Understand the "Why"

One of the lessons I've learned as a leader of God's people is this: If the vision isn't constantly and consistently shared you can't expect people to "get it".  By that, I mean that no one just automatically grasps the "why" - the rhyme and the reason of what's behind "doing church" they way we do.

If they don't "get it" I can't, as a leader really get upset with them for not being involved in ministry and mission.  That is, unless they just refuse.  Then I wonder a lot of things.

At our church we have set the bar high when it comes to partners (members) being active (meaning consistent) participants in the multitude of ministries (service to our church) and missions (service to the world outside of our church).  Behind that high bar are the clear teachings of Scripture about the giftedness and devotion taught by Christ and the Apostles.  It really is inescapable!

This morning a letter arrived addressed to me.  No return address.  No signature.  Typically anonymous letters are critical in nature, and as such find their way into the circular file.  But this was very different, and illustrates so well why Nags Head Church puts a premium on what we do as a church.

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This is why we:

• Stress that every partner find a ministry.  What's expressed in the letter is a reflection on everyone who serves on Sundays, from the parking lot team helping everyone find a spot (we're often at capacity) to the First Impressions team making everyone welcome, to the Cowabunga Cove (our kids ministry) check-in staff and our Hospitality Team with their smiles and fresh coffee, our greeters, tech team, Milepost 13 Band...everyone.

• Believe that everyone in attendance has a need that only God and His Word can meet. At NHC we preach and teach the Bible.  No pop psychology.  No decaf treatment of the Scriptures.  We understand that candy-coated and watered down Gospel is no Gospel at all.  And with each song chosen and sermon prepared our hope is for life-change.

• Try to provide a well-organized and distraction-free worship environment.  Nothing that happens on Sunday is put into action without the realization that God is not the author of confusion.  So, our band is tight.  Our tech team's goal is to make the visuals clear and on time with the song or the sermon.  Our sound guys want the balance to be right.  The service "flows".  We discourage young children from being in an adult oriented worship gathering.  They're cute, but often a distraction for those around them who are trying to participate and listen to God. (Which is why our kids ministry from nursery through 5th grade is the best around!)  Our ushers work so hard to find seating in an often filled auditorium, and ask you to please fill in the empty seats!  

 It's what we do and why we do it so lives are changed and God gets the glory.

 

If My Body is the Temple...

Reading through the Psalms has given me reminders that it's OK with God to use more than my voice when singing praises to Him with the congregation.

I was not raised in a tradition where singing in a worship service involved anything other than vocal expression.  Our hands were either holding a hymnal, or if we were sharing one with someone, gripping the back of the pew in front of us.  But, sometimes I confess to allowing the message of the song to bring a smile, maybe even a rare tear to my eyes.  That was the extent of any physical expression other than singing.

Fortunately, in my later years I've come to learn that other expressions (as long as they are under my control) can be valid in praise.  I'm a Bible believer, meaning that the Scripture always trumps tradition.  And even in Baptist churches there is tradition.  True, it's not "high church", but there are/were traditions that had no affirmation in the Book.  In fact, the Book seemed to say otherwise.

Two that I have been freed to practice allow me to do more than sing.

I clap my hands!  God blessed me with a good sense of rhythm.  And my musical training (I was a drummer in high school) allows me to get the 2nd and 4th beat claps.   So, I'm naturally and physically inclined to do something with the beat of the song, whether it's to tap my foot, move from one foot to the other or contribute to the overall sound with clapping. 

Apparently clapping was part of the worship in the Old Testament Temple worship. 

Psalm 47:1 says, "Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with a jubilant cry."  Then the next verse tells us why we should clap and shout.  "For the LORD Most High is awe-inspiring, a great King over all the earth."  Clap because of Who God is! 

At our church we not only clap along with many of the songs, we also applaud as a form of praise and thanks for what we've just sung.  And it's OK.

Then, I lift my hands in praise.  That was a tough one for me to be freed to do, I confess, and for so many wrong reasons.  But, I figured out that if it's to show God worth, is spontaneous (not coerced or demanded) on my part, and isn't done to attract attention to me it's a legitimate practice for worshipers of the King.

Psalm 63:3-4 (the Psalms were Israel's hymnal) says, "My lips will glorify You [that's praise with my words and singing] because Your faithful love is better than life. So I will praise You as long as I live; at Your name, I will lift up my hands."  This isn't about prayer, although that's the context of Psalm 28:2 and 1 Timothy 2:8.  This is about praise.  And Psalm 119:48 speaks about lifting up hands as a sign of submission and surrender to God. 

We're so fortunate that God has not only made us physically in the manner He has, but that He's OK with us using what He has created to worship and praise Him.  And worship, to be right, must be first done "in spirit and in truth".  So, whether I use my voice, my hands, my feet, am kneeling or lying prostrate before Him, if my heart isn't prepared to worship then nothing else matters.

Well, of course!

For our local church planters.  Whoever you are!

http://www.lifeway.com/pastors/2017/05/03/church-planter-pirate/#comment-5025

A Day To Stop And Remember

On April 6, 1999 my son and I were driving back from North Greenville College in South Carolina.  He was a senior in high school, and the soccer coach at NGC (now University) invited him to come and visit, with the prospect of a spot on their team.  From the Outer Banks, as I recall, it was about a 9 hour drive.  And in 1999 cell phones were a fairly new thing.  My wife had one in her car, but I did not, and frankly didn't want one.

As we arrived home that night about 11:00 we were met with the most horrific news.  One of the teens in our church, Shana Lawler, and four of her friends (on Spring break) were broadsided by a speeding SUV as it ran a red light.  Three of the friends died on the scene. The fourth was transported to a hospital an hour away with what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries.  He would survive.  Shana survived the crash, but with apparent brain injuries and was flown to our closest trauma center in Norfolk, VA.

