Category: Change

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“Oh” moments

This week I went to visit an elderly man and his wife. They started attending NewPointe about two years ago. I first met them at our NewPointe 101 class, which is our membership class and a great place to learn about why we do church the way we do.

They recently discovered that he has bone cancer and will soon start radiation treatment and is undergoing many test. As you can imagine they are somewhat shocked. I went over to visit with them, pray with them and anoint him with oil.

As we sat talking together, I was so impressed with Bob. He told me that if it is his time he is ready and OK with that. He also said if its not his time, he wants to make the most of that as well. He told me that he thought when he reached his age he would be this wise, kind of all knowing person that had it all together. He said that is so not true. He said he still has a lot of “Oh” moments. Times when he learns something new, discovers a new insight into God word, and how to apply it to his life. Those moments when a light bulb goes off and you finally get it.

He was very humble and talked mostly about growing and changing no matter how old you are. He told me that he never thought they would go to a mega church and especially not one that played loud “rock” type music.

He said he thinks it is very important for the church to grow and reach as many people as possible. He sees how NewPointe is connecting with a wide range of people and that excites him. He loves going to church when his health allows him to. They bring their granddaughter whenever she visits as well.

I really enjoyed my time with Bob and his wife Betty. They are great people and I am so glad I got to meet them. It really challenged me to keep growing, learning and having those “Oh” moments myself. It’s never too late to change. It’s never too late to be used by God to impact someones life. When was the last “Oh” moment for you?

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The Old And The New

I read this quote today from Lee Iacocca: “The most successful business people hold onto the old just as long as it’s good & grab the new just as soon as it’s better”

I think you could say most successful leader’s hold onto the old as long as it’s good & grab the new just as soon as it’s better.

Great leader’s have a sense about how long to hang onto something, whether it’s a product, system, strategy, or even employee. They know when it’s time to start something new before things are declining. If you wait until something is declining it is too late.

Churches are the same way. As church leader’s we need to hang onto the old as long as it is good, but be willing to make changes when we can make it better. What I am talking about here is systems, strategies and even worship style. There is a constant tension to find the new and better or keep the old and familiar. We need to be watching others that are farther ahead of us to learn from them. We also need to be aware of our own culture and people and how we can connect with them and help them grow spiritually.

The lesson we all need to be aware of is to be aware of things that may have worked in the past, but may not in the future. Just because you are doing well now, does not mean that will always be the case. Don’t get stuck doing things only one way, when a better way may be available.

What new thing do you need to grab, or what old thing do you let go?

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A look Back and Forward

Think about yourself a year ago. Go back to 2008 and think about what you were like, who you were hanging out with, what you were doing, what weren’t you doing? Think about the type of person you were, the relationships you had, the work you were doing the way you were parenting, the quality of your relationships, the health of your marriage.

Now think about where you are today. Have you changed? Are you a different person? Are you pretty much the same? Are you doing worse? Deeper in debt? Are you closer to God? Farther from God?

Sometimes it helps to have a bigger perspective on your life. When you step back and look at the bigger picture of your life story, it helps to see things a little more clearly.

Now start thinking about next year, 2010. Where do you want to be? What are some things you can start doing today to become the person you want to be? Maybe it is reconciling a relationship, or maybe improving your financial condition. Maybe its going to school or having a different job. Maybe its getting closer to God and exploring the Bible. Maybe its finding a church that you can relate to. Maybe its developing some friendships. Maybe its becoming a better parent, maybe a better husband or a better wife or a better son or daughter.

How will you be different a year from now? Will people notice you have changed for the better or will they say you are the same old person as last year?

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Storms

Do you feel like you are in the midst of a storm in your life? Do you feel like the wind is against you? Mark 6:47-51 describes a time when Jesus was separated from his disciples. They were out on the water and he was on land. The wind was against them and they were struggling to move forward (sound familiar). Jesus noticed them struggling, but waited until later to go to them. He started out for them and was about to walk by when they noticed him and cried out to him. Actually they were frightened because he was walking on the water at night (pretty scary). This is what he told them – “Take Courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” He got in the boat and the wind died down.

