heavily taxed by the Romans. It was also taxation without representation (something we went to war for with England back in the 1700’s). Notice though how Jesus responds, pay your taxes and worship God. Give to Caesar (that is pay your taxes) give to God (that is worship or your heart). It seems just in this one verse that Jesus didn’t see the tax fight as a fight He needed to take on.
My question would then be: Why do we? You can vote however you want on the issue, but a vote is different than fighting the system and the man. If Jesus didn’t fight it, we shouldn’t fight it either.
Jesus spoke a lot about the poor and on one occasion He said the following:
“But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” –Luke 14:13, 14
Jesus clearly expect believers to take care of the poor. In fact the inspired early description of the church one of the things emphasized over and over again is caring for the needy.
“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.” –Acts 4:32-35
The role of the church is to care for the needy and if the church won’t do, if the church has abandoned her job, then I would say the government stepping in to help which raises taxes isn’t the governments fault but it is the fault of the church (I am not talking about spending on “a bridge to nowhere”, but rather social programs to help the needy and underserved in our country), so should we fight taxes that are being used to do the things we are supposed to be doing as believers?
Conclusion: Jesus’ stance on taxes is pay them as long as they aren’t preventing you from loving and serving God, which they aren’t. Second, Jesus’ stance is that believers should care for those in need, unfortunately we don’t. So the government has stepped in, I don’t know that Jesus would denounce government for that, but He may have some words for the church (see Isaiah 58).
So where do you stand? On the Bible or elsewhere?
Abortion:
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.” –Psalm 139:13-16
Some key phrases in this scripture inspired by God:
First, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret.” In other words when no one else knew there was a baby made, God knew.
Second, “Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” So God sees substance and life and value before we as humans are fully formed. Also, God has a desired plan for each baby before they have even lived a day outside the womb of their mother.
It would seem then based on these texts that the following text would also apply to unborn babies:
“Thou shalt not kill.” –Exodus 20:13
Conclusion: The Bible clearly teaches life begins long before a baby comes out of his or her mother. The Bible clearly teaches that taking life is wrong. As Christians we cannot let our political desires or party influence our support of life!
Hunting:
This one could really be labeled guns. I put hunting in though b/c every political cycle there are some pictures that surface of candidates, usually GOP candidates wearing orange vests and carrying a rifle. In this go round there have been some direct references to hunting due to the presence of Rick Perry. Folk defend the right to bear arms for protection, I don’t fully agree with that position, but I can’t find Biblically a yes or no, so my opinion on that really doesn’t matter. But I have also heard some from the NRA speak of the right to have guns for sport/hunting. And the Bible does address that issue:
“The lazy do not roast any game,
but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.” –Proverbs 12:27
Conclusion: Hunting for sport is wrong (lazy); hunting to eat is acceptable. You may say well laziness isn’t that bad. Read what Jesus says about lazy folk in Matthew and see what Paul writes about lazy folk in Titus. It’s not good to be lazy and therefore protecting gun rights for the sake of sport seems to go against the Bible. If you kill it, eat it or don’t kill!
Welfare:
“But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.” –2 Thessalonians 3:6-12
The text is pretty clearly stating that a person that is able to work, but unwilling to work should not get any support. Based on this point of view Christians should take a position on welfare that would urge this type of standard.
Conclusion: A welfare system based on the Bible would look a lot different than the welfare system we have now.
So what was the point of this post?
The point of this post is maybe to point out that a Christian shouldn’t stand with one political party or believe that one political candidate is the perfect one; we should understand that no matter who we vote for, we should be honest about the fact and hopefully be willing to disagree openly with the person we voted for if their position is not in line with scripture.
As Christians our political views should be based on the Word of God! That should be our standard, any other standard is placing another God (self and our own human thoughts) above God!