I showered, changed, got back into my little red car and drove the 75 or so miles to the hospital where I found her parents in the waiting room.  One sister, a high school senior, was with friends out of town.  She was on her way back.  The other sister, a graduate student at UNC was living in Durham. The next day their dad and I drove to meet her, tell her the news and bring her back to Norfolk.

Within a week Shana died of her injuries.  I was with the family as they sang, prayed and said goodbyes just before she was taken off of life support.  I'm still brought to tears by the memories.  A few days later I would preach her funeral to a packed church auditorium, mostly filled with other high school students, inviting them to put their faith in the Jesus Shana knew as Savior.

Our community was both brought to our knees in pain and at the same time polarized as we sought to both seek justice and mercy.  Those are not easy partners.  Someone erected 4 crosses at the intersection, which stood for many years, memorializing the girls and reminding every driver passing by that alcohol and driving are a dangerous, life-altering mix.

Now, eighteen years have passed.  The four girls would be 35.  Most of the students in their schools today were even born in 1999.  The woman who killed them while driving intoxicated is serving four consecutive terms for second-degree murder.

And many of us have not forgotten.  Certainly the survivors - the parents, siblings, friends and the one young man who lived through it - will never forget.  The impaired driver who is in prison for the rest of her life won't forget, nor will her friends and family.  The first responders (I know some of them) have images indelibly imprinted in their brains.

So, I remember this date with this somber reminder of the brokenness that exists in this world.  And I pray, "Thy Kingdom come".

A Sense of Urgency

Who doesn't love the month of April?  Sunshine...warm sunshine!  The azaleas in my yard are blooming, and will soon be followed by the dogwoods.  And with the Spring and the change in seasons comes the end of the multitudinous viruses and maladies that have been so prevalent this past winter.  It's all good.  Spring is really here!

But for me, the start of April has been a dark one.  I feel like a psalmist needing to cry out to God something like, "Death surrounds me!".  A large part of my role as a public safety chaplain is responding to the worst moments in peoples' lives - when a loved one dies.  For some reason it seems I can only remember one in the first three months of 2017.  For that I am grateful.

Yet, this past weekend, April 1 and 2 found me at two homes, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday, helping wives and children and a mother, through the hardest day of their lives.  And then, Monday morning I received a message that a friend's toddler granddaughter tragically and accidentally lost her life the day before.

Three days.  Three deaths.  (And no, I'm not superstitious about the number three.)  And later this week I've been asked to restore four crosses that memorialize a tragedy that took the life away from four teenagers and the breath away from our community eighteen years ago. 

Death is the inevitable part of life that no one can avoid.  Some get to "put it off" and live long lives.  One of my chaplain calls was to the home of a gentleman 74 years on the earth.  He had been ill for some time and his passing was not a surprise to his family at all. 

Others don't make it to their "threescore and ten".  The second of the three was a 49 year old husband and father.  He didn't even know he was sick until the week before he died, and even then it was totally unexpected.  And of course, the toddler...no one could have seen that coming.

I was sharing with my men's small group last night these events, asking them to pray for the three families.  And in line with the study we're doing reminded them of the urgency that is part and parcel to sharing the Good News of Christ with others in our realms of influence.  The Gospel is an urgent message to be spoken and lived because it is the only hope beyond the grave.  And no one knows when that day will come for any of us.

Do you live life with that sense of urgency guiding your thoughts, words, actions? 

Looking for the Perfect Church

An elderly lady stopped by the church recently and was met by one of our staff.  It seems she was checking out the church.  Church shopping, if you will.

Her story is that she was a member of the church up the road 26 years ago, but they "ran the preacher off", so she left.  I've been around longer than that, so her slant on that story is a bit, shall I say, off.  But, after a while she came back...for a while, until someone said something that "hurt my feelings".

So, she stopped by to find out if this was a church where the preacher "preaches the Word".

Well, guess what?  The preachers in that church for the past quarter century that I've known them have always "preached the Word".  But, according to her, the reason she has found herself shopping is not due to a preacher's apostasy.

Our staff member explained a couple things to her about our church that she thought might also be offensive to the dear sister in some way.  "Our music is not what you're used to...it's very contemporary".  But she insisted the music didn't matter.  (I'm smiling at that one.)  So, just maybe she'll come check us out.  We'll welcome her.  But my guess is even if she stayed, she wouldn't stay long.

She's looking for perfection.

And it's not here.

Most church shopping is unnecessary. In fact, it's often sinful.  That is unless you have moved to a new geographical location and worshiping with your "home" church has become impossible due to mileage.

There's too much in the words of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles that communicate Christian virtues that are given by God's grace to us that should allow us to overcome and deal with hurt feelings.  Virtues like forgiving one another as Christ as forgiven us.  And having the same attitude of humility displayed for us by our Savior.  We like to use the phrase around here that "it's not about me" when selfishness starts to rise to the top.

I don't think she would want to hear me say to her the first time she had a complaint about something we do (unless it is unbiblical, and then she would have to stand in line), "Well, it's not about you, is it?".  That either sends them to Jesus in repentance or sends them down the road, looking for the ultimate preacher and church.

God put us in fellowship with other imperfect saints, knowing we will sometimes rub each other the wrong way so that we can learn those virtues and allow them to overcome our feelings for His glory.

So, if you think it's time to go shopping because of feelings, put your bag down and ask God for grace to maintain and remain where you are.  Stop running from a work of grace that God wants to do in and through you, that just might trigger revival! Ask Him for illumination into the wrong attitudes that have hidden themselves in your own heart before you abandon the Bride.