Some takeaways:

  • Often when we feel most distant from God we learn the most. That is when our character is tested. Those storms of life strengthen us, shape us and equip us for what God has planned for us. Just like when a tree is shaken by the winds, it causes the roots to go deeper and strengthens the tree.
  • God usually does not come to the rescue right away. Jesus waited awhile, even though he knew they were struggling. He usually shows up when the winds are blowing hardest. Just like we want our children to learn from mistakes, if we rescue them right away they never learn or grow.
  • The storms of life teach us about God, we learn about His character, His mind, His strategies and His power. Storms build our faith, because we realize how much we need Him.
  • When Jesus got in the boat the winds calmed down. When was the last time you invited Jesus into your boat.
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Why Wait?

What are you going to do this week to change and grow? Where do you need to change and grow? In what area of your life are you struggling? How are you dealing with the hard things in your life? Who do you need to spend more time with? Less time with? What do you need to say no too? When will you start making some changes? Do you even need to make any changes?

This week you will continue on the journey, the adventure called your life. It can be filled with the same old stuff, or it could be filled with something unexpected. We don’t know what the upcoming week will hold. Or the next year for that matter. We cannot control what happens around us, and sometimes even what happens too us. However we can control how we respond, how we prepare, what we say and what we do.

It amazes me how many people wait until tragedy strikes or hardship hits before they begin to make changes. Unless the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change we tend to not change. We wait until we have a health problem before we change the way we care for our bodies. We wait until a relationship is damaged before we make relational changes and start working on it. We wait until a financial crisis hits before we change our spending. We stuff our emotions until we explode. We avoid conflict until it gets so big it blows up in our face.

Start making the changes you need to make before the pain intensifies. It is never too late to make changes in your life. Ask God to help you discover the areas you need to work on. Go get help, seek counsel, read a book, listen to a CD, go to a seminar, spend more time with God, read your Bible, go on a fast, go on a spiritual retreat, work on a life plan, set some goals, change your calendar, add some things to your calendar, delete some things from your calendar, say no, say I don’t know, admit you need help. Do something this week, don’t wait. Start small and keep building on it. A year from now you can look back and see the progress you have made. You can do it.

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Focus

One of the things I have to constantly be working on is focus. It is so easy to get distracted by urgent things, fun things, or things other people could do for you. Where I work the pace is fairly high. I find myself “busy” sometimes, instead of productive. When that starts happening, I have to re-focus myself. I need to step back and look at the big picture and start asking myself some questions. It can be that way not only in our work lives, but also our personal and spiritual lives as well. Here are some questions I found from Bob Biehl that have been helpful for me:

  1. What three changes in me would most please our Eternal God in His Holy Heaven?
  2. What can I do to make the most significant difference for God in my lifetime?
  3. Why am I on the earth?
  4. If I could accomplish only three measurable priorities (Problems to solve, Goals to reach, Opportunities to seize) before I die, what would I accomplish?
  5. If I could only accomplish three measurable priorities in the next ten years, that would make a 50% difference in my life-long contribution, what would I accomplish?
  6. What single word best captures the focus of my next year?
  7. What three land mines, or roadblocks need my immediate attention?
  8. If I had to cut my budget 20%, what would be the first three things to go?
  9. If I got a surprise gift of 20% of my budget, what three things would I do immediately?
  10. What three changes could improve the quality of my work by 50% in the next 12 months?

These are big forward thinking questions. They help to get us out of the here and now. It’s kind of like having your hand two inches in front of your face. All you can see is your hand. If you fully stretch out your arm you can see beyond your hand.

If you need to bring some focus to your work or to your life, start asking some of these questions. When you know what the most important things are in your life, you can then begin to focus on those areas.

I still must work on the small things, the urgent things, the boring things and the unimportant things. I still need to have fun and relax. But you actually have more time for those things when you do the important stuff first.

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Community & Change

Have you ever wondered why a growing amount of people are experiencing loneliness in our culture? Have you wondered why we can feel so disconnected even when we are surrounded by people and consumed with the busyness of work, family and church commitments?

The Bible talks a lot about healthy, intimate connections and relationships with other Christians, not only for support and encouragement, but as a vital ingredient for lasting change.

Our culture has encouraged us to be individuals and to face things on our own. It is important to take personal responsibility for our actions, but many Christians have taken the mindset of it’s just Jesus and me battling against my sin nature and trying to become more like Christ. When you make the decision to follow Christ, you are never alone again. God designed His system to have community as one of the main ingredients in personal change.

However, getting involved in community is messy, time-consuming and complicated. It seems easier to just work on ourselves privately with God. Change is something God intends his people to experience together. It’s a corporate goal. Each of our individual stories is part of a bigger picture that God is orchestrating. We each have an important role in that story.

I met with a friend today that has been facing some deep rooted issues. He has been making remarkable changes in his life over the past several months. One of the biggest reasons he has been changing so drastically is because he has fully embraced community. He had always been in groups before, but after this last situation he took his lumps and was open about his struggles with those close to him.

He also pursued accountability with some people he was close with. Having that community of people to surround him has helped him to make real “heart changes”. He turned to God and community as a way to start changing.

I know people that profess to be Christians and yet don’t go to Church or meet with other Christians in a small group. They make comments like as long as I have the Lord in my heart I don’t need that community. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:19-22 about us being fellow citizens and members of God’s household. He gives us a picture of a building or temple that has Christ as the cornerstone and the apostles and prophets as the foundation. The rest of us make up the remaining building. We are being built together.

Paul continues in chapter three to pray for them as a family, to grow in understanding how much God loves them. As isolated individuals, we cannot reach the level of maturity God has designed for us. This fullness can only happen as we live in a healthy, right, community with one another.

Paul goes on in Chapter four about unity in the body of Christ. We are to be humble, gentle and patient with each other. We are to make every effort to stay in unity with each other. We are to work through conflict, communicate openly, confront lovingly and support each other when there is a need.

So what’s the bottom line? A Christian is not only a child of God, but a member of the family of God. We cannot grow to the fullness God has for us living independently of others. Personal transformation takes place in the context of healthy community.

If you are continuing to struggle with a certain sin or issue, maybe you need to bring more community or accountability into your life. When we get past the fear of what others might think about us and take a risk to be open and honest, real change can happen in your life. god can begin to use you in the bigger story He is writing.

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Married to Christ

I have been thinking about this idea lately. When you think about the Christian life and the life long process of change, what are the key ingredients for change and growth to happen? Once you make the commitment to make Jesus the leader of your life and the forgiver of your sins, how do you keep growing in the commitment?

Some might say doing devotions daily, Bible Study, going to church, reading good Christian books. Others would argue that being in a small group or serving at your church are keys. Others might say that taking communion, getting baptized, sharing your faith or going to confession might be keys. All of theses things are good, and helpful, but if these things could change us by themselves, Jesus would not have needed to come.

All of those activities are ways we recognize our need for Christ. It helps us realize we are dependant on Him. They are ways to connect with Christ, but they are not the keys to change and growth.

In 2 Corinthians 11:1-3, Paul is talking to the Corinthians and us about being married to Christ. He uses marriage as a metaphor to explain how our relationship with Christ should be. He speaks of Christ as the “husband” and the people as “pure virgins”. In verse 3 he talks about his concern that they/we will fall prey to “false lovers”.

If you think about your relationship with Jesus as being one of marriage, it can change your perspective. In marriage you are concerned with pleasing each other and caring for each other. You want to build a close intimate relatiosnhip, share your hopes and dreams together. A marriage will always struggle if there are other things that come before that relationship. If your job, money, friends, family, children or church become more important than your relationship with your spouse, that marriage will suffer.

It is the same way with Christ. If we put other things and relationships in front of our relationship with Christ it will suffer. We will not be very close to Him. In marriage, remaining faithful is a key to staying married. Paul was concerned that we would not remain faithful to Christ, but be distracted by these false lovers. Like any other marriage, the big issue is my commitment to fidelity. Will I remain faithful to Jesus alone, and not seek fulfillment elsewhere?

For Paul, the Christian life was more than having daily devotions, giving money or even serving in ministry. You can do all of those things without Christ at the center of your life. For Paul, the heartbeat of being a Christian was to remain faithful to Christ in a world where many would be lovers are after our attention.

When we fully understand this truth of being married to Christ, it will change the way we respond to life situations. It will change the way we look at our relationships, our jobs, our money and our time. Whether you are single or married, you need to understand that your relationship with Jesus Christ should be very personal and intimate, because we are married to Him.

Because we are married to Him we have all kinds of benefits. We have married into an incredible family, super rich, very powerful, full of love and respect. Everything we could ever need physically, emotionally or spiritually has been provided by Christ. Read Colossians 1:15-23 to see the person you are married to. What an amazing person.

The key to change and growth rest on my relatiosnhip with a person, Christ, who acts on my behalf. Having that perspective helps us grow and change.

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Evolving

Every month I read a magazine called Fast Company. I enjoy this magazine because it is full of creativity and relevant topics. They also do a great job of studying successful companies and emerging markets. This months issue has “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” in it. I found it interesting to see the companies they considered the most innovative. Team Obama made number 1, followed by Google, Hulu, Apple, Cisco Systems, Intel, Pure Digital Technologies, WuXi PharmaTech, Amazon and Ideo to round out the top ten. Facebook made it at number 15 (I just got on FaceBook myself).

I love innovation and finding better ways to do things. Our country is facing a time when innovation will be critical for our survival. Whole industries need to change the way they do things. The companies that are able to evolve will be the ones to thrive and connect with our culture.

As I was reading about some of these companies, the one that really got my attention was Amazon. The headline on their section said “What’s dangerous is not to evolve” One of the questions that Fast Company asked Amazon was “Is it harder to take risks now that Amazon is so big?” Here is the answer they gave: “It’s actually easier. You’re not betting the whole company. You’re doing new things, and if they don’t work, you can change direction. What’s dangerous is not to evolve.”

Wow, as I read that I immediately thought about the Church. As a church gets bigger, and is reaching more people, it becomes easier to take risks as well. It gives you the ability to try new things and take a risk without betting the whole church. I love the idea of the church evolving. To me that does not mean changing the message, but changing how we deliver that message and where we deliver that message.

The church should be the most innovative organization on earth. We should be at the forefront of using technology, and resources to reach the world. The church should be the most relevant, exciting thing going in every community. Amazon went on to say this “The details, technologies, and competitors will change. But the big things won’t.” Hey, it’s the same in the church. The big things won’t change like what we believe about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Salvation, Eternity, the Bible and the Church. Our values won’t change, our vision won’t change, but how we do church will continue to evolve and change.

It is amazing what you can learn from other businesses and organizations. I would love to see a church listed in that top 50 some time. If your church or business is not evolving intentionally, it will slowly decline and eventually you will be forced to evolve or close the doors.

NewPointe Community Church has been on the innovative, evolving track over the past several years. This weekend we are talking about Making Room! We need to get innovative on how to make more room for the people that want to attend church. What a great problem to have. I can’t wait to face the challenges of the future in innovative, creative ways.

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Divorce

I am passionate about reducing the divorce rate in Tuscarawas County. The rate of divorce in Tuscarawas County was 69% in 2006. That is up 5% from 2003. The rate for the state of Ohio is 55%.

What if I said we could cut that rate in half in the next 10 years. Would that get your attention?

There are proven ways to work at reducing the rate of divorce. The best approach is to pull the local churches, local government leader’s and other local leader’s together to form a strategy.

Part of the strategy would be to work at better preparing couples for marriage, offering marriage enrichment events and activities, mentoring and coaching troubled marriages, offering support groups for blended families and more.

If anyone is interested in being a part of a movement to lower the divorce rate, please contact me or comment. NewPointe Community Church is part of a program called Marriage Savers. Marriage Savers has done the research and put together a great program that is designed to bring a community together to make a lasting difference in families.

I am believing God is going to do something BIG in 2009. The local church can impact a community and change a community, if we work